Wydeven Designs: Furniture Styles Series - Chaises

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Furniture Styles Series - Chaises - When to Use!

Baker Chaise Lounge (sold)

This is the second installation in this furniture styles series about chaise lounges. I found this article on the web and couldn't resist it. It addresses not just the placement issues when contemplating using a chaise lounge for seating but also the psychological and social issues involved. It suggests careful contemplation of your "intentions" when placing a chaise to lounge/relax not to think/contemplate! Here it goes (emphasis added):

In order to be in a position to understand when to use a chaise lounge, it would be a great idea to first acquaint ourselves with what such a chaise lounge is, in the first place. As it turns, the chaise lounge is simply a chair whose sitting area is extended to accommodate 'the sitter's' legs. So unlike a usual lounge, where the legs of the person sitting on dangle to the ground, on the chaise lounge, the legs remain on the lounge; making it - in essence - something of a cross between a lounge and a bed.
What the extension of the chaise recline to accommodate the legs does is to make it the ultimate lounge for relaxation. Seeing that the typical chaise lounge will tend to be very highly upholstered, lying on top it (in a situation where your whole body is on top of it) creates a feeling that you are no longer subject to 'gravity.' You are just hanging up there, and it is an extremely exhilarating experience. And because of all this, many people who get to a feel of the 'chaise lounge experience' desire to have such lounges for use in their own houses.
Yet, for all its goodness, the chaise recline is not suitable for use in all kinds of settings. Indeed, there are some situations where the usage of the chaise lounge would be outright inappropriate. But being pragmatists, we will not focus on where the chaise lounge should not be used, but rather where the use of chaise recline would be appropriate. Our calculation here is that you would know that if the use of a chaise lounge in situation A is recommended, then it would obviously not be recommended in situation B, where situation B is the exact opposite of situation A.
Ideally, the chaise seat should only be used where there is adequate space to comfortably accommodate it. Thanks to the extension for legs it comes with, the typical chaise recline will tend to consume considerably more space than the typical lounge. Therefore although you may desire to have a chaise seat, if your living room is too small, you would be well advised not to take it on. Ideally, pieces of furniture like the chaise lounge are best used in the kinds of houses where the lounge is a hall's size. But if all you have is a 'crib' it would be inappropriate to try to squeeze a chaise recline in there.

The chaise seat is best used in relaxation rooms, as opposed to, for instance, boardrooms. Remember, it -is the type of a lounge you get on when you want to relax, not the type of a lounge you get on when you want to think! Where you want to create an image of opulence, the chaise seat would be ideal for you. Conversely, when you want to create an image of frugality, the chaise recline may not be ideal for you, as it will end up creating the exact opposite of the message you want to convey through your furniture.