Buying Guides

How to choose your dream armchair

Choosing an armchair comes with many decisions, but unlike when choosing a sofa where you would usually have to consider the size to accommodate other people, you can tailor your new armchair to your own needs and preferences.

An armchair does not necessarily have to match your current sofas, but it should complement it and of course, be comfortable! And remember, an armchair is not just for the living room – a stylish, well-placed chair also has a place in other rooms of the home, such as the bedroom or hallway. To help you decide which armchair or accent chair is right for your needs, we’ve taken a look at the key things you should consider…

What style armchair should I choose?
What fabric armchair should I choose?
What colour armchair should I choose?
Should my armchair match or contrast with my sofa?

What style armchair should I choose?

An armchair should reflect your style and personality, whilst complementing the environment that you live in, so picking the right style for your home is an important factor. Do you want a lovely, laid-back number, something to pop in the corner of your bedroom or do you need something that can be used everyday, and withstand little hands and pets? Deciding your chosen style and needs at the start will help your decision process along the way.

Traditional armchair

If you want to encapsulate comfort, try a traditionally styled armchair, the kind of chair you can’t wait to get home to at the end of the day and curl up on! Our Duke armchair features a beautiful high-winged back and wide seat that creates a timeless look that would suit many styles of homes.

Duke armchair in Woad soft wool

Statement armchair

If you’re looking to add an armchair to your interiors to create a little character or act as a focal piece, choose a style that is recognisable as a standalone piece. An updated take on the classic wing design with a smartly buttoned back, our Ernest armchair would happily sit within a modern or traditional settings without ever compromising on style.

Ernest armchair in Butterscotch cotton matt velvet

Accent chair

Sometimes an accent chair is just what a space needs. Designed to provide an element of visual interest to the room, an accent chair sits perfectly in living rooms, but also in hallways, bedrooms and other spaces throughout the home. Our Art Deco inspired Harper accent chair does just this and will draw the attention of anyone who walks into the room with its beautiful fluted back design. Larger than the usual style that harks from this era, Harper gives you plenty of space to showcase this wonderful design, but also room to get comfortable and sit back and enjoy a cocktail or two if you wish!

Harper armchair in Peony cotton matt velvet

Chaise armchair

chaise armchair is a thing of luxury! Consisting of an armchair with an elongated seat, or built in footstool, the chaise armchair allows you to sit down and curl up, or equally stretch your legs out, being able to put your feet up in style.

Bluebell chaise armchair in Butterscotch cotton matt velvet

Loveseat armchair

Sometimes, a regular sized armchair just isn’t quite big enough to curl up on, but you don’t always have room for a sofa, and this is exactly why we created our range of loveseats! Smaller than a sofa, but bigger than an armchair, our wide range of loveseats allow you to sit in comfort, whether you’re having some time to yourself, or cuddling up with someone special.

Isla Loveseat in Jade smart velvet

What fabric armchair should I choose?

When searching for your perfect armchair, it’s really important to put thought and consideration into the type of fabric you want for your home. The right fabric and colour can completely transform your living space, so finding the perfect fabric, whether that’s to create a leather armchair, a velvet armchair or a cotton or linen armchair, is definitely something that requires consideration.

Cottons and Linen Armchairs

Poppy armchair in Mango brushed linen cotton

Norfolk Cotton Armchairs

Our Norfolk cotton fabric is made from 100% cotton, and has been designed to combine style, comfort and practicality. A Norfolk cotton armchair would look stunning in both traditional and contemporary homes, and there are a number of different colourways to choose from.

Brushed Linen Cotton Armchairs

One of our most popular fabric ranges, our brushed linen cottons are made from 63% cotton and 37% linen. A brushed linen cotton armchair is soft to touch, but also highly durable, perfect for busier homes, and the fabric can be professionally dry cleaned. There are a variety of colours to choose from, meaning you can create a brushed linen cotton armchair that makes a statement, or equally opt for a more neutral tone if preferred.

Pure Belgian Linen Armchairs

Our stunning 100% linen is sourced directly from the mills of Belgium, home to some of the finest linens in the world. Pure Belgian linen armchairs are elegant with a classic natural linen feel, and we’ve ensured there are a range of subtle colours to help you create a stunning linen armchair for your home.

