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Mission Style Chairs
Buy the best mission style chairs selected and recommended by interior designers. By Chloe Hughes.
The right mission style chair will bring even more elegance to your living room. Famous for its horizontal and vertical lines, this decor involves plenty of wood and leather. So, you have a huge variety of designs and combinations to play with! Because mission interiors are also known for their standalone pieces, your new chair could easily be a unique accent item. Choose among this varied range of both traditional and more versatile designs.
Mission Style Chairs
Buying Guide
Chloe Hughes
Interior Design Expert
Chloe is a highly-regarded expert in all things vintage and antique. She’s excited to share her vast knowledge with readers and clients wishing to infuse their homes with a mixture of old-time warmth and modern comfort. In addition to her design work, Chloe regularly volunteers at her local community center, teaching DIY projects to adults and kids.
With its clean lines, everlasting mortise and tenon joinery, the infallible quarter-sawn white oak construction and the brilliant rayed and flecked finish, Mission styled arm chairs are timeless. And they are experiencing a renaissance now courtesy intrepid interior designers who are willing to bend the rules a little.
Be it the kitchen, the game room or the living room, mission styled chairs fit right in. They are comfortable, roomy and as elegant as they come. Perfect for cuddling up with a book or binge watching your favorite shows. With the nearly indestructible construction, they work equally well in busy households and high traffic settings.
But do you buy an authentic, vintage mission styled arm chair from an arts and crafts furniture dealer at a premium price? Or do you settle for an affordable reproduction instead? Let’s find out.
If you are looking for an heirloom that you can pass on to the next generation, buy an antique mission styled chair by all means. It will be completely worth the extra buck that you pay for it, especially if it’s an artisan-made, custom piece and not a mass-produced one.
But if you are looking for something that can be used every day at home, but doesn’t compromise on the aesthetics, then a modern reproduction will work just fine. Many craftsmen these days create their own interpretations of classic furniture pieces inspired by the likes of William Morris, Gustav Stickley Frank Lloyd Wright. Everything from the design to the upholstery to the leather and even the patina is recreated with stunning accuracy for a fraction of what an original would cost.
Mission styled chairs are all about the simplicity and the lack of embellishments. So pay close attention to the details when you select one.
- As we briefly mentioned, authentic mission styled arm chairs feature mortise and tenon joinery. Glue and nails are avoided as much as possible.
- The prominent pieces of the chair are made from quarter sawn white oak which makes these less likely to warp or crack. That’s the reason why many of these chairs are still going strong even after hundred years or so.
- Cheaper pieces were constructed from red oak and the wood was rarely quarter sawn.
- One of the easiest ways to spot quarter sawn wood is to look for the light flecks and rays on it. The grains should be tight.
- Most furniture pieces from the Arts and Crafts period, including Mission styled chairs featured the somewhat mundane, Marlborough legs. But therein lies the appeal.
- Decorative elements if any, were quaint, like the through tenon or an occasional spline or a peg.
Mission styled arm chairs typically feature dark leather upholstery. But these generally go well with classic décor themes. What if you have a contemporary modern home with minimalistic furniture? There’s always room for experimenting with colors.
- If it’s a reproduction or a custom-made chair, you can match the color of the leather with an existing furniture piece in the room, like the sofa.
- You can also consider reupholstering the chair with a fabric that matches the rest of the décor.
- Stick to simple solid fabrics though as overly decorative fabrics contradict the very simplicity that the furniture pieces are known for.
An authentic, vintage mission styled chair will easily hold its own in any décor style.
From simple wingback chairs to reclining Morris chairs, there are many distinct styles of chairs manufactured during the arts and crafts period. Make your selection based on the functionality and the availability of space.
Looking for a replacement for a lounge chair? Go for a reclining Morris styled chair.
A club chair with upholstered arms and lush cushioning, on the other hand, will be a great replacement for those accent chairs or in a gaming room.