Seats for Wooden Chairs

When designing a wooden chair, there are lots of options for constructing the seat. Each must meet the structural demands of a chair, i.e. supporting the sitter, as well as accommodating wood as a material. Other considerations include comfort, weight, longevity, reparability, and aesthetics. Extant chairs from as far back as ancient Egypt showcase the variety of ways these problems have been solved.

One great resource for looking at lots of different types of chairs from different periods is museums. You can search the collections of museums like the Met or the Victoria & Albert online, and the information often includes details about materials, dimensions, designer, and construction.

Woven Seats

Woven seats are everywhere. A little bit of give and flexibility makes the chair more comfortable, and the woven material provides an opportunity for pattern, texture, and even color. The seat is typically composed of a wooden frame with the fiber wrapped around, nailed or stapled, tied to hooks, or woven through drilled holes. The seat frame may be integral to the chair, or a separate piece that drops in. Traditional options include natural fibers like cane (rattan or reed), rush, splint, sea grass, linen cord, and cotton tape.

Cane can be woven in a variety of patterns, or it can be purchased as a premade sheet and installed in a groove in the seat frame. Cotton tape was used by the Shakers to weave seats. Danish cord is twisted 3-ply paper, and it became an important material in the Danish Modern period of the 1940’s and 1950’s. More modern versions of woven seats include paracord, jute webbing, nylon webbing, seatbelts, leather strips, and more.

Flat reed tutorial
Artek's guide for using linen webbing

Hatnefer's Chair, Egyptian, ca. 1492–1473 B.C. Boxwood, cypress, ebony. Seat is original linen cord. Metropolital Museum of Art.

Folding armchair of carved red lacquer on wood, woven mat seat, 1500-1560, Ming dynasty, Chinese. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Walnut splat-back chair with rushed drop-in seat, English, 1725-40. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Rocking Chair. United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing (“Shakers”) American. 1820–50. Maple, birch, cotton tape. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Chair, model no. 14, designed and manufactured by Thonet Brothers, ca. 1859. Steam-bent, solid beechwood frame, laminated beech and caned seat. Victoria & Albert Museum.

The Chandigarh Chair Library chair, designed by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Eulie Chowdhury for the Palace of Justice in Chandigarh, India, early 1950s. Teak with natural cane seat. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Artek Alvar Aalto 611 Chair. Designed in 1929. Birch frame and linen webbing.

Ampleforth Chair, designed by Robert Thompson and made by his workshop, Kilburn, 1932. Oak, shaped with an adze and carved. The drop in seat is formed of woven leather strips. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Superleggera, designed by Gio Ponti, made by Cassina, Italian 1965. Ash with twill cane seat. Superleggera means 'beyond light,' and the chair weighs just 1.7kg. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Side chair. Jennie Alexander (John D. Alexander, Jr.) (American, 1930–2018) 1982. Hickory, oak, hickory inner bark. Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

Chair. Designed 1941-1942 by Jens Risom (American (born Denmark), 1916–2016). Made from 1942 to 1960 by Knoll, East Greenville, Pennsylvania (1938–present). The original webbing was made from army surplus nylon. Shown with vinyl webbing. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

'Berlage' chair, 2004 (designed and made). Oak with white strapped nylon upholstery, by Richard Hutten, Rotterdam, 2004. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Slab Seats

Solid slab seats are most often seen in staked furniture where the legs are mortised directly into the seat–like windsor chairs, stick chairs, brettstuhl, and Moravian chairs. This style of construction allows the seat to expand and contract with less risk of splitting or stressing the joinery.

Strozzi chair (Sgabello). Italian, Florence. Attributed to the Workshop of Giuliano da Maiano (1432–1490) and Benedetto da Maiano (1442–1497) ca. 1489–91. Walnut, maple, ebony; ebonized wood, and fruitwood; traces of gilding and red paint. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Sgabello chair, ca. 1580. Venice, Italy. Maker unknown. Walnut. This style of heavily carved chair dates from about 1550 until 1630. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Sgabello chair, probably 18th century. Swiss. Walnut. The Metropolitan Museum.

Board-Back Stool (Brettstuhl), 1750-1780, Artist/maker unknown, American, Pennsylvania German. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Three-legged chair of oak and ash, Dolgellau, early 1800s. Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.

Fan-back Windsor side chair, 1800–05. Pine, maple, ash. Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Museum of Fine Art Boston

Rocking chair. Sam Maloof (American, 1916–2009) 1975. Walnut. Museum of Fine Arts Boston.

Conoid Bench. George Nakashima (American, 1905-1990) 1977. Black walnut and hickory. Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Zephyr chair (one of a pair), 1979. Wendell Castle (American, 1932 – 2018). Laminated walnut. Museum of Fine Art Boston.

Bern Chandley's No. 14 chair combines traditional Windsor and Danish Modern aesthetics. Ash. 2000s.

A Pretty Small Chair, Aspen Golan. White oak, hard maple, eastern white pine, milk paint finish. Brass pins.

Frame-and-Panel, Slatted, or Boarded Seats

Slats or frame-and-panel construction are ways to make the seat out of solid wood while allowing for wood movement. Rather than the seat itself anchoring all the joinery, like a windsor chair, the seat frame is supported by the armature of the chair. In frame-and-panel construction, a solid wood panel floats inside grooves in a frame, so that it can expand and contract across its width without restraint. Slats or boards supported on rails or in a frame accommodate wood movement by using narrower pieces that won't move as much, and have gaps between them.

