Hello, Bouclé! Here Are the 10 Best Chairs You Can Get in This Material

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Furniture trends are tricky to navigate. After all, we live in an environment where everything is always changing and TikTok virality plays a big part in determining products’ boom and bust cycles. Some design approaches, fabrics, and furniture styles are timeless, however (though we’d urge you against loosely calling them all iconic).

Among these is bouclé. Stemming from the French word boucler (to curl), this textile is made of “uneven yarn of three plies, one of which forms loops at intervals,” according to Merriam-Webster. The yarn itself is most commonly wool, though cotton, linen, and others are also being used to “bouclé up” furniture items (yes, that should be a verb now). The result is a nubby-textured, extremely touch-friendly fabric that exudes a certain kind of opulence. As Bambi A’Lynn Bratton of Bambi A’Lynn Interior Design puts it, “aesthetically, it’s like a classic Chanel suit.” Or, per Gabriela Eisenhart of Silo Studios: It “feels like you are being hugged by a cloud.”

At this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan, we witnessed no shortage of bouclé designs—and it seems like the fabric is here to stay. Things with real longevity don’t have to be boring, though. In fact, some innovation is essential to keeping things fresh, so designers are toying around with bouclé’s colorways, patterns, and even what they upholster in the material (bouclé barstools or headboards, anyone?). “We’re moving away from the standard white bouclé lounge chairs in favor of more interesting, unexpected upholstery applications,” says Ashley Ferguson, principal designer of Ashley Ferguson Interiors. “Whether it’s a custom headboard covered in a nubby rich-toned bouclé or a vintage chair reupholstered in a thick pile mauve bouclé, there are many ways to elevate the fabric and play up its textural quality.”

As for how bouclé chairs, specifically, can best complement surrounding decor elements, Grace Reina-Sandoval—a design associate at O’Hara Interiors in Minneapolis—says she prefers to balance out the fabric’s inherent softness “using leather, linen, or faux fur on other chairs or couches." Alternatively, she likes playing into that softness “using natural materials like wood or stone, which can complement the coziness of bouclé with a sort of rustic aesthetic.”

In the spirit of saying a full-hearted “oh, hey!” to bouclé, here are the top 10 bouclé accent chairs to “add to cart” as soon as you feel inspired. Cozy furniture is on your horizon for the second half of this year. What are you waiting for?

Womb Chair

Eero Saarinen’s Womb chair was a no-brainer inclusion in our most iconic chairs of all time roundup. Saarinen put bouclé on the map in 1948, when he took on a challenge by furniture designer Florence Knoll to create a chair that she could curl up in. As ELLE DECOR’s assistant digital editor Rachel Silva put it, the Womb chair became “the first piece of mass-produced furniture with an integrated seat shell made of fiber-reinforced plastic.” In other words, this thing is revolutionary. Today, you can snag the midcentury gem from Knoll in 17 different Classic bouclé color options. It supports all postures and positions, while being the ultimate balance of form and function.

Heart Chair

This stunning Verner Panton reproduction is the definition of an “accent piece.” It’s like if the Pop Art movement and Scandinavian modernism had a heart-shaped baby—one equipped with a molded fiberglass shell, upholstered in eye-catching bouclé wool, and treated to extended backrest wings you won't soon forget. It’s playful, quirky, and an ode to Danish design history (we can already picture it being the brightest addition to your home office!).

James Accent Chair

Sherpa is essentially faux sheepskin fabric, but there’s nothing fake about this accent chair by designer Sarah Sherman Samuel. It perfectly blends two hot interior design elements: curves (just look at that Ash Wood frame’s knobby corners!) and, of course, bouclé upholstery. A word of warning on the fabric’s light coloring though: As happened in a Brooklyn brownstone designed by Studio Dorion (featured in our May 2024 issue), white bouclé all too commonly suffers from tragic chocolate and/or red wine–related incidents. Avoid messes at all costs!

Beautiful Drew Chair by Drew Barrymore

Bet you didn’t expect to find a Walmart pick in this roundup. When Drew Barrymore dropped this Drew chair (part of her home collection, Beautiful), we were all eyes. Don’t discount it because of its retailer: The chair is roomy, comes with three plush pillows, and has a streamlined silhouette that swivels 360 degrees. You don’t need to break your bank for some bouclé-powered style.

Le Tuco Shearling Accent Chair

Interior designer Athena Calderone’s home collection for Crate & Barrel is so livable that she literally lives with all of the pieces in her Brooklyn brownstone. This bouclé chair’s shearling material is snuggle central, and don’t fear its muted color tone. According to Lindsie Davis, principal designer at Blueberry Jones Design, the material itself provides a workaround. “Like a favorite cozy cardigan, bouclé is the ultimate layering piece. Its texture adds dimension and character to a space, especially when pattern and color are more restrained,” Davis tells us.

Lilian Club Chair

Star designer and Project Runway winner Christian Siriano made waves when he launched his first-ever furniture collection in 2021. He chose nubby, cream-colored bouclé for many pieces (“This was a palate cleanser,” Siriano told ELLE DECOR a few years back), and the ivory bouclé lounge chair is no exception. Its triangular wooden legs add a quirky touch, but the best part might be that it doesn’t pill. Siriano used performance bouclé for this very reason: “I have a dog, and she runs ragged on everything,” he said of the strategic choice of material.

Bubble Chair

We’re losing our minds over how dainty and perfect this exclusive-to-Urban Outfitters chair is. The playful, low-slung frame? The bubblelike design? The soft, textural polyester upholstery? It’s hard to say no to all that. Unlike some of the bulkier chairs in this roundup, this item is easy to move around as you see fit—all thanks to its detachable legs.

Gwyneth Ivory Bouclé Swivel Chair

When this Gwyneth Paltrow and CB2 collab item hit the ground running in 2018, it was an instant hit. Years later, the Ivory Bouclé swivel chair still remains one of the retailer’s bestsellers and has inspired inspired many reinventions (especially on TikTok, where users are revealing their bouclé DIY hacks or affordable dupes). Paltrow’s goal with this one was creating a piece of furniture “that’s to be lived in and loved.” We surely love its swivel capabilities, classic silhouette, and adaptability to any space.

Gabriola Ivory Bouclé Lounge Chair

Remember when we said the Gwyneth Paltrow Ivory Bouclé swivel chair has dupes? This is one of them right here, folks. The chair is curvaceous, sturdy, and costs half the price of the aforementioned Paltrow version. Its fabric also passed the test for abrasion resistance, meaning the Gabriola is going to be your trusty friend for ages (eons!).

Fillmore Midcentury Chair and Ottoman Set

Why invest in a bouclé chair and ottoman separately when you can simply buy a set? This one from West Elm has a standard form but boasts a gorgeous Alabaster color, a sharply contrasting metal frame, and high-resiliency polyurethane foam cushions (code words for “built to last”). On West Elm’s seat comfort scale, the Fillmore set sits splat in the middle between soft and firm. Sweet slumbers wrapped in the warm embrace of bouclé are in your near future!

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