Chairs

Although they’ve only been around since about 3,000 BC, chairs are one of the most important furniture pieces in any space used by people. Chairs are everywhere. Not only that but, because of their long history, they are one of the best ways to “date” a design style, or establish a time period for a miniature setting.

If you want to create a specific era for your setting, you know that only items made during or before that time should appear. But sometimes it’s hard to know what was developed – or was popular – when. With our dollhouse chair miniatures, due to their ubiquitous nature and well-documented history, you can always find the right fit.

For example, wing chairs first appeared in the 1600s as wood seats without upholstery, and only for people of very high status. The purpose of the high back and wings was to protect the user from drafts and capture heat from the fireplace in cold European climates. Functional design is always popular, and over succeeding centuries it acquired cushioned upholstery and gave birth to so many variations that almost any upholstered armchair you’ve ever seen has the wing chair as an ancestor. But its usage evolved as well, and in Victorian times were used in bedrooms and by the elderly. Today, they are a statement of comfort and welcome in any room. You can make your tiny home more welcoming with your own dollhouse recliners or rocking chairs.

Windsor chairs, the style with a curved, spindle back, sculpted seat and splayed legs, were first documented in England in the early 1700s – a century before Jane Austen’s time – but had probably been being made long before that. American furniture makers began producing them by the 1730s, and the style has been a decorating staple ever since – for life-sized decorating and mini doll furniture. Order these mini chairs for your dolls and relive this period of history.

Even what we think of as “modern” styles, such as the Breuer chair, Barcelona chair and Eames chair, are probably older than you think, having been designed in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. Words such as “iconic” are accurately used for these and other styles, which makes the point that, often, a furniture designer is known for a particular chair more than for any other piece he or she may have developed.