Buy Photo A living room without a reading chair is like a spa bathroom without a big tub. Add a cozy reading corner, though, and the room starts to get friendly. “Comfortable furniture will make you want to stay in the room, and any room that makes me want to actually spend time in there is a winner for me,” says Emily Henderson, an L.A.-based stylist and author of “Styled.” There are thousands of chair options out there and so many factors to consider — height, width, material, color — so we asked for professional advice from Henderson and Nicole Lanteri, a D.C. interior decorator. Henderson says the most important thing is comfort, “as you will be sitting in it for long periods of time.” That doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. “My husband likes to sit upright and have a pretty firm chair, [whereas] I’d rather curl up in a chair with a blanket to read,” Lanteri says. Once you find your match, you’ll want a spot for your feet (Lanteri suggests a small leather pouf) and adequate lighting.
Look for a floor lamp with a height of 50 to 60 inches, ideally with a dimmer and without glare. You can set up a pair of chairs in a family room, or one off by itself in an otherwise forlorn corner of the house. Just try not to overstyle your reading nook with too many accessories, Henderson says. No matter what, just make sure you like how the chair feels. “There’s looking-at chairs and there’s sitting-in chairs,” Henderson says with a laugh. When matching chairs to other furniture in a room, Lanteri says, pay the most attention to the style of the legs. Plus, the seat cushion is made with down. “A down cushion always helps to keep the chair looking nice and comfy for years to come,” Henderson says. ● Mid-century-style chairs often have low backs, so if you’d like somewhere to rest your head, pay attention to measurements or try out the chair in person. ● “A reading chair is a great spot to have [a] bold pattern that you might not put on a sofa,” Lanteri says. “You can even do things like add nailhead trim or contrasting piping on the fabric.”
And measure the seat height of both the sofa and chairs to keep them the same; it makes conversation easier. ● Henderson pays attention to the height of chair legs. “For the most inviting chair, go for a shorter leg,” she says. “Chunky legs are mentally more comfortable to sit on than spindly legs.” ● Upholstered arms tend to be most comfortable when you’re sinking into a novel, but ultimately, it comes down to personal preference. The arms also give the chair a slim profile — good for smaller spaces. ● If you have little kids who like curling up with you, think about finding an oversize chair for your family room, says Lanteri, part of Home & Design magazine’s Hot Talent for 2015. Henderson advises that a deep seat such as this one is best if you plan on curling up in the chair or putting your feet up; it might be uncomfortable if you like to keep your feet on the floor. More from Lifestyle: Chat Thursday at 11 a.m. Designer Nancy Twomey joins staff writer Jura Koncius for our weekly online Q&A on decorating and household advice.
5 options for parents sick of plastic kids’ furniture Make your front door Instagram-worthy with these designer-approved colors ‘E-decorating’ services fill the gap between high-end design and DIYWhat makes a sofa “the best?” Much has already been written about it. You’ll hear phrases being thrown around like And then there are the seat cushions.Loose Back [they’re both good] And then there’s style. Maybe it’s the style that makes it the best sofa. Well, the latter is definitely massed-produced. However, the difference between the 10k and 2k usually has a lot to do with the name more than what’s inside it. This is true for a lot of things we buy. I can’t tell you how many sofas and chairs I’ve sold in my career. All I know is that it’s hundreds. Most people buy maybe at most a dozen sofas in their entire lifetime, and some only one or two. The sofa is the most expensive piece of upholstered furniture in the living room and it’s also the largest, of course.
Therefore, careful consideration should be paid, but please don’t drive yourself crazy. Quite frankly, if you stick to the manufacturers with good reps and quality, they’re all pretty nice. What room is it for? Is it for watching TV and lounging? Will people be eating on it? Or is it for a more formal space like the “dead room” that no one ever goes into, but you want it to look nice because you pass by it all the time? Or maybe it’s the main living space that includes a TV and more formal entertaining. What dimensions do you need? Sofas generally come in lengths between about 60″ and 90″. The most common size is a three-seat sofa which is usually +/- 84″. However, and this is a really important point. If the sofa is being used primarily for conversation and relaxing, there will never be more than two people on it, so it is vitally important to get a sofa that’s the right length.Sofas generally come in depths from 34″-43.” The latter is like a stretch limo.
