Accent Chairs from Woodhaven
Unbelievable comfort | Durable fabrics | Beautiful styles
Of all furniture in a home, there are few pieces that blend comfort and versatility quite like an accent chair. But what is an accent chair, exactly? And how do you choose the right one for your home?
As the name suggests, the chair accents surrounding furniture, complementing your surrounding designs for a more balanced furniture plan.
But that’s not all it does. Thanks to its relatively small footprint, an accent chair creates additional seating quicker and easier than other designs. It also improves the functionality of a space.
You can opt for more private seating than a sofa when desired. And this chair often comes in lightweight and swivel designs, letting you face a couch and then turn to look at a TV or fireplace or speak to someone in a neighboring kitchen.
How do you choose the right chair? Here is a guide to the types of accent chairs on the market so you can select the best style, comfort, and functionality for your home.
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Types of accent chairs
The right chair complements your furniture while bringing the functionality you need. Luckily, there are many styles to suit most aesthetics and seating requirements.
Armchairs
As the name suggests, these chairs feature arms in their designs. The frames and arms can be wood, metal, soft upholstery, or any combination of these materials.
Some living room arm chairs come in the same design as a sofa, while others stand out to increase visual interest throughout a room.
The sizing can range from wide, two-person models to narrow, dining chair-sized pieces for easy movement and increased functionality.
Slipper Chairs / Armless chairs
These chairs forgo arms, but like armchairs, they come in a full range of styles. The armless feature allows for a lighter look and smaller, more streamlined seating, making these chairs ideal for rooms where space is an issue. They are also easier to get in and out of. As living room chairs, they work particularly well in open floor plans and areas of lots of physical movement.
Side Chairs
These small living room chairs are like slipper chairs in that they don’t have arms, but they are smaller and lighter in design. They also have higher backs, seats, and legs like dining chairs.
These chairs are often paired together in floor plans for more visual weight. At the same time, you can move them freely around a room as needs arise. You can even set them along a sidewall for added seating without cluttering a space. They also pair well with writing desks.
Lounge Chairs
Lounge Chairs are solid options when you need big chairs for living room floor plans or extra comfy places to relax in bedrooms or dens. They are for kicking back and relaxing, offering a “laid-back” look for reading, watching TV, socializing, or just vegging. Since the act of lounging requires a bit more room than typical designs, lounge chairs are often wide and deep, and many come with ottomans for even more comfort.
Barrel Chairs
Again, it’s all in the name. Barrel chairs have rounded backs that look a bit like barrels sliced down the middle vertically. The rounded portions work as the outside backs, and the flat sections create cozy places to sit.
These chairs are sure to catch the eye. The rounded designs are also easy to navigate around, making them especially useful in smaller spaces.
Winged Chairs
These chairs have wider top edges along their upper backs that look like wings. They come in different styles, such as lounges or dining chairs.
The unique shapes helped shield drafts and capture the heat of fireplaces back when fires supplied most of the heat in a home, but the overall look is still popular for reading or relaxing. They are popular in living rooms, family rooms, and dens. They often add an ornamented look to spaces for added intrigue.
Club Chairs
These chairs have their origin in social clubs. Like in lobby seating in a hotel, they create places where you can talk, enjoy a cocktail, or read. These ultra-comfortable living room chairs feature high arms, a thickly-padded frame, and rich upholstery.
Parsons Chairs
The Parsons design aesthetic was conceived in the 1930s at the Paris offshoot of the Parsons School of Design. The original goal was to create highly durable furniture. Still, it also used techniques that strip away nonessential elements, resulting in a clean and simple look that blends with most furniture styles.
Like their brother, the Parsons Table, these chairs have long, thick legs that more or less mirror the style of the frames. The legs travel vertically down the edges, creating enduring strength and ample legroom. The chairs come in both arm and armless designs.
Papasan Chairs
These chairs have a long history in Japan and the Philippines and grew in popularity in America after World War II. Their comfortable cushion and casual look have made them popular in informal settings. They are most often made of bamboo and feature thick top cushions. And they are adjustable. The curved seat rests on the base, letting you move the seat up or down to create different comfort options.
The exposed natural materials and organic shape have made these chairs popular for natural aesthetics.
Convertible Chairs
These chairs maximize function. They work like large slipper chairs, but these extra-wide and low designs fold out to create flat, single-sized beds. The backs also adjust to varying angles for reading or relaxing. The comfortable foam construction and sturdy metal frames create strong support for a good night’s sleep.
The blend of design and functionality has made these chairs popular as modern living room chairs in smaller homes without guestrooms or added seating in spare rooms.
Balloon Chairs
If you are looking for more intimacy and intrigue than wing chairs, balloon chairs may be right for you. Whether in an ultra-modern design or a more traditional or cottage design, these chairs are fun for all ages. You will often see guests head toward them as the first places to sit in rooms.
