You may never have even considered putting an occasional chair in your home, feeling that you don't have the need. After all, if you need something extra in the living room, you can always bring a chair from the dining room or the kitchen. That will work in an informal setting, but if you are hosting a formal dinner party, or have important guests in attendance such as VIPs from your company or your spouse's, you want something that is going to make you look as though you are part of the hip and yuppie professional generation, not the middle-class jeans and tee shirt generation. In a formal setting, an occasional chair that matches or coordinates with the rest of your furniture is mandatory if you want to make an impression on those of importance.

An occasional chair can also be useful in the bedroom as a place to sit while dressing instead of on the bed. Not only is it likely to be more comfortable, it prevents mussing the bed after you have made it for the day. An occasional chair in the bedroom is also easier than a bed for putting on shoes and socks since it customarily sits lower to the floor. Some people place an occasional chair in the foyer if their home is set up to accommodate that use so that guests can remove their shoes and hang up their coats in bad weather. Not all are set up for that typical use, but it is worth mentioning.

Two of the most common areas for an occasional chair are the informal family or sunroom and on an enclosed porch. In these instances, many people don't become overly concerned with coordinating the occasional chair with the other furniture, but in spite of the informality, you will still have a more attractive room if your furniture coordinates. It will look very unattractive if you place a wooden occasional chair onto an enclosed porch that has wicker or resin furniture. You may not need to be as formal as you do in other settings, but you still want to make certain that each occasional chair you use blends in well with its surroundings.

When you use an occasional chair in a formal living room or even in a den or study, there is a need for it to be more attractive and to blend in better with its surroundings than in an informal setting. Therefore, when you are searching for the right chair, keep in mind the room where you are going to place it and the purpose it will serve.