Handmade ebonised Oak Z chair pair with grey cushions

How To Choose a Z Chair

With so many species of wood, finishes, and cushion options available from Skinner Designs how do you choose a

Z-Chair to suit you? With this guide hopefully!

We have listed everything we offer within the following pages so have fun looking and choosing!

We also offer a downloadable PDF guide.

Download PDF

Your Five Choices

When choosing a Skinner Designs Z Chair/Sofa/Foot Stool there are five choices you will need to make.

Find out all you need to know below.

Pair of z chairs made from teak furnished with blue cushions

Chair/s, Sofa or Foot Stool?

Choose from our Z Chairs, custom length Sofas (Love Seat) and matching Footstools.

Find Out More

Pair of z chairs made from Ebonised Oak furnished with pink cushions

Species

Choose what species of wood you would like your Z-Chairs of furniture to be made from.

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Z chair sofa made from American black walnut furnished with teal cushions

Finishes

Some of our species of wood have different finishing options changing the appliance of the wood.

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Cushions

We can supply cushions in a range of styles to suit your requirements.

Find Out More

Pair of z chairs made from Oak with a stripe of walnut furnished with Purple cushions

Fabric

We have a variety of fabric to we can order in or if you have one in mind let us know.

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Z-Chair, Sofa or Footstool?

Choose from our Z Chairs, custom length Sofas (Love Seat) and matching Footstools.

See below for more information on our custom length sofa.

Chairs are priced as frames only with the added option to add cushions. See below for more details.

Piece

Z-Chairs

Z chair love seat/Sofa with green cushions

Custom Length Sofa

Our Z Chair sofas are available as a two or three person seaters.

They can be customised to any length (within reason) so if you have an exact space to fill just let us know and we can formulate a price.

Our two seater sofa is 1,370mm in width giving 1200mm of seating space whereas our three person is 1,970mm in width giving 1800mm of seating space

Standard Z Chair cushions are 600mm wide, we recommend at least 500mm per person.

We can also make a single cushion rather than multiple separate cushions if required.

Wood Species

Now it's time to choose a species of wood, with so many to choose from we have broken them down to our most popular species. We also offer a mixed species design where two contrasting woods can be laminated together to give a unique look to the frames or contrasting back supports as seen on our ebonised Oak chairs.

Click a species below to see more images.

English Oak

A beautiful open grained timber that resonates texture while remaining very durable and heavy. When ebonised the deep grain becomes even more pronounced giving a unique surface composition.

American Black Walnut

The heartwood of American Walnut is a beautiful light to dark brown occasionally with a purplish cast and dark- er streaks. Another great timber for Ebonising, the tight grain structure leaves a silky deep black glass like surface.

Reclaimed Teak

A beautiful golden or medium brown colour darkening with age. Our reclaimed teak is comparable to that of the original timber used for these iconic mid century chairs.

Iroko

Similar in terms of colour to Teak once exposed to sunlight. An interlocking grain with a fairly coarse texture responds beautifully to a satin oil finish.

European Ash

The heartwood is a light to medium brown color. Sapwood can be very wide, and tends to be a beige or light brown; not always clearly or sharply demarcated from heartwood. Grain/Texture: Has a medium to coarse texture similar to oak. The grain is almost always straight and regular, though sometimes moderately curly or figured boards can be found.

Mixed Species

We also offer a mixed species design where two
contrasting woods can be laminated together to give a unique look. Take a look at our previous work to see more!

Other species available at request

English: Cherry, Walnut & Sycamore. American: Cherry, Maple. If you require another species please get in contact.

Species

Finishes

Hard wax oil is a protective wood treatment for interior use. Combines natural oils and waxes to form a hard wearing and durable finish which is ideal for wooden flooring and furniture. The oil provides a warm and rich effect that brings out the true beauty of all woods by emphasising the grain and promoting its natural characteristics. It has excellent resistance to coffee, wine and alcohol spills as long as it is wiped up immediately.

Application
Our hard wax oil is hand rubbed onto the surface of the wood, applying it this way lightly abrades the surface resulting in smoother unblemished final finish. Two coats of oil are applied as per the manufacturer's instructions. If touch ups are required re-application is as easy gently abrading the surface and wiping over a fresh coat.

Ebonising
Ebonising is a process for darkening wood, giving it an appearance similar to ebony, hence the name. It is particularly used for pianos and fine furniture or where a rich black colour is desired. Ebonising works best on timber species with a high tannin content like Oak or Walnut.

Ebonised Oak turns the surface a beautiful rich black while leaving the deeper open grain alone,

creating a fantastic contrast and highly textured effect.

Ebonised Walnut turns the surface a beautiful rich black, due to it's closed grain structure the surface

is exceptionally smooth and gives that 'true' black effect.

Check out our ebonised Oak chairs below:

Finishes

Cushions

We can supply the Z-Chairs, Sofas and Footstools unfurnished however we have recently added the option to purchase cushions along with our chair frames. Cushions include our standard fabric provided by Clarke & Clarke. If you have a specific fabric in mind this can be upgraded at an additional cost.

Cushions are tailored to your exact requirements. Talk to us about your design requirements and we can pass your ideas to our local upholsterer (Fine Furnishings of Lindfield) who are a five minute walk from us; they will hand make each individual cushion to your own specification. We continue to be impressed with their quality of work and friendly nature.

We offer a few different styles to our cushions, some of these include:

Buttons: A series of buttons on the face of cushions available in different quantities.
Piping: A trim or edging formed by sewing a thin strip of folded fabric into a narrow tube and attaching it to the edge of a piece of fabric.
Stitching: Stitched detailing on the face of the cushions.

Handmade Z chair in American Walnut with grey cushions

Supplying your own cushions?

While we offer cushions to be purchased alongside our chair frames we offer the opportunity for you to source or even make your own. Here is all the information you should need.

Z-Chair seat cushion: 600mm x 600mm x 100mm -

Requires approximately 1000mm x 1400mm of fabric

Z-Chair back cushion: 600mm x 500mm x 100mm -

Requires approximately 1000mm x 1400mm of fabric

Z-Chair Footstool cushion 900 x 580mm x 100mm -

Requires approximately 2000mm x 1400mm of fabric

Cushions

Fabric

We include our standard fabric provided by Clarke & Clarke for our cushions which are available in a wide range of colours. If you have a specific fabric in mind this can be upgraded at an additional cost. Here is how:

If wanting to choose your own we recommend obtaining samples of fabric before purchasing by the meter, sample books can be sourced from your local fabric/upholstery shops. There are plenty of websites that sell fabric online and will show examples of them in use, again we recommend receiving samples before purchasing. Fabric will also need to be suitable for use as cushions and will be listed under the specifications.

You can either supply us with the name and reference number of the fabric you require and we can order it in direct to our upholster or you may supply us with the actual fabric.

We have in the past combined two contrasting colours of fabric for added effect by alternating the colours of each side which may be of interest.

In the downloadable PDF below we have included a list of fabrics we have used in the past as a starting point. The amount of fabric you need per cushion is listed above and if you are struggling to choose please send us an email.

Download PDF

Fabric