For whoever hasn’t heard of it, the wingback chair, also called the wing chair/ the easy chair/ the grandfather chair, represents a piece dating back to the late seventeenth century. It is called like that because it has side wings, which are often times called cheeks. Usually they end at the arm, and the wings partially come around the upper body of the person who is sitting in the chair. The idea is to protect him/her from the drafts and to keep inside the heat that comes from a fireplace. Quite idyllic, right?
However, even though it finds it origins in a very formal context, the wingback chair is actually quite flexible when it comes to design. Think about the fact that it remained in the top for four centuries, so they still are a great furniture item to add in a study or living room, bedroom, dining room and others.
How to combine them
It may seem a difficult task in the beginning, if not impossible, but truth is that you can make a design work with several types of chairs around, including wingback ones. For example, in a dining room, you can have regular side chairs, and for the ends you can choose two elegant wingback options. The trick here is to make sure that their geometry fits: if all the chairs are too adorned or massive, the room will end up looking bulky and crammed.
A useful idea is to go for a skirted wingback chair. The skirt is the longer material that covers the legs of the chair, and thus makes it look sleeker and more modern. A solid color usually makes it look more serious, while patterns may turn the design into a livelier one. The skirt can make the chair look taller, thus complementing a room with little space.
This type of chair is more prone to getting stained. Imagine that you will most likely stay with your hands on the armrest whenever you sit down or sit up from it, not to mention that you’re resting your arm there all the time. Because of this reason, you should consider a fabric which is easy to clean. If you don’t want to compromise on the material, you can also use a stain guard, which will save you from a lot of trouble.
In the case of a skirted wingback chair, the skirt can also get dirty quite fast, especially if you’re allowing your guests to sit with their shoes on. The shoes will often times touch the skirt, which will get dirty.
Shift Frequency © 2017 – Everything To Know about the Winged Back Chair