Polywood Presidential Rocking Chair Review 2024

Do you love the simple pleasure that a rocking chair provides?

Are you looking for something durable, well-made, and capable of supporting a generous amount of user weight?

If you answered yes to either or both questions, you will be impressed by what you read in this review.

We’ll quickly admit that we’ve mixed feelings about the Polywood Presidential Rocking Chair. In the following sections, we’ll tell you why, everything this chair gets right, and where it comes up short.

It gets an awful lot right, and we were impressed, even if we had one misgiving. If your interest is piqued, read on, and let’s look at this solidly built, versatile rocker.

Key Features of the Polywood Presidential Rocking Chair

It looks like a beach rocker. The type of chair you’d see parked next to a Pawley’s Island hammock. That was our first impression when we saw the chair; yours is likely similar. It’s just a fun, casual air that makes you want to grab a drink (probably with an umbrella), sit, and rock your troubles away.

The company’s name and the material the chair is made from are a bit deceiving, though. Since the word “wood” is in the name Polywood, you might think this is a wooden or composite wood chair.

It is not. It’s made from recycled plastic. There’s nothing wrong with that, but here’s our misgiving, and we’ll get it out of the way early: This chair is marketed as an indoor/outdoor rocker.

That’s technically correct. Nothing would stop you from using it indoors, but…it’s plastic. It looks plastic. No one will be fooled into thinking they’re sitting in a wooden rocker.

As such, in most cases, it will stick out like a sore thumb if you try to use it indoors. Even so, there are places where it would fit in. A screened-in porch is technically indoors. A sunroom is indoors. It could work in a game room. So…we counted it as an indoor/outdoor rocker, but only just. You can put a rocking chair in your living room if you’re looking for a rocking chair. This is not the chair you want, but it has viable indoor uses.

If you want to find other outdoor rocking chairs, click here.

Color Options

Having said that, if you decide you want one of these, you can get them in a wonderful selection of colors, including:

In other words, there are enough neutral and bold colors here to achieve exactly the look and feel you’re after, and we love that.

Chair Specifications

Moving beyond the look and feel of the chair, let’s take a closer look at the stats that define it. Here they are:

The first thing that jumps out at us is the chair’s weight. Plastic chairs are known for being delightfully lightweight, but that’s not the case here. This is a surprisingly burly piece of furniture, heavier even than many all-wood chairs of similar size.

It also supports a generous four hundred pounds of user weight, making it a good choice for bigger, taller folk. The seat height and dimensions support this. While 20” isn’t as wide as we’ve ever seen for a big and tall chair, it’s not bad and should be a good fit for most users. The same goes for the seat height, which misses the start of the big and tall seat height range that typically starts at 18” and runs up to 22” or more.

Adjustability and Comfort

Few rocking chairs have adjustable features, and this one falls into that category. Although nothing about the chair is adjustable, it is remarkably comfortable. If you’d rather not sit on the plastic surface, adding a padded cushion and possibly a padded seatback is easy enough.

In our view, the chair is a template in its default state. A blank slate. If you want to enhance its comfort, you can easily do that to your heart’s content.

Assembly Is Required

Almost all the furniture you can buy online comes unassembled. It just makes shipping easier. This chair follows industry conventions in that regard. You’ll get a box with about a dozen pieces if you order one of these.

Fortunately, the assembly process is straightforward, the production quality is high, and the instructions are clear. Figure ten to fifteen minutes to unpack the chair and sort the pieces and another twenty-five to thirty minutes to assemble it, and you’re done.

That’s not bad, but you can pay someone to assemble it. The expert assembly service is pricey, and we don’t recommend it. Still, if putting your furniture breaks you into a cold sweat, you may find it a worthwhile addition.

Pros and Cons of the Polywood Presidential Outdoor Rocking Chair

We like almost everything about the chair, except that it’s marketed as an indoor/outdoor rocker and barely qualifies for the former category. We wouldn’t go so far as to call it a case of false advertising, but this is only an indoor rocker in the most generous sense of the term, and that did put us off a little.

Even so, this is an undeniably great chair, offered by a fantastic company. Best of all, the Polywood Presidential Rocker comes with a mind-blowing twenty-year warranty, which is heads and shoulders better than any other chair in its class we’ve looked at.

Polywood Presidential Rocking Chair Review Conclusion

It’s a rock-solid design that ages gracefully and looks good in any outdoor setting and a few indoor settings. It supports a generous user weight, accommodating more than 95% of the market. While we didn’t fall in love with it, we very much like the Polywood R100BL Presidential Rocking Chair and highly recommend it. It’s a good piece of furniture that will serve you well.

Recommended Reading

Official Manufacturer Support

REFERENCES & RESOURCES

• Polywood, Official Brand Website.
• Presidential R100 Rocking Chair Assembly Instructions.
• The Complete Guide to Buying a Rocking Chair, Polywood Blog.
• The Difference Between Wood Composite, Veneer and Laminate, SF Gate.
• How Does Recycled Plastic Park Furniture Benefit the Environment, AAA State of Play.