Skip to main content Smart BuysThe best folding chairs for NYC apartments—just in time for holiday guests to arrive Got guests coming to dine at your place over the holidays, but nowhere for them to sit? Time to invest in some folding chairs. While the very words may conjure up images of ugly, utilitarian metal chairs reminiscent of a suburban PTA meeting, there are plenty of models out there that don't sacrifice style for utility. Plus, any furniture that folds (and is easily stored away) is a New Yorker's dream.BUDGETThese Flex One Folding Chairs (four for $78) are wider-than-your-average folding chairs, which means they may feel more comfortable, plus the mesh back means that they're breathable (so no sweaty backs come summertime). A New Yorker who entertains a lot told us these are the (only) way to go.Leave it to Ikea to create a seriously affordable chair that's also designed well. One Brick editor (cough, me, cough) has these particular Gunde folding chairs ($7.50 apiece), six of which fit nicely in our (decently sized) hallway closet.
These aren't the most comfortable seats in the world, but they do the trick for the length of a holiday meal. MID-RANGENew York City-based boutique Gracious Home's Manhattan Folding Chairs ($55.98) are made of steel and leather upholstery, which makes them more comfortable and durable than your average folding chair. They come in a bunch of different colors, but the design above is the most economical.This Crate and Barrel Spare Black Folding Wood Dining Chair ($42) is sleek enough that it would likely go with most tables and chairs (great if you're going for a seamless aesthetic). It also comes in white and gray and is both foldable and stackable.According to one New Yorker (and mother) who entertains nearly weekly, the Cosco Oversized Upholstered Metal Folding Chair (29.99) "is super comfortable, the opening in the back is small enough that my kids don't fall through, and the cushion is higher than our regular dining chairs," making for very comfortable eating.HIGH ENDAnthropologie carries several Terai Folding Chairs ($150 to $198 apiece) with beautiful handmade upholstery (in different patterns) and wood frames with a natural finish.
Sure, they're pricey, but they're just about the prettiest folding chairs we've seen. We don't think we'd ever stash them away if we had them.Just win the lottery and having people over to celebrate? We suggest buying these MK99200 folding chairs from Design Within Reach ($880; chair cushion: $155). Created by Danish designer Mogens Koch, they pay homage to the classic director's chair, and are made of solid Danish beech wood and canvas. These are seriously in a class of their own.Assuming you want your folding chairs to take up as little space as possible when they're not being used, it's hard to do better than the Flux Chair ($149), which is made from durable plastic and folds down like origami into a flat square. It's available in a bunch of bright shades, too. The design is unusual, sure, but that may just suit your fancy.These Ballard Designs St. Germain folding chairs ($109) are perfect if you're looking for folding chairs that don't look temporary. They're sturdy, plus they're only 13 inches wide, so if you're hoping to squeeze a lot of people into a small space, these could be good options.
These Frontgate Shield-Back folding chairs ($199 for two) look the most like formal dining chairs, so if your style is more formal/old-fashioned, these might be worth buying.If modern is more your style, may we recommend these? We're suckers for anything Lucite, so we love this chair from Gracious Home ($129), which is, unsurprisingly, one of the store's most popular.Related:The best vacuum cleaners for NYC apartmentsThe best high chairs for NYC apartmentsFEW furnishings are as useful as the classic metal folding chair. But with their whiff of P.T.A. meetings and bridge parties, folding chairs, the Rodney Dangerfield of the home-furnishings world, are stashed in a closet when not in use. And for good reason: they're just not very nice to look at.Ready-made slipcovers are available in stores and catalogues, masking the folding chair's proletarian functionality with flowered chintz or awning stripes. But not all folding chairs need a disguise. They can be made from anything from hand-forged iron to cardboard.
And they can be showpieces, even if their appearance is fleeting.For a dining room in the 1996 Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club Decorator Showhouse two months ago, Mariette Himes Gomez, an interior designer in Manhattan, circled an antique refectory table with handsome mahogany chairs whose upholstered needlework seats flip up to allow hinged seat frames to fold up, accordion style.They can be spirited into a closet, allowing a room to be a sitting room or an office. "The right folding chair can be dressed up with a very lavish application of fabric and used in a formal dining room in a town house," Ms. Gomez said. The folding chair's history is anything but humble. Folding furniture can be traced to the ancient Egyptians, who buried royalty in tombs with gilded furniture that folded for easy transport into the next world. And that metal folding chair in your closet has an aristocratic parallel. It is a wayward descendant of ingenious folding steel or iron campaign furniture carried into battle by soldiers during the Napoleonic wars.
