Chairs 101: How to Add Personality to Any Room

0:00You can't reason with the sun. Trust us. We've tried. This summer, it's time to put that angry ball of fire on mute. Columbia's OmniShade technology is engineered to protect you from the sun's harsh rays that can burn and damage your skin. The sun is relentless, but so is our gear. Level up your summer at Columbia.com to spend more time outside and less time slathering on aloe lotion. You're welcome. Columbia. Engineered for whatever. Hi, everyone. Welcome to Dear Alice. Today we're talking about our favorite topic, chairs. It's chairs. I love chair. Yeah, I love chair. Tell them why we love chairs so much.

0:40You could never have too many chairs, you guys. I will say it is the thing when we walk into most homes, people have a sofa. They don't always have great chairs. Rarely do they even have a collection of chairs. You need chairs. It is the character of the room. It is the brooch of the room. It is the shoes and the handbag of the room. If you don't have great chairs, you don't have great style. This is your moment to show your style and strut your stuff. If you have cool chairs, people are going to be like, wow, tell me more. Tell me everything. Yes. And I feel like it's the easiest fruit to grab because it's like sofas are expensive.

1:18Sectionals, crazy expensive. But a chair, you can pick up one. You have no excuses for not having a great chair. Yes. And chairs go everywhere. They do. And there's always room for them. I always find a spot when I find a chair. I guarantee it. Yeah. Yeah. I love a chair. I feel like we had a listener question that came in and they wanted to know, like, where do we get started? Right? Yeah. I think we answered it in the car for carpool Q &A on our Instagram. And we were like, we'll tell you where to get started. Start buying chairs. Yep. Because if you're renting, I think she was even renting.

1:51If you're renting, you're going to bring that with you. So you're investing something that isn't going to stay with the house. And you can get them secondhand, vintage stores. you can get some really interesting characters out there you can have it reupholstered in really fun patterns and fabrics these are your style points yeah I feel like when I started collecting I started collecting art which is good because some of the first pieces of art I got weren't always great and those have gone by the wayside but it got my you know started to wet my whistle yeah of like what I loved and the same thing with chairs chairs are like art to me yeah it can't have enough and they're really easy like you said to just start putting in your arsenal and they can wherever you go, whatever land you may wander, your chairs will go with you.

2:30So this entire episode is dedicated to chairs. And the importance of chairs and how they talk to each other. Yes, and we're going to be showing you some space plans so you can sort of see how we're tucking chairs in. And we'll be showing you some pictures of spaces we've done and also a video of a recently installed home that doesn't yet have photography yet. And you can just see the chair game that's happening and it's going to make you so excited to get your chair game going. if you don't currently have one. I love that. Yes. Well, shall we get started? Let's do it. Welcome to my family room.

3:01If you're watching this on Spotify or YouTube, you will see on the screen a picture of my family room. It is not, it's not huge, but man, does it pack a punch. I love chairs. In this room, I have a long sofa. It's about 110 inches, but then I have about, there's one you can't see in here. There's four chairs in this small little living room. Again, it's not a formula. You wouldn't necessarily plan this for a client because they're also individual because I got them at different times in my life but i love them all and they all found a home in this space this is just to kind of just like exemplify the importance of just small chairs this is a rad little african stool that's like carved out of one piece of wood that tom and i have had forever that kids love to sit in that's the fun thing about chairs too the variety of sizes there's a seat for everyone like your kids are comfortable my mom is so picky about her chair grandma yeah Yeah.

3:51Grandma, the older, I'm saying young, old, you know, they'll be really specific about how they want to sit in your space and how long they want to stay. But also if you have someone over, it's like just giving them a seat for themselves rather than having to sit down on a sofa where maybe someone might sit next to them. You know, there's that, I don't know, unspoken rule. Yeah. No, I think you bring up a great point. We've all talked about this is when you go into a space, people always, especially men, they try and find a chair to park themselves in. with walls. Give me on an island. Give me, you know, and so give people that opportunity.

