Windsor Chairs: A Great Country Kitchen Look

Windsor chairs have long been popular as dining furniture. They evoke memories of times past and a simpler life. In the United States, Windsor chairs have been made and handcrafted for hundreds of years, illustrating their popularity and staying power.

Windsor chairs developed in England some time during the late 17th or early 18th century. No one is really sure who created and developed the Windsor chair, but by the 1720s, they had become quite popular in Southern England.

In the United States, the chair became known early as the Philadelphia chair. Over the next several decades, furniture makers across New England made improvements to the chair, including the continuous arm addition. The chairs began to sell in sets and individuals bought up the chairs to seat dinner party guests or large families.

These popular chairs had been designed in the very beginning from inexpensive materials. They were made for daily use as dining chairs and for the family to use at other times of the day. Although some chairs were made of woods like mahogany or walnut, they were more expensive and many people opted for less expensive chairs made of oak, birch, maple, hickory and ash.

Today, you can still find Windsor chairs that have been handcrafted or you can choose those that have been mass produced. The style is instantly familiar and the chairs make for comfortable and relaxed dining furniture. The benefits are much the same as they were several hundred years ago: the chairs are strong, light weight, and have a good proportion to them. They look good in many different spaces, although they make particularly good choices for casual or country dining sets.



Some people like to search for antique examples of these chairs and restore them to their original state. In many cases, those chairs chosen are often ones that were more expensive or had more detail to them. However, other examples of the antique chairs can still be found too and many people like the rough, used look that comes from the normal wear and tear that a chair might experience. A few repairs to the chair if needed make it useable again.

Windsor chairs have been a popular chair in the United States for hundreds of years. If you like the look or the historic aspect to the chairs, consider adding them to your kitchen or dining room. You'll love how comfortable they are and how great they look even with continued use.

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