CHAISE LOUNGE VS. DAYBED VS. FAINTING COUCH

WHAT IS A CHAISE LOUNGE? 

I had this question last week and it got me thinking. My immediate answer was “It’s like a really long club chair, think a club chair attached to an ottoman." But that answer really wasn't enough. I started to wonder, what separates the chaise lounge from the fainting couch from the daybed. In today’s society these terms can be used interchangeably like “couch” and “sofa.” But there are some distinct differences between them. 

All three things, daybed, chaise lounge and fainting couch are roughly the same size, smaller than a twin size bed, but longer than a soft club chair. But they each have their own distinct signature quality: 

DAYBED: will almost always be flat with a pillow or back at one or both ends and sometimes at all three sides. There are no “arms” on a daybed. 

Daybed with one pillow, photo by Hive Modern

Daybed with two backs, photo by Crate and Barrel

Daybed with three backs, photo by CB2

FAINTING COUCH: or fainting sofa, has a back and one arm, originally designed to give victorian women a place to catch their breath when corseted and after an immediate climb up a staircase. These were often placed at the top landing of a staircase for this very reason. 

Yikes!  Can you imagine that conversation… “Honey, I think I am going to stop wearing my corset because I keep passing out at the top of the stairs.” 

“Nah, I tell you what, we will just build you a little sofa at the top of top of the stairs, that way you can pass out for a few minutes after you walk up and then you can keep wearing the corset, cool?” 

Fainting Couch, photo by Perigold

CHAISE LOUNGE: (pronounced shayz lownj) Is very similar looking to a fainting couch, yet it always semetcriacal with either no arms, or two arms. If you are super fancy you will use the absolute correct spelling and pronoucination of this word, as Chaise Longue (french for long chair and pronounced shayz laang). When English speakers imported a new kind of sofa from France in the late 1700s, they transformed the name 'chaise longue' ("long chair") into 'chaise lounge'—which makes sense, since 'lounge' is an English word spelled with the same letters.

Chaise Lounge with two arms, photo by Karliel

Chaise lounge, armless, photo by Crate and Barrel

Note, all of the examples shown are “contemporary” in style but come in all kinds of styles from victorian, to modern to arts and crafts. 

Get your instant home staging price now by clicking here.

HOW TO HANG ART, PART 5: ON PANELING

At Spade and Archer Design Agency, we love to hang a series in complicated rooms with paneling.

A “series” is different pieces of artwork all in the same frame. When selecting the series we usually pick something that is at least 50% of the width of the paneling but no more than 75% of the width.  We generally hang one piece centered in the paneling at 57 inches above the finished floor. As you can see each of the panels in this picture are different sizes. However, our consistent artwork give them the look of being more consistent than not. 

Get your instant home staging price now by clicking here.

HOW TO HANG ART, PART 4: ON A STAIRCASE

At Spade and Archer Design Agency we love to hang a series of art in a stairwell.

A “series” is different pieces of artwork all in the same frame. Generally we hang a piece of art every third stair horizontally. We then hang that piece 57 inches above the finished stair. This way the corners of the artwork will form an invisible line that is parallel to the angle of the staircase itself. The end effect is clean, crisp and efficient looking without distracting from the staircase itself. 

Get your instant home staging price now by clicking here.

HOW TO HANG ART, PART 3: ABOVE THE SOFA

At Spade and Archer Design Agency we almost always hang artwork above the sofa if we can.

Note, sometimes there is a window or no wall behind the sofa, thus art would not work there.  There are a few rules here. We use a piece, or pieces of art that combined are, at least 50% as visually large as the sofa but no more than 100% as large as the sofa. In this shot we can see the artwork is about 75% as large as the sofa. We center the artwork on the sofa, and hang the artwork about 4” above the back of the sofa to the bottom of the artwork. Note, 4 inches about the size of your fist from the pinky to the thumb. 

Get your instant home staging price now by clicking here.

HOW TO HANG ART, PART 2: THE ART GRID

At Spade and Archer Design Agency we have made grided artwork a main stay. The art grid uses a few of the most basic design principles like rhythm, repetition, and scale to bring out the beauty in even the simplest piece of art. When hanging a grid use these guidelines to insure a successful adventure. 

1. Figure out how many pieces you want the grid to have then buy that many of the same frame. If the frames are all the same, the mats can be cut at different sizes to accommodate the art. We like to use artwork that is all different but on one general theme like cars, surfers, or black and white landscapes. 

2. Determine your spacing and use it for both the horizontal and vertical. If there is a six inch gap between two pieces next to each other, there should be a six inch gab between two pieces above and below one another.

3. Pretend that all the pieces combined make one piece of art. Then layout the outer edges of that piece both centered on the wall horizontally and 57” above the finished floor  to the middle of the piece vertically

Get your instant home staging price now by clicking here.