Look for Less: Anthropologie vs. Pier 1 flower power chairs

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Let’s give a nice big hand to the garden-variety armchair. Done up in bold floral prints, the seats that once conjured Granny curling up with her needlepoint have now become hip. Based on French and English country chairs, they’re the go-to accent pieces for livening up contemporary living rooms and boudoirs.

A case in point: The chairs above share a similar profile, with gently flared arms and lathe-turned legs. One is the Blythe chair from Anthropologie and costs just under $1,600 (shipping is $150 extra). The other is a Pier 1’s Liliana, available at the company’s retail stores for $379.95.

Keep reading to find out which is which and why one costs four times as much as the other.

Though one has bright poppies and the other has a more muted lotus print, it’s the smaller details that account for the vast difference in price.

Pier 1’s Liliana, top right, is somewhat slimmer: 35 inches high, 29.5 inches wide and 32 inches deep.

The slightly shorter Blythe from Anthropologie, top left and shown in three-quarters profile at right, is 4 inches wider and 2 inches deeper, due to its gracefully pitched back and petite rolled arms. A quick look reveals that the Anthropologie Blythe has a more feminine and curvaceous silhouette than the squared-off Pier 1 Liliana.

Made in China with espresso-stained hardwood legs and covered in a printed polyester, the $379.95 Liliana is an example of cost-effective upholstery. The Blythe chair, however, goes the heirloom route.

It is crafted in the U.S. in the time-honored eight-way, hand-tied seat-construction technique (ka-ching) and has more ornate turned legs in front and saber-like legs in back, both finished to look like antique wood.

In addition to those production costs, it also is covered in a pricier cotton-linen fabric that was not bought off the shelf but created exclusively for Anthroplogie based on a vintage wallpaper swatch found in Montpelier, France. The are-you-sitting-down price is $1,598, available online from Anthropologie.

-- David A. Keeps