Dining Chair Height

May 11, 2018

How tall are standard dining chairs?

We build a lot of solid wood dining tables each year and chair sizing and height is a very common question. Chair height is important for guest comfort and usability. So, what is the standard seat height for a dining chair?

The short answer is that standard dining chairs have a floor to seat height of 17-20 inches. This seat height allows you to sit comfortably at a standard height dining table (which is 30" from floor to table top). The total height of the chair back ranges dramatically from 28" to 48" in most chairs.

These black Windsor Dining Chairs have a back height of approx. 41.5".

Quick tips:

Looks for chairs with a floor to seat height of 17-20 inches
Make sure you have about a foot between the top of the seat and the underside of the table
Try to leave about 6" between the seat arm and the bottom of the apron of the table.

Here are some other important things to consider when selecting a chair size:

1. If your table has an apron and your chair has arms, make sure the chair arm is lower than the table apron.

2. If anyone in your family is very tall, you may want to consider going with a table design that does not include an apron.

Several of the table we build do not have an apron, such as our Vera trestle table.

3. If you're doing different chairs for the ends of the table, typically you'll want to make sure the end chairs are larger than the chairs on the sides of the table. Asthetically, it looks odd for the end chairs to be larger.

Still have questions? Our team would love to help. Just shoot your questions todesigner@carpenterjames.com and one of our design consultants will get back to you quickly. Give us a call at479-633-7557 or leave us a comment below!

Ready to customize your new table? Let's getstarted!