Besides the obvious perk of additional seating, accent chairs provide the perfect opportunity to add more style, color, and personality to your home. While accent chairs are a beautiful addition to any space, there are various factors that you must consider as you shop around. From the size of the chair to its upholstery materials, learn how to choose an accent chair that complements your space. 

Match Your Interior Design Style

With so many different types of accent chairs to choose from, it’s important to keep in mind one of the most basic characteristics of furniture—their interior design style. Take a walk around your house and decide which interior design category your space falls into. Once you’ve figured that out, narrow down your search to accent chairs that complement your particular style. 

Be Smart With Placement

Furniture placement is key when learning how to choose an accent chair. Will your chair be situated in the bedroom for occasional reading or in the living room for additional seating? Depending on where you place your chair, the ideal style and type may change. Take into account size, shape, and seat height that complements the placement of your chair and how it will be used.

Pick Complementary Colors

As you might have guessed, color plays a huge role in choosing the best type of accent chair. You can be spot on with functionality and style, but the wrong color can create quite the design faux pas. The best accent chairs follow your home’s overall color palette, picking up on accent colors and primary colors.

As you shop online or in the store, it’s a smart idea to search for chairs that come in a wide range of colors that can fit your specific color scheme.

Make Sure You Measure

There’s nothing worse than going through the process of buying a new accent chair just to discover that it’s not a good fit in your home. Save yourself the hassle of returning a perfectly good piece of furniture by measuring first.

Interior designers recommend measuring the room’s existing furniture, paying close attention to seat height and seat backs. Use these numbers as reference when you look at different types of accent chairs. The goal is to have your new furniture relatively match in both size and scale. 

Think About Function

Just as you want to consider placement when choosing accent chairs, you also want to think about the purpose or function. In other words, how is your chair going to be used (if at all)? Figuring out the purpose of your chair helps you rule out hundreds of options that won’t work.

If you want additional guest seating for holiday parties and game nights, you should focus on living room accent chair ideas with comfortable features like armrests and soft back cushions. 

Alternatively, a statement chair in the entryway has more wiggle room to showcase striking features like straight backs and wooden armrests.

Consider Recliner Chairs

Is comfort and function your main priority when it comes to choosing an accent chair? With multiple features and designs that fit all style preferences, recliner chairs are definitely worth considering. 

Southern Motion’s Soho accent chair is a beautiful addition to a farmhouse-style home with its plaid upholstery and classic block legs, while Key Largo’s dark and sophisticated design looks stunning in modern spaces.

Materials, Materials, Materials

If you aren’t sure what material works best for your new accent chair, shift your focus away from aesthetics and focus on practicality. Here a few questions that will shed light on which fabric and material is best for your furniture:

• Will the chair be used for light use or heavy use?
• Do you have pets?
• Do you have young children?

For chairs in low traffic areas with very little use, your material options are practically endless. Pick what your heart desires and run with it. However, if your accent chair will be exposed to heavy use by kids and pets, durability is the name of the game. Natural and synthetic leather, for example, is better suited for everyday wear and tear.

Once you know how to choose an accent chair for your home, the real fun begins! Start your search by browsing Southern Motion’s large collection of accent chairs that come in hundreds of colors and fabrics.