4:22Don't only say like great style points for you as the homeowner, but it also just invites people to just come and identify where they're comfortable and where they want to get to know you better. There's been studies that show that people in a waiting room, if there's sofa or a love seat and multiple chairs, people are always going to go to the chair. I'm taking a chair every time. Because you don't want to be like, I don't know who's going to come sit on this sofa with me. Right. Also, people love having two places to put their elbows, right, their arms to be able to rest those. So they're just they're more comfortable than the sofa to most people in a social situation.

4:54Yes. Right. And so I think this room of Suze's is so fun because we have all these different characters at the party. The room looks great with nobody in it. It's just it's interesting enough. You know, and I just I think gone are the days of, you know, those RH catalogs where two sofas are facing off and they have the two task lamps. you know thank goodness it's like everything is twins in the room the pair of matching chairs yeah now eclectic is really in telling your story is really in and really getting in the mix having this more fashionable look is what's really really in and you're going to be able to start collecting chairs and give your room this vibe yeah you probably are missing the opportunity to have a couple more chairs in your room amen i'm guessing when we go into a lot of homes we'll see sofas sometimes not even side tables and usually there's like a big chair for him to sit in in front of the tv or maybe it's a his and hers chair yeah but we're usually missing a lot of occasional things right and i want to define occasional chair because maybe you've heard this word before but this is one of the favorites as far as interior design goes and that really brings style to it actually cory do you want to define it yeah it's a versatile lightweight and often stylish piece of seating designed to be used periodically rather than daily, usually for accommodating guests or filling awkward spaces.

6:15This is what's missing from every space is the occasional pieces, the occasional chairs. Most people, and I would dare say husbands, are going to argue, why would I get a chair like that? It's not even comfortable. Why would I get the African stool? Who's going to want to sit in that and watch TV? And you're like, that's not its job. Its job isn't to sit in all night, right? It's to just sit in occasionally just to accommodate a guest when they come over to eat a taco. We don't want him to stay all night. Exactly. Don't get him comfortable. Often it's something that you're looking at, even like when you're sitting watching TV.

6:45I'm like always admiring the little love note of chairs that I have or like on my way to get to the TV. I'm like, you're darling. Back to our previously viewed program. But yeah, you really do. It's something that you look at. And that's usually what I do tell the husband where it's just like, why is that sitting over there? And it's just to converse with your other pieces. we're having a conversation also it graduates height right it also gives the eye something soft to look at which i think is really lovely i remember hearing ross cassidy he was on one of the architectural digest instagram reels and he was at what's it called in texas when they all go round top round top arc digest was following around and saying what he wants and he was just like i love a chair in a bathroom it's so unexpected nobody expects to see one and this is an occasional piece right it's like a size of a dining chair kind of thing but it could be upholstered the little seat in something really interesting and it's unexpected in the powder bath right a chair guys there's room for chairs everywhere two flanking your entry console you just have two chairs there it gives your eye something to graduate the height because you come in from the floor seat heights 18 inches off the ground the console is now at 30 something inches off the ground so you're not just walking into the blunt end of a console you're walking in you're seeing the chair and then the console it's an invitation really it's an invitation to sit take off your shoes it softens the whole scene exactly yeah nobody needs to sit in that chair for eight hours its job is for you to enjoy looking at it and you know if you do like to entertain or you have these occasional chairs are so easy to pick up and move to i want to be proud i want to talk to this lady over here let's spill the tea it's easy to just grab that and after a party you'll notice how all these occasional chairs have shifted to you know and it's sometimes fun to just like study it after you've had a gathering and see where things landed with how people naturally like the heat map that actually was like happening during the party.

8:36Yeah. You'll see what happens with these occasional chairs and they will likely migrate. Yeah. Hopefully you have enough in your house that you could put up a folding table somewhere, invite the Thanksgiving guests over and put all your occasional chairs from different rooms and make another seating for eight. We're going to play bunco. Play bunco. Yeah. I'm going to say that's another reason to have occasional chairs is because no one's sliding over a recliner. You know what I mean? Yeah, that would be awkward. And please don't do that at my home. You shouldn't have to own folding chairs. You should have enough occasional chairs floating around in your house, making everything look softer, more interesting, more fashionable.

