RX Red/Grey Chair: reading 70x47x106cm before you order

Some listings tell you everything and some tell you a size. The RX Red/Grey Chair (Wooden Legs) is the second kind: the page carries one line, 70x47x106cm, and the name supplies the rest, which is that the chair is red and grey and stands on wooden legs. Rather than dress that up, here is how to get useful decisions out of the figures, and the short list of things to ask before you order.

What the listing actually says

That is the complete published specification. No covering material, no pattern description, no seat height, no frame detail. Anything else you read about this chair elsewhere is not coming from our page.

Reading the three figures

They are not labelled, and the order is not stated. The reading that makes sense of a chair is 70cm wide, 47cm deep and 106cm to the top of the back, because 106cm is far too tall for anything but overall height and 47cm is shallow for a footprint. On that reading:

• 70cm is wide for a dining chair. Almost every other chair in this category is listed narrower than that. Plan the seating from the larger figure, not from habit.
• 47cm of depth is modest, which is useful where the gap between table and wall is tight.
• 106cm is tall. The back will stand well above a standard table top, and will meet a low window sill, a dado rail or a wall-mounted radiator when the chair is pushed back.

Confirm which figure is which with the shop before you order several. On a dimensions-only listing that is not fussiness, it is the only check available.

How many fit along your table

At 70cm, allow a little air each side so a chair can be pulled out without shifting its neighbour.

Behind the table, allow about 47cm clear to push the chair back and stand, and nearer a metre where anyone has to walk past an occupied seat.

What to ask before you order

• The seat height, and the seat width and depth separately from the overall size.
• What the covering is, and how the red and grey are arranged on it.
• What the wooden legs are, and how they are finished.
• The frame material, the filling and any weight limit.
• Whether the chair arrives built or needs assembling.
• Whether chairs are supplied singly or in pairs.

A phone call settles all six, and it is worth making before a set of six chairs is ordered on the strength of one line of text.

What it sits with

If a wooden leg is what drew you in, the Berry Fabric Chair (Oak Legs) and the Florence Berry Mixed Chair (Oak Legs) are the fabric chairs on oak, and the Bentley Beige Chair (Oak Legs) is the plainer option in the same vein. All of them carry more detail on the page than this one does. Compare them on the Dining Chairs page. Delivery is free within 50 miles of our Glasgow store and £50 beyond.

Measure your table edge and the gap behind it, ask the six questions above, then order the RX Red/Grey Chair (Wooden Legs) once you have the answers.