When I saw these on the street, my heart went all a-flutter! I've been wanting some chairs for our back patio but hadn't come across any that I thought I could lug home. I've seen some great ones at the flea market, but without a car, it's not exactly a snap to swipe any set. I was thinking of just getting 4 mismatched random chairs so I could bring one home at a time (I always like the look of mismatched chairs), but when I saw these on the street right near our place, I knew they were the ones! And FREE!
They need some TLC, as you can tell from this second picture, but I think I can spruce them up. I like chippy painted things but these are way too worn--not just paint chipping but dirty looking too. I tried to scrub what looks like soot off, but it doesn't come off, so a coat of paint it is. I'm going to paint them a cream color, but I was having a hard time deciding on a fabric for seat cushions. I want them be colorful and look good with all the colors of the flowers in the garden,
and look good with various tablecloths. So, what fabric to choose? I was thinking instead of choosing just one fabric that I'd make patchwork chair pads like
Alicia's patchwork pillows I made a while back. So cute! I've started cutting the squares, but I'm no square cutting pro and I think this is going to take a while. I'm making strips and using a rotary cutter, but I wonder if maybe I'm missing some key to cutting lots of them quickly. If you have any patchwork cutting tips, let me know! After pics coming soon.
Update! I just changed my mind! I was looking over at some totes I made last week (I should show you those!) and I used ticking for the exterior fabric. I decided I'll do the same charcoal grey ticking for the chairs pads as well. Classic and it will go with all the colors of the flowers and my tablecloths. I'm afraid all the colors in the patches might be too busy.
15 comments:
Cool chairs, such a great find!!
From Carys of La Ville Inconnue
i adore these chairs- i would have gone mad finding these....on the street!!! lucky gal- good kharma!
i went back and checked out your beautiful cushions....the chairs covered in anything like any of those fabrics would be perfect!
enjoy them for all of us...
melissa .....
What a a fantastic find!!! Sometimes you just need to wait and the perfect thing comes along... So great they were near your place too, nothing worse than seeing something fab out of lugging distance!
Great find! Just think... in the summer you'll be sitting outside on them in the garden, impressed by how pretty they are (and comfy too, with those cushions you've got planned) Well done!
Wow! So lucky. Love the chairs.
Congratulations, you´ve found fantastic beautiful chairs!
Can´t wait to see the "after" images.
Great find! The chairs are lovely!
great find, your idea for sprucing them up sounds cool. Look forward to seeing the results
Ooh ~ nice find! Lovely spindles: can't wait to see the finished products. :) I too, love curb-shopping. Between thrift stores, curbs, and flea markets, I'm a happy girl!
cool chairs...can't wait to see what you do with them.
Reminds me...we actually found a chandelier on the sidewalk once..some one was redoing their kitchen and threw it out. Looks like something from Pottery Barn...so of course KennyRogersLookAlike snatched it up and wired it up and it hangs in our gazebo in the back yard! Love to find things...it's so much more fun than actually going out and buying.
yay to free chairs! can't wait to see how they