I’m sure you’ve seen this everywhere by now. Mismatched dining chairs – on purpose! |  |
It’s all the rage and a great way to express yourself creatively in your home. I’m so OVER the matched set – boring. When you have to find a set of matching 6-8 chairs, that’s obviously going to limit your options, right?
Not only are mismatched chairs more interesting, they are more economical! Think about it – you can find bargain chairs in pairs or individually, rather than spending a small fortune on the matching sets. You can also suit the needs of your guests – kids love sitting on a bench, and wouldn’t the guest of honor like to sit in a comfy, upholstered wing back chair rather than an upright wooden one? For years I used an antique sofa on one side of my dining table. Now I need it in another room, but I love to cluster my favorite mismatched chairs and maybe a wooden bench for variety’s sake. Here’s a couple of examples from my home:
Now, there’s lots of ways you can make this work. One is to choose one color and paint a variety of chairs in the same color or woodstain. Below are a couple of examples:
You could do the same chair all around, but in different colors like the next two photographs.
You can do 4 or 6 of the same chairs. Then choose a pair of upholstered chairs for the ends of the table. Or, you can choose just 2 kinds of chairs and distribute them evenly. Or, you can choose whatever your heart desires and just go for it!
Richard Gere’s home is currently on the market. And here’s his dining room, featuring his mismatched dining chairs!
You might like Sarah Jessica Parker’s take on the mismatched dining chairs. Or her interior designer’s take on them.
Hey, if they can do it, you can do it!
Photo Credits: Woman’s Day, Flickr, Kristie Barnett (3 and 4), WhiteandWander, Ohdeedoh (5 and 7), Kitchenisms, Country Living, CelebrityDigs, Apartment Therapy.
I feel like you are the queen on this subject. you gave me inspiration to think outside of the box when i saw your dining room on AT. I had never considered upholstered side chairs at the table before! Now, Im currently on the look out for perfect ones for my dining room. Because I admire your risk taking in decorating! It feeds my soul!!
I’m not liking Richard Gere’s, but Sarah Jessica Parker’s is fun (I’m always drawn to black). Are those actually hot pink books on her shelves? Or just book covers? I like that shot of color against the white shelves. Wonder if I could do that with some beautiful peacock-blue art paper?
Thank you for your kind words, Heather! I’ve always wanted to be the queen of something! 🙂
I agree with you, Michelle. Richard’s dining room is pretty boring, actually. I would LOVE to find some hot pink books to punch up my bookcases and other random stacks of books. I have about 4 now – it’s not an easy color to find (unless you cover them, like you said). But yard sale season is right around the corner!
Where are those last chairs from? I love the look of patterned chairs in a dining room.
ehalvey: are you referring to the chairs in the second picture? i don’t know who makes those, but i love them, too! if you like that look, you might like the look of the patterned stackable chairs i found here
http://www.chictip.com/furniture/palau-chair-a-stackable-chair-that%E2%80%99s-pretty
Awesome! Thanks!
I hold a magnificent translucent glass dining table which has black metal table-legs and i want to shop a handful of fantastic chairs, on the grounds that my nice old dining chairs are unquestionably definitely destroyed. I decide on blue coloured leather chairs, just because i realize this chairs generally looking perfect with my forsted glass table. So do somebody identified some web-site at which i can easily look for cost-effective leather dining chairs?
Do you happen to know what color they used on the teal chairs with the dark table? I’d love to find out!