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Chairs are the part of a dining room you actually touch. They have to suit the table, fit the people who sit in them, and survive being dragged across a stone floor twice a day for thirty years. We make ours one set at a time, to order, in the pattern, timber, seat and finish you choose.
Most clients start with the table. If you have already chosen a dining table, tell us which one and we will show you the patterns usually specified with it.
The patterns we make
Windsor chairs — stick back and splat back, in small, medium and large seat sizes, with low and high back carvers and a child’s carver. Frames in ash.
Ladder back chairs — wavey line and ribbon back, single and carver, with a rush seat option.
Carver chairs — the armchair at the head of the table, in every pattern we offer: Cromwellian, panel back, Coach House carved top panel back, Caquetoire, Glendale, Chippendale-style, and the Oakamoor and Henbury stick backs.
Settles and benches — box settles, bench settles, long stools, joint stools and footstools, for the wall side of a long table and for halls.
We also make high and low back Cromwellian chairs, panel back singles and carvers, country and provincial Chippendale-style chairs, Barton, farmhouse upholstered, Gothic and rocking chairs. If you have seen a pattern in one of our collections and want it in another form, ask.
Seat options
The seat changes the character of a chair more than any other decision, and it changes the price. There are five.
Wooden seat. Solid timber, shaped and hollowed so it takes the sitter. Hard-wearing, and the traditional choice for Windsor and panel back chairs.
Rush seat. Hand-woven rush over the seat rails, as it has gone with ladder back chairs for centuries. Soft, quiet and visually much lighter than a solid seat.
Drop-in upholstered seat. A separate upholstered frame dropping into a rebate in the seat rails. The pad lifts out to be recovered without touching the frame.
Wrap-around drop-in seat. The same, but the covered pad wraps over the seat rails so the fabric shows on the outside faces. Softer in outline.
Fully upholstered. Seat and back both covered, with the show wood reduced to legs and arms. The option for a formal dining room, and the one usually specified for Cromwellian patterns.
You can supply your own material — most clients do — or we can supply leather. Send us the fabric, or tell us the colour and character of leather you want, and we will advise on the quantity before you buy anything.
Timbers
Oak, cherry, mahogany and walnut are the standard four, and every chair pattern is made in all of them. Ash is used for Windsor chair frames: it bends, it takes a shock, and a steam-bent ash bow is what makes a Windsor chair light enough to lift with one hand.
Specials, quoted on application: character oak; pippy oak in light, medium and heavy grades; oak selected for medullary ray; and clean timber with no knots at all — worth considering on a set, where you see the same detail eight times.
Finishes: polished, painted, limed, sand-blasted, rub-through paint, natural, or colour matched to a sample. We can match furniture that is 100 years old to new reproduction purchases made the year before.
Order free timber and finish samples before you commit to a set. Eight chairs is eight times the decision.
Made to your size
Chairs are made to fit people and tables, not to a fixed drawing. Seat height, width and depth, back height and arm height are all adjustable. A dining chair seat sits at about 18in to suit a 30in table, and a carver needs its arms to clear the underside of the table frieze or it will not pull in.
Common changes: seats widened; backs raised; arms shortened to clear a particular table; a child’s chair to match an adult set; a set extended years later to match chairs we made before. See bespoke and commissioning.
Prices
Quoted per chair, by pattern, timber, seat type and finish, with a carver priced separately from a single. Tell us the numbers, the seat and the finish and we will give you a guide price. Special timbers and finishes are priced on application. Standard lead time is typically ten to twelve weeks.
Frequently asked questions
Which seat should I choose?
Wooden for hard daily use and country patterns; rush for a lighter look on a ladder back; drop-in upholstered where you want comfort and the ability to recover it later; wrap-around for a softer outline; fully upholstered for a formal dining room.
Can I use my own fabric?
Yes, and most clients do. Send it to us, or tell us what you have in mind and we will confirm how much you need. We can also supply leather.
How many carvers should I have?
Traditionally one at each end of the table. Some clients have none, some four. The only real constraint is that the arms must clear the table frieze, so tell us the table and we will check.
Can you make more chairs to match a set I already have?
Usually, including sets we made years ago. Send photographs, dimensions and a sample of the finish if you can. See matching antique furniture.
