Shame on the market for having so many cream or white boucle seats for dining chairs – I mean, what fantasy land do you think we live in? Should we put a white rug underneath it??? Use white cloth napkins? Wear white on spaghetti Tuesdays? Where am I supposed to I wipe the marinara after eating penne arrabbiata with my fingers? A “napkin” you might suggest and sure, whatever, we have “napkins”, but if you have kids or have friends with kids or neighbors with kids or grandkids, dogs who eat at the table (true story) or just general marinara fingers then a light fabric will not do – napkin or not. Sure, we could cut marinara from our diets. Shun teriyaki and soy sauce from our sushi. Only drink clear sodas or “water”. However, light or white fabrics are generally a bad idea when you have children nearby. Oh, and please don’t suggest a flat mid-tone gray fabric. What is this – 2007??? I’d LIKE A NICE COLORED FABRIC DINING CHAIR PLEASE!!! And NOT one that’s a million dollars. So today I’m going to show you all the ones I found – high, low, and in between. I wish I could say there were more but I’m hoping after this there will be (for the love of God a good modern pattern PLEASE).
Of course, my history with colored upholstered dining chairs is long. Let’s start with these vintage beauties from 2011:
These are still some of my all-time favorites. The chairs were vintage from MidcenturyLA, I think $300 a piece including the new blue upholstery that I chose. Not nothing, but they were perfect. If I could go back in time I would not have sold these with the house. They are awesome and brands try to knock them off, but can’t quite do them as well. RIP.
Then when we moved to Los Feliz we had these chairs with Crypton fabric. The color was nice and sure Crypton cleans up WAY better than non-performance linen but they were still too light in color and had too many arms to withstand my marinara-filled double toddlers at the time. Sure the marinara comes off but not without a parent cleaning it off (stains aren’t physically repelled even when you have performance fabric). In short, the toddlers won, I lost and my best friend got the chairs.
But only after I found my dream chairs at the flea market (shout out Cherner), redid them in leather and while I LOVE THEM SO MUCH, Brian couldn’t handle how fragile they were on a daily basis. They creaked so badly and I’m super sensitive to that stuff. And it wasn’t easy for the kids to get in and out of them. I still have them and plan on putting them somewhere someday (see? I learned my lesson about selling my favorite things) but they couldn’t be our daily dining chairs. Brian’s dad joined the complaint choir about them, the kids acted like they didn’t know how to get in and out of them and I had to come to terms with the fact that perhaps these aren’t good family sit-for-hours chairs. FINE.
At the mountain house, we had that huge built-in dining nook and then bought three chairs that worked well with them. When I say huge, people come from all over the country to see the world’s biggest dining nook. SHE FAMOUS! It’s comically big (but I love it). They are all good/fine but the chairs are pretty heavy and the kids (until previously) would act like getting into one is like wrestling a shark – like they scrambled and wrestled and the noises of the grunts and the wood legs on the floor – it was always a thing, ALWAYS. Once sitting, they were locked in, imprisoned temporarily, which was nice for us parents, ha. The leather and wood repelled all marinara easily, but the arms and the heft meant work for me to get them in and out every single time (god, this sounds like my kids have no motor skills, but trust me, even when they are older pulling out a chair on a wood or tile floor is so loud and annoying! And then having them scoot themselves in by jumping the legs forward, just no. You want them to be able to pop in and out without assistance!
Where we have currently landed in our dining room is truly excellent. The tone of the green is so pretty (enough blue in it to not look primary or collegiate), and they are extremely comfortable. They are pretty from the back (because that is how you see them the most!) and are easy to pull in and out or slide into. I sit in one for 6 hours a day on my writing days. 10/10
But for my brother’s river house (with two young kids) I didn’t want to use the same ones (and yes, they would work PERFECTLY with the green island, but c’mon, I can get more creative than that). So here is where we are with the room:
It’s pretty but very neutral, with the only color coming from the trees outside. Now, the kitchen and living room will both have color (all TBD to be honest) so I can’t just design in a bubble. I did lean towards black chairs for the longest time (and at the time of publishing this post nothing has been decided) but what I really want is a colorful, patterned chair that isn’t busy but is just more interesting. There is truly nothing on the market, readymade that is under $1k a chair. But I did find a decent amount of green, blue, and pink dining chairs (basically non-neutrals) for those of us who have dreams of upholstered colorful dining chairs (i.e. not painted wood or metal).
Wait, Why Do You Just Use Wood Or Metal?
This is less of a comfort thing because there are a lot of comfortable wood or metal chairs. This room wants and needs texture, softness, and color. I could get metal/wood and buy cushions but I’d rather find an upholstered mid-toned colorful chair.
OK, here is what I found after hours, days, weeks, and months of shopping online and in person:) There’s a range of budgets but honestly, dining chairs just don’t come cheap.
