Metal cafe chairs

Read the frame line before you read anything else. 40 chairs sit in this group. Frames are mostly metal, though wood and wood-look versions sit in the mix. Seats come in vinyl, wood and fabric, so decide the seat first and the back second.

Frames and seats, read separately

Metal leads the frames at 34 listings. Wood frames appear on 12, wood-look metal on 4 and steel on 2, so this group is not one material from end to end. Open the page and read the frame line before you assume. A wood-frame chair and a metal-frame chair carry different warranty periods, so check the period stated on the product page.

Seats are vinyl on 34, wood on 29 and fabric on 23, with one metal and one plastic. Upholstery options appear on 32 chairs. Prices range from $26 to $180. Indoor use is listed on 36 chairs and patio use on none, so keep the whole group off the sidewalk.

Colors change over time. If these chairs will sit beside ones you own, request a new swatch and compare it with the chairs in place.

Backs, arms and swivels

Eleven chairs carry the interchangeable back label, so open those pages to see which backs go with the frame. After that come vertical slat on 6, X back on 4, and bucket, window back and checker back on 3 each.

Three chairs have arms, 3 swivel, and 5 have a padded back. Test a swivel chair where the traffic is, not in the back room.

Footprints on the floor

Four examples help. Widths run from 16 1/2 to 22 inches, depths from 17 to 20 1/4, and heights from 32 to 34 inches. A ladder back metal dining chair at 18 by 20 1/4 inches is one of them, and a slatted metal dining chair at 22 inches wide is the widest of the four.

Where a seat height is listed, it is 19 to 20 inches. A 29-inch table over a 19-inch seat leaves a 10-inch gap between seat and top, which is the tight end of comfortable.

Say a row of four chairs along a wall. The 22-inch chairs take 88 inches of width, while the 16 1/2-inch chairs take 66. That 22-inch difference is room for another narrow chair.

Narrower lists

Pick the back first if you already know it. For a single back style, try metal ladder back chairs. For padded backs on metal, open upholstered back metal chairs. To see frames that mimic wood, look at metal chairs with wood look. The whole family is on the metal chairs page.