Bespoke furniture
A bespoke dining chair carries more daily contact than almost any other piece in the workshop's catalogue. Twice a day, every day, for a residential set, and three or four times a day in service for a hotel restaurant. The frame, the springs or webbing under the seat, the foam grade, the cushion proportions and the fabric or leather are all specified against the expected use — not against a generic dining-chair brief.
The workshop builds dining sets at residential and contract scale: a six- or eight-piece set for a private house, and runs of forty, eighty or a hundred chairs for hotel restaurants and members' club dining rooms. The build is the same one set out on the upholstery workshop page; the specification shifts with the brief.
Most dining and desk briefs land within a handful of established forms.
A chair with a visible timber frame — carved or turned legs, exposed back stiles, sometimes a caned or open back — with the seat the only upholstered surface. Show-wood chairs are the standard for traditional dining sets, period reproductions and any scheme where the chair carries the line of the wider joinery. The seat is sprung on webbing, padded in horsehair or HR foam, and covered in cloth or leather. Cover patterns are placed centred on the seat and matched across the set.
A chair where the seat and back are both upholstered, often with a curved or scrolled back that reads as a soft piece of furniture rather than a hard frame. Specified widely in contract restaurants and members' clubs, where the upholstered back gives the diner additional comfort over a long meal. Fabric or leather; rub ratings start at 40,000 Martindale for contract use.
Larger dining chairs with arms, placed at the head and foot of a dining table or used singly at a writing desk. Carver chairs use the same engineering as the dining chair they pair with but add the arm rest, which changes the cushion shape and the cover pattern. Specified in pairs with side chairs for a complete dining set.
Single chairs for a writing desk, study or library. Often built on a swivel or castor base if the brief calls for movement; otherwise a fixed-leg upholstered chair with a low back, modest arms and a seat cushion sized for long working hours. Specified with a softer cushion fill than a dining chair, since the chair will be sat on for longer at a stretch.
The single most important decision on a dining chair is the seat foam. Contract dining seating — restaurants, members' clubs — uses a high-density foam (typically 50–75 kg/m³) so the seat holds its shape through years of three-meals-a-day service. Residential dining chairs use a medium HR foam, since the chair will see fewer cycles per day. Foam grades and the fire route are set out in detail on the foam in upholstery page.
Fabric and leather are specified against the cleaning regime as much as the look. Hospitality dining usually calls for a high-rub performance cloth or a wipeable leather; residential dining tolerates the full range of natural fibres. Pattern placement is matched across the set so every chair reads as part of a single design rather than a collection of similar pieces; this is one of the visible signs of bespoke production.
Show-wood finishes — polished, lacquered, ebonised, limed or painted — are matched to other timber in the room. Sets are crated and delivered against the contract opening date, with prototypes built and signed off early so production can run at full pace from approval.
This page covers one of the piece-types built in the upholstery workshop. The broader range — sofas, armchairs, slipper and wingback chairs, dining and desk chairs, banquettes, ottomans, beds and headboards — sits under upholstered furniture. The engineering behind every piece is set out on the upholstery workshop page; the cushion fills are covered under upholstery fills, and the cover options are set out under fabrics.