The best of today's folding chairs display a similarly winning mix of style and practicality. Alternatives to the metal bores come in myriad styles and prices, from armless cafe chairs ($89 for two from the Gardeners Eden catalogue, 800-822-9600) to stainless-steel chairs with leather seats ($1,450 at Palazzetti, 152 Wooster Street, at Houston Street, New York 10012, 212-260-8815).Here are some new and classic designs.A fascination with campaign furniture, coupled with the challenge of devising a folding mechanism, prompted Jim Zivic and Warner Wada, the owners of Burning Relic Furniture in the Garment District, to design a handmade folding chair ($850 and up). "It's more of an engineering feat than a regular chair," said Mr. Zivic, pointing to its many holes, hinges and screws. Its seat and back, held by a forged-iron frame, come in harness leather in earth tones or in costlier floor leather in bold greens and golds. BURNING RELIC FURNITURE, 325 West 37th Street, New York 10018; (212) 868-3067.Every chair at Collection Carton, in SoHo, folds.
That is hardly surprising, since everything in the shop is made of heavy brown cardboard. A single piece of cardboard folds into a biodegradable side chair ($30), while a sturdier, more comfortable armchair is made from two, thicker cardboard cutouts ($35). Olivier Leblois, a French architect, created cardboard prototypes for his furniture designs several years ago, then decided he liked the material's blend of what he calls its "transitory and permanent values." The armchair, which can hold 300 pounds, should last at least two years if not left outdoors or abused, said Barbara Schlager, the shop's owner. Both chairs can be painted.COLLECTION CARTON, 110 Thompson Street (near Prince Street), New York 10012; (212) 334-4883.The sleek new Flyline folding chair from Milan, Italy, is displayed in the office-furniture department at the Chelsea outpost of Sam Flax. But the lightweight black chair ($159) would look equally at home around a dinner table or in a living room with modern furniture.
With a lacquered anodized aluminum frame and black mesh seat and back, it vaguely resembles a director's chair.SAM FLAX, 12 West 20th Street, New York 10011, (212) 620-3038.Whimsy teams with an agile hinging system in armless Italian folding chairs at Lee's Studio, in midtown and on the Upper East Side. Each has a shiny chrome frame with a round seat, covered in bright red, blue, yellow or green fabric. For a playful touch, the back cushion is shaped like a heart ($129.95) or sensuous lips ($139.95). The back cushion of a third version comes in spotted pony-print fabric ($149.95).LEE'S STUDIO, 1755 Broadway (at 56th Street), New York 10019, (212) 581-4400; 1069 Third Avenue (at 63d Street), New York 10021, (212) 371-1122.A pair of armless teak Indonesian folding chairs at the Coconut Company, in SoHo, look as if they were plucked from Singapore's Raffles Hotel, circa 1920. Brass fittings add a colonial air to a slat-seat chair with an X-shape backrest ($275). Eleven slats form the seat and back of a companion chair, covered by a tufted cream-colored cushion ($290 for chair and cushion).
COCONUT COMPANY, 131 Greene Street (near Houston Street), New York 10012; (212) 539-1940.Hints of Southeast Asia also inform a new, outsize armless folding chair at Domain Home Fashions. Made in Indonesia, the chair has a forged-iron frame with a gentle incline for comfort. Tightly woven wicker, blackened to appear aged, covers the seat and back. A caveat: The chair, which costs $329, folds handily but is heavy. DOMAIN HOME FASHIONS, 938 Broadway (at 22d Street), New York 10010; It is not immediately obvious that a pair of armless side chairs at Salon Moderne in SoHo actually fold. The work of the Italian designer Marco Maran, each chair has an aluminum frame in shades of silver, bronze, red, blue or black. A decorative wood curlicue doubles as a backrest on the sculptural, open-back version ($340). A more formal model has a tightly slipcovered seat and back, in cotton or synthetic fabric ($360).SALON MODERNE, 281 Lafayette Street (near Prince Street), New York 10012; (212) 219-3439.With slat seat, simple frame and two-slat back, the ersatz Mission-style wood folding chairs at Metropolitan Design Center, near Union Square, are an inexpensive, if somewhat uncomfortable, alternative to metal chairs.