Tweed Chesterfield Chair

Tweed is the most unmistakably British cloth there is, woven originally for keeping out weather rather than for furnishing drawing rooms, which is precisely why it looks so right stretched across a deep buttoned Chesterfield. The two share an origin story and a certain refusal to go out of fashion.

What makes it work so well on a chair is the flecking running through the weave. A plain cloth sits evenly across the tufting, while tweed carries several colours at once, so the buttoning picks up different threads depending on where the light falls and how close you are standing.

Here is the part that surprises people, because tweed is considerably more versatile than its country reputation suggests.

• Heathered weaves carrying several tones at once, so the cloth reads as depth rather than as a flat colour
• Shades running from Dark Brown and Tan Brown through Grey and into a genuinely lovely Sage
• Hardwearing by design, since the cloth was built for outdoor use long before it was ever upholstered
• Every chair handmade to order in our Manchester workshop, with free delivery in six to eight weeks

If you are unsure where to begin, order up to six free swatches and they will reach you within a few working days.

Tweed is the most forgiving cloth we offer when it comes to the rest of the room, largely because the weave already contains several colours for you to build from.

Walls that work. Soft white and warm neutral walls let the flecking show clearly, while deeper walls in forest green or ink blue give a lighter tweed a richer backdrop without competing. Stone fireplaces, beamed ceilings and open shelving all flatter the cloth enormously, which is exactly why it belongs in older houses.

Chairs to consider. The Conrad wing chair is the design we build most often in tweed, since the tall back gives the weave real surface to be seen across. The Orkney Short suits a hallway or a landing where a full height chair would crowd the space, and a Chesterfield footstool in the same cloth wears at exactly the same rate.

Every chair is handmade in Manchester using time honoured techniques, so each seam reflects the care that goes into a piece built to last generations, with the frame beneath carrying our ten year guarantee.

Tweed asks very little, which is exactly what you would expect from a cloth originally designed to survive Scottish weather.

• Vacuum the buttoning with a soft brush attachment, since dust gathers in the folds rather than on the surface
• Blot spills promptly rather than rubbing, since rubbing pushes a mark deeper into the weave
• Expect a little pilling early on, which is characteristic of a natural fibre settling rather than a fault
• Keep the chair out of strong afternoon sun, which fades a dyed cloth faster than it fades a hide