Chairs to Dine For: How to Pick the Perfect Chairs for Your Dining Room

Featured item: Dining chairs

There’s more than one way to ruin a good meal.  Take your zany cousin Zelda’s advice to serve the soup chilled. Or just throw a tired toddler in the mix. Whatever you do, don’t let your dining room chairs be the reason everyone wants to leave the table before the dessert’s even out. You’ve got enough other things to worry about at dinner.

Choosing dining room chairs that tick all the boxes in terms of comfort, style and low maintenance can be a bit like trying to ace a five-course meal in the kitchen. But we’re here to simmer things down for you. Whether you have a growing family that needs some more room at the table, are looking to update your current dining room style, or eager to create your ideal ‘come dine with me’ experience from scratch, let’s help you pick the perfect chairs to dine for!

Featured item: Olivia Dining Chair

Put comfort first

Although aesthetics may come first on many people’s list when picturing the perfect dining suite, a comfortable dining setup should really be your top priority. Have you ever been at a great restaurant with amazing food, only to have your experience spoiled by a chair that felt like it was designed for invertebrates? And that’s just a once-off event. You’re going to be planting your tail bone on these seats up to three times a day. Don’t make the mistake of underrating the importance of comfort at the dining table. After all, the feeding ritual is the part of the day we all look forward to!  So, let’s move on to the all-important question…

Featured item: Dining Room Chairs

What makes a comfortable dining chair?

Well, it’s definitely part science, part trial and error. Let’s start with the ‘science’ part (basic math, really) which comes in with finding chairs that are a good fit for your diners, and your dining table.

Featured item: Shaw Dining Chair

• Seat height: A bit of a no-brainer, let’s be honest – no one wants to be sitting with scrunched shoulders or crushed knees. As a guideline, most people sit comfortably with about 30cm between the seat and the table surface. Fortunately, most dining tables are made to a standard height of 76cm, so unless your table is custom made or has a really wide apron, you’ll be safe going for chairs with a seat height of about 45cm, which is pretty standard too. Just remember that if you’re shopping for upholstered chairs, you might want to check the seat height when actually sitting on the chair, to factor in any major ‘sink in’ effect.

• Backrest height: Any dining chair worth its salt should have decent back support. You’re not after the latest in ergonomic office chair material, but make sure there’s at least 30-40cm of lumbar support to prevent your diners slouching all over their salads. Aside from this, the backrest should at least be slightly higher than the table – how high exactly comes down to personal style and preference.

• Chair width: A comfortable width for a dining chair should be no less than 40-45cm (and maybe a little more if your diners are on the heavier side). Of course, the width of your chairs and whether they have armrests will also need to be factored into how many seats you want to be able to fit around the table (more on this below).

• Chair depth: The depth of any chair is important for posture and circulation. Chairs that are too deep can be uncomfortable for shorter people, while ‘shallower’ chairs won’t do any harm for taller people. You might want to take your family chair shopping with you to test out the ergonomics, but a safe bet for chair depth is generally about 50-60cm.

Featured item: Lennon Dining Chair - Vanilla

• Chair material: A big part of choosing the chair material will be down to looks and practicality, but you definitely want to be thinking about its impact on comfort, too. If you’re one to host long, leisurely dinner parties, or if you’re a monopoly-marathon-after-dinner kind of family, you’ll probably want to opt for the cushy comfort of quality upholstered or cushioned chairs over, say, metal chairs or a wooden bench setup.  That said, there are many chair designs in wood, metal, wicker and high-grade plastics that will have you sitting happily for hours. The only sure way to know is to try some out in a store, or get some A-grade recommendations. 

Of course, comfort isn’t just about the individual chairs, but whether your diners feel like they have enough personal space. Which brings us to another crucial question…

How many chairs can you comfortably fit at your table?

This will obviously depend on the size and shape of your table, and the style and width of the chairs. It’s not an exact science, and you can probably always squeeze in an extra chair or two if needed, but if you want to ensure the most comfortable dining experience with plenty of elbow room, then you should allow for about 60cm between chairs. If you’re planning to buy a full dining suite, the table-chair math is already done for you (let’s hope!). But if you’re buying chairs separately, here’s a rough guide:

You might also want to read our guide on choosing the best chairs for a round table design.

Styling your dining

Getting your chair science all squared up is actually the easy part.  When it comes to choosing from hundreds, if not thousands of dining chair styles available to complete your dining suite, science goes out the window, and it becomes a lot more like cooking – sure, there’s some basic chemistry you need to get right, but it’s more about taste, instinct, and a bit of trial and error.

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• Upholstered dining chairs are a popular choice for modern and contemporary style homes, offering natural sophistication in a wide variety of colours, fabrics and designs. A velvet dining chair, for example, is a gorgeous choice for slightly more formal dining spaces.

Featured item: Voyager Dining Chair

• Wooden dining chairs have a more classic or traditional feel to them, but can be very versatile in blending with contemporary, rustic, vintage or eclectic décor, depending on the design. Of course, you also have the option of upholstered or cushioned wooden chairs, which ups the comfort as well as the level of formality and sophistication.
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Featured Range: Oslo Dining Chairs

• Metal dining chairs generally tend to lend a contemporary or urban feel, so they’re a great choice if you’re looking to modernise your space or go more minimalist.

Featured item: Landon Dining Chair

• Wicker dining chairs bring a relaxed chic look to contemporary spaces and are a perfect choice for a rustic, farmhouse, or beach house look.

Of course, any of these options can be pulled together in a quirky way if you’re looking to pull off the eclectic look. Creating the perfect décor ‘dish’ comes with practice, and there’s no reason you can’t experiment with mixing and matching styles – in fact, it’s one of the major trends around.

The golden rule, whether you’re going for a set of matching chairs, or a mix ‘n match approach, is to ensure there’s a common element. Whether it’s a featured colour, pattern, design element, material, finish, period or level of formality, you want to maintain a common thread that helps create chemistry between your chairs, your dining table, and the rest of your dining room decor. Particularly if you have an open-plan living and dining area that includes bar chairs, it’s a good idea to repeat a common element between your dining and bar chairs to create just the right amount of flow.

Maintenance

When you’re imagining your perfect dining chairs, buckets of soap-water and scrubbing brushes probably aren’t part of the picture. But if you’ve got some tiny diners graduating from their highchairs, maintenance quickly jumps up the priority list. Of course, plastic, metal and wood chairs offer easy cleaning.

Featured item: Christian Leather Dining Chair - Tan                             Featured item: Lennon Dining Room Chair - Tan

If you want a low maintenance upholstery option that will stand up to whatever your minions can throw at it, here are your best options:

• You can go for the easy-wipe, forgiving durability of leather.

Featured Range: Patio Dining Chairs

• You can opt for something that’s less visually and tactilely appealing but super practical, like vinyl, or an indoor-outdoor fabric.

• Or you can have the best of both worlds - choose any fabric you love, just make sure it comes with a high quality fabric protection treatment, like Masterguard.

Want to try out a great selection of comfortable, stylish and practical dining chairs in person? Head to a Cielo showroom and we’ll help you find the best option that ticks all your boxes. To get a taste of what we have to offer, view our wide range of dining chairs and dining suites online now.   

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