The earliest evidence of chairs as household furniture can be traced back to the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, subsequently popularised in Europe and the rest of the world through trade and travel. More importantly, chairs have been a constant element of daily life which has evolved alongside humans throughout the decades to meet their needs.
This has come to a point where some modern-day chairs are so at odds with the ones from the past that they are unrecognisable from each other. Nevertheless, the re-emergence of designs and styles from the past has introduced a variety of chairs on the market today. However, people are unfamiliar with the number of choices, so we have put together this list of different types of chairs to help you decide which one is best for your home.
Note: Before starting this list, we decided against including the most commonly used chairs, as you might already be acquainted with the design and style of these types of chairs. We also opted against including other less popular types of chairs to keep the list as short and informative as possible. In case you like any of these chairs and are unable to find them in the market, feel free to get in touch with us.Now let us see the 10 types chairs..
Many admire the design of this unique chair, but a lot less know the actual need for such a design. This chair was first introduced in England during the 1600s and the core design of the chair has remained the same ever since. However, the same can not be said about the materials used on it. Originally, these chairs had an exposed wooden frame with padded cushions on the seat and in some cases on the armrests as well. But today, almost the entire chair is covered with upholstery and synthetic feathers for cushioning. Coming back to the design, its unique wings on the back has and were built for a very specific purpose.
The thing is, British homes in the 1600s were not great at climate control, so a drop in temperature caused people to hide under thick blankets. And this is the inconvenience these chairs were built to mitigate. Usually placed near the primary heating source, fireplace, the wings of the chair trap heat in the area while also protecting the occupant of the chair from drafts of wind. The wings on Wingback chairs today serve no such purpose but are only present for the sake of the design. There are several types of wingback chairs, yet the two standard designs popular today are the flat wing and the scroll wing. Moreover, the chair first re-emerged in the 1700s and made its way into the modern-day home. During this time, the chair went through a series of changes and modifications, one of the most noticeable changes are the ones in materials.
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Originating out of France in the 20th century, it’s a type of armchair known for its unique leather exterior and curved edges. The chair has also long been a classic feature of French interior décor and is best defined by its characteristics such as the design, carpentry, fellmongery, upholstery and colouring. Moreover, the introduction of this chair came along with a new padding technique where the coir filling is complemented by conical springs.
The name of the chair may suggest it first appeared in a club, but it’s not that simple. While some reports suggest, the name is a reference to a gentleman’s club, it should be taken with a pinch of salt. However, we are sure about what it was called before the term “club chair” came along. Before “club chair”, it was known as fauteuil confortable, French for a comfortable chair. The chair also has various iterations that are named after the shape of the chair.
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The Windsor chair, also known as the Welsh stick chair, has one of the most speculative origins. No one is quite sure where it came from, what we do know is its name is derived from the market town of Windsor Berkshire. It’s also believed that the chair made its first appearance in the county of Buckinghamshire. However, it’s not clear when, according to some sources it was around the 16th century, but this time period is wrong according to other sources.
Regardless of when and where it first appeared, the chair is considered to have one of the best traditional designs. In particular, the pole lathe legs drilled into the wooden disk-shaped seat. Even the backrest is expertly crafted and put together using wooden fittings. Moreover, the chair is made of wood with a polished look. While we are discussing the look, it’s important to point out that it will be a great addition to a traditional-minimalist home.
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The egg chair is relatively modern compared to the previous options, it was designed by the popular designer Arne Jacobson in 1959. The chair was part of the exclusive collection specially designed and manufactured for the Radisson SAS hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark. Like Jacobson’s other works such as the swan chair and the Ant chair, the egg chair also carries a lot of similar characteristics. Because of its unique shape and build of the chair, many speculated the chair was inspired by the womb chair designed by Eero Saarinen.
While his other works are still available for purchase, only a handful of egg chairs were ever made for the Radisson hotel. Though some special pieces were later produced that sold for a whopping $75,000, the main reason behind its limited stock is the complexity of its manufacturing process. However, today these chairs are produced by a variety of companies across the globe and safe to say, they do not cost $75,000.
