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!
THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED HERE.
