What are you sitting on right now?
Chairs are a necessity. They are also often the easiest pieces of furniture to change when you want a fresh look to your space.
They’ve been around for a while now. So much so that it’s easy to forget that we didn’t always have them.
Early humans sat on the bare ground or on rocks or logs. Of course, those early forms of seating meant a fair amount of discomfort and sore behinds.
The architect Witold Rybczynski suggests that the chair began to appear in human dwellings about 5,000 years ago.
Today, we have a vast variety of chair types. Here are 13 chair varieties you may wish to consider next time you want to change things up a bit in your home.
Contents
The Armchair
This is the CEO of chairs. The armchair is among the most common types of chairs in the home. The armrests make them comfortable. They are also quite versatile.
The Chaise Longue
The term chaise longue is French for “long chair.” Many mistakenly call this type of chair a chaise lounge. The gaffe is understandable since we use this type of chair for lounging, anyway.
Day beds and fainting couches are usually of a similar design. You can use the chaise longue in the living area as well as your bedroom.
The Wing Chair
The wing chair is a classic design originally conceived for the front of a fireplace. The “wings” on the sides protect your head from drafts and help hold the heat from the fire.
The Dining Chair
Dining chairs are a category, but there are now so many different shapes and styles that it is almost impossible to describe the grouping.
Anything goes with this chair type. The only thing required is a seat high enough for people to eat comfortably. Beyond that, the options are virtually limitless.
The Club Chair
Club chairs are called such because this was typically the shape used in the gentleman’s clubs of London in the 1850s. These types of chairs usually have a low back and heavy sides that form armrests.
The Chesterfield
Historians suggest the 4th Earl of Chesterfield commissioned the first ever Chesterfield chair. This distinguished-looking chair has distinctive deep buttoned, quilted leather upholstery.
Chairs of this type look more like club chairs, but they can also have more of an armchair or wing chair design style.
The Fighting Chair
If you’ve read Ernest Hemingway’s marlin stories, then you know where these chairs got their name.
Originally meant for anglers battling to haul in big fish, fighting chairs have now become a bit more like recliners or comfortable office chairs.
The Easy Chair
Chairs in this category include a huge number of styles and looks. Most agree, however, that easy chairs are for sitting or half reclining in a comfortable posture.
Increasingly, designers say motion recliners are included in this category, says Vera Dordick for Home Edit.
The Director’s Chair
This chair type comes straight out of Hollywood. The director’s chair folds up, making it easy to move around the set.
Some say the design has roots in the 1400s, when coffer-makers sat on this type of chair. Others link the director’s chair to the ancient Roman curule.
Today, the chair’s classic style has helped maintain its popularity.
The Panton Chair
The one-piece plastic Panton chair was a revolutionary design from 1960. The Danish interior artist Verner Panton created the design after an idea to make stack-able plastic chairs.
What followed was the birth of a classic.
The Windsor Chair
Many consider the Windsor chair a kitchen and dining room classic. This type of chair is perfect for formal space.
Vertical wood poles form the seat back, sometimes rounded or squared off. A shaped crested rail tops the poles.
The Ladder-Back Chair
The versatile wooden ladder-back chair is believed to have originated in the Middle Ages, in Europe.
Later on, the chair’s plain style appealed to Protestants who brought it to the United States.
The rise of upholstered furniture during the Victorian age edged the ladder back into kitchens and other less prominent spaces.
Today, the ladder back chair is back in the living rooms and dining areas of countless homes.
The Rocking Chair
This is the grand daddy of chairs. Rocking chairs are a front-porch fixture and an American ideal.
Some suggest that Benjamin Franklin invented this type of chair, but most experts disagree with the popular notion. The rocking chair first emerged in the 18th century, probably in Europe.
Rockers are usually a wooden chair mounted on curved rockers. Today’s rocking chairs nonetheless come in a variety of looks and construction.
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Come and Sit a While …
There is an obvious and enduring functionality in the basic design of the chair.
This is why, despite the variety of shapes available today, chairs haven’t changed much over the centuries.
Unlike vehicles, weapons, and communications technology, today’s iconic chairs have remained the same as when they first became popular.
If you are sitting on a Chesterfield, then you are sitting on the same chair that the 4th Earl of Chesterfield sat on. There haven’t been any big changes in the design.
Even so, chairs combine fashion and utility in a way that is unique and always interesting.
There is, after all, nothing like settling into a good chair to rest your weary feet at the end of a long, long day.
