1. The first kitchen chairs were nothing more than stools and benches. Woodworkers added backs (some with decorative carvings), and fancy carved legs with details that marked their specific eras. Today's wood kitchen chairs duplicate those traditional styles, while modern kitchen chair designs use metal, upholstery, wicker, painted wood, or mixed medias.
2. The perfect kitchen chair might not be the one that is showcased with the kitchen table of your dreams. There's a lot of mixing and matching going on: wood with leather, rattan with cushions, and upholstered dining chairs are being paired with solid wood or metal and glass kitchen tables.
3. If you're going for the traditional look in kitchen chairs, choose light wood grains with scrolled legwork; for more formal kitchen chairs, select dark wood. Kitchen chairs take a lot of abuse, so check for quality construction that will serve you well for years to come.
4. Showrooms usually exhibit dinette and kitchen sets with 2, 4, and sometimes 6 chairs, depending on the table size. Additional chairs are available so you can pull up another chair any time company drops by.
5. Remember the 1950s, poodle skirts, bobby socks, juke boxes, and the local soda shop? Shiny metal-framed chairs with red and orange vinyl cushions can recapture that retro look in comfortable kitchen chairs just like the ones America fell in love with more than a half century ago.
6. Add comfortable stools to your kitchen island, turning it into a mini office space, a roomy space to spread out your latest scrap booking project, or a place where the kids can study.
7. The next time you run across a single exquisite hand-painted chair that is as much a work of art as it is a piece of furniture, think outside of the box, and make the purchase. One-of-a-kind kitchen chairs can be used to accent your existing kitchen or dinette set and pull together your color scheme.
8. Finding the right kitchen chairs to go with an existing table can be a difficult match. Don't settle for an approximate match when you can turn the tables and add kitchen chairs that are a complete contrast - everyone will marvel at your design skills.
9. Hardwoods are open grained, meaning that the wood will expand and contract according to temperatures and humidity, and in severe conditions, the wood can crack or warp. To keep the wood grain of your kitchen chairs from splitting, keep the humidity in the house at 35-40% and condition with a wipe-on, wipe-off furniture treatment that cleans, preserves, and protects the wood.
10. When you select hardwood kitchen chairs, you are investing in chairs that will last for decades and will age gracefully. The beauty of fine hardwood furniture is that wood characteristics vary, and each chair has unique qualities that define the beauty.
