American Trails Extra-Wide Premium 18" Director's Chair Mission Oak Frame with Natural Canvas

Bought this for my wife and it suits her fancy. The seat was extra taunt when first installed and wanted to prevent the legs from locking in place. About ten minutes of sitting on it and the fabric had stretched just enough that the legs locked fine. Now it works as expected and is surprisingly comfortable.

First let me say that I like this chair a lot, I've always been a fan of director's chairs and this one's pretty nice. It's not as nice as one I used to have where the back rest was larger and actually swiveled, but oh well, that was a long time ago. I plan on using this chair as an occasional chair only in my studio apartment, and for that purpose it will be ideal. It's substantial and heavier than I thought it would be. The color of the wood seems true to the product photo, but the red canvas seating and back are pretty bright! I still like it though...What I'd like to tell you though is my experience with it straight out of the box. It was easy to set up the seat and back pieces, but I couldn't get the braces to lock in flat. Not possessing great upper body strength, I tried different approaches without success. I ended up using my rubber coated hammer handle, standing and pushing down with my whole weight on the braces. I knicked my pinky the first time, and now I have a bruise, so be careful if you have to use this method.The frame had several little knicks and mysterious tiny holes here and there, so I used a furniture scratch repair marker to disguise those. The sliders on the feet weren't to my liking as well, so I unscrewed them and replaced them with cup sliders for carpet use.All in all this is a great chair, it just needed a tweaking...

(WESTERN ORLANDO, FLORIDA, USA):We have an H.O. Slot Car racing club for us old guys. (We might be trying to relive our youth ?!?!) I wanted an elevated chair with a back support for us Old Guys with back issues, and tall enough to view the entire track when racing - so we can adjust car speeds as necessary to conform to the track design..This chair met the needs! If we need to store it (which we don't) , we would remove one screw on the footrest, then it can be folded as desired. It supports the weight "of the guys", two of whom are 300#. It seemed flimsy when I unpacked the chair, but worked fine. We have two short members, and by busing the foot rest, then got into the chair well. The canvas seat and backrest are better than chairs with hard seats..(MIGHT ALSO BE GOOD FOR FOLKS IN THEIR BILLLIARDS ROOM.).We ordered four chairs as a trial, and will now order four more for non-racers to watch the track until their time to race. I do recommend the chair for others to use. Delivery was "as scheduled".

There are some design deficiencies that anyone considering these chairs should consider. As a frame of reference, I have had two other director's style chairs for about 25 years. They came from suppliers in Los Angeles who provide for the movie industry. One of those chairs is the 24" "make-up chair" height. There are two pluses for this Amazon product: it's price; and it being oak. But other factors render it inferior. The first thing one will notice once it's assembled is that the foot rest is permanent, not hinged. This renders the chair unable to be folded without removing the foot rest. The hardware used for that foot rest is not heavy-duty. I weigh 205 pounds and can stand on the foot rest of my old oak chair with zero stress because the hinge bolt is probably 3/8" steel! You wouldn't dare try that on this product's foot rest. The next two issues work together to make this a very uncomfortable chair. The back legs seem to be longer/taller than the front legs which makes the seat tilted forward (front edge low). The vertical members that the fabric back spans are set at the wrong aft angle/pitch. They are almost vertical rather than the roughly 4-5 degree reclined pitch on high quality chairs. A well-designed directors chair is superbly comfortable because the seat is level or slightly pitched aft, and the back is also pitched back so there is a mild recline. These chairs have neither, and therefore make you feel like you are being pitched out of the chair. You cannot "settle in." If the manufacturer overcame these issues, it would be a great product for the price. Amazon highly cooperative on the return.

For years now, my dad has talked wistfully about the director's chairs we used to have at my childhood home, but because he's gotten older and is much more frail, I wanted to be sure to get something sturdy, and easy for him to get in and out of. This chair fits the bill, and he loves it!I put it together in less than 15 minutes, and the most time consuming part was attaching the footrest, which, incidentally, seems to be the least stable and most wobbly part of the whole chair. The seat and backrest are wider than director's chairs traditionally are, but it's that much more comfortable for the generous seat. The canvas that comes with it, in this case, is a beautiful, deep blue, and is made of a thick and sturdy cotton duck-like weight. The wood frame is beautiful, and well crafted.I've been looking for a deal on one for myself since putting together dad's! ;-)

I bought this for doing makeup in during the “Getting Ready” phase of my wedding day and it worked out perfectly. It’s very sturdy and I read a few reviews saying it’s hard to snap together but that wasn’t my experience at all. I put this together myself in about 20 minutes and most of that time was me just unwrapping the pieces. It’s not too heavy but also doesn’t feel tippy or cheaply made, it did the job and I couldn’t ask for better!