9:11And then you grab them all for when you have the family feasts. Don't have them sit on a folding chair. Grab those two flanking the entryway, grab that one out of the bathroom, grab the one next to the mirror in your bedroom. like there's room in every room for a chair yep and don't be worried that they don't all exactly match they will get along if you pick them out yes i will say that because your taste likes them all exactly yeah we're going to start going through some projects with you just to kind of show you both space planning and what were the heroes of the room the chairs that really made the room sing this first space plan is a home here in utah and you can see it's pretty large we have a really large sofa we have a couple of these big chairs club chairs again the people are going to be scene and he's going to sit here to watch the game.

9:53You have a couple of matching ones, but we had the opportunity. I'm like, we need a little perch chair. And so I showed her the wiggle chair from Frank Gary first. And she said, yes. So it was the first time I got to use the wiggle chair in a project. And I just remember when I saw it parked there, I'm like, that's what the perch chair is for. Again, if anyone sat in this wiggle chair, you know, it's not comfortable, but man, is it fun to look at. That is the occasional chair. Yeah. It's art. It's design. It's functional. Everybody needs chairs like that in their house. It brings style. And that it's facing into the rest of the furniture.

10:28I think, yeah, that's awesome. It's having a conversation. Yeah, to your point, you can see the different characters could come in and sit in this room. And that wiggle chair kind of completes the conversation circle. It totally does. It's not all about just sitting in that room and watching that TV. You know, it's that you could sit and talk. Yeah, and even if you look at the space plan, that is the footprint of the wiggle chair. It's not big. It's small. Like it really is looking at art and it's the most fun. So that was kind of the first example of showing you kind of how, you know, a family room might function.

10:58Everything's relatively comfortable, but you have to have some of these decorative pieces to make it interesting. Otherwise, it would just if you didn't have that there, it's pretty, but your eye would kind of go past it. You kind of want your eye to grab and hold on to something that's special and a memory point. And that's my memory point from that room. Love. Next, this is an office. This is one from our Lover's Lane project in Dallas. and we were able to do his office. And when we started to space plan this, we knew where he wanted his desk. We have a desk chair. We have like another chair that can pull up and have a conversation with them and it's on wheels so it can kind of move around.

11:29And then we ended up getting a couple pieces from First Dibs. First Dibs is such a fun landing spot when you are looking for just that one chair. They love a chair, a good chair. And so we found, we actually found this zebra covered, I can't remember if it was a Hans chair or something, but it had a chair and an ottoman and it was amazing. It was so good. And even like it's changed even from this floor plan and you'll see in the picture. We found another little chair on First Dibs that we parked over here. Again, just to prove the point that there's always room for more chairs. You can see not one thing in this room matches each other.

12:05Like all the chairs are individual. You have your task chair that he sits at his desk. You have this little swivel occasional chair that he's pulling up to talk to his friend. But all of these have, there's that little one kind of parked back here, this like wooden frame happening that's up against the drapes. If you're not watching this, tune in later so you can kind of see all these things. But it really does make the room so much more dynamic. So much more dynamic when you have these players. So, and I will say the difference too between materiality, I think you're going to want to have some interest there.

12:33But juxtaposes with the bright orange of the sofa, you have the zebra, you know, which is, again, it's just a really unique texture and the graphicness to that striping. And it becomes the hero in the room too. Totally. Even this little occasional chair, there's no other chairs that are like fully wood, but it speaks so nicely back to the built-ins, you know? So just that little bit of balance play and they all just sing so beautifully together. So even in your offices, and we're going to show you several different types of rooms. You know, it's not just the family room or living room. It's your bedroom.

13:02It's the office. It's just these like little one-off rooms. There's always room for a chair. This is also in Lover's Lane. I love the space planning of this one. you and I when we came and did the photo shoot I remember you noticed this is really great a great conversation yeah of different chairs happening really large room in fact you'd almost need two groupings of furniture for the space but they wanted to just do one big room they have a big family so a sectional and then we have two chairs cornered which we always love this in a space plan it's a fun little conversation I think if I were a guest in this house like with my husband or something we'd be like we want to sit there not on the sectional right yeah totally it just feels like it'd be so comfortable.

