Discover What Makes Chenille Feel the Way It Does

Chenille takes its name from the French for caterpillar, and the description is literal: short lengths of fibre are trapped at right angles in a twisted core yarn, producing a soft, fuzzy strand that is then woven into cloth. That construction is why chenille feels velvety in the hand whilst remaining a woven fabric rather than a cut pile. This is a large-structured chenille, meaning the yarn is thick and the weave open enough to see, giving the surface a pronounced ribbed relief instead of the flat nap of a fine chenille.

Made from two-tone recycled polyester, the cloth also gains something from its fibre. Polyester chenille resists the crushing and abrasion that flatten natural-fibre pile at the front edge of a seat, and it holds colour under daylight far longer. The recycled content is sourced from a Global Recycled Standard certified supplier, reducing the pull on virgin material, and the finished textile carries OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 certification. Warm to the touch in winter and never cold like leather, it is a sensible cover for a chair used at every meal.

Embrace a Chair That Sits Well With a Dining Table

Set against a dining table, the solid ash wood legs in their natural finish are what tie the chair to the room. Pale ash sits happily beside oak, beech and light-stained pine, and it will not fight a walnut or dark-stained top the way an orange-toned timber can. The wood is certified to FSC 100% chain of custody under a responsible forest management model. Leave a hand's width between chairs when you space them out, so the upholstered sides do not rub against one another as people sit down.

The seat is high-density polyurethane injection foam at 60kg/m³ in a medium firmness, and both it and the cover are flame retardant treated to the highest fire-resistance standards. That specification was written for professional projects such as hotels, restaurants and offices, where compliance is compulsory, and it comes as a free advantage in a family home. Combined with a hard-wearing recycled cover and a certified hardwood frame, it makes for a dining chair intended to be used daily for a very long time.