Furniture Leg Styles
Furniture legs are upright pieces of material that hold up furniture. Various types of furniture have legs, including chairs, dining tables, beds, desks, dressers, and side tables. Furniture legs have many styles, which are often associated with specific time periods. The styles and designs of furniture legs have changed and morphed gradually. Often, the legs of antique pieces reflect the period in which they were manufactured.
Types of Furniture Legs
There are many types of furniture legs, each with a characteristic shape of the period. Some types of furniture legs include:
Adam legs: The legs of Adam furniture are usually straight. Beyond being straight, they can be square, tapered, or turned, amongst other styles. Adam furniture was produced between 1760 and 1792 and was named after its creator, Robert Adam, an architect and furniture designer.
Baluster legs: Baluster legs have shapes reminiscent of vases with areas that curve outwards and inwards, creating wider and narrower parts. Balusters were introduced in the mid-17th century.
Bobbin legs: Bobbin legs are associated with a turned style of various decorative shapes. This style of furniture originated in the United States in the 17th century.
Cabriole legs: The cabriole leg style features two curves in opposing directions, curving outward at the upper leg and inward toward the foot. This style was used early in ancient China and Greece, but was revived in Europe in the late 1600s.
Chair with cabriole legs featuring the characteristic curves in opposing directions
Image of a chair with cabriole legs
Flemish scroll legs: Flemish scroll legs feature winding scrolls and were developed in the mid-to late-1600s. There are usually scrolls at the bottom and top of the leg that coil in reverse trajectories.
Fluted legs: The style of fluted legs features repeated vertical indentations around a leg. In these legs, the vertical markings are inset into the leg, rather than being raised. This style was common in the mid-to late-1700s.
Chair with fluted legs and the vertical indentations characteristic of this style
Example of a chair with fluted legs dated near the turn of the 18th century
Jacobean legs: Jacobean furniture is heavy, large, and has perpendicular lines. The leg style, which was popular in the early 1600s, features turned legs in the overall shape of a bulb with significant decoration and carving. Later, the style featured baluster legs.
A Jacobean style chair, with perpendicular lines
Image of a chair featuring the Jacobean style
Marlborough legs: Marlborough legs have a straight, linear shape with a cube at the foot. The plain style was used in the mid-1700s in American and English furniture production.
Queen Anne legs: The Queen Anne style of furniture was lighter and more refined than styles of earlier periods and had cabriole legs, often with pad feet. This style originated in the early 1700s and became common in the United States in the 1720s.
Reeded legs: Reeded legs feature vertical channels evenly spaced around the leg. This style is similar to fluted legs, but the indentations of reeded legs curve outward instead of inward. Reeded legs were prominent during the transition from the 18th to the 19th centuries.
Saber legs: Saber legs are curved and often turn outwards towards the flow. They are named after the curved sword, and the legs often have a modest taper. This furniture leg was popular in the 1700s and early 1800s.
Sheraton legs: The Sheraton style of furniture is named after Thomas Sheraton and was popular from about 1780 to 1820. Sheraton legs are straight, rounded, slight, and often fluted. Often, the back legs also flared out.
Spider legs: Spider legs are narrow, dainty legs that often curve. These legs are commonly used to support round table surfaces and were common from the late 1700s to the early 1800s.
Spiral legs: Spiral legs featured a winding pattern moving down the leg. This style of furniture leg is considered to have originated in India but was introduced into a European design in the mid-1600s. The style was common in English design in the second half of the 17th century until 1703.
Example of furniture with spiral legs and details. Spiral legs have a winding pattern.
Image of a bench with spiral legs and details
Trumpet legs: The shape of trumpet legs is reminiscent of an upside-down trumpet, which is where the name derives. The legs are turned, often with many curves, and were popular in the late 1600s.
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Furniture Feet Styles
A furniture foot is the part of the furniture that touches the floor, usually coming from the furniture leg. Like furniture legs, there are many types of furniture feet, and styles are often associated with a specific period of furniture manufacturing. They are made from a variety of materials, and the styles of furniture feet have evolved.
Types of Furniture Feet
Furniture feet serve to lift a piece of furniture off the ground and can even appear on furniture without legs. Styles of furniture feet are associated with a point or range of time in history, and many of the styles have been reused throughout different time periods. Some furniture styles also showcased many different types of furniture feet. For example, William and Mary furniture that was produced from the late 1600s to the early 1700s had ball, bun, club, and cloven feet.
Some of the types of furniture feet are:
Arrow feet: The arrow foot shape is a cylinder that narrows in width as it approaches the floor. The top of the cylinder also features a ring that connects the furniture leg to the foot. Arrow feet were often used in the 18th century on Hepplewhite and Sheraton pieces.
Ball and claw feet: The ball and claw style of feet features a bird’s claw gripping a ball. This style moved from Europe to the United States in the early 18th century and was commonly used in Queen Anne and Chippendale furniture.
Example of the ball and claw foot style, where a birds claw is holding a ball
Image of a ball and claw foot on an 18th century chair
Block feet: Block feet, as their name implies, are shaped like blocks. Block feet were first seen in the 1600s, but were commonly used in the United States and England in the mid-1700s.
Bracket feet: Bracket feet are shaped like the letter L and often have mitered corners. This simple furniture foot design was part of the Sheraton and Hepplewhite furniture designs.
Bun feet: Bun feet are shaped like round disks or squished balls. The bun shape is often wider on the bottom of the foot than at the top. This style of furniture feet became prominent in the early 1600s, and its popularity continued for more than two hundred years. Bun feet are a variation of ball feet.