You need a BIG room for one of those babies. They also have a very deep seat.Well, the average seat depth of most sofas is from 22-24″ deep. However, I have had clients who want what I call a bed that is 25-26″ deep. It’s always the husband and he always has a wife who’s five feet tall. This is why God invented throw pillows. How tall should the back be? Again, this varies quite a bit. A modern sofa might only be a squat 28″ and these days, I’m seeing pieces with a back of 43.” My favorite height for a traditional sofa is 34-35.” How high should the seat be? The average seat height is 18″-20.” Although there are styles that might have a seat as low as 15″ or as high as 21.” It’s a bit difficult to get an exact measurement because none of these are straight lines.Well, that’s a function of style, but for an average sofa, that’s usually from about 23″-25.” However, a Chesterfield style [the arms and back are the same height] could be as high as 36.”
There’s another really important element to talk about when choosing the best sofa. If you don’t already know… It’s the part that the seat cushion sits on and includes the front of the sofa that the legs attach to. That needs to be nice and firm. Sofas with flabby decking will not be comfortable.That depends on the style and preference. One of my pet peeves is when someone calls a sofa with a skirt, “traditional.” There is nothing at all traditional about a sofa with a skirt. If we are talking “traditional” we need to go back to the time of Louis XVI in France and that’s circa 1780 or below in England to the furniture maker Thomas Chippendale. These are “traditional” sofas This is what a traditional sofa looks like. I don’t see a skirt! This beauty is a Chippendale into a transitional Hepplewhite sofa. And that would be circa 1800. As a matter of fact, before that, there weren’t any sofas at all! People sat in chairs like this. No sofas usually, just the chairs.
Many years ago, I went on a field trip with my son Cale to John Jay Homestead in Katonah. This was the home of John Jay the first supreme court justice. Mr. Jay lived in this home in the late 1700s. Today, it is a faithfully preserved specimen of that era. There are two parlors in the home. Each is set up with two small tables and around each one are three chairs. And this was a wealthy dude!The preamble history lesson is for anyone who is interested. Everyone else can scroll down to the good stuff. As for seat cushions— 99% of the time, we use spring down seating. It is both soft and supportive and retains the shape of the cushion better than any other. CR Laine (as of January 2017, we can no longer recommend this company because of some business practices which have hurt many of my colleagues. Therefore, the link has been removed.) The latter is one of those trade secrets that I’m not supposed to tell anyone about because they don’t show at High Point and they don’t have a website and they never will, I’ve been told fairly recently.
It might be alright now… but…You’re telling us your sources?It’s not a secret. I mean, when you walk into your local Overpriced-R-us retail furniture store, don’t they usually have the manufacturer info on the label? These are all terrific companies with medium high-end prices and excellent quality. Number 1 is well, the number one sofa which you can read about in the link. This one is by Lee Industries, although the one we did from CR Laine last year is very similar. This is known as a Bridgewater Sofa or an English roll arm sofa This is a sleek track arm sofa from Lee Industries TCS Designs makes my favorite settee. It is quite compact and yet just as comfortable as a full-sized sofa, so I’ve used it many times, when space is tight. This is a Tuxedo Arm sofa from Lee Industries which we did below for the Bronxville sun room with a skirt The Lawson arm sofa is probably the most common basic style. In the 80’s the arms were really BIG sometimes.
This version from Lee is updated yet still classic. The so-called “traditional sofa” is usually a version of this arm with a 7″ skirt. A newer frame from CR Laine, the Huntley evokes a kind of Hollywood of the 1930s-type glamor to me. This sofa from Lee is not only very beautiful, but feels totally luxurious and enveloping to sit in. A classic leather Chesterfield. This became popular in men’s club houses in the early part of the 20th century. It’s distinctive large round arm is the same height as the back. It is usually tufted. This is a custom-made Chesterfield I had made for a client in Scarsdale, NY 2 years ago. The wedge sofa is a newer style. This version from Lee is a winner. There are other versions of this style which are also great, but I included the wedge, because I think that it’s kinda cool and would be great for watching TV. CR Laine’s Chichester sofa is a new take on the classic Chesterfield sofa. And here it is in the Bronxville living room