The designs are round like balloons or eggs and have cutout portions for sitting. Some designs have swivel bases and others can be hung from frames or the ceiling for added intrigue. Modern designs come in vibrant colors, adding a bold accent to your room design.
Chesterfield Chairs
The origins of this design and its name are a bit of a mystery, but the attraction isn’t. Much like the sofa versions, Chesterfield chairs feature low-back designs and tufted backs and arms thickly padded for comfort. These chairs are well suited for traditional, formal homes.
Recliner Chairs
These chairs tilt back and often have a footrest so you can truly stretch out. The footrests either flip outward when you tilt back or can be moved in and out with the aid of adjustable arms or motors.
These chairs are ideal for long-term sitting, like when watching a movie, reading a book, or taking a nap.
Recliner chairs can be pretty heavy to move, but they are also strong. Many models support weight limits around 500 lbs., making them useful for those on the heavier side.
You can choose from a wide range of styles, but not all are attractive. Comfort can overrule design. Still, some manufacturers sell beautiful recliners, and some can directly match furniture sets.
Rocking Chairs / Glider Chairs
These can be wood chairs or upholstered designs with gliding mechanisms hidden in the bases. These chairs are great for older members of the family and those who spend extended time in their chairs and need a bit of movement to keep them from fidgeting.
Windsor Chairs
Named from the town where the design was first made, these all-wood chairs have splayed legs, shallow arms, and vertical wood spindles for back and arm support. The comfortable and airy designs have made them famous throughout England and America and add a traditional, old-world feel to homes.
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What to consider when buying an accent chair
Here are some important elements to consider before you buy:
Purpose
You can use accent chairs to fulfill a single need or multiple needs. Think of their usage in the room and select the best options to meet your seating goals. While you shop, ask yourself the following questions:
- How will the chairs be used in the room?
- Do I need a casual design or something more formal?
- How much space do I have in the room?
- Will the chairs need to be moved often?
- How much support will I need for myself and my guests?
Style
You can find occasional chairs to fit any furniture design:
- Modern: A clean, minimalist look of straight lines or minimal curves in any material.
- Mid-century modern: A minimalist aesthetic with the added purpose of capturing the inherent beauty and functionality of the construction materials. Scandanavian wood furniture from the 1930s to the 1960s is an example of this style.
- Contemporary: A modern style with slightly more ornamentation and curves to create a warmer look.
- Traditional: A curvy, ornamented furniture style that follows the furniture styles used in the 1700s and 1800s. This style is often seen as warm and inviting.
- Transitional: a morphing of traditional and modern styling to capture the benefits of each style.
- Rustic: Furniture using raw, worn-looking metal and upholstery that appears antique.
- Shabby chic: A casual design style of slipcovers and white-washed finishes.
- Cottage: A style based on vintage French furniture but in fresh, light colors and a shabby chic edge.
- Glam: A style composed of ornamented metal-based designs in rich fabrics and gleaming finishes.
- Coastal: A seaside design style that blends elements of surf, sand, and sky into a light and breezy furniture look. Like cottage design, this style often uses slipcovers and faded wood finishes.
- French Country: A traditional style blending rustic and refined French décor for a comfortable, more casual aesthetic vs. formal styling.
- Bohemian / Eclectic: An inconsistent style with an underlying relaxed vibe tightly in tune with the owner’s preferences. It avoids any specific style so each piece tells its own unique story.
- Tropical: A blend of flower and plant-patterned fabrics and frames of bamboo or ratan.
You benefit from your accent chairs and surrounding furniture remaining in the same style. If you desire modern, go modern; if you like traditional, follow that; if eclectic or Bohemian is more to your liking, mix things up. Whichever style you choose, it is often best to keep the same theme throughout; otherwise, the accent chairs may look out of place.
Frame Material
Frame options are limitless. You can follow the same structural material of any surrounding furniture or even your home itself. Choose from wood, metal, upholstered frames, or a blend of more than one.
The more durable the construction, the longer the chairs will last. Wood is the most popular frame material, so when shopping, look for companies that offer genuine hardwoods, engineered floor panels, and glue-coated, heavy-duty staples.
Rustic and modern styles often come in metal, though many modern styles - particularly mid-century modern - excel at thin wood frames that show off the beauty of natural wood. Traditional and transitional styling is often full upholstery or a blend of upholstery and rich wood. Slightly ornamented wood with minimal finishes and an aged look is common with cottage, coastal, and French country styles.
