The West Elm Wire Frame Dining Chair comes in four different options: Velvet, “Upholstered” which features two fabric options, “Morse Dot” which is a third, patterned fabric option, and a Leather option. Both the “Velvet” and “Upholstered” are part of West Elm’s Contract Grade lineup and claim to be able to meet more rigorous usage demands. The West Elm website is a little all over the place with the descriptions but as far as we can tell the main difference is only in the finish on the legs and of course the fabric type. Construction otherwise appears to be identical for all.
Speaking of construction, we generally like what we see. The seat portion consists of fairly simple engineered wood padded with poly foam which has a nice supportive firmness while being soft enough to sit in for an extended period of time. The metal base & legs are welded together, then screwed into the seat frame. The screws at the bottom of the seat are more than ample, but the ones attaching the seat back are a little on the small side, likely an aesthetically geared sacrifice. While we don’t have any major concerns with the chair holding up over time, a lot of activity or a bouncy diner may cause the seat back to need some tightening with time and this could cause longer term issues with how the chair holds up.
We tested the velvet version, and it uses the performance velvet which is a higher quality velvet for the store and is soft to the touch and on the thicker side. We’ve also seen the leather version and found the leather to be nice looking in person, and as it is aniline leather it will gain character with age.
In photos we love the style of this chair but it fails to impress as well in person. Though it’s far from ugly, its somewhat small stature and boxy plainness requires that it’s paired with a specific aesthetic. We like it best in either more minimalistic settings or busier and stylistically varied settings where it can play more of a color compliment role. Anything in between and it just looks a little bit out of place.
To us, this is a good example of being a bit more functional than stylish as we do enjoy sitting in it, but without sacrificing for style much at all. At $199 for the velvet & other upholstered choices and $349 for the leather the price isn’t bad at all, and we’ve seen them on sale as low as $160 and $280 respectively.
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