Glider Rocking Chair

When it comes to rocking chairs, there is often a significant division between those who prefer a regular rocker and those who prefer the glider rocking chair. Regular rocking chairs are designed on the bottom so that they naturally rock when you lean forward or backward in them. These are what most people visualize when they think of rocking chairs. Glider chairs, however, are a bit more complex in design. Rather than being shaped so that they naturally rock, the top of the chair fits into a gliding mechanism. It also responds when you move back and forth, but it does so in a smooth linear fashion.

Some people prefer a glider rocking chair because it seems more stable to them. They aren’t constantly leaning forward and backward as they would be with a regular rocking chair, so they never feel like they might fall either way. New parents often prefer a glider rocker for just this reason; they feel that both they and their babies are safer in them, although the babies still get the benefit of being rocked.  Some people simply prefer the gliding motion to the rocking motion. Most of the time it has nothing to do with mechanics or safety, it’s simply a matter of personal preference.

A glider rocking chair can be used indoors or outdoors, depending on what it was designed for. Indoor chairs are usually used in the living room, family room or nursery, and more often than not they are built for one person to sit in. Most gliders that people use in the living room are cushioned, and many of them have matching ottomans. Outdoor gliders are usually fashioned more like porch swings. They hold two or three people comfortably, and even if they are cushioned, they’re usually designed to be fairly weatherproof.

If you’ve decided that you want to buy a glider rocking chair, one thing you can do that can help the process is decide on some features before you go out shopping. Do you want a glider rocker for the nursery? Do you want one with permanent cushions or removable cushions? Are you looking for an indoor or an outdoor glider? Write down whatever you feel sure that you want in a glider. You can always change your mind, but it’s good to have a guideline. After that, you can start looking for the places that sell what you’re looking for.

Almost any store that sells a regular rocking chair will also sell a glider rocking chair. This includes most major furniture stores and some department stores. You can find a good selection of gliders at places such as Sears, JC Penney, or well known furniture stores such as Ethan Allen. You should keep an eye out for discount furniture stores as well; even these will often sell some of the more popular brands of glider rockers, such as the Mission Glider or Shermag Glider. You should also check online. Places such as therockingchaircompany.com and thefurniture.com have a wide variety of glider rockers at reasonable prices, and they offer free shipping. Depending on what type of glider rocker you buy or where you buy it, you could pay anywhere from $200 to about $800.