By Elizabeth Betts Hickman
The Nashville Tennessean

Quick design quiz: Do you think you have to have a sofa and some chairs in order to have a fully dressed family room?

Increasingly, the answer is "no."

For years, folks bought sofas and they bought club chairs, so-called because they were upholstered, had arms and grew out of the comfy chairs that populated gentlemen's clubs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

But to find a bunch of club chairs without a sofa in an average American living room over the past few years? Well, that was rarer than the rarest brandy in those clubs.

"I would say that the club chair evolved as the junior partner to the sofa," says Sharon Bosworth, North Carolina-based vice-president of upholstery design for Thomasville Furniture.

But she's noticed a change with the club chair.

"It's less of a second-class citizen and it's now growing to primary status seating in the room."

More people are choosing to just use club chairs because of their inherent flexibility - they come in a range of styles and can be easily moved.

"That's a great look," says Nashville interior designer Phillip Hill. "With a small space, sometimes four chairs around a cocktail table is all you can fit in."

Some points for picking good club chairs:

• Scalewise, it's important to fit the chair to the room. If you have tall ceilings and a huge room, a bigger chair is going to look more appropriate, although furniture is going back to more "normal" sizes after years of giant pieces.

"In club chairs, I think people tend to want a more human scale, but in a large, two-story great room, you need that large size sometimes," says Hill.

You can mix skirted and leggy club chairs. "You have to look at the room," Hill advises. "If there's a lot of legs (on the furniture), you want to have some skirted pieces, so it doesn't look like a big, crowded elevator."

• Consider club chairs in a room where you spend a lot of time. A sofa can fit three people, but "it doesn't engage three people in a conversation," says Bosworth.

• Indulge your personality with club chairs. Manufacturers make very sleek, smart contemporary chairs, totally traditional tufted leather chairs, and everything in between.

• Want to prop your legs up? Go for the ottoman, not the recliner. Many club chairs are made with matching ottomans, or comfy footstools, so it's easy to pair them together or use the ottomans elsewhere in a room (like under a table) until you need them.

Club chairs lend a lot of class, yet are made for comfort and ease. And they don't have to be formal if you don't want them to be.

Buying points

Ask about how your chair is made. Lots of new technology is going into chairs these days, so ask what's under the upholstery of any chair you're considering.

For instance, some chairs will have a foam base that's wrapped in down for a softer, yet still firm, seat. Ask about the frame, the springs and how to clean the fabric or leather.

Investigate the new breed of durable fabrics.

"On the cusp right now are antimicrobial fabrics," says Sharon Bosworth, vice-president of upholstery design for Thomasville Furniture. "It's the most amazing breakthrough, and it's just in the last 18 months."

Buy chairs in person. It's best to try before you buy when it comes to chairs.

"You must go sit in the chair," Bosworth says. "There's not a standard club chair ... sit in a lot of chairs and you will discover your chair. It's out there."