Wooden chairs for a living room are not a one-size-fits-all purchase. I've bought three in the last two years, and two of them ended up in the garage within six months. The third one is still in the corner, holding a stack of books, and it's the only one I'd defend. This is what I learned, measured, and broke.
Start with the door, not the style
I live in a 1930s apartment with doorways that are 30 inches wide. The first chair I ordered was 29 inches at the widest point. I measured the chair, but I didn't measure the path from the front door to the living room. The hallway has a 90-degree turn. The box made it, but the chair itself didn't. I had to tilt it and shave a corner of the frame with a chisel. Don't do that. Measure your doorways, hallways, and the turning radius. Add two inches on each side. If the chair has arms, assume the widest point is at the armrests, which are often wider than the seat.
Seat height: the 18-inch rule
Your living room is not a dining room. Dining chairs are 18–20 inches tall at the seat. Living room chairs, especially if you plan to sit and read or watch TV, need a seat that matches your knee bend. I'm 5'10" and my ideal seat height is 18–19 inches. If you're shorter, you might want 17–18. If you're taller, 19–20. But the real issue is the transition from the chair to the sofa. If your sofa seat is 15 inches and your wooden chair is 19, you'll feel like you're on a barstool every time you switch. I learned this the hard way.
Build quality: check the joints, not the finish
I bought a chair with a beautiful walnut finish and a seat that looked solid. Six months later, the front left leg wobbled. The problem was that the legs were attached with screws into the seat block, not with dowels or mortise and tenon joints. Screws strip out of softwood surprisingly fast. To test, sit in the chair and rock side to side. Then kneel on the seat and look underneath. If you see screws going through the seat block into the legs, expect wobble. If you see dowels or a mortise and tenon, you're better off. Also, check the corner braces—some chairs have braces only on the sides, not the front and back. One of my chairs snapped at the side brace after my dog jumped on it. The brace was a thin strip of plywood.
Wood choice matters more than color
I have a chair made of rubberwood, which is actually a cheap hardwood, and one made of acacia. The rubberwood one creaks. The acacia one doesn't. Acacia is denser and heavier, and it resists the dry air in my apartment better. Oak, ash, and walnut are also solid choices. But be careful with rubberwood and parawood—they're often labeled as "hardwood" but they're soft and scratch easily. My rubberwood chair has three deep scratches from a week of normal use—keys on the seat, a book sliding off the arm. My acacia chair looks new after a year. If you want to test, press your fingernail into the wood. If it leaves a mark, it's too soft for a living room.
Delivery is a real constraint
None of these chairs came fully assembled, and one came almost entirely disassembled—legs, seat, backrest, and a bag of parts that took me two hours to figure out. The delivery truck didn't even bring the box to my door; they left it in the lobby, and the box weighed 55 pounds. I'm not a weak guy, but that was awkward. Two weeks later, I found out the chair had a cracked seat from the shipping—the seat was zipped into a plastic bag with no packing around it. The company sent a replacement seat in three weeks. If you can, get a chair with a unified frame—not glued pieces. And always take photos of the box before you open it. That's the only way you'll get any service.
Price doesn't guarantee comfort
I spent $300 on a wooden chair that looked like it came from a boutique. The seat was a solid slab of oak, but it was so hard I couldn't sit in it for more than twenty minutes. I finally bought a separate cushion, but the chair had a curve that the cushion didn't fit. In contrast, a $120 chair from a big-box store had a contoured seat that shaped to my body, and the backrest tilted at the right angle. Moral: sit in chairs before you buy, or at least buy from a store with free returns. I didn't, and I'm stuck with a chair that's only good for holding coats.
What I'd do differently
I'd measure the seat depth. My living room is 10 by 12 feet, and the chair sticks out 22 inches when pulled from the wall. I had to rearrange everything to walk around it. Also, I'd check the weight limit. One of the chairs said 250 pounds, and I'm 200, so I thought it was fine. But the front legs splayed slightly when I leaned back. For heavy people or boisterous guests, look for a chair with a 300-pound limit. That's not a marketing number—it means the joints are reinforced.
Keep it simple
You don't need to match the wood to your floor or pick a style that matches your Pinterest board. The chair needs to fit the door, match the knee, support your back, and not fall apart when you lean back. If it does all four, it's a good chair. If you're still looking, I have some notes on Swivel Chairs Living Room: My First Week and the One Decision That Mattered and Low Back Upholstered Dining Chairs: What You Gain, What You Give Up, but that's for another day. For now, measure twice, sit once, and don't skip the joint check.
The rubberwood chair is now in my office. I keep a folded towel on the seat to stop the creaking. It works, but it's not a chair I'd wish on anyone.