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Don't let porch-hogging seniors or parents with newborns monopolize the rocking chair — it's the tipping point of true relaxation. Here are five ways anyone can kick back in languid style.

LITTLE ROCKER by OS2 Design Group
Sometimes it pays to think small. Frustrated by selling his wares to major manufacturers, Hiddenhausen, Germany-based Oliver Schübbe is marketing the charming Little Rocker himself. Made from black medium-density fiberboard and rubber, the design is easy to batch produce, and rockers are, Schübbe says, ideal seating "for nervous people like me." www.os2-designgroup.de

REX ROCKING CHAIR by Niko Kralj (1952)
Policymakers aren't the only ones nostalgic for cold war certainties — consumers are responding warmly to the reissue of this former Iron Curtain classic by Slovenian designer Kralj. An angled back and seat make the solid beech Rex rocker a surprisingly comfortable ride. It folds away neatly, too. www.scp.co.uk

VOIDO by Ron Arad for Magis
Like a modern-day blacksmith, Arad, the Israeli-born British designer, forged his name with welded steel. Today, he prefers to manhandle plastic. Prototypes of the louche Voido recliner almost defeated him — the center initially wouldn't hold — yet Arad clearly licked its rotation-molded polyethylene into shape. www.magisdesign.com

MOM by Neringa Dervinyte for Contraforma
The Lithuanians are coming. The Vilnius-based group Contraforma caught many an eye at last year's London Design Festival with an array of products that blend Scandinavian simplicity with a funkiness redolent of renowned Dutch collective Droog. Sleek felt covers make Dervinyte's MOM rocking chair cat-strokingly comfortable. Supply your own feline. www.contraforma.com

KU-DIR-KA by Paulius Vitkauskas for Contraforma
The big kid in you — not to mention the circuit trainer — will love Vitkauskas' impishly spartan Ku-dir-ka, another hit for Contraforma. As well as resembling a kindly, fairy-tale arachnid with too many legs, the chair has a counter that records every "rock." It can't, however, calculate how many calories you're burning. www.contraforma.com

• RICHARD CLAYTON
• What happens when you give an old-fashioned design a modern twist