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The Wassily chair also known as the Model B3 chair, was originally designed by Marcel Breuer between 1925-1926 while he was the head of the cabinet-making workshop at Bauhaus. Though a lot of people believe, it was made specifically for Wassily Kandinsky who was also in Bauhaus’s faculty team at the time The truth is Kandinsky had admired the design of the chair, so Breuer duplicated the design for his office.
However, the chair came into prominence decades later when it was re-released by the Italian manufacturer Gavina. It’s then that they came upon the Kandinsky connection while conducting research about the chair’s origin. Additionally, the chair has an exceptional and industrial vibe to it, and we recommend using this chair with a similar design story.
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If the name and the image did not make it clear enough, the wishbone chair is given the name because it has a wishbone-shaped backrest. The wishbone chair, also known as the CH24 chair or Y chair was designed by Hans Wegner in 1949 for Charles Hansen & Son. It’s especially popular in Japan because of its minimal and sustainable nature, and subsequently, its sales in Japan usually count for more than a quarter of its annual production. More importantly, the wishbone chair and other work from Hans Wegner is an exemplary examples of Danish furniture design. Accordingly, people across the globe have embraced such designs as the wishbone chair is a best-selling product everywhere.
As for the make and build of the chair, it consists of a bentwood armrest and a paper cord rope seat in a woven envelope pattern. The chair has a minimal yet charming vibe, which can add a sense of Feng Shui to any space.
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Designed by a world-renowned Finnish-American architect, Eero Saarinen came up with the Tulip Chair somewhere between 1955-1956 for Knoll in New York. When the design was first introduced, the chair was considered way ahead of its time. This is because, unlike the designs of the time, the chair had smooth lines of modernism and was highly experimental with materials. It might come as a surprise, initially the chair was named the “pedestal”. However, Saarinen and Knoll settled on the more organic-sounding and fitting “tulip chair”, as this name also portrayed the inspiration behind the design; nature.
Even the purpose of the chair was not to be used as an armchair, it was originally built to accompany a complimentary dining table. Yet, it emerged as a stand-alone armchair because of its futuristic look and use of curves and artificial materials. Finally, when Saarinen was asked about the chair he popularly said, “The undercarriage of most chairs and tables in a typical home makes an ugly, confusing and un-restful look. I wanted to clear up the slum legs. I wanted to make the chair all one thing again.”
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Not to diminish the historical importance of the other chairs on this list, but hands down, the rocking chair has the most comprehensive and rich past.
This is one of the most recognisable and known pieces of furniture in the whole wide world. In the rare case, you haven’t seen a rocking chair, it is generally made of wood and has two curved bands attached to the bottom of the legs that are also connected to each other.
These legs have contact with the floor at just two points to the ground, allowing them to rock back and forth. The rocking chair often connotes relaxation, sleep and parenting. This is not without reason, as the rocking motion soothes and sends you to sleep. A major misconception about the rocking chair is that many people think it was invented by Benjamin Franklin. But, historians have dated back the chair to the early 18th century when Mr. Franklin was a child.
The remanence of the chair’s history is scattered throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, also it was present in both England and the Americas. In the 1830s however, Peter Cooper designed the first steel rocking chair and it was displayed at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851.
The first rocking chair that somewhat represents the modern rocking chair, has to be the one created by Michael Thonet – a German craftsman in the 1860s. Put together using bentwood and graceful shapes, the chair was lightweight much like the modern rocking chair.
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The previously mentioned womb chair is the brainchild of Eero Saarinen, the same guy who designed the Tulip chair. Just the sheer number of best-selling products from Eero Saarinen should alone tell you about the level of craftsmanship and quality behind his work.
At this point, Eero Saarinen does not require any introduction. And as for the womb chair, he designed this chair for Knoll in 1948 and is up for sale on Knoll’s website to this day. It’s a highly sought-after design and can be found in both homes and office spaces. Knoll describes the chair as “a chair that was like a basket full of pillows – something people can curl up in.