13:41It's a great vantage point. And then you've got these two one-off chairs that are really bringing personality to that elevation of the fireplace. And you get a look at these beautiful chairs and they add something soft to the fireplace elevation. It's part of the outfit. I think most people in this room, they'd probably just address the sectional and then the pair of chairs maybe in that corner. Maybe they'd get the corner chair, but we're often missing a lot on that elevation that you're staring at. I think we learned that trick from Thomas O 'Brien of let's put a little chair in front of the fireplace moment to complete the conversation circle.

14:13It's like a little something humble next to something grand. Yes. Like Tankersley, I think he was in the first of that. Having a little perched occasional chair next to something that really is the statement of the room. Yes. There's just a tension there that's so dynamic. Looking at this picture, architecturally, the frames on a chair are typically more interesting than a sofa or definitely a sectional would be. So I feel like you're getting that payoff as well. I love what you're saying because there's this moment where these corner chairs are fully upholstered all the way to the ground. There's swivel chairs, there's no legs.

14:42And so you do want those moments where the chair is really leggy, where you're seeing all of the bone work of the chair, all of the wood, and maybe there's very little upholstery on another piece. But you don't want all solid pieces to the ground. You want that, what Suze is saying, that tension of like heavy and lightweight. And it's art. You're balancing this different look. As soon as I get home from work, I do this thing that I heard an expert say, that you have to go in and you have to change your clothes so that it signals to your brain, I'm no longer working. I put my phone down, I charge it, and I go in my closet, and I slip on my brushed bamboo jogger set from Cozy Earth.

15:17It's a costume change. It is, and it changes something in my brain. They're soft enough to sleep in, but they're put together enough that if I have to answer the door, I'm not going to be embarrassed that I'm like in actual pajamas. Yeah. You know? Yeah. They are so soft. They're made from viscose from bamboo. They have this tapered fit with a relaxed waistband and just enough structure to feel intentional. I'm a huge fan. I just got them in the charcoal. I can't wait to see those. I do a little thing where I don't necessarily have time to change my whole outfit, but boy, do I take off my heels or my boots or whatever I'm wearing.

15:49And the first thing I reach for is the lake house clogs. I love these things because they're slip-on, which is an absolute must when you're running in and out of the house, grabbing boys, getting the mail. I can wear these anywhere. I can wear them around the house and they're so soft. It has a cushioned footbed, a soft interior, And again, they're easy to slip on, which is everything. I forget that I'm wearing them when I'm in the house, but when the doorbell rings, I can quickly go grab it or go to the grocery store. And I still always look put together and uncomfortable. I love the Lake House clog.

16:19I do too. I think they're really good looking and I think they look really cute under a pair of jeans. Nobody's going to think that you're wearing a slipper out because it's a clog. Exactly, exactly. But they don't know that I'm actually wearing slippers because they feel so comfortable. Agreed. I feel like I need them in every color now that I have them. Me too. They're so good. Why Cozy Earth stands out to me is it's the details. The fit, the fabric, the way these pieces are made to last. This isn't fast fashion for the house. It's something you'll actually be reaching for years from now. This spring, give yourself the kind of comfort that lives with you all day, not just the moment you get home.

16:54Head to CozyEarth.com, use our code DearAlice for an exclusive 20 % off. That's code DearAlice for an exclusive 20 % off. And if you get a post-purchase survey, mention that you heard about Cozy Earth right here. On this next one, this is from our Capitol Heights, the Prize Red Library. Yes, Capitol Heights, this is in the Washington DC area. This is a library that we did. The husband really, really loved this room and had a lot to say when we were working with him. But there's this moment where you're looking and your vantage point can see two chairs. You see a club chair and then you see this perch chair in front of the fireplace.

17:33And I have to say, I feel like the perch chair is the moment. It's not even necessarily like that you're going to sit in this a lot of the time, but what it looks like absolutely brings and elevates everything to the party. It changed the room when we brought everything. It kind of did what the zebra did in the office. It's just that little piece of graphicness that every room needs. If everything is solid, you've missed the mark. You need something. You need really detailed woodwork. You need gold leafing. You need zebra. You need something to really dress it up and decorate the space. That is what the chair does.

