Accent chairs, which are also occasionally called occasional chairs, are a wonderful addition to any home. The reason is simple. They add a lot of color, texture and shape to your living spaces, and when the holidays or a special occasion rolls around, they can be pressed into service in the dining room as extra chairs.

In fact, accent chairs can be used in place of traditional dining chairs. Because they are a bit more ornate or have richer colors of upholstery, an accent arm chair or even a leather accent chair will look right at home in the dining room year round. Some fashion forward designers even mix and match the chairs, giving the dining room a much less formal appearance, making it more inviting to visitors and family.

The challenge is to find chairs that will fit the scale of the room and not be too big in size or too small in comfort. Because there’s no standards, you need to take care to choose seating that has a sufficiently deep seat length and is also the correct height for a dining room table.

That said, this leaves a lot of leeway in terms of choices out there. Our own site has a huge selection of living room accent chairs that can be used to accent the dining room, or be used in other places around the home for the rest of the year but still look right at home in the dining room. Certainly these lovely chairs are far better than folding chairs come the holidays and may even give traditional dining room chairs a run for their money.