Like most ephemera associated with the bygone tobacco dens known as gentlemens’ clubs, the club chair has wrestled with its place in contemporary society. Is it a relic too outmoded to experience a revival? Or is it a piece that, with a bit of tweaking, can settle successfully into modern interiors? To help you decide, we’re delving into the history of this comfort throne and shining a light on the many ways designers are lifting its members-only connotations and giving it a new (all-inclusive) lease on life.
What is a Club Chair?
Few chairs, save the contentious recliner, take such an unabashedly hedonistic approach to relaxation. Featuring a sunken seat, low back, wide armrests, and sumptuously-stuffed silhouette, the club chair is a seat that greets the weary with the promise of repose. (Not to mention, its arms offer up the perfect place to perch a heady libation.) Upping the club chair’s luxury, in its heyday, club chairs were outfitted almost exclusively in leather.
What Era are Club Chairs?
Much like the cigar-laced clubs that once hosted them, the club chair’s origins are a bit hazy. Most believe that the club chair is a relatively neoteric invention, having cropped up in France in the early 20th century. Christened “fauteuil confortable,” which translates to “comfortable chair,” the club chair was immediately adopted by gentlemens’ clubs; dimly-lit and grandiosely-decorated dens that catered to men looking to clock a few hours away from the fam. Club chairs, plump and pillow-y, offered just the home-away-from-home experience that many were seeking.
How has the Club Chair Evolved?
Not all club chairs need club you over the head with their masculine energy, of course. Since its inception, the club chair has undergone an array of transformations. Including those which toned down the original club chair’s ample proportions.
As Art Deco architecture took hold in the 1920s, for instance, designers took a more rounded, streamlined approach to the form. Swedish designers, in particular, applied an automotive-like eye to the club chair. They rolled out examples that nixed the traditional squared-off arms in favor of swooping half-circle arms edged in lacquered-til-shining veneers. They also switched out leather upholstery for mohairs and velvets that better showed off fashion-forward details like channel-tufting.
When gentlemens’ clubs began shuttering to make room for less exclusionary venues, the club chair had its own coming-out party of sorts. Barreling out of basement-like lairs, the club chair took its place in public spaces like libraries and hotel lobbies. As hospitality floor plans became increasingly open, club chairs’ high sides and dropped seats offered a cellular refuge.
While some mid 20th century designers experimented with the club chair silhouette—Le Corbusier’s LC3 chair being a prolific example—most designs of the era skewed too sculptural to qualify as traditional club chairs. The 1980s, however, saw a redux of sizable silhouettes. The decade’s obsession with Art Deco also teed up the perfect climate for the club chair’s comeback.
Are Club Chairs Comfortable?
It’s worth noting that unlike lounge chairs—which tend to brandish more supine silhouettes that cradle the spine—club chairs have a stiff back. What they lack in back support, they make up for with their plushness. That said, the 90-degree angle can be a deal-breaker for some. One remedy, of course, is to opt for a recliner club chair. If you can get past the man cave connotations of one, you’re likely to be pleasantly surprised by the sleek silhouettes available these days. Barrel tub club chairs with sloped backrests are another option. Designers like Milo Baughman introduced the style in the 1960s and 70s. The trend then maintained traction throughout the 1980s with designers like Vladimir Kagan.
How Do You Use a Club Chair in Today’s Interiors?
Club chairs tend to flock together, which is all to say, you’ll often see them used in pairs. A duo of club chairs is an easy way to balance out a sofa. Especially in a square or rectangular room. A common question among DIY designers is, do my club chairs have to match? While they don’t have to match in theory, matching club chairs make it easier to pull off a cohesive-feeling room. Most often, club chairs are used in duos to provide ballast to a room. If one chair is upholstered in a textile that visually reads more lightweight than the other, it can disrupt that balance, making one side of the room feel heavier than the other.
Club chairs can also be stationed solo in a room. Annexed in a nook, a club chair offers the promise of uninterrupted seclusion—a discussion-free detox. While leather club chairs will always reign supreme, don’t hesitate to go out of the box with modified silhouettes. They can read more modern. Club chairs with open-air arms, bucket-style seats, or scalloped backs all project a lighter presence. Outfitted in a printed upholstery like a maritime stripe, cheeky Chinoiserie print, or tree of life textile, a club chair can take on an exhibitionist quality that makes it perfect for making a solo statement.
What is the Best Club Chair For Me?
Even more pertinent than deciding between an upholstered club chair or a leather club chair, is deciding on the right style. These days, club chairs come in a wide range of silhouettes. To help you decide what accent club chair is best for your project, here are four common styles. These designer-approved styles are all riffs on the classic club chair, but evoke the spirit of the original comfort throne.
Swivel Tub Club Chair
Glamour and club chairs don’t often feel synonymous, but they can be. Especially when it comes to swivel tub club chairs. In the 1960s and 70s, lounge-forward silhouettes became all the rage. Perhaps taking a cue from designs like Eero Aarnio’s Ball Chair, designers began to tailor the club chair for the counterculture era. They added swivel elements and began to experiment with the concept of a more cocooning back. A far cry from the blocky Art Deco-era chairs that gave club chairs their start, these swivel tub chairs were often outfitted in luxurious and colorful fabrics. They were, in a word, glamorous. Today, swivel club chairs are ideal for those who crave a powerful design element to wake up a room. They tend to skew retro, so they work best with interiors that have a throwback undercurrent. Pair them with Mid-Century Modernism, Postmodernism, or Hollywood Regency rooms.
English Roll Arm Club Chair
A design that pre-dates the club chair can’t technically be inspired by it. That said, the English roll arm does make a fine sub for a club chair. Especially if you’re looking for a less blocky club chair, consider an English roll arm. Characterized by a gently sloped back, low curved arms, and meticulously tailored upholstery, the English club chair adheres to the same comfort creed as the traditional club chair. Its catch is that it offers a lower barrier to entry. (Literally— those low arms make slipping in and out a breeze.) Decked out in a sprawling print, the English roll arm is the antithesis of the one-time tobacco throne. However, it would complement a moody, paneled den just as nicely.
Parsons Club Chair
During his partnership with furniture echelon Drexel Heritage, Mid-Century modernist Milo Baughman famously reimagined the club chair as a Parsons-style seat. Showcasing perpendicular open-side arms and legs, the Parsons chair is a sleek-lined take on the classic club chair. Its airy form makes it perfect for deploying in pairs. Milo Baughman’s Parsons club chairs for Drexel incorporated a rounded barrel back and ruching at the center of the back. However, stick to more classic Parsons silhouettes if you’re looking for a club chair to outfit in a dramatic fabric. Legend has it that when French designer Jean-Michel Frank challenged his students to make the table that ultimately became the Parsons table, he requested a table so basic it could be sheathed in any material on the market and maintain its stylistic wits.
Safari Club Chair
For his 1933 Safari chair, Danish Modernist and wayfarer Kaare Klint was inspired by the foldable campaign-style seats that he witnessed westerners toting with them on African safaris. Although the design was already antiquated by the time Klint happened upon it—campaign chairs had been utilized by British armies for decades—the designer felt the form was fit for a reinvention. Featuring a simple wood frame outfitted with panels of leather to create the chair’s back and seat and leather straps fashioned to function as the chair’s arms, the Safari chair packs all the masculine energy of a traditional leather club chair. That said, its pared-down form makes it endlessly accessible.
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Lead photo by Jessica Comingore