Turned chair, British, ca. 1600, ash. Triangular solid seat captured in grooves in rails. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Chair, English, about 1670, oak. An example of the lighter types of chairs which began to supercede the heavy panel-backed armchairs in the provinces from about 1650 onwards. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Chair, unknown maker, Chinese, 19th century. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

'Glastonbury' chair, 1839-1841, English, designed by A.W.N Pugin and made by George Myers for the Seminary at Oscott. Oak. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Rocking Chair. 1890–1910. Artist unknown (American, 19th–20th century). Ohio. Hickory and oak. Art Institute of Chicago.

Ash chair with straight legs and slatted seat, designed by Ronald Carter ca. 1985 and manufactured by Peter Miles Furniture Ltd, Winkworth. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Sling Seats

Sling seats can be made from leather, canvas, or some other sturdy fabric. These materials are sometimes used for lightweight, folding, outdoor, or traveling furniture. See Architectural Digest's roundup of safari chairs here.

Spanish armchair, 17th century. Walnut upholstered in leather. Isabella Stewart Garner Museum.

Tripolina chair, designed by Joseph B. Fenby. 1881. Wood and leather. Möbel Design Museum.

Royal Chair (Akonkromfi). Probably mid–/late 19th century. Asante, Ghana, Coastal West Africa. Wood, brass, and leather. Art Institute of Chicago.

Collapsible chair, made ca. 1918. British. Beech wood frame, leather straps, canvas seat and back. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Roorkee Chair. This is a modern example of a Victorian-era British form of chair. All joinery is unfixed so it can be dismantled for easy travel. Historical examples mostly have canvas seats and backs, but this one is leather.

Folding chair, ‘Safari’. Designed in 1932-1933 by Mogens Koch, made in 1960 by Interna Ltd, Copenhagen, Denmark. Beech; flax canvas seat and back; leather arms; brass rings, plate fittings. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Hunting lounge chair, designed by Børge Mogensen 1950. Denmark. Wood and leather. Möbel Design Museum.

Maiden Home Hayes chair. Beech frame with leather upholstery. 2000s.

Häti's Henrik stool. Oak and leather. 2020s.

Slip Seats

Slip seats are a simple way to combine the comfort and look of an upholstered seat with a wooden framed chair. The seat frame typically has rabbeted edges or corner blocks for the slip seat to rest on, and it is often screwed into place. Traditional slip seats have a wooden frame and then several layers including jute webbing, horse hair, batting, muslin, and maybe even springs. More modern ones may have a plywood base with layers of upholstery foam. See a tutorial here.

Corner chair. Attributed to Joseph Armitt (American, 1715–1747). 1740-47. Made in Philadelphia, PA. Walnut, yellow pine; leather (modern). The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Side chair. Philadelphia Chippendale pattern. American, 1760–75. Mahogany, Atlantic white cedar, yellow pine; upholstery (modern). The Metropolitan Museum.

High-backed oak chair, drop-in upholstered seat, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Britain, 1897-1900. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Side Chair, c. 1900. Possbibly designed by Eugène Gaillard. Paris, France. Mahogany and leather. Cleveland Museum of Art.

Dining Chair, from the Ward W. Willits House, Highland Park, Illinois. Designed c. 1903 by Frank Lloyd Wright (American, 1867–1959). Oak and leather. St. Louis Art Museum.

"Monroe" Side Chair, ca. 1983. Isozaki Arata (Japanese, born 1931). Birch wood, imitation black leather. Brooklyn Museum.

Plywoods and Laminated Seats

Leaving the world of solid woods and venturing into plywoods opens up a massive range of new opportunities. Plywood is much more dimensionally stable than solid wood, so seasonal movement is not a concern. Similarly, laminating thin veneer layers can create curved shapes that are thin, strong, and stable. Other, non-wood materials like plastics and metals have different movement considerations and allow for different design parameters.

Eames child's chair MFA Boston

Chair, manufactured by Gardner & Company, New York or New Jersey, after 1872. Moulded, 3-ply stained birch plywood seat and back, walnut frame, brass nails. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Chair. Designed 1945 by Charles Eames (American, 1907–1978) , and Ray Eames (American, 1912–1988). Made from 1947 to 1948 by Evans Products Company, Venice, California and Grand Haven, Michigan (Molded Plywood Division) , and made from 1949 by Herman Miller Furniture Company, Zeeland, Michigan (1923–present). Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Shell chair, designed 1948 by Hans Wegner (Danish, born 1914); manufactured 1950 by Fritz Hansens, Copenhagen, Denmark. Teak veneer over plywood (seat and back), beech (frame). Victoria & Albert Museum.

Chair, designed by Grete Jalk, manufactured by Poul Jeppesen, teak-faced 9-ply moulded plywood with steel bolts, Store Heddinge, Denmark, 1963. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Ply-chair with back designed by Jasper Morrison, 1990. Birch plywood, glue and screws. The only equipment used to make the chair was a jigsaw. Victoria & Albert Museum.

Chair from Tecta range, designed by Eric Lyons, 1945, manufactured by Packet Furniture Ltd., 1946. Laminated wood frame with seat and back of thermo-plastic in black gloss finish. Victoria & Albert Museum.

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