The Best Adirondack Chairs

The Adirondack chair was first designed in 1903 by Thomas Lee, a Harvard grad and law school dropout who found he preferred spending time in the mountains of upstate New York to studying law. After building several prototypes of a chair he could kick back in and asking his family to test out every iteration, he landed on the design we've come to know as the Adirondack chair: high back, an easy recline, and armrests with plenty of room. Eager to give his friend Harry Bunnell, a local carpenter, some off-season work, Lee showed him the chair and urged him to start crafting them himself. Bunnell began selling the chairs to locals, calling them "Westport chairs," and patented the design in 1905.

While the Adirondack chair has New York roots, it feels right at home in the South. Here, we've found the best Adirondack chairs for summer, whether you're perching on the front porch with a glass of lemonade or sunning by the lake with a watermelon margarita.