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The key to a stylish sitting room is this
There comes a time in any house renovation or redecoration when you step back and take stock of the scheme you've put together. Ideally, it all works: the fabrics complement one another, the colours sing, and the furniture looks right. However, very occasionally you will step back and notice something is missing. A key ingredient or flavour that you need to pull the whole dish together. Well, analyse enough of the sitting rooms featured in the pages of House & Garden and you'll notice that for many interior designers that ingredient is the slipper chair.
Slipper chairs are small, armless, upholstered chairs, that sit low to the ground. An early 18th-century creation, their name comes from their original function as a place for a lady to sit while her maid put on her shoes, or slippers. In the 1950s, influential interior designer Billy Baldwin brought slipper chairs out of the bedroom and into the sitting room. Transforming them from occasional chair to comfortable seat, he raised them a little and added deep, plump cushions.
Today, slipper chairs offer a charming foil to squashy sofas, providing a more structured seat that counter what Rita Konig calls the ‘puddingness' of sitting rooms. They are also much loved by interior designers as a place to introduce a bolder, or potentially more costly fabric, without a such a large commitment. A fine example of this is in former House & Garden editor Gabby Deeming's sitting room, seen above, where a dark floral fabric has been introduced on the slipper chair. This feels like a very pleasant contrast to the pale pink linen on the sofa.
In this 19th-century Chelsea house by Lonika Chande seen above, two slipper chairs sit either side of the fireplace. Upholstered in a smart stripe (Penny Morrison’s ‘Sketch Stripe’ in ocean with a yellow grosgrain pipe), these chairs have been placed on castors so they can be freely wheeled around the room–perfect for entertaining.
In Annabel Bevan's sitting room on the raised ground floor, David Seyfried's ‘Rochester’ sofa and slipper chairs by the same brand provide comfortable seating. Annabel has paired the two chairs, creating a visual divide between entrance and sitting room without blocking off the space.
Helen Cathcart1/6Interior designer Isabella Worsley has given a Cotswold cottage a new lease of life thanks to her clever use of colour and layering. In the corner, a slipper chair, covered in Claremont's ‘Ikat Stripe’. The chair provides a nice contrast to the squashy L-shape sofa that takes up much of the floor space.
Christopher Horwood2/6In a fairytale cottage by Emma Ainscough, the kitchen opens into the sitting room, with Farrow & Ball's ‘Slipper Satin’ continuing onto these walls. An antique slipper chair sourced from Modants has been reupholstered in Soane's ‘Osmunda Frond’ in Azure.
© Rachael Smith Photography Ltd3/6In a Norfolk house decorated by Anna Haines, a sofa in Tinsmiths’ ‘Checker’ fabric in dawn grey picks up on walls in Paint & Paper Library’s ‘Porcelain V’, while an ottoman in Robert Kime’s ‘Caspian’ cotton, a kilim from London House Rugs and slipper chairs in Rose Uniacke cotton velvet in cedar introduce warmer tones that echo the original fireplace.
Paul Massey4/6The interiors of this Victorian villa in north London, designed by Brandon Schubert, include a smart slipper chair. In this corner of the drawing room, against a backdrop of wheat-gold cotton-lined walls, a slipper chair in Décors Barbares 'Les Groseilles' is paired with a cushion from Susan Deliss.
Christopher Horwood5/6What was once a nine bedroom bedsit has been transformed by Natasha Howard, the designer behind Instagram's 'Philamena', into an elegant and inviting family home. The sitting room, painted in 'Murrey Red' from Papers and Paints, has a grown-up sophisticated feel, with a marble fireplace from Lassco, a mirror Reed & Wright and curtains made from Howe at 36 Bourne Street's 'Satin Stripe'.
Christopher Horwood6/6Digital creative and brand consultant Lucy Williams has tackled her first renovation with confidence and flair, filling the Victorian terrace with bold colour and considered pieces. One of the first things Lucy decided to do was incorporate “bookcases and sliding pocket doors to divide the two sitting rooms.” Buchanan Studio stepped in to design the “clever adjustable bookcases," matching the fluted shelves to the fluted surrounded that can also be seen from the bar area. With the little handles found at Ardingley Market, Lucy says it "took ages to source the right size, reclaimed pocket doors for the space." A Maker & Son sofa provides a counter to the bright blue walls, painted in archive Farrow & Ball colour ‘Yonder’. In the foreground, the little chair is vintage and reupholstered in Guy Goodfellow stripe linen. The paper Shade is Hay and the log basket is from Tat.
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