18:03This first big chair, he's like, I want somewhere to sit and read. There's a little bar back here. This is where he invites clients, friends after dinner, drinks, things like that. This is his club chair. You have the beautiful sofa. Again, one person's actually going to probably sit in that and be comfortable. Likely, right? But then yeah, that little perch chair by the fireplace is everything. We've celebrated this one for a second bike. Just, I can't celebrate it enough. Yeah. I just love her. Yeah. It's so good. But again, all individual, nothing here is from a set. Nothing here is matching identically.

18:32And that's what makes it so fantastic. These other ones are just examples, you know, floor plans for these, but you can kind of see the conversation that's happening between all the different chairs. We thought were all great examples. And actually, we went through each portfolio project. We employ this rule every single time. That's one of the key things from our firm that we just love. We love to employ. This first one is from our Highland Manor project. This was really fun because even for the photo shoot, we pulled in this chair from here and pulled in this chair from here. And we kind of grabbed some existing pieces and we're like, oh, this looks so great together.

19:03To your point of just when you're having a party or you just want to freshen things up. With occasional chairs, you can do that really, really easily. And take this chair and put it in this room. Take that chair and put it in this room. Totally get new fun looks as you live in your house, you know. And like chapter to chapter, it might change and that's okay. Or dressing it for the occasion. Exactly. Making room for the Christmas tree. So I'm going to pull all these out and I'm going to put them in this room. And oh, my gosh, they look so good. Yeah. You're going to miss them when you take the Christmas tree down and, you know, bring it.

19:29Yes. You absolutely will. But anyway, we have two matching sofas, but all these chairs are different personalities in Highland Manor. This next one is House of Kennedy. And again, small, like this is probably like the size of my living room. You know, it's small, but it has so much attitude because of the different chairs and the graphic nature of the hide and things happening. But to your point, just a sofa and two occasional chairs. Like they're not even club chairs or anything. That is what the conversation is in there. And I just love it. And chairs don't have to take up a lot of visual weight.

20:00You can see here the most forward facing chair in the room. You can see through the back of it, that black leather chair, right? So your eye moves through it. It's up on legs. It's not taking up a lot of visual weight. I think that's why you can pack so many chairs or occasional chairs in a room. If you have chairs that sit really solid to the floor, you can't see through. you feel like you have to start to pay attention to those rules of like only 18 inches from the cocktail table can the front of the chair like you really have to consider those but you can start breaking rules with some of these lightweight pieces they give it all that style yeah and you'll notice in all these they're at an angle yeah some of them are pointed straight just for organization but you always have at least one of them thrown off a little bit just so you can kind of see the side and the back you know depending on where you're coming from in the house visually i feel like it makes the room feel more comfortable.

20:47It's like it's loosened up. It's not so 90 degree hard lines, kind of like we were talking about the RH catalog. Everything's like twins and on hard angles, right? When you can have these like softer, lightweight pieces thrown in on angles, the room just feels softer and easier to approach. You could just wiggle past it and then go sit on that thing. And it's like a conversation is happening even when the room's empty. It feels more realistic too. Yeah. That's like how you would live in your home. warmer yeah yeah you'll look like a space planning genius when we go to market yeah that is one of the things that i'm always just i want to take you know just key memory points of just the space planning from the good ones they're always memorable so you make your house memorable the chair will do that yes and this next one okay this is the most darling client here in utah and we want to give her a his and her chair one for her husband one for her and we wanted the chairs to not so this is that corner trick that we talked about in lover's lane but this is the opportunity We did that corner trick in the space planning, but we knew that they needed to be different because we only had so much room.

