winging its way back

Used to be that wing chairs, like chintz were the icons of stuffy homes from days gone by. These chairs are a dime a dozen at tag sales and on Craigslist. But have you ever sat in one? The whole point of a wing chair is to cradle sitter. They are perfect for reading and dozing, they are designed to be comfortable! 

Functionality aside though, wing chairs DO take up a lot of visual space in a room. That and our associations with stuffiness can make them a challenge to use. Three designers during the past few years have used wing chairs (in three really different ways) and slowly I find myself considering one for my own living room.

Darryl Carter has long used wing backs in his quiet interiors and the chair features prominently in his book The New Traditional (which happens to be one of my design favorites). Of the wing chair, Carter says they can "define an entire room." And he uses them masterfully in his spare and pared down interiors. The chairs add visual weight to the room, but he keeps them from overwhelming the room by recovering them in pale linen or leather. So smart! Carter even included a wing chair in his now sold-out collection for Thomasville a few years ago. 

apologies, source unknown

Photographed by Simon Upton for Elle Decor 

Carter's design for Thomasville

While Carter has been using wing chairs in a restrained way, Tommy Smythe did the exact opposite in his living room in 2009 by using two smaller chairs as exclamation points. Smythe's living room caused a minor sensation on the blogosphere when it was featured in Canadian House & Home. Admitedely every element in this room —from the french giltwood mirror to the gallery wall and Hermes/Brit accessories— is on trend, but to me the vintage wing chairs recovered in Brunschwig & Fils Les Touches is the rebirth of the classic. Tommy made a bold statement and he nailed it!

Photographed by Michael Graydon for House & Home, December 2009

My personal favorite though is beautiful Georgian wing chair that Kim Fiscus used in her own home. The patinaed brown leather with the nailhead trim looks so luxurious and comfortable. The chair is at once an exclamation point but it also harmonizes with everything else in the room. 

Photographed by Reed Davis for House Beautiful, June 2008

Here is another shot of the wing chair, as it appeared in San Francisco magazine a year earlier. Interestingly the chair is one of the only pieces that made it to the HB shoot. I much prefer the way the room was styled for SF Magazine. The room is much less fussy and those viburniums are the perfect punch of color.

 Photographed by David Duncan Livingston by for San Francisco Magazine, August 2007

As I mentioned before, wing chairs are a dime a dozen. I'm starting to think that a leather or faux leather wing chair could be the perfect solution for a difficult corner of my living room and a safe place to send young sticky fingers to sit on. Sounds like its time to go hunting!