3 min readSome interior design styles—like Georgian, to name a major one—call for perfect symmetry. To our delight, though, most, especially those currently embraced in 2026, welcome an imperfect look for the sake of livability and comfort. Nowhere is this more evident than in the dining room, where designers are not only skipping a matching set of identical chairs but embracing a collection of completely different seats.
That said, design experts are not grabbing a few random chairs and throwing them around a table willy-nilly. There’s a logic to the process that allows the dining room to still look and feel cohesive without the stiffness of exact uniformity. If you’re in the market to add a bit of whimsy to your dining space, you’ve come to the right place. Ahead, explore all of the ways to mix-and-match chairs as elegantly as possible.
Rely on Antiques
We love an antique because, unless it’s part of a set, it’s one-of-a-kind. Stelly Selway co-principals Benjamin Stelly and Tanya Selway feel the same way, which is why they surrounded this farmhouse-style table with a collection of chairs that have almost nothing in common except for the facts that they’re all wood and they’re all antiques discovered at Round Top Antiques Fair in Texas. “There's an Alice in Wonderland feel to the dining experience here, so we wanted each of the chairs to have its own character,” says Stelly. “There's something that's both formal and beautiful about the construction of each of them, but it's balanced with the casual nature of being mix-matched,” Selway adds.
Enlist Pieces You Already Have
Designers tend to keep a treasure trove of vintage and antique pieces tucked away in their own private arsenals until they find the perfect spot to whip them out, and for Lauren Buxbaum Gordon, partner at Nate Berkus Associates, her beloved chairs finally got their moment in the sun. “When styling a table, I always pull from my existing vintage accessories so that it’s coming from a collection consistent with what’s already around my home,” she explains. “Keeping scale and palette in mind is also important.”
Play With Whimsical Shapes
Britt Zunino, partner at Studio DB, has only one note to her clients: “Expect the unexpected!” She and the rest of the design team at the firm like to have fun experimenting with design styles, and that ethos is quite clear in this breakfast nook, where two different chairs face a built-in banquette. “Our work doesn’t shy away from mixing unexpected materials, colors, or furniture from different eras,” Zunino explains. “We have a lot of fun in homes where we lean into the original architectural details of the space while using furniture and accessories as an opportunity to infuse the more playful personality of the people living there.”
Keep Seat Heights Consistent
Yes, all of these chairs are equal in terms of composition and charm, but that’s not why designer Garance Rousseau thinks they work well together. For her, the winning element is the seat height. “Beyond that, I don't have strict guidelines,” she admits. After all, varying chair heights would make for an awkward meal at the table, with some people being a little too low and others propped up a bit too high.
Choose Sleek Silhouettes
Ryan Maxwell, founder of Apartment Therapy, was highly inspired by Scandinavian cottages, which would explain the myriad pieces of wooden furniture. Of course, the floral Josef Frank wallpaper takes center stage, but the mismatched chairs are certainly worth paying attention to, especially since there are three varieties: black spindle back, pale armless, plus a bench. Ryan kept everything very simple; there’s no unnecessary ornamentation that would make any of them pop too much.