21:47We had a sectional and we had these chairs. We wanted them to be interesting. So this darling little tufted one facing us is her chair. And it feels like her when I think of the client. And this other one with a really great arm and that great side profile is his. Now, these are more comfortable chairs, not just an occasional chair, but just the fact that whatever chairs you have, make sure the design details are there and that you like to look at them and they feel like you. Yeah. I just love this trick. and they have a shared ottoman it goes with his but she can put her feet up on there i think that's relationship strengthening yeah absolutely everyone feels seen here relationship strengthening ladies and gentlemen yeah save your marriage because of hers save your marriage by chairs that go well together subscribe here this is a in a bedroom there's not a ton of room for a sitting area but there was room to put a chaise in there a little pull-up table and then the occasional chair which we love you can see the footprint on this occasional chair is so teeny tiny it's like a bow tie of a thing.

22:41It just absolutely brought style. This is like the stilettos in the room. I definitely think people are going to be tempted to want to just go perch on that thing, but you can just see it's just there for the eye more than anything. It's all atop of sheepskin and just gives your eyes something soft to look at from bed. I love this shot. I just love it. It's so powerful what a little tiny chair can do. And you'd be missing out if you didn't have that. Yeah, there's something I remember when we got these shots, there's something about the lengthening of that with a stem of that flower on that they just bring such pretty lines to a space right they do we're going to take you to odessa this is our desert oaks project which we haven't professionally shot yet but we did do like the big first install and so we want to share with you some of our tricks from this one this is her entry and i we call it the entry parlor you are welcomed right here on the space plan by this long on a dining table really with some really great stools.

23:36And then you have this really long, what people would probably use as their living room. I'm going to call it a parlor because we're fancy, but we had to give you a couple different space plans. One thing as we were developing this and getting to know the client, not one of these chairs match, not a one. Some are more comfortable than others that her husband will find himself sitting in, but they all have style points, which I think is the magic of it. And when you show them this video, it just looks like fashion. It is so, so great. And if they did match, I think that the dial would have turned way down on this.

24:07It'd be way less interesting. And this is supposed to feel like architecturally this. And again, we have our YouTube series where you can actually go get a deep dive into this home. But this part of the house was supposed to feel like it was already always there. Everything else felt like an add-on or an offshoot over the years and decades. But this needed to feel like a collection. So the furniture had to kind of tell that story of old versus new and what that journey looks like. This space planning of this, I'm going to, as a fan, is genius. High five, right? So good. Seriously. So like Sue said, if you're not watching right now, go back and watch it.

24:41This is awesome. The day bedroom divider. This is really two groupings of furniture, but looking down on it like that, it almost, it feels so cohesive. Do you know what? It reads like a collector, right? Yeah. It doesn't read like they got new furniture all on one day, even though we designed it to look this way. And I think that's the look that we want today. Just show them some pictures. Okay. We've made them wait long enough. I know. i just want to say everything nothing symmetrical either you can tell with the architecture this wall this fireplace was originally centered here but then we made pass-throughs to all the add-ons so anyway not even the fireplace is centered on the grouping which is so rad here are some of the chairs this one is my if you ask me my favorite piece in the whole house which is a large home it's this little guy i feel like it was like this little gustavian this swivels actually oh crazy just so cute with this like old cane back that's falling apart with this real zebra cushion that just lived on real zebra armpats really wrong pads i love this piece it is the smallest piece a movement okay occasional chair is yeah that's breaking my brain right now right yeah i know let's develop that so this piece it was the smallest footprint but it was my favorite piece and it like did not disappoint when install day came it was the most anticipated one but you can see there's other club chairs and now we're going to show you a video how you enter into this entry and then go through the parlor which is really fun too i know that they're not a chair but even your ottomans and stools say you don't feel like you have enough room tuck ottomans that could be your accent chair that could be those occasional pieces an occasional ottoman you're just going to tuck those and get so many points and someone will pull those out when you know they want to join a conversation or whatever so it's there for that as well exactly you can see there's four chairs in that space.

26:25None of them match. All of them are different colors. They all bring something, whether it be a silhouette or height in some spaces. They're all doing a different job, depending on the location of the chair. And an element of like a different material as well. Yes. Yes. Which really gives it that outfit feeling. The last space we're going to share with you is called the Man Cave. This offshoot of their house where they're going to be throwing parties. This is like a space for him to go. Their office overlooks this space, looks down on it like a great Gatsby a little bit, which is so cool. Space planning wise, it was a little bit tricky because you didn't have room for a console behind this sofa.