Choosing an Adirondack Chair Style

Adirondack chairs offer the ultimate in comfort for backyard living areas.  The rustic Americana-feel combined with the relaxed seating style offer elegance and comfort that you will enjoy for decades.  But choosing among the many styles can be a daunting task.  Here are some basic considerations to make when choosing your patio set.

First, you should decide which type of wood (or polywood) you would like.  Traditional Adirondack chairs come in pine or white cedar, but are readily available in red cedar (for the western feel), teak, oak, and other woods.  Cedar is generally a great choice for outdoor wear.  Pine will work fine as well, though you won't get the same wear out of it.  Consider that a well-sealed cedar chair should last for many decades, whereas a well-sealed pine chair will last for about 10 to fifteen years depending on conditions. 

Polywood is new to the outdoor furniture market in the last few years.  It is very durable, but also requires regular cleaning.  Although it doesn't have the feel of real wood it looks the part from far away.  If you want the natural greying process that happens with wood, then stay away from polywood. 

Next, you should consider style.  A traditional style Adirondack chair has a flat slats in the back (generally between 5-7 boards), a flat front, and no fancy scroll work.  A more contemporary version of the chair is the comfort style (also known as contoured) chair which has a fan back that curves through the shoulders for comfort.  This style usually has a rounded front as well.  A western-influenced addition is the scrolled fronts and backs.

Both flat-back and comfort-back styles are beautiful.  The comfort-back style tends to be more comfortable, as the name implies.  Expect to pay more for this style however.  Regardless of which style you choose, you won't be disappointed with your choice of an Adirondack chair or rocker.

About the Author

Terry Burton is owner of AdirondackChairShop.com, an online retailer of New York State handcrafted Adirondack Furniture.

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Cedar Chair Q&A

Can someone tell me the most economical way to ship furniture to Canada from the U.S.?

I have a cedar chest (hope chest) and rocking chair that have been in the family for many generations and need to get them to the next generation in Canada. How can I do this without spending a furtune? On the other hand, I do want them to arrive safely.

Hire a moving van or get a truck and find someone to drive it.

What can I do to downplay ugly carpet?

I have a problem. We just bought a house with an awesome finished basement. Nice stone fireplace, sweet bar, nice wood on one wall. The only problem is, it is overtaken by this horrendous dark forest green carpet. I hate forest green! But other than the color, the carpet is in fantastic, like-new condition, and we don't have the money to replace it right away. But we would like to have parties in our basement--but only if it's not ugly. So...one wall is a cedar-colored wood, the other 3 are white. And then the massive amounts of forest green carpet. The bar counter top is forest green too. How can we use color on the other walls and/or accessories to downplay the green? The couch/chair are brown, the coffee table is a dark java wood color. The barstools need cushions too. What color?

I will be indebted to you, if you can help me make this room look awesome without getting rid of the ugly carpet! Thanks!

Buy a huge area rug to cover most of it with ....go with a neutral shade of sand.