Chairs Like the Eames Lounge: Alternatives Worth Considering

People go looking for an alternative to the Eames Lounge Chair for one of two reasons. Either it costs too much and they want the look for less, or they’ve seen it in every design magazine for a decade and want something else entirely. Those are opposite problems, and they have opposite answers.

We sell an Eames replica, so we have a stake in one of those answers. We’ll be upfront about which. But this is an honest roundup, which means it includes the chairs we don’t sell, the ones that cost more than the original, and the moments when a different chair really is the better call.

First, Why Are You Looking?

Most of these lists skip the part that actually matters: a different icon won’t save you money.

The Womb, the Barcelona, the Egg, the Papa Bear, the chairs everyone reaches for as Eames alternatives, all cost about as much as a genuine Eames or more. They’re alternatives in style, not in price. So if the reason you’re here is the roughly $8,700 a real Eames and ottoman costs, swapping one design icon for another doesn’t solve anything. We lay out the full cost picture in our guide to what an Eames actually costs, and the short version is that a good replica is the only route to the look for less.

If instead the reason is that you simply want a chair that isn’t an Eames, then a genuinely different piece is exactly right, and the rest of this is for you.

The Other Lounge Icons

Ranked by how close they actually come to what the Eames does, which is recline you into a mid-century object you’ll keep for thirty years.

The Womb Chair (Eero Saarinen for Knoll, 1948) is the closest true substitute. It’s a real lounge chair built to be curled up in, with the same sink-in comfort the Eames offers, in a completely different shape: one continuous rounded shell rather than segmented plywood. If what you love about the Eames is the way it holds you and you’re open on the look, this is the one to try first.

The Papa Bear Chair (Hans Wegner, 1951) is its equal in comfort and craft, and arguably its better. It’s an upholstered wingback with sculpted armrests rather than a plywood-and-leather piece, so it reads warmer and more traditional. It’s also the most expensive chair on this list by a wide margin, running well into five figures new.

The Barcelona Chair (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1929) matches the Eames for pure icon status, but it does a different job. It’s upright, architectural, and firm, a chair you sit in rather than recline into. Beautiful in an entryway or a study, wrong if you wanted to put your feet up.

The Egg and Swan Chairs (Arne Jacobsen, 1958) are sculptural statement seating. The Egg swivels and has a high enveloping back; the Swan is smaller and more upright. Both are more about the silhouette in the room than about sinking in for an evening, and both sit in the same premium bracket as the others.

The Platner Lounge Chair (Warren Platner, 1966) is nearly a piece of wire sculpture, a curved steel-rod frame with a cushioned seat. Gorgeous, firmer than it looks, and at the top of the price range here.

The Butterfly or Sling Chair (the BKF, designed by Bonet, Kurchan, and Ferrari-Hardoy in 1938) is the honest budget option. A leather sling hung on a folding steel frame, it’s a genuine mid-century icon and the one chair here that costs a fraction of the rest. The tradeoff is real: it’s a sling, not a cushioned lounge, so you’re buying the pedigree and the silhouette while giving up the deep comfort the Eames is known for.

The pattern across all of them, the Butterfly aside, is that the alternatives to an expensive chair are also expensive chairs. That’s worth knowing before you start shopping for one to save money.

The “Eames-Inspired” High-Street Versions

There’s a middle layer worth mentioning: mainstream retailers like West Elm and Article make chairs styled after the Eames without being replicas of it. West Elm’s Paulo, for instance, pairs a leather-wrapped bent-ply seat with Eames-style legs and runs around $1,500, roughly what our replica costs.

The honest catch is in the word inspired. These aren’t reproductions of the Eames design; they borrow its language, then change the proportions and the construction to make them their own product. That’s completely legitimate, and some of them are lovely chairs. But if the specific thing in your head is the Eames Lounge Chair, an homage will always land a little to the side of it. You get the flavour, not the chair.

If It’s the Eames You Actually Want

None of the chairs above solves one particular problem. Every one of them is a different chair. If what you actually want is that one, the segmented plywood, the low recline, the leather-and-rosewood object you’ve had in mind the whole time, then no alternative is going to scratch it, because the alternatives are, by definition, not it.

The only way to get the actual Eames look for less than the roughly $8,700 a genuine one costs is a faithful replica of it. That’s the chair we make. Our Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman is $1,499.95 for the pair, built with top-grain Italian leather, a moulded birch plywood shell, and a die-cast aluminium base, shipped from US stock in days and backed by a 5-year warranty.

It is not the licensed original, and we’ve written honestly about exactly what you give up by buying a replica instead of the real thing. What you get is the same design, in the room, at about a sixth of the price.

Shopping With Us? What Else We Carry

Straight talk, since we’ve just spent several hundred words on chairs we don’t sell: we don’t stock a Womb, a Barcelona, or a Papa Bear. If you go looking for those, you’ll be buying them somewhere else.

What we do have, if you’re furnishing the room around the lounge chair rather than replacing it, are a couple of honest companions. The Hans Wegner CH07 Shell Chair is $399.95, an affordable Danish accent chair for occasional seating, which is a different job from a recliner and priced accordingly. And the Ligne Roset Togo gives you deep, low lounge comfort in a completely different, frameless shape if that’s the direction you’re leaning. Neither is an Eames substitute and we won’t pretend they are. The rest of the range is in the collection.

So Which Chair Should You Choose?

Sort yourself by the reason you started reading.

If you want a different icon and the budget is there, the Womb or the Papa Bear are the closest true lounge substitutes, and either will serve you for decades. If you want the Eames look without the five-figure commitment, a replica is the answer, and ours is $1,499.95. If you want a genuine design icon on a real budget, the Butterfly is the honest pick, as long as you know you’re getting a sling rather than a recliner.

All three are good chairs to end up with. The mistake is only ever buying one while secretly wanting another, and you now have enough to avoid it.

FAQ

What is the best alternative to the Eames lounge chair?

For pure lounge comfort in a different shape, the Womb Chair by Eero Saarinen is the closest true substitute. But if what you want is the Eames look specifically rather than a different chair, no alternative delivers it, and a good replica is the more direct answer.

Is there a cheaper version of the Eames lounge chair?

Yes, but not among the other design icons, which cost as much as a genuine Eames or more. The only genuinely cheaper route to the Eames look is a replica. Ours is $1,499.95 against roughly $8,700 for the licensed original.

What chair is similar to the Eames lounge chair?

The Womb Chair (Saarinen) and the Papa Bear Chair (Wegner) are the closest in comfort, both being true sink-in lounge chairs. The Barcelona, Egg, and Swan are icons of the same era but do a different job, sitting you upright rather than reclining you.

Does West Elm make an Eames chair?

No. West Elm and similar retailers make chairs inspired by the Eames, borrowing its bent-ply and leather language, but they aren’t replicas of the design. The proportions and construction differ, so they read as their own product rather than as the Eames Lounge Chair.

What’s the difference between an Eames alternative and an Eames replica?

An alternative is a different chair, a Womb or a Barcelona or a Papa Bear, that competes with the Eames on style or comfort. A replica is the Eames Lounge Chair design itself, made without a Herman Miller license. If you want a different look, buy an alternative; if you want the Eames look for less, buy a replica. We cover the replica question in full in our original vs replica guide.