Fabric Material
You can choose from a wide range of materials to suit your taste. Any material can be used on any style. Select from options like:
- leather
- vinyl
- cotton
- linen
- wool
- chenille
- velvet
- Polyester
- Microfiber (a blend of polyester and polyamide)
- Mohair
Leather and Ultrasuede are two of the most durable and the most expensive. Cotton, polyester, and synthetic blends typically fall on the lower-priced side, but many are still quite durable and easy to maintain. Many fabrics can also be pretreated for added stain protection.
Color
There is no limit to the colors you can choose for any of these designs, though some colors are more popular for some styles.
Solid whites, beiges, and blacks, primary colors, and newly-trending colors are popular with modern furniture styles, but the same colors can also add life to other styles.
For traditional, transitional, and rustic styles, use tones like burgundy and brown to connect these pieces to their histories for a deeper and more profound underlying story in a room.
Pattern
Like the chair’s color, some patterns work better with certain styles.
For modern homes, typically solid or minimalist patterns show off the careful lines of the chair.
Large, bold patterns are used extensively on tropical styles and Papasan chairs. Small and medium-sized patterns often work well with transitional and traditional styles.
A furniture maker can make pattern and color choices easier by pre-selecting various fabric options that look best on their furniture.
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How to choose the right sized accent chair
The ideal size for your accent chair depends on four main factors:
The space in the room
The size of the chairs should allow enough room for people to sit comfortably and still move around the room. A tried-and-true trick for finding the right size is to tape an outline of the chairs on the floor for easier view with your floorplan. You instantly gain a visual read on what sizing works.
The Scale of Surrounding Furniture
The chairs shouldn’t feel too large or small compared to the surrounding furniture. A thin and narrow chair next to a large sectional feels particularly unbalanced.
The Visual Presentation You Want
Accent chairs can blend with surrounding furniture or contrast it in bold or unique ways to boost visual interest throughout a room. The larger a chair is, the more comfortable and eye-catching it will be. The smaller and lighter it is, the more versatile it will be. Simply pick what works best for your space and needs.
Lounge chairs, recliners, and Papasan chairs work great for large seating areas, while Parsons chairs, side chairs, and slipper chairs help in smaller spaces and tighter furniture arrangements.
The Size of the Users
Keeping your ideal user in mind while shopping for your chairs and other furniture. Sizing is three-dimensional, so measure your current furniture to understand the ideal size of the back, seat, and arms you like most so your chairs meet your comfort needs.
How to Style an Accent Chair in Your Room
Accent chairs can be positioned in many ways to maintain visual balance. A good way to describe how to place accent chairs for living room usage is to imagine your furniture as an imaginary square. Your accent chair would sit in one corner of the square facing a sofa on an opposite face, or it can face a sofa grouping as if the grouping was positioned in the opposite corner.
The options for placement don’t stop there. An accent chair can be placed on each side of a sofa near its arms, or it can face a sofa head-on when paired with a second accent chair and a small table between the two. You can even position your chairs separate from your sofa area to extend seating further out into the room, creating multiple conversation areas.
If you don’t plan to keep the accent chair in a room every day, you can set it along a wall next to a console table. Place a second one on the other side of the table for a more balanced look.
Remember that swivel chairs increase the viewing area from the chair, which can determine its placement, but always strive for visual balance in the room.
Accent Chair Prices by Type
Pricing for accent chairs ranges significantly, and this isn’t due to just the materials and quality. Other factors are the size, the difficulty of the design, the efficiency of the manufacturer, and the manufacturer and sellers’ desired profits.
Here is a look at common price ranges on the market:
Armchair: $150 - $5,000
Slipper Chair / Armless chair: $150 - $4,000
Side chair: $75 - $1,800
Lounge Chair: $250 - $6,000
Barrel Chair: $250 - $3,000
Winged Chair: $300 - $6,500
Club Chair: $300 - $5,000
Parsons Chair: $120 - $800
Papasan Chair: $100 - $1,200
Convertible Chair: $150 - $3,000
Balloon Chair: $600 - $5,000
Chesterfield Chair: $250 - $2,000
Recliner Chair: $300 - $5,000
Rocking Chair / Glider Chair: $20 - $4,000
Windsor Chair: $120 - $2,000
Accent Chairs from Woodhaven Furniture
As you can see, pricing ranges quite a bit. If you are looking for the most value for your money, choose a chair manufacturer with high-volume production methods and pre-selected fabric selections. These tricks minimize costs without sacrificing quality. Still, quality chairs require a quality manufacturer.
Woodhaven Furniture is an American furniture manufacturer employing over 400 employees across 11 factories in 5 states. Each chair we produce blends modern technology methods with tried-and-true production methods. Examples include 3D-modeling technology for clean, precise construction and traditional craftsmanship like genuine hardwoods, engineered floor panels, and glue-coated, heavy-duty staples that bonds wood together for enduring strength.
Our pre-selected fabrics bring out the beauty in each design. All fabric materials are pretreated and are highly durable.
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