This design owes much to the settle which Mackintosh designed for the hall-palour at 78 Derngate, Northampton but is simpler, having none of the carved and pierced decoration on the front apron nor the massive figured arms. The wider splay of the legs and smaller squares of the latticework in side and back panels, however, give it a lightness of touch which the more massive Derngate settle lacks.

A drawing showing one wall of the Dug-Out (Glasgow School of Art) shows this settle painted yellow but all of the other furniture designed for the room is shown black. Both this example and that at Glasgow School of Art were originally painted yellow and traces of the original paint can be found beneath the later coats of black paint.