Calligaris Dining Chairs

Choosing a dining chair is personal. The chair needs to suit the people using it, how long they spend around the table and the table it will sit with. Calligaris began as a chair manufacturer and chairs remain an important part of the collection, with a broad choice of designs, frame finishes and upholstery.

Try a dining chair as you will actually use it

Do not test a dining chair in the same way as an armchair. Sit upright, move forward as though you were eating with a knife and fork and consider how the back supports you in that position. If your household regularly spends an evening talking around the dining table, you may prefer a chair with more support, arms or a back that wraps further around you.

Comfort is subjective, so there is no single construction or level of cushioning that will suit everybody. Trying several chairs alongside one another is more useful than assuming a particular specification will automatically be more comfortable.

A comfortable chair still needs to work with the table

Try the chair at the table you intend to use. Seat cushioning compresses once you sit down, while the table frame or an extending mechanism can take up space beneath the top. Together these determine the actual clearance around your legs much more reliably than looking at the chair and table measurements separately.

The table base matters too. Four legs can restrict some seating positions, while a pedestal may give greater freedom around the edge. Thinking about the chairs and table together also gives you a more realistic idea of how many people will sit comfortably.

Use the choice of finishes rather than being restricted by it

Calligaris dining chairs are available with a broad selection of upholstery and frame finishes, with many designs offering choices such as different leg materials or leather upholstery. Choosing a Calligaris chair with a Calligaris table can make exact finish matching easier, particularly where you want metal leg colours to correspond.

Your chairs do not have to be the same brand as your table

Matching finishes can be useful, but it should not come at the expense of comfort or suitability. We have hundreds of dining chairs to compare at our Ash Vale showroom, so we can move different chairs to the table you are considering and see how the combination actually works.

If you are choosing seating for a kitchen counter or breakfast bar instead, our Calligaris bar stools page covers the different height, swivel and footrest considerations.