House collection

We’ve created our very own House collection of fabrics, including our house herringbone weave, house plain weave and house basket weave, to allow you to create a durable yet stunning armchair. The house collection has been created with a simple, neutral colour palette in mind, allowing you to create a neutral armchair, whilst adding texture and colour elsewhere, through accessories or paint colours.

Cotton Viscose Twill Armchairs

If you’re looking for an elegant, textured armchair, our cotton viscose twill fabrics are the perfect solution. The cotton-rich twill fabric has been expertly crafted to ensure it creates a statement armchair, but doesn’t compromise on comfort or durability.

Baylee Viscose Linen Armchairs

Designed with a beautiful subtle basket weave texture, an armchair upholstered in our stunning Baylee viscose linen will also have an elegant, soft sheen finish to it. We’ve designed our Baylee viscose linen fabrics in a range of natural tones, allowing you to create your dream neutral armchair, accessorising with colours and patterns where desired.

Chelsea Linen Armchairs

An armchair upholstered in our Chelsea linen fabrics looks stunning, creating a relaxed yet sophisticated armchair that is available in a range of neutral tones. The Chelsea linen fabrics have a loosely woven appearance, which creates that laid-back armchair style, due to the woven technique using natural fibres that creates the soft-to-touch fabric.

Diamond Weave Armchairs

Our Diamond weave fabrics turn a regular armchair into an eye-catching and elegant armchair, with a subtle diamond weave pattern running across the fabric. The Diamond weave fabric is woven in Belgium, combining two-tone yarns to create the elegant design, and is incredibly soft to touch.

Velvet Armchairs

Alderney armchair in Dusty Rose cotton matt velvet

Cotton Matt Velvet Armchairs

If you’re searching for the armchair of your dreams, with statement style, a cotton matt velvet armchair is the answer! There’s something undeniably cool about owning a velvet armchair, and not only does a velvet chair looks stunning, but it’s also luxuriously soft, and inviting to sit on. Our cotton matt velvet fabrics are available in bold colours to create a statement armchair, but also in a number of more subtle tones, allowing you to create an armchair that suits your home.

Velvet jacquard Armchairs

Our velvet jacquard fabric is decadently plush, rich in cotton and incredibly soft to touch. The velvet features a traditional and elegant jacquard diamond pattern, and is available in a range of tones to add a touch of luxury and statement style to your dream armchair.

Leather armchairs

Bellwether Leather Armchairs

We’ve sourced our Bellweather leather exclusively from British Oxen to ensure it is of the highest quality, ready to create your very own stunning armchair. The beautiful rich colours within the Bellweather leather are created by a process of dying the leather with a pigmented coating, which is then finished with a clear layer, ensuring that the colour is evenly covered, but also to add durability. The result is a leather armchair that is soft and supple, ensuring comfort remains priority, but is also less prone to marking.

Vintage Leather Armchairs

We’ve created our vintage leather from fully aniline leather, resulting in a leather armchair that is designed to get better with age – just like a fine wine! Our vintage leather armchairs are designed with rich texture, and a natural look and feel, finished with a matt finish beeswax coating to create a truly unique and incredibly comfortable leather armchair.

Wool Armchairs

Soft wool armchairs

A soft wool armchair is undeniably cosy, creating your very own cocoon of comfort to escape to. Our soft wool has been created by pressing dyed wool together, unlike most of our fabrics, which use a woven technique. The result is a beautifully soft wool that looks stunning across a range of our armchairs.

Textured Boucle Armchairs

Louis armchair in Ashford textured boucle

Stay on-trend with our new textured boucle fabrics, the perfect way to add texture and interest to your home. A textured boucle armchair is not only stunning to look at, but is also soft and cosy to touch, and our textured boucle fabrics are available in two colourways, allowing you to bring statement style into your home.

Tweed Armchairs

Highland Tweed Armchairs

Highland tweed armchairs bring heritage and a rustic charm into your home, creating a traditional look that you’ll love for years to come. Our highland tweed comes from the highlands of Northern Belgium, and is woven by skilled craftsmen to create a stylish and comfortable tweed armchair full of character. Our highland tweed fabrics are available in a range of different shades, allowing you to find the perfect highland tweed armchair for your living space.

