The leg construction of the Y-leg stool is based on the earlier invention for bending solid wood by Aalto and Otto Korhonen, the L-leg. In the Y-leg, two slender L-legs were chamfered on opposite sides and glued together.
The Y-legs were joined together with spacers into a frame over which the upholstery was stretched. The material varied: it could be woven webbing or leather strip, patchwork linen or leather, or rattan.
The new stool was shown to the public in February 1947 at the Thurestam Gallery in Stockholm in an exhibition entitled Konstruktiv konst. On show at the exhibition were Alvar Aalto’s furniture and paintings by the Swedish artist Otto G. Carlsund (1897-1948).