The mid-century classic design supports countless positions and offers a comforting oasis of calm.” Additionally, the chair was designed to tackle the sentiment which states “I have never felt comfortable and safe ever since I left the womb”. This also gave the chair its iconic name.
If you need an in-depth review of the chair, Clever by Architectural Digest has published an excellent review of this chair you should checkout.
The ladderback chair as the name quite eloquently describes has a back that looks a lot like a ladder. The seats on the chair can be made using a variety of different materials. In the past, most chairs used materials such as cane or rush. Whereas modern ladderback chairs have wooden seats. These chairs can be dated back to the middle ages, specifically in European homes. At the beginning of the 17th century, the chair was everywhere in England. However, by the middle of the 17th century, craftsmen started using walnut along with decorations and engravings to add a luxurious layer to it. In recent times, these chairs can be found in most settings. This chair is best suited for a traditional or minimalistic setting for a cohesive overall design story.
Also Read: 10 Best Sofa Design Ideas To Liven Up Your Living Room
To sum up – Chairs are at the core of turning any space functional and comfortable, but this blog is focused more on the aesthetics of the chairs. Hopefully, this blog served its purpose and helped you choose the right chair for your home. Happy decorating!
Want to upgrade your home with stylish and comfortable seating? Refer to our guide on different kinds of chairs and familiarize yourself with famous designs.
This contemporary Minneapolis living room by Prospect Refuge Studio incorporates a vintage touch with cane-back chairs.No room is complete without a good chair. Inviting and practical, chairs provide necessary comfort, leisure and utility for everyday life. However, if you’ve been on the hunt for the right chair for your interior, you’ve likely come to realize that there are hundreds of kinds of seating to choose from. Differentiating between them all and choosing the best for your interior decor style can be overwhelming.
To help you decide on the best seating for your needs, we define 52 important types of chairs below and provide examples. We cover chairs by room, discuss several popular vintage and antique chairs and then dive into influential chair designs from famous designers you should know.
Read the full guide or jump to each section below:
Living-Room Chairs
Dining-Room Chairs
Office Chairs
Antique Chairs
Other Types of Chairs
Iconic Chair Designs
Most living rooms include at least one armchair. Typically upholstered and including comfortable armrests, armchairs vary by size, style and color, allowing you to use them to make a statement, focus on comfort or show off your personality. Because they come in so many different styles, many of the chairs covered below are variations on the classic armchair.
A recliner is an upholstered, comfortable armchair that allows the person sitting in it to lower the back and lift up a footrest. This mechanism is typically activated either by pulling a lever on the side of the chair or pushing back into the chair while sitting in it.
Designed with comfort in mind, a lounge chair is a type of recliner that is often accompanied by an ottoman as a footrest. Similar to recliners, there are many styles of lounge chairs.
Derived from those used in English gentlemen’s clubs, the modern club chair usually has a low back and armrests. Traditionally, they are thickly padded and covered with leather upholstery. Club chairs make for relaxing reading chairs or simply comfortable additions to a living room.
A 300-year-old American invention, the rocking chair is a well-known and simple staple. It was originally designed for mothers rocking their babies. Though it has modern iterations, the classic rocking chair is wooden, not upholstered and allows the sitter to rock back and forth.
The wingback is an upholstered chair with a high back and “winged” sides around the top. When it was created in England in the 1600s, the wings were designed to shield the sitter from drafts and the heat emanating from the fireplace. That’s why today they are typically considered cozy sitting-room chairs, though they can make great pieces for other rooms as well.
Similar to the popular chesterfield sofa, a chesterfield chair is typically upholstered in leather with deep buttoning and a low back the same height as the arms. Reminiscent of English gentlemen’s clubs, the chesterfield chair is a modern living-room favorite.
Dining chairs come in many different styles, but they are meant to provide seating for gatherings and meals around a dining-room table.
Typically lacking armrests, a side chair is a very commonly used dining chair. The style of a side chair may vary, but the constant is the lack of armrests to keep hands free for eating and to save space at the table.
