Unidentified "Ugly" Chair  

SandraG,
I'm afraid that everyone else is correct. That is a very, very ugly chair.
That does not mean that it might not posses a homely kind of charm to someone, (maybe you) or that it is not a very comfortable place to sit (they seem to sell an awful lot of lay-z boy recliners). However, an honest critique of it's aesthetic appeal comes up sorely lacking. That is to say… it’s just ugly. There is really no redeeming qualities to the design or construction of this particular chair. While I'd like to say that the upholstered seat and back have a "floating" quality suspended within the wooden frame like some of the great Danish chairs, that the upholstered arm is a soft, rounded, counterpoint to the geometry of the rigid wood arm/ legs, and that the original fabric has a rich textural "hand loomed" quality, but I’m afraid that would really just be gilding a turd.
The fact is that the chair seems to exist in an aesthetic no-man’s land. I can’t decide if it would look best in a double-wide trailer which is caked in a thick film of cigarette smoke, or in the musky basement of a 1978 split level ranch in a small town outside Columbus, Ohio. It’s one of those pieces where you think, “Did someone decide to try and make the least attractive chair possible?”. Did they make a conscious decision to give the wood arms and legs the appearance of having been built in a junior-high shop class? Was the seat and back originally much more slender before they decided that it should thick enough to match the giant saddlebags which pose as upholstered armrests? Were they looking at soda crate construction when they chose how best to build the seat frame? Did they consciously decide to make the legs not taper gracefully, but rather look as stiff as 1”X2"s from the lumber yard?
In a way, it truly is a remarkable piece of furniture. One which denies the long history of fine furniture construction and design. I think it really should be saved for posterity. While it should be easy for any competent upholstery shop to redo, I think it would be a shame to reupholster it, or worse, simply remove the arm covering, I think it would be terrific if someone would carefully restore it, making sure the fabric is expertly conserved to retain the integrity of it’s original design and insure that it is saved for posterity so that future generations can see how low popular furniture design and manufacture had sunk in the mid-to late 20th century. Just like I hope a museum somewhere acquires and maintains the gigantic over-stuffed lounge chair upholstered in “mossy oak” camouflage fabric which I saw first hand at a Big Lots store here in the Midwest.
I hope you do not think my reply negative, critical, or just the result of a few cocktails on a Friday evening. And I hope you really like the chair. Because, like Kenny Rogers once sang in “The Coward of the County”, “…there’s someone for everyone, and Tommy's love was Becky” which I always took to mean that no matter appearances or what people think, there is always a special someone who will see virtue in that which others scorn; and given time, everyone will find their one true love.

This made me laugh so hard!!!! I am not offended in the least.:) I think it's hilarious. Trust me, I get people's horror when they see this chair....maybe I'm just attracted by the complete weirdness and ugliness of it? Or I'm interpreting my inability to stop staring at it as a good thing? It makes me smile in some perverse way. Imagine that there is a matching sofa out there somewhere. I do think that would be too much.
I think my first thought when I saw it was, "What's going on here?" Some sort of craziness, I guess. Please don't judge my taste based on this chair....I really do like nice things. I am still keeping this chair, though, so I can see other people's expressions when they set eyes on it.

I think it's mostly the big plaid and the padding on the armrests that put it over the top into uglyland. I think reupholstery would be a pretty simple job. A beautiful fabric in a solid or very fine scaled pattern would improve it a lot, even f you kept the armrest padding the way it is (which, by the way, isn't complicated to do at all).
It will still look clunky and unstylish but not to the degree that it does now. That huge scale plaid accentuates the boxiness of the frame and doesn't do it any favors at all.

Yeah, I get it. The form is kind of fun. Agree with previous posters that the fabric is most of the problem. Though even that makes it true to the period: It screams "1974 California living room with Fleetwood Mac on the hi-fi," and I can appreciate that.
An upholsterer should be able to replicate the armrests without too much trouble, seems to me. They're just doubled straps with hems, not all that complicated.

Most eloquently put, pegboard.
Best,
Your Old Aunt
ps, I sprayed decent vodka out of my nose..all over. it's a mess.

This chair should go to the Smithsonian.
As toomanychairs said, it IS the 1970's and this chair perfectly exemplifies how design got all hobbit and hippy and plaid after the best 20 years ever.
It is a rare thing when something can be this quintessential. The world needs to save this as much as it needs to save the best stuff. Context is everything. Or at least something.
You ARE a very brave poster for putting this up. You must have great self confidence.
Anything that inspires Pegboard to reply at length, and in turn, Mark to spray vodka through his nose-- is indeed special.
I enjoy the way this chair is militantly bland. A very specific kind of bland though. Wildly bland. It could use a companion piece… perhaps a round sculptured carpet wall hanging -- in in a mushroom motif -- in multiple browns and beiges. (I believe it is still available on ebay)

I'm glad I posted it because I've enjoyed all of your comments so much! You can tell from the chair that I have a good sense of humor.....or a warped sense of humor. Anything that gets such a strong reaction has to be worth keeping. I can call it a "conversation piece". My family, by the way, wants to set it on fire.