The Orion Nursing Rocking Chair

A wingback nursing rocking chair in camel teddy

Camel registers first, and the teddy pile holds it matt: a warm mid-brown with an orange cast, no shine anywhere on it. The wings come next. They start at the arms and rise in one line to the top of the back, squared off rather than rolled, with a separate headrest cushion sitting between them. That outline is what makes this nursing rocking chair read as furniture rather than equipment.

Sit down and the wings close the sides of the field of view. The headrest cushion sits at the top of that enclosure, so the head meets padding rather than the frame edge. The arms are wide and flat-topped, level with the seat cushion, and a pocket runs down the outer face of each one. Underneath, the dark uprights drop onto two pale curved runners, and the whole shell moves on them.

A wing back takes more room than its footprint suggests. The silhouette is closed on three sides, so it reads as a solid block from across the room and pulls attention towards whichever corner it sits in. Behind it, the runners need travel for the arc. Beside it, a narrow table works better than a wide one, since the wings already occupy the space a lamp would want.

Camel teddy and matt light on a nursery rocking chair

Camel was settled before anything else, and the whole shell is cut from it, with no contrast panel and no piping. A warm tone this saturated does something specific with light: it absorbs most of it and returns a little, so the chair stays legible at dusk when a pale one would go grey. Against light oak the two warm tones agree without matching. Against a white wall the outline hardens.

On camel the loops read as texture rather than pattern: the tops catch the light and the gaps between them go a shade darker, which is what stops a large expanse of one colour from flattening. Care follows the pile. Vacuum with a soft brush head, brush the loops upright where a body has pressed them down, and lift spills with a barely damp cloth rather than working them in.

Silhouette is what separates these chairs once the fabric is set aside: the seats made for feeds share the use, and everything that moves on runners shares the motion, which leaves the outline as the thing to compare.

Structured wings and side pockets on a wingback nursing chair

A flat-backed nursery chair gives the same seat and stops at the shoulders; above that, nothing. Here the wings carry on past the ears and turn inwards, the headrest cushion fills the gap between them, and the arms are wide enough to rest a forearm along rather than on. Two pockets take what would otherwise sit on the floor. The frame is solid rubberwood, rated to 136 kg.

The shape is not tied to a nursery. A wing back holds its own at the end of a bedroom, beside a fireplace, in the corner of a study where a low armchair would disappear. When the feeding years end, the chair moves rooms rather than leaving the house. What a flat back cannot do is hold that second position.

The wings do the work the fabric gets credit for. A nursing rocking chair shaped this way is judged from across the room before anyone sits in it.

Where the shape comes from

Two of these are about the wings. The third is about the floor plan.

What is a wingback chair?

An armchair with panels that rise from the arms to the top of the back, enclosing the sitter on three sides. The wings can be squared, curved or flared, and they usually sit forward of the backrest rather than flush with it. The form dates from seventeenth-century England.

Why do wingback chairs have wings?

Draughts. The original chairs stood beside open fires, and the panels trapped the heat coming off the hearth while keeping cold air off the neck and ears. Central heating removed the reason, and the wings stayed, because the enclosure they create turned out to be the point.

Where should you put a nursing chair in a nursery?

Two constraints decide it. The runners need clear floor behind them, which rules out flush against a wall, and the seat wants a sightline to the door so nobody has to turn round. After that it is about light: near the window for daytime, far enough from it that a night feed is not lit from behind.

Type: Nursery Rocking Chair
Upholstery: Teddy Fabric
Padding: High-Density Foam
Frame: Solid Rubberwood
Rocking Base: Curved Solid Wood
High Backrest: Yes
Side Pockets: Two
Maximum Load Capacity: 136 kg
Assembly: Simple and Quick

• Free delivery anywhere in the UK
• Dispatched within 24 to 48 hours, delivered in 2 to 5 days
• 14 days to change your mind
• Guarantee against defects or damage on receipt
• Customer service available 7 days a week