A desk chair, placed in an office or other workspace, supports one while working. Often, desk chairs are ergonomically designed, with height-adjustable seats and good back support.
Commonly placed in offices, swivel chairs turn on an axis so that the sitter can face any direction.
French for “long chair,” a chaise longue is exactly that — a chair long enough for the sitter to rest their legs on it. They sometimes include armrests or just a left or right armrest.
The bergère chair originated in 17th-century France, during the reign of Louis XIV. Also known as fauteuil (French for armchair), the bergère has an upholstered seat, back and armrest, and the frame is exposed. There are different styles, some with high backs and some with low, but they all have deep, wide seats and thick upholstery.
A Windsor chair is a wooden chair that consists of a saddle seat and spindled back, with the chair back and legs round-tenoned (pushed into drilled holes) in the seat. They are named after Windsor, England, where they were invented in the early 1700s. According to legend, the chair gained popularity after King George III took shelter in a cottage and was invited to sit on one. He was so charmed by the humble design that he had copies made for Windsor Castle.
Originally an ancient Greek seat, the klismos chair has been updated for modern-day interiors. It includes a curved back and outturned legs.
Queen Anne chairs, like the other furniture during Anne’s reign from 1702–14, are more functional, lighter designs than earlier styles. They include elegant, late Baroque influences, dark woods and curved legs and put more emphasis on comfort.
The 16th-century American Chippendale furniture style is named for Thomas Chippendale, a well-known London cabinetmaker. This style is influenced by Queen Anne designs, but Chippendale chairs are uniquely marked by their cabriole legs and ball-and-claw feet.
There are many varieties of hanging and swing chairs, but they are usually leisurely lounge pieces meant for outdoor spaces like porches. Descending from the ceiling or a support structure, hanging chairs are suspended off the ground and allow you to swing back and forth.
Modern bistro chairs are fun design pieces inspired by those used for French bistros. They are usually made of wood and have woven, patterned backs.
A high chair is meant to seat a baby or toddler and is designed with long legs and a tray for food.
A director’s chair has a foldable wooden frame, and the seat and back are made of canvas. Typically for film directors working on set, the director’s chair can also be a fun accent chair.
An upholstered chair with a tall back, short legs and no arms, the slipper chair was originally used in women’s bedrooms for assistance with putting on slippers.
Also called a roundabout chair, the corner chair has a back that wraps around a corner of its seat, so that it fits nicely in the corner of a room.
A barstool is a tall chair perfect for high tables. Depending on the style, it may or may not have a back and a place to rest your feet.
Originating in the formal parlors of the Victorian elite, the tête-à-tête is actually two chairs with connected backs in an S formation, so that the sitters are facing different directions but easily able to converse.
A barrel chair is a large, upholstered chair with a high back and a rounded, barrel shape.
Folding chairs are great for casual, outdoor get-togethers because they fold up for easy storage and transportation. They are commonly made of plastic but can also be metal or wood.
A chair in the Adirondack style is a highly recognizable, wooden outdoor lounge chair that includes a sloped seat and a tall, tilted back.
Now that we’ve covered popular types of chairs, we will go through influential designs that have made a significant mark on the world of furniture.
This Scandinavian chair is loved for its organic shape and modern feel. Designed by Arne Jacobsen for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen in 1958, the Egg chair is now also associated with stylish corporate offices.
Designed by Eero Saarinen, the Womb chair, released in 1948, ensures comfort with its surprisingly simple, genius design. With steel legs and an enveloping fiberglass bucket wrapped in fabric, it was intended to simulate the comfort of the womb. Appreciated for its sleek design and large frame, the Womb chair was quickly recognized as a modernist masterpiece.
Sculptural, minimal and modular, the 1969 Tube chair was created by Italian avant-garde designer Joe Colombo. The chair is made of different-size PVC tubes covered in foam and connected by metal clasps. The tubes can be taken apart, reconfigured and even tucked inside each other for convenient storage.
