5 Best Velvet Dining Chairs

This is the rather fabulous new dining room belonging to a friend of mine. The work has just finished and they moved back in a few weeks ago. I wish I had come up with this fabulous green for the walls but she found that on her own. It’s Tarrytown Green by Benjamin Moore if you’re interested.

However, she did ask me to help out with sourcing other things for this room and the rest of the house, and I am delighted with the glass lights which came from Rothschild and Bickers. I sent her off to visit the showroom and see how the glass is blown and they came up with this fabulous chandelier together. It’s hard to see the clear one in this picture so you’ll just have to trust me that it’s gorgeous.

Anyway, we’re not here to talk about chandeliers today but chairs. The conversation went something like this:

Her: “So I’m going to need a new dining table and new chairs as well. I think eight, but maybe a couple more to have as spares.”

Me: “Ok. What sort of thing do you like because you’re not having anything like what you’ve currently got.” (see picture above)

Her: “I’ve seen these fabulous velvet chairs. In green. Begins with a G. I love them. I want ten. Where is the shop?”

Me: “I think you mean the Gubi Beetle, Darling, we all want those. They are about £800 each. Ten did you say?”

Sound of smashing china…

Her, slightly squeaky voice: “I mean, they’re not that nice. …..”

And that is how we come to this blog post. At the moment, she is rummaging down the back of the (old) sofas see if they can have any chairs, never mind a new table and all the other things that are required to finish her renovation. But I was scouting through the new collections at Westelm and I found some that put me in mind of the Beetle so I thought a little round up might be in order.

Don’t get me wrong. The Gubi Beetles are THAT nice. But they are also THAT expensive.

And so we must leave them there. Because I’ll tell you this too – it might be all the rage to mismatch your chairs but if you have only one of these it WILL look like you couldn’t afford the rest and not like you were trying to be artfully eclectic. Better off getting rid of your friends and shelling out for two so that you and your partner can eat together in splendid isolation. It would be splendid though. And if I’ve massively underestimated the hedgefund readers of this blog then you can buy them here  where they are currently on sale for, ooh, £729.

So the first thing you have to come to terms with is that there will be differences. But these, from westelm, have an elegant turn of leg and they cost £249. They also come in a soft grey and the legs, which you can’t see so well here, are metal with a bronze finish.

Or this with a wooden leg but slightly more curved than the one above. This one is £94.49. I think it’s rather a good shape although I haven’t sat in it and have no idea of the quality. It does, however, come in this burgundy, gold, peacock and grey.

Now I have to say that colourwise and shapewise these Margot chairs from made.com are doing it for me. They’re £229 a pair and the dark wooden legs work well with the velvet. They also come in midnight grey, aka charcoal, if you’re not ready for green yet.

Finally the Ace by Normann Copenhagen comes in this lovely teal as well as navy, burgundy, dark grey and beige (No to this last. Unless your table is black, in which case it might look really cool). I feel that this one has slightly inelegant legs although I like that they match the seat. This comes in at  a shade under £400 a chair. So half the Gubi and four times the made and maison.

Any of these take your fancy? Or are you downsizing the house to afford a couple of Gubis? I’ll keep you posted with my friend’s plan. She claims to be having a rest from renovating. I think she’s saving. And plotting…