Blue-Toned Upholstered Dining Chairs
1. Geller Modern Dining Chair | 2. Addison Navy Flange Slipcovered Dining Chair | 3. Lexie Dining Chair | 4. Hank Tufted Light Blue Velvet Dining Chair | 5. Herrera Chair | 6. Viarsi Dark Melange Blue Black Dining Chair (set of 2) | 7. Emilio Dining Chairs (set of 2) | 8. Foley Faux Mohair Navy Dining Armchair | 9. Walsh Velvet Side Chair (set of 2) | 10. Halsey Leather Side Dining Chair | 11. Morrell Dining Chair | 12. Ellison Blue Dining Side Chair (set of 2) | 13. The Jane Dining Chair | 14. Jace Upholstered Arm Chair (set of 2) | 15. Evie Dining Chair
Green-Toned Upholstered Dining Chairs
1. Anaya Dining Armchair | 2. Landon Linen Slipcover Dining Chair | 3. Inesse Boucle Green Dining Chair | 4. Framework Leather Dining Chair | 5. Corine Upholstered Dining Chair (set of 2) | 6. Anton Leather Dining Chair | 7. Velez Dining Arm Chair | 8. Malena Chenille Side Chair Dining Chair | 9. Lucile Boucle Dining Chair (set of 2) | 10. Marcela Upholstered Dining Chair (set of 2) | 11. Ceremonie Green Mohair Dining Chair | 12. Broome Upholstered Olive Green Dining Chair | 13. Halbrook Dining Chair (set of 2) | 14. Paloma Upholstered Sage Green Swivel Dining Chair | 15. Hargrove Side Dining Chair
Pink-Toned Upholstered Dining Chairs
1. Alcott Upholstered Dining Chairs (set of 2) | 2. Rowan Dining Chair | 3. Castell Dining Chair | 4. Alta Nostalgic Pink Light Oak Dining Chair | 5. Velvet Tashi Dining Chair | 6. Adler Dining Chair | 7. Stature Burnt Sienna Boucle Dining Armchair | 8. Pratt Fully Upholstered Chair | 9. Monte Oak Wood and Rose Velvet Dining Chair | 10. Heatherfield Dining Chair | 11. Hedley Arm Chair Dining Chair | 12. The Cooper Dining Chair
Opening Image Credits: Photo by Kaitlin Green | From: My Favorite Spot In The Farmhouse: Our Sunroom Reveal!
Honestly, I think your best bet is to go vintage and get them custom upholstered, like you did with those LA ones. (And hey, you could totally always sell your green chairs and get new vintage ones for your own place, OR use the green ones at your brother’s after pro cleaning and get yourself new vintage ones, ooooh. I am forever the enabler, I know.) I have long been on a quest for stain-friendly, kid-scootable, and adult-comfortable chairs that don’t break the bank, and vintage MCM seems to be the way to go. (Admittedly, now that I live in the UK, I probably see sets for cheaper than you do since they don’t have to be shipped from as far from Scandi designers from the 50s/60s.) One thing I’ve found is that the lightweight-enough teak MCM chairs we got for a song (sorry!) with original upholstery are surprisingly hard for the kids to scoot on our polished-but-old marble tile kitchen floor. I tried putting those stickers on them, but they came off; I think we need to get the kinds of plastic chair glides that have a little nail-pin-like spike that goes into the wood of the chair leg… Read more »
What a great piece of writing. Love it.
On another tack, would anyone like to kindly weigh in on for me on engineered plank flooring over air-source UFH – my contractor is saying float it (it’s all ground floor) but the internet is saying stick it down. Anyone have any helpful experience? Apologies, Emily, for hijacking your chair story (which, as mentioned, I enjoyed immensely).
Not positive but I thought glue down was only for level floors which my 110 yr old farmhouse isn’t.
Im purchasing some now because that’s almost the only option. No grout which could crack in my old unlevel house. Contractors say it is being put into 2 million houses-not hardwood. I so don’t get this. I’m using because of cost constraints.
Yes, same, we are an old workers’ cottage in middle England. Wonky floors abound. Thanks so much for your reply.
It may depend or what sort of soil you have in your area. Where I live the soil is clay which moves (taking the house with it) and cracks like crazy with the seasonal swings from bone dry summers to winter saturation. I think maybe a float would provide some amount of flexibility, but that’s just a guess.
Good point. We are having more and more rain here in England so that’s bound to start affecting the old-boned houses.
Thanks for your reply
We have tulip chairs which are surprisingly child friendly! For us though, the solution to the small child issue was simply Tripp Trapp high chairs – they look great, last forever and go with pretty much any style of table / chair. Our eldest has just moved out of his this year aged 7.
As for white napkins and other washables, you can use *hot water and agents like vinegar or bleach.
Thanks for scouting out so many different types of chairs! It does seem that the light pink fabrics would be the same as white … show every stain and be hard to clean. The blues and greens seem more family-friendly.
I think the way to go may be custom, after choosing a rug and table.
Love this post! In follow-up to the survey last week, these are the type of posts that I come to EHD daily to read. I learn something, it’s exciting to see new trends with function in design, and seeing options. I use these type of posts to help make decisions in my home. Thank you and please continue to write more like this!