Smart Fabric Armchairs

As well as our range of cottons, linens, tweeds, velvets and leathers, we’ve created a selection of ‘smart’ fabrics, designed so that every household can enjoy sitting in their dream armchair – even a busy household prone to accidents! Each of our smart fabrics prevents spillages from sinking into the fibres too quickly, meaning you can simply blot the spillage away and keep your armchair clean. Choose from our smart cottons, smart velvets and even smart slubby cottons, to create the armchair of your dreams without compromising on style.


What colour armchair should I choose?

Choosing the right coloured armchair is so important, and can completely transform how a room looks and feels. We have over 100 fabrics to choose from, in a variety of colours, giving you the freedom to choose the perfect colour armchair for your home. Of course, sometimes you already have the exact colour armchair in mind, but in other cases you might simply know that a linen armchair would be the perfect fit for your home.

It’s really important to take your existing colour scheme into account when choosing the colour of your armchair. Additionally, it’s important to ask yourself if you’d like your armchair to be a statement piece, and stand out as a bold accent of colour, or you’d prefer for the armchair to seamlessly blend in with the rest of the colour scheme.

Bold and colourful – bright armchairs

Some of our most popular coloured fabrics are in bold and beautiful fabrics, helping you to inject colour into a room with a bold colourful armchair. Whether you’re looking for a bright pink armchair to make an impact, or a bright yellow armchair that injects sunshine into the room, we’re confident that we’ve got the right fabric to create your dream armchair. There’s nothing better than creating an armchair that is not only incredibly comfortable but also a statement piece that brightens up your home!

Bluebell armchair in Peony cotton matt velvet, Ernest swivel armchair in Canary cotton matt velvet, Holly armchair in Olive cotton matt velvet

Neutral shades of calm – neutral armchairs

Sometimes, creating a home that is full of calming neutral shades is preferred, and having a neutral coloured armchair that is the perfect place to relax in has never been more important. We’ve seen a rise in the popularity of neutral armchairs recently, and with many of our neutral fabrics drawing inspiration from nature, we can understand why. From Canvas and Taupe to cooler neutral stone and clay tones, our neutral fabrics allow you to create a simple and understated neutral armchair, ready for you to relax in after a long day.

Otto loveseat in Flax pure Belgian linen, Saturday armchair in Pumice house basket weave, Bertie armchair in Taupe brushed linen cotton

Maritime hues  – blue armchairs

If you’re wanting to create a home that draws inspiration from the coast, adding a blue armchair is the perfect addition. Our vast collection of blue fabrics that can be used to upholster your armchair in blue hues ensures that there’s something for everyone to help create their perfect blue armchair From subtle nods to the sea using from our Uniform house weave, to bold Deep Turquoise and Scuba velvet blue armchairs, the variety of blue fabrics is as vast as the Pacific ocean.

Izzy armchair in Scuba smart velvet, Remy armchair in Marina brushed linen cotton, Duke armchair in Oxford Blue brushed linen cotton

Sophisticated monochrome – grey armchairs

If you’re searching for the perfect armchair to sit amongst a monochrome interior, we have a vast range of monochrome fabrics to choose from. From velvet grey armchairs, to soft grey cotton armchairs and laid back grey linen armchairs, there’s something for everyone. By keeping the colour palette simple and toned down with a grey armchair, you can use accessories to brighten up the space if desired, using cushions, blankets and throws to update the colour palette as the seasons change.

Isla armchair in Armour smart velvet, Poppy armchair in Grey Marl Highland Tweed, Fingal armchair in Dove Grey smart velvet

Should my armchair match or contrast with my sofa?

When choosing the perfect armchair, one of the most common questions is whether you should choose an armchair that matches your current furniture, or contrasts.

When designing a living room, or updating a living space, the first thing to consider is the colour palette you want to use. Whether you’re looking to create a bold and colourful interior, or a more subtle pared back neutral living space your armchair and sofa will be a big part of your scheme and should work together in harmony. Having said that, keeping your sofa and armchair both within the colour palette of the space doesn’t mean that the armchair has to match the sofa! You could opt for different shades of the same colour, different fabrics and patterns, or even contrasting colours, and then use accessories to tie the two pieces of furniture together. The world’s your oyster!

Snowdrop armchair in Orchid cotton matt velvet, Snowdrop 2.5 Seat Sofa in Butterscotch cotton matt velvet