Insider Picks writes about products and services to help you navigate when shopping online. Insider Inc. receives a commission from our affiliate partners when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.
- When it comes to seating, too often you have to choose between comfort and convenience during transport or storage. With a great folding chair, you can enjoy a supportive, inviting chair anywhere and then tuck the seat away when it's time to get up.
- The Coleman Cooler Quad Chair is our top pick because it's sturdy, comfortable, and costs about twenty bucks.
To quote Winston Churchill: "Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down." Lying down is great and all, but when you're at the dinner table, around the campfire, relaxing in the backyard, or tailgating before the game, sitting is the preferable position. If you want to take a seat, of course, you'll need a chair. But what's to be done when you need extra seats for guests, if space is at a premium in your small apartment, or when you want to bring a chair along when camping or picnicking? Ah, you guessed it — the answer is the folding chair.
With a great folding chair, you and your friends or guests can enjoy the relaxing comfort of the seated position without cluttering up your home with big, bulky chairs. When not being used, a folding chair stows away in the closet, garage, or even under a bed. Many folding chairs are compact and lightweight enough to be carried to campsites, beaches, or other outdoor locations.
Other folding chairs look and feel so good that you can use them as a part of your everyday furniture — both indoors or out on the porch or patio.
In our guide, we have covered everything from semi-permanent outdoor and indoor seating to low-cost options for the extra chairs you only need a few times a year to highly portable options perfect for the outdoor enthusiast. As an avid camper and backyard-grilling enthusiast, I've researched quite a few folding chairs in my time.
Here are the best folding chairs you can buy:
- Best overall: Coleman Cooler Quad Chair
- Best for your patio: Trex Cape Cod Classic Folding Adirondack Chair
- Best for your dining room: Linon Keira Pad Folding Chair
- Best for camping: GCI Outdoor Freestyle Rocker Chair
- Best for buying in bulk: Flash Furniture Hercules Series Folding Chairs
Updated on 05/07/2019 by Les Shu: Updated links, formatting, and prices.
Keep scrolling to read more details about our top picks.
SEE ALSO: The best patio furniture you can buy
The best folding chair overall
The Coleman Cooler Quad Chair packs a lot of features into one low-cost folding seat, including a cup holder, a side pocket, and even a soft-sided mini cooler.
If you went to college any time in the past couple of decades, chances are good that at some point you sat in a Coleman folding chair. The same is true if you have gone car camping, tailgating at a concert or sporting event, or spent any time anywhere that people have deployed affordable, collapsible seating.
The Coleman Cooler Quad Chair folds down small enough to tuck into any closet, to fit under a bunk bed, or to stow away in the trunk of a car. Yet it can comfortably handle the weight of even a larger adult.
While cost is certainly one of the selling points of this classic folding seat, the Coleman Cooler Quad Chair is also notable for convenience. The chair features a built-in cup holder and a mesh side pocket into which you can tuck a book, a snack, or a flashlight. It also has a soft-sided four can cooler hanging off one armrest, so you can keep chilled beverages or foodstuffs close at hand. And finally, folding then chair up or popping it out for use takes all of four seconds, give or take.
With more than 5,000 reviews posted on Amazon, the Coleman Quad Cooler Chair enjoys a solid 4.4-star rating. One customer called it "a deal,""very comfortable," and "easy to carry."
And in its review, the product testers from Outdoor Gear Lab called this folding chair "affordable and versatile" and noted that it "packs up easy."
Pros: Great low price, multiple accessory features, large seat accommodates larger users
Cons: Lacking in back support
Buy the Coleman Cooler Quad Chair on Amazon starting at $24.99
The best outdoor folding chair
The Trex Folding Adirondack Chair is so well made that it will last for decades even if left outside in all seasons and weather.
Trex composite decking was developed as a wood alternative that stands in for natural building materials yet is significantly more durable and weather resistant. When my parents added a deck to our house back in the latter half of the 1990s, I remember thinking the stuff was pretty cutting edge. Now more than two decades later and after heavy snows, driving rains, searing summers, and lots of foot traffic, that deck remains in great shape. So just imagine how well a chair made out of Trex would stand up to age and the elements.
Now stop imagining it, because your dream already came true. The Trex Cape Cod Classic Folding Adirondack Chair is made of super strong, high-density and largely recycled wood-thermoplastic composite material. The seats look like traditional wooden Adirondack chairs, yet they will not lose their looks or degrade in quality even after years of outdoor use.
When you're not using your highly durable Trex Adirondack chairs, they can be folded up and tucked aside or stowed in the garage or shed, or just tossed under the porch — no need to worry it rains or snows or hails or heats up, these chairs will be just fine.
With dozens of reviews logged, Home Depot customers have given the Trex Outdoor Furniture Folding Adirondack Chair a combined average rating of 4.6 stars. One customer said he "was so happy with [his chair] that [he] bought the outdoor table and five chairs and two rocking chairs" to match.
Pros: Built to last for years, available in several colors, comfortable and supportive
Cons: Quite expensive
Buy the Trex Outdoor Furniture Cape Cod Classic Folding Adirondack Chair from the Home Depot for $248.96
The best folding dining room chair
Until you fold one up, the Linon Keira Pad Folding Chair looks like a permanent part of your dining room or kitchen table set.
A Linon Keira Pad Folding Chair is perfect for two kinds of household. The first is the smaller residence where space is at a premium. The second is the home that occasionally entertains large groups of people and wants to do so in style.
When folded down for use, these seats look and function just like a standard dining chair. They have wooden legs and frames, faux leather seat pads and backrests, and they will match the style of both traditional and contemporary homes.
Yet unlike most standard dining chairs, these handsome seats fold up into a slender enough package to be stowed in the broom closet, on a garage shelf, or even behind a door. A Linon Keira Pad Folding Chair is comfortable and supportive enough for daily use by someone weighing up to 250 pounds and is durable enough to last for years whether sat upon daily or relegated to infrequent use during holiday gatherings or dinner parties.
The Linon Keira Pad Folding Chair has a 4.3-star average rating from Amazon reviewers. One reviewer who "needed extra chairs for the dining room table for the holidays" sums it up well by saying they "look nice, fold easily, and are comfortable."
Pros: Don't look like folding chairs, subtle style matches multiple decor schemes, soft and comfortable padding
Cons: Legs may scratch some flooring
Buy a set of two Linon Keira Pad Folding Chairs on Amazon for $103.41 (originally $129.99)
See the rest of the story at Business Insider