Wooden Chair Buying Guide: Types, Seat Heights, Woods and What to Check

A wooden chair is judged by one number first: seat height. 18 inches (45 cm) for a dining or study table of 30 inches; 16 to 17 for an armchair you sink into; 14 for a child’s table. Everything else, the wood, the back, the cushion, comes after the height is right.

Types of wooden chair and what each needs

Type	Seat height	Seat width	Back height above seat	Used for
Dining chair	18 in	17 to 19 in	18 to 20 in	Meals, 1 hour at a time
Study chair	17 to 19 in	18 in	16 in or more	Desk work, 2 hours at a time
Armchair / easy chair	15 to 17 in	22 to 26 in	24 in or more	Reading, television
Rocking chair	16 in	20 to 24 in	28 in or more	Balcony, nursing
Folding chair	17 to 18 in	16 in	16 in	Guests, stored flat

Woods

• Sheesham: the common solid wood for chairs in India, heavy (6 to 9 kg a dining chair), hard, takes stain.
• Teak: lighter than sheesham, the best for a balcony or a damp room, dearer.
• Mango and acacia: cheaper solid woods, a little softer; fine indoors.
• Rubber wood: light, pale, inexpensive, needs to be kept dry.
• Engineered wood: for a chair, avoid it in the frame; joints in particle board loosen under a moving load. Veneered seats on a solid frame are fine.

What to check in the listing

• Weight rating, stated. 100 kg is the floor for an adult chair.
• Joints: mortise and tenon, or bolted; a chair held by screws into end grain wobbles within a year.
• Weight of the chair: a solid sheesham dining chair is 6 to 9 kg. At 3 kg it is not solid.
• Seat: solid wood, cane, or a cushion that unscrews for re-covering.
• Floor protection: felt pads or the chair scratches a tiled floor on day one.

Wooden chairs on Amazon India, highest scores

Dining sets with chairs included

Matching a chair to a study table.