A nursing rocking chair with an integrated footrest

The pile is dense and irregular, a grey shot through with paler flecks, and it catches light unevenly so the surface never reads as flat. The wood underneath is the opposite: pale, close-grained, sanded smooth, with the runners and the low stretcher left plain. Between the two, the footrest is out, held level with the seat on a dark steel arm. This nursing rocking chair shows its mechanism rather than hiding it.

The footrest comes forward from under the seat and stops level with it, so the legs carry on in the same line rather than dropping at the knee. The back is quilted in vertical channels, with a padded band across the lower back and a rolled bolster at the top. The pocket sits on the outer face of the arm. Underneath, the curved runners take the whole frame through a long, slow arc.

With the footrest out the chair occupies close to the depth of a small sofa, and that length is permanent: there is nothing to push aside when it is not in use. Behind, the runners need clear floor for the arc. The pocket adds nothing to the footprint, but it wants the arm kept clear of a side table.

Teddy pile and colour on a nursing chair with leg support

Two tones, and they sit differently against the same wood. The grey is not flat: paler flecks run through the pile, so daylight breaks across the surface and the chair reads lighter than its colour suggests, close in weight to the oak of the runners. The brown goes the other way, holding the light rather than scattering it, so the frame separates from the seat instead of continuing it.

What each tone shows is different too. Grey hides dust and shows crushing, where the pile has been sat flat; brown does the reverse, keeping its texture and picking up lint. Both answer to the same routine: a soft brush along the pile, a vacuum with the brush head before dust settles into the loops, and a barely damp cloth on marks rather than a wet one.

The way a chair carries the legs is the line to compare on, easiest to see across the seats with leg support, among the seats used beside a cot, and against the models with a curved base, where the motion is shared and the equipment is not.

Full leg support and reach on a nursery chair with a footrest

An ottoman stops at the feet. It sits lower than the seat, so the knee stays bent and the calf hangs between the two. The rest here comes out of the seat itself and holds the same plane, which carries the thigh, the knee and the calf in one line. Seat height follows from that: high enough for the feet to reach the floor when the rest is folded away, low enough that the line stays flat when it is out.

It suits a room where the chair stays put: a nursery corner, a bedroom by the window, and equally a living room, where the pale wood keeps it from reading as baby equipment. The frame is solid wood and steel, rated to 150 kg. What it does not suit is a walkway, since the extended rest sits at shin height.

The pile and the wood are what get noticed. What separates this nursing rocking chair from the rest of its type is the piece that comes out from under the seat.

Two points on the type

Neither of these is about this model in particular; both come up whenever a chair is chosen for feeding.

Do nursing chairs recline?

Some do, most do not. The category covers three builds: a fixed seat on runners, a glider on a linkage, and a recliner whose back drops as the leg rest rises. Reclining adds a mechanism, and a mechanism adds depth at the back, which is what usually decides it in a room with a wall behind the chair.

What height should a nursing chair seat be?

Low enough that both feet reach the floor with the knees at a right angle, which for most adults falls between 40 and 50 cm. Too high and the feet dangle; too low and standing up becomes a push rather than a step. Anything that raises the legs changes the answer, so measure with the rest folded away.