Futuristic and playful, Eero Aarnio’s Ball chair is a hollow orb made of molded fiberglass padded with fabric and attached to an aluminum base. It debuted at the 1966 International Furniture Fair to instant commercial success and is still celebrated today for its sculptural and otherworldly design.
This mid-century Danish chair, in production since 1950, was inspired by chairs of the Chinese Ming dynasty era. The hallmarks of the Wishbone chair are its intricately crafted woven paper-cord seat and its curved, Y-shaped back. One of the most recognizable iconic chairs, Hans Wegner’s Wishbone boasts both comfort and simplicity.
Created in 1925 by Marcel Breuer, a faculty member of the Bauhaus school of design, the Wassily was inspired by bicycle handlebars. It is made of bent tubular steel and durable canvas and is named after the painter Wassily Kandinsky, who expressed admiration for Breuer’s revolutionary design.
The Wiggle chair was unveiled as part of Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry’s “Easy Edges” paper furniture series in 1972. Constructed entirely of cardboard, the Wiggle chair’s elegant, ribbon-like design makes for a durable and comfortable chair, as well as a great statement piece in a contemporary interior.
In 1962, Mexican Surrealist artist Pedro Friedeberg created this hand-shaped chair that captures attention in any room.
An iconic contemporary chair, the Louis Ghost chair was created by designer Philippe Starck in 2002. He transformed the traditionally wooden Louis XVI chair by making it out of clear plastic.
Another of Eero Saarinen’s creations, the 1950s Tulip chair is an elegant and streamlined chair with a sculptural, flower-like top.
Marcel Breuer’s 1928 Cesca chair is a Bauhaus dining chair with a casual yet elegant silhouette.
A modernist staple designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich in 1929, the Barcelona chair contrasts an X-shaped stainless-steel frame with quilted leather cushions, embodying Mies’s famous aphorism “Less is more.”
Designed in 1955 by Arne Jacobsen, creator of the Egg chair, the Series 7 is a lean chair with a seat and back made of a single piece of bent plywood.
Created by visionary Danish interior designer and architect Verner Panton in 1958, the Cone chair boasts a bold form — an inverted cone shape that appears to balance on its point, which is attached to a swivel base.
Also realized by Panton, the Panton chair, developed in 1960, is an impressive single piece of plastic molded into an S shape and is beloved by museums and designers worldwide.
Pierre Paulin’s expressively swooping 1967 chair is shaped like a human tongue. The comfortable and quirky Tongue chair invites the sitter to lounge low to the ground.
Danish cabinetmaker and furniture designer Poul Kjærholm’s 1956 PK22 is a modern chair with steel legs and crossbars that support a square leather seat.
Now a ubiquitous seat that appears in all types of interiors, Emeco’s durable Navy chair was originally designed by engineer Wilton C. Dinges in 1944 for use aboard the U.S. Navy’s battleships and submarines during World War II.
Designed in 1920s Paris by French metalworker Xavier Pauchard for Tolix, the practical Model A is a stackable metal chair widely used in restaurants and cafés.
Hans Olsen made the 1956 Fried Egg chair, a unique Scandinavian design with a yolk-shaped cushion and asymmetrical armrest.
Made of form-pressed oak or walnut laminates and supported by three legs, Hans Wegner’s 1963 Shell chair boasts fluid lines and winglike curves that make it a beautiful statement piece.
A striking design that puts comfort front and center, Pierre Paulin’s 1960 Mushroom chair envelopes the sitter’s body in an alluring organic shell covered in molded foam padding.
Charles and Ray Eames designed this luxurious lounge chair for Herman Miller in 1956 by transforming the classic club chair. The Eames lounge chair met with immense success and is now seen in any number of upscale interiors.
Conceived by Wegner in 1951, this Scandinavian modern wingback chair includes a distinctive feature: outstretched arms that nearly embrace the person sitting in it. The Papa Bear chair is characterized by a high backrest and long back legs and is available today in a variety of wood and textile finishes.
Though there are so many chairs to choose from, with this list you’ll have a better idea of which chairs will be the perfect fit for your interior. For more styles, take a look at our most commonly searched chairs.
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