The Dining Chair That's Made to Withstand It All
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Shop $199, Levityhome.com
Welcome to The Esquire Endorsement. Heavily researched. Thoroughly vetted. These picks are the best way to spend your hard-earned cash.
Shopping for a simple dining chair sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. The ever-evolving world of online furniture opens up the possibility to have anything delivered to your doorstep, but it also opens up a can of worms of confusion. Along with the abundance of choices now available, you also have to consider the specifics, like: size, style, price, color, and most importantly, longevity. Longevity comes into play more than ever with a good set of dining chairs, because these aren't the kind of pieces that you plan to replace yearly. These will likely see various stages of your life pass through the kitchen.
Considering the laundry list of things there is to work with, even me—someone who shops online daily and professionally—felt stressed with the overwhelming task of deciding on a simple dining chair. What makes it hard is that I think so many choices are just straight-up ugly and not worth the money. Of course, the ones that always seem to catch my eye end up costing a cool $900 each (excluding taxes and shipping), which is absurd.
Somewhere within the clusterfuck of brands out there, I found Levity, a newcomer I was intrigued to know more about. While I love hearing a fresh name in the direct to consumer space, I always think, “how does this differentiate from everything else already on the market?” Well, Levity is here with a new mission I didn’t see coming: a chair that can be cleaned in your washing machine. Genius, but are they cool? Are they worth it? I figured I might as well try.
That's right, these are machine washable.
If you’re wondering how a chair can fall into the machine-washable category, it's thanks to the versatile seat and back pads that have removable upholstery you can throw right into your washer and dryer at home (a bonus you don’t have to take a trip to the dry cleaner). In addition, the brand also claims the fabrics are “stain-proof” and have a liquid-repelling base that means hot sauce, red wine, and even tricky oil stains are no match for its material.
Levity has five different styles of dining chairs, and I opted for the Scandinavian Chair that has a mid-century modern look to it. Offered in two wood finishes, oak and walnut, and over 40 different fabric choices and patterns, I went simple—which was my mission after all—and got the dark wood walnut and gray upholstery.
My chairs arrived quickly, and for me that’s a must when shopping, because now so many brands have long backorder dates up to six months. I was able to put each one together in less than 15 minutes, which was only possible with the instructions in hand. Definitely don’t throw those away, because the chairs have very similar parts that all do different things, and trust me, you will need that piece of paper. The seats easily snap on and off, so you're able to remove each cover. Next came the test.
Shop $199, Levityhome.com
Are they actually easy to clean?
Whenever a brand claims a product is “something-proof” or “something-free”, I immediately feel skeptical. In this case, I couldn’t wait to spill on these chairs. The task wasn’t hard for me, and within days it had melted chocolate (my signature stain) and a matcha latte splash on the cushion. The brand’s "stain-proof" technology is more just like "easy-to-clean-technology." The mark was easily reduced with just a kitchen towel and water, but I would say only 90 percent of the way gone. After one wash in the washing machine though, it was like new again. To my surprise, they actually are easy to clean, which brings a worry-free feeling to this purchase.
Are they worth it?
I would, of course still prefer a $900-each chair from Design Within Reach, but for the practicality and price point, this will do wonderfully until I win the lottery. Simply, if you’re on a budget, in a crunch, and want to keep it simple, you really can’t go wrong here. The brand’s handful of choices even makes it feel like you’re getting a customizable piece for a fraction of the price.
While $199 might feel like a lot of money for a single chair, take a look around at alternative options, I can tell you it doesn’t get much better. And, in this case, you get longevity: something that you can clean whenever you want and keep for years to come. Messy people, pet-owners, and children-havers can all feel safe knowing their chairs can withstand the test of time, no matter the meal.
Shop $199.95, Levityhome.com
Photography by Timothy Mulcare. Prop styling John Olson for Halley Resources.
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