The classic cafe chair is usually wood, cane and a little nostalgia. HAY's Deville Collection keeps the mood and swaps the material. French designer Julien Renault took the spirit of 1920s Thonet-style bistro seating and rebuilt it in aluminum for outdoor life that still looks like furniture, not patio stock. It is a full set: stackable chairs, armchairs, tables and seat pads, photographed like a city terrace you would actually want to sit on.
From a Brussels restaurant to a full set
Renault has said the spark was a restaurant in his hometown of Brussels, where the wooden chairs and set tables always felt right. Reinterpreting that chair in aluminum was the starting point. The result is a family of stackable chairs and armchairs with generous, softly curved frames, plus compact tilt-top tables in round and square options that pair with other HAY seating as easily as with Deville itself. Colors run from Thyme Green to Cream White and Iron Red, with matching seat pads for the days when bare aluminum is a little too honest.
Named after Henri Etienne Sainte-Claire Deville, the French chemist who pioneered industrial aluminum, the name also plays on "de ville," as in from the city. That double meaning fits a set meant for terraces, courtyards and the kind of street-facing rooms that blur indoors and out. Renault calls it a rather gentle collection: a simple table base, a uniform finish, an ensemble that feels harmonious and luminous rather than loud.
Built to move, built to last
Deville uses at least 60 percent post-consumer recycled aluminum and mixes casting and bending. Like the wooden chairs that inspired it, the pieces are screwed together from several parts, so they can be taken apart for repair or recycling. The finish is rust-resistant, and the tables are light enough to rearrange without a production crew. That disassembly story matters if you care about furniture that can be maintained instead of replaced when one weld fails.
If you already know Renault's work for HAY, Deville sits next to the Pastis Collection, the Layout Collection and the Compass Lamps: everyday forms, quietly upgraded materials, no drama for drama's sake. HAY Co-founder Rolf Hay's furniture and lighting program has been leaning into that lane for years, and Deville is one of the clearest outdoor expressions of it.
Where it fits
This is not a museum chair. It is the set you put outside and actually use, then leave out because it can take the weather. Pair it with a portable lamp from the same house and you have a terrace that photographs like a campaign without trying too hard. Browse the wider HAY chairs edit if you want to see how Deville sits next to the rest of the 2026 outdoor and indoor line. For more design rabbit holes, see our guides to gifts for design lovers, Dieter Rams' 10 principles, and design books worth owning.