I find that Ikea’s felt stickers for under the feet of chairs are great and stay on well even when scooting them on wooden floors (ahem, it’s not just kids who do that!). I do think that any fabric upholstered chair runs the risk of getting stained with oil or wine, no matter how resistant to stains they are, so I’d be inclined to vote for the more minimal versions here which are basically just the seat pad. But I do love that pink CB2 chair that looks like a cubist spider!
Why don’t you go for something that will blend with the marinara like orange? Sounds intense but I think it can be very neutral, like on these Grant Featherstone chairs (which incidentally are VERY comfortable).
https://www.lawsons.com.au/auction-lot/set-of-four-d350-dining-chairs-by-grant-featherst_D3B477296F
Or the yellow:
blob:https://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/0f3cf970-9af1-4424-9775-2675c1fe4df8
I found a few green + blue options from Ikea, if someone is wanting to find some at a much lower price point! I obviously can’t vouch for how sturdy these are, but I think they fit the requirements otherwise. (There are also a few that come in a great deep red-brown or brick color, which seems like the best marinara-proof option! Ha.)
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/oestanoe-chair-deep-green-remmarn-deep-green-90568903/
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/karlpetter-chair-gunnared-light-green-sefast-black-s89481454/#content
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/karlpetter-chair-gunnared-light-blue-sefast-black-s89481519/#content
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/krylbo-chair-tonerud-blue-20566747/
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/krylbo-chair-tonerud-blue-20566747/
I’m liking the West Elm chairs. And, doesn’t seem like your brother is a pink kinda guy.
So much fun looking back at all of your previous homes. Think I’ll spend my morning perusing old posts. So much eye candy! Your brother’s home is stunning too. So yes, I just came for the pictures! Thanks Emily.😊
Interesting post, but I’m a little confused. Emily says want she really wants is a colorful patterned chair, yet all of the linked options are solids. What about strength and durability? Much of the analysis is based on chairs suitable for children. What about the crowds of big footballers that we have heard will be entertained at the River House? Some of the options look a little too delicate. Also, some discussion of selection sequence when designing a dining space would be helpful. Is it typical to choose seating before a dining table?
As a mom of five bigger-all-the-time kids (including three boys) and a not-so-small husband, I’d love a post about football player-proof furniture! I would devour a whole post about that. We’ve broken our fair share of (admittedly not super expensive) furniture. Read: MCM chair legs are not for us.
As a mom of oversized boys who are super hard on furniture, I landed on Parsons style chairs with chair covers. For us, they needed to be good size chairs, not delicate, end it allowed us to retighten the chairs every time they got a little loose. The chair covers are easily available in whatever color or pattern I was into at the moment, and I always got them in a washable fabric, so stains weren’t an issue. I personally like the clean classic lines of a Parsons chair, but I know it doesn’t go with everybody.
Virginia Sole-Smith of Burnt Toast podcast has a lot of smart things to say about considering accessibility when selecting dining chairs, specifically to include people with larger bodies. Many dining chairs are not accessible or comfortable with arms too narrow, seats not wide enough, and many even have a weight limit of like 250 lbs — not really very high at all! That is a really average body weight!
This episode (or included transcript) is one to check-out to be mindful of purchasing dining chairs to include folks of all body sizes. https://virginiasolesmith.substack.com/p/i-dont-let-my-son-eat-honey-nut-cheerios
Thank you for doing all the shopping leg work, Emily!
I recently searched for patterned dining chairs and didn’t find any I loved either. I’m planning on buying secondhand and reupholstering a set now.
But here’s two that I found that aren’t bad:
I’d love to see a round up of stylish chair cushions. I feel like it’s so easy to go country cottage with these, which is not the vibe I’m going for. I’ve spied some cute ones on designers’ Instagrams like Heidi Caillier but I assume they are all custom made. Maybe that’s the route I need to take, but I’d love to find some readymade ones so I could test drive one or two to make sure I like the look and function before investing in a whole set.
I have the green Chios dining chairs from Poly and Bark and love them!
I wish Crate & Barrel had released the Paloma Upholstered Sage Green Swivel Dining Chair before I ordered custom swivel dining chairs. Mine will ultimately be more special because of the custom upholstery, but I would have been quite happy saving a few thousand dollars and having the Crate & Barrel chairs.
I use Bertoia side chairs for dining chairs. They are incredibly comfortable and you can order custom seat pads.
I see this space as calm, serene, and organic with all the pretty views as the main focus-I’d probably go with a solid green.
Just chiming in as an FYI – blue #12 are crap – have used on installs and we have in our office and they sway back and forth when you sit on them and the seat cushioning doesn’t stay fluffy. : /
I’ve also been on the hunt for blue or green dining chairs, but I want minimal upholstery. These two are currently at the top of my list!
https://www.article.com/product/24359/nosh-hemlock-green-walnut-dining-chair
https://www.article.com/product/23496/ecole-seascape-blue-walnut-dining-chair