If it’s the right chair, it doesn’t take too long to get comfortable in it - Robert DeNiro
That’s one of the eternal questions for the ages that, unfortunately, don’t have a definitive answer. There isn’t a right answer and there isn’t a wrong answer, as comfort, much like everything else in life is entirely subjective.
After all, one person’s lazy boy is another person’s recliner, and somewhere between the two are a thousand different types of chairs that would all be equally at home in any living room that is built with comfort and leisure in mind.
But trying to ascertain which of them is the most comfortable, is an impossible task that would take a lifetime of trial and error to try and determine.
However, the general rule of thumb for any living room has always been that the most comfortable chairs are those that have always been part of the American household and that’s the traditional armchair.
Sure you could opt for a more modern design, a chair that’s built to be ergonomically svelte and fit the design aesthetic that walks hand in hand with modern minimalism, but in the real world, you don’t have or want to sacrifice your creature comforts for looks and settle for a chair that looks good but after spending a couple of hours in it, makes you spine feel like it’s made of glass and your lower back ache like you’ve just been run over by an eighteen-wheeler.
There’s a reason why Homer Simpson and Murray Goldberg love their lazy boy reclining armchairs, and that’s because they were made to be comfortable and let whoever sits in them feel like they could just happily drift away to the land of nod.
And while there’s a lot to be said for the comfort of the conventional armchair, and its reassuring place in the living room, it doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily the most comfortable chair that’ll fit in with your lifestyle and your living room.
That’s why we’re going to take a look at some of the most popular alternatives to the tried, trusted, and true idea of what is and isn’t, and should and shouldn’t be the most comfortable living room chair.
Are Barrel Chairs Comfortable?
So, the first popular alternative to the age-old American favorite is the barrel chair. They’ve become so popular in the last decade, that you’ve almost certainly sat in one of these chairs at some point and probably didn’t know that you were sitting in one.
Barrel chairs, in case you hadn’t already guessed, take their name from the fact that they look like a barrel that’s been cut in half.
Flat bottomed, with four legs their armrests and back are usually at exactly the same height, and when you sit in them, it actually feels like you’re perched on top of a barrel and that the chair has been designed to fit you and you alone.
Some people and stores refer to them as half barrel chairs, and if you do want to try one for comfort at a store near you and the assistant looks at you strangely when you inquire about a barrel chair, try asking them about a half barrel instead and they should know exactly what you’re talking about.
Are they comfortable? Does the pope wear a big white hat? They’re incredibly comfortable, and thanks to their design and circular shape, can and will easily fit into just about any living room, regardless of how much space is available.
Their only drawback is that they don’t offer a lot of comfort for your shoulders and your neck, and if you do fall asleep in one, you might end up slumped face forward, which can be a little uncomfortable when you wake up.
Are Cuddle Chairs Comfortable?
Also known as a snuggle seat, and in some places a love chair, a cuddle chair is a hybrid chair that fills the gap between a traditional armchair and a couch.
They are bigger than an armchair and smaller than a couch, and look like the former, but have nearly the same amount of space as the latter.
As they’re essentially giant-sized armchairs, cuddle chairs are incredibly comfortable. Made to seat two people, if you go solo it doesn’t matter how you like to sit or what position is your favorite, you’ll find yourself falling into, and in love with the embrace of a cuddle chair.
They are the epitome of living room luxury, and the only inconvenience that might hamper you from enjoying them to the fullest in your living room is their size.
If you don’t have a super-sized living room, you might have a problem fitting more than one super-sized cuddle chair in the space that you have.
While no one could, or would argue with the fact that they are devastatingly comfortable to sit in, and on, the amount of space that you’ll need in order to take advantage of the opulence and splendor that they offer, makes them slightly prohibitive unless you like sharing your armchair and sacrificing comfort for cuddles.
Is A Club Chair Comfortable?
The chair of choice of the discerning gentlemen of old, the club chair is a large, heavy-duty leather-bound armchair that was originally designed and manufactured in France and weighs more than the average family sedan.
Its birth name, and the moniker it first went under when it appeared on the French horizon reveal everything that the potential customer and almost certainly soon to be lifelong devotee of this chair ever needs to know.
Called the fauteuil comfortable, of a comfortable armchair, it is the ultimate in opulent seated luxury.
Thought to have acquired its name from the gentlemen’s club it populated and became synonymous with during the closing decades of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, the club chair is a stylish armchair that wouldn’t look out of place in any man cave, and could easily find a home in any living room whose aesthetic was, and is leather friendly and whose color scheme can accommodate either brown or black.
Unfortunately, luxury comes at a cost, and club chairs are both incredibly comfortable and incredibly expensive.
But if like us, you believe that you can’t put a price on luxury, and you’re looking to while away your hours in one of the most comfortable living room chairs ever invented, then you need look no further. The club chair is the one that you’ve been searching for.
What Is The Most Comfortable Accent Chair?
Again, it’s another question with a thousand possible answers, as accent chairs are primarily known for, or purchased with comfort or luxury in mind.
In a lot of cases, accent chairs aren’t even purchased to be sat in, as their main purpose and point is to be visually stimulating and either draw attention to, and highlight (or, if you prefer accentuate, which is where the chair draws its name from) a particular point in a room or to assume that position and become the focal point of that room.
Given that they’re meant to be a talking point, in the much the same way that a feature wall is, comfort is hardly paramount to an accent chair and is always a secondary consideration when choosing one.
That doesn’t mean that there aren’t comfortable accent chairs, there are, but as they’re not really meant to be sat in, trying to discover whether an accent chair is comfortable or not can often prove to be more than a little difficult.
What Is The Most Comfortable Armchair?
Trying to ascertain what the world’s most comfortable armchair is, is a fruitless endeavor that will win the person trying to discover its identity no friends nor favors.
Actually, that’s not true as they’ll probably receive all of the plaudits they could ever dream about from the company that made the chair they choose as the winner while making enemies of just about every other manufacturer in the world.
If however, we were to follow popular consensus and give credence to the chair that it names as the most popular in the world, we’d be forced to admit that it might well be, as said popular consensus seems to think it is, the Eames Lounge Chair.
First designed and built by Charles and Ray Eames for the Miller Furniture Company in 1956, it’s one of the chairs the regularly tops the list of the best and most comfortable in the world that has spawned a legion of imitations, none of which can hope to, or do live up to the level of comfort that the Charles and Ray’s original chair offered.
What Is The Most Comfortable Chair For Watching TV?
Like all things, the best chair is about the beauty that the eye of the beholder perceives. In this case, however, the beauty would be a comfortable chair, and the beholder the person who chooses to sit in it.
Convention would have us believe that the only choice of comfortable chair in which to watch television is the same one that our fathers and their father before them chose to watch television from, and that’s the good old-fashioned armchair.
We’ve never really placed much faith in convention though, which is why we’ve always chosen to watch television from the comfort of a lazy boy, or more recently since we upgraded and moved to a much bigger property, from the cuddle chair that has pride of place in our living room.
When we’re sitting in it, it doesn’t matter if we fall asleep or not, as we can just drift away content in the knowledge that we’re sitting in the most comfortable living room chair we’ve ever spent any time in.
