Accent Chairs, With the Seat Measured

Overall Width Is Not Seat Width

An accent chair listing gives the width of the whole piece of furniture. Between the arms there is another number, and it is the only one that decides whether you sit in comfort.

Thirty One Inches Wide, Nineteen Inches of Seat

A chair sold as 31 inches wide has arms that flare outward and leaves a free seat of about 19. In barrel chairs and chairs with thick padded arms the difference reaches 13 inches. This table publishes both figures, overall width and free seat width, and the share between them, which is what separates the comfortable chair from the decorative one.

• Seat height: the living room standard is 18 or 19 inches from the floor. Part of the mid century catalog drops to 16, and some listings say so and some do not. At 16 inches the chair looks great in the photo and is hard to get up from, the same problem as low profile futons. It gets its own column, and seats under 17 inches are marked.
• Seat depth decides who the chair is for. As with office chairs, under 5'5" a 21 inch deep seat cuts circulation behind the knee. The oversized chairs of 39 to 43 inches overall that lead the catalog are sized for 6 feet, not for everyone.
• The price trap: 116 of the 347 listings in this table are two packs, and the price of the pair reads as if it were for one. The price per chair column is always worked out, for the single chair and for the pair.

Before buying, measure the room as a whole, not the gap where the chair goes: walkways, the door swing and the other seating. If a guest bed has to fit in the same room, the sofa beds measured open show how much floor each one takes once it is pulled out.

Across the 347 chairs that declare both figures, arms and frame take a median of 7.5 inches of the overall width, and in 21 of them the difference is 13 inches or more. The widest gaps first:

Seat share = seat width / overall width. The rest of the width is arms and frame.

Seat over 21"Seat under 18"Narrow under 28"

Seat Height, and Getting Out of a Low Chair

Seat height is measured from the floor to the top of the cushion. Dining chairs sit at about 18 inches and most sofas at 17 to 19, so an accent chair in that range lines up with the rest of the room. Below 17 inches the knees end up higher than the hips and standing up takes a push from the arms; for anyone with bad knees, or anyone over 60, that is the difference between a chair they use and one they avoid.

Low seats come mostly from mid century designs with short tapered legs and from lounge chairs that tilt back. A deep cushion that compresses an inch or two makes it lower still once you sit down.

304 chairs in the table declare their seat height. 40 sit under 17 inches, 228 in the 17 to 19 inch standard and 36 higher. The median is 18.0".

Standard, 17 to 19"Over 19"Low, under 17"

How Deep the Seat Is and Who It Fits

Sitting all the way back, two or three fingers should fit between the front edge of the seat and the back of the knee. Too shallow and the thighs are left unsupported; too deep and you either perch on the edge or the edge presses on the back of the knee.

• Under about 5'5": seats up to 19 or 20 inches deep.
• 5'5" to 5'11": 19 to 22 inches.
• 6 feet and up: over 21 inches, which is where the oversized chairs sit.

A deep seat can be brought forward with a lumbar pillow; a shallow one cannot be made deeper. If the chair is for reading with the legs tucked up, deep wins.

Under 19"19 to 21"Over 21"

One Chair or a Pair, and What That Price Means

Accent chairs are often bought in pairs, facing a sofa or either side of a fireplace, and many listings sell them that way. The photo shows one chair, the title says set of 2 somewhere in the middle, and the price sits next to listings for a single chair. Read naively, a $220 pair looks like an expensive chair rather than two cheap ones.

This table keeps the two packs, because they are a real part of the catalog, but never compares them unnormalized: the price per chair column divides the listing price by the chairs in the box, and the pack filter separates them.

Set of 2Single chair

Accent Chair, Armchair or Club Chair

On Amazon the words overlap almost completely. Accent chair describes a role, a chair that adds a color or a shape to a room, rather than a design. An armchair is any upholstered chair with arms. A club chair is low, deep and heavily padded, with arms about as high as the back. A side chair, or occasional chair, is a lighter piece, often armless, that moves around the room when guests come. Since the names do not classify anything, this table sorts by shape and by measurements instead.

ClubWingbackMid centuryOversized lounge

Swivel, Fixed and the Barrel Shape

A swivel base lets one chair face the sofa, the TV or the window, which is why swivel barrel chairs sell well in open plan rooms. The cost is space and height: the base adds an inch or two to the seat, and the chair needs clearance all round to turn. The barrel shape, a round back that wraps around to form the arms, is the one where the gap between overall width and seat width is largest, so check the seat width column before choosing one by its outside size.

SwivelFixedBarrel

Boucle, Chenille, Velvet, Linen and Faux Leather

• Boucle: looped yarn, soft and textured; the loops catch on pet claws and show wear on the arms.
• Chenille: a tufted pile yarn that wears well and hides marks; a sensible choice for a chair used daily.
• Velvet: dense pile with a sheen; crushes and shows the direction you brushed it, cleans well when it is polyester.
• Linen and linen look fabrics: cool and matte, wrinkle and stain more easily.
• Faux leather: wipes clean, but cheap PU can peel after a few years, starting on the seat edge.
• Performance fabric: sold as stain, water or scratch resistant; the claim is the maker's.

ChenilleBoucleVelvetFaux leatherPerformance fabric

What We Exclude From This Table

Every listing is checked by its ASIN data, never by its title: in one sample of 48 armchair listings, 40 had accent chair in the title, so the words do not classify anything. Left out:

• Recliners, rocking chairs, gliders and nursing chairs.
• Chairs with wheels or a gas lift, which go to /office-chair/, and bucket seat gaming chairs, which go to /gaming-chair/.
• Stools and bar chairs, which go to /bar-stools/.
• Dining chairs and armless desk chairs.
• Chair beds and convertible poufs, a different product.
• Poufs, bean bags, papasan chairs and floor seating.
• Outdoor, garden and folding camp chairs.
• Any listing without a seat width and depth that can be read from its declared dimensions.
• Covers, cushions and ottomans sold on their own.

Two packs stay in, with the price per chair worked out, so they never compare against single chairs unnormalized.