The Brown Leather Chair
Of all the different colors of leather chairs around, the brown leather chair is the most widely seen. If fact, if you combined color and material together, and compared all of the different types of furniture, you would be hard pressed to find anything that is more popular than a brown leather chair. Why is that? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons for their popularity.
The Feel of Antiquity
Have you ever seen an “old” red leather chair? How about an antique white leather chair? Yes, you may have seen a few in black, but brown just screams “old”. That’s not always a good thing, but with furniture, there are a lot of people who look for furniture that reminds them of an era long passed. Not all of those people can afford an antique chair, and even if they could, they may have a concern about durability. Luckily, you can have a brand new, durable chair that still has an old look to it.
The Tanning Process
The best way to make a new chair look old is through the tanning process. While most modern furniture is tanned using tree bark and other tannins found within plant material, it is far from the only option (more on tanning in my Varieties of Leather article). One method is called “oil tanning”, and is most widely used on saddles. It is also a very popular method for leather settees and other chairs that you would want a more “vintage” look to it. Oil tanned leather is very pliable and durable. You can tell an oil tanned piece from its oily or waxy feel.
The Dying Process
Another way to make sure that a leather piece looks old is to use very little tint during the dying process. The less colorant you use, the more 5the leather shows its “character”, which lends to the vintage look of the piece. In fact, if you were to take a chair and wrap it in full grain leather, with no colorant added, guess what color it would be? Yep, it would be brown.
The Quality of the Leather
Let’s say that you are going to go out and get the best quality leather chair that you can find. What color would it be? It would almost have to be brown. People know that the natural color of leather is brown. They also know that coloring something can hide imperfections. If a black leather chair says “sophisticated” and a white one says “posh”, a natural finished brown one says “quality”. In fact, if you were to go out and look for full grain or even buckskin leather furniture, you would be hard-pressed to find them in any other color.
The Verdict
You know, I have a black leather office chair that I am sitting in as I write this article. I have had people sit in this chair and ask, “Is this real leather?” Of course, it is real leather, but the point here is that, being black, it could just as easily be faux leather, and it would be hard to tell the difference. If it was brown, however, especially a natural brown, there would be no need to ask. Natural leather is something that you can’t really fake.
I think that pretty much says it all. The young 30-something father of two, driving his BMW, comes home to his black leather couch to relax for a few minutes before going to visit his father, who will be in his den, sipping scotch and smoking a Cuban cigar in his brown leather recliner. Not that either is better than the other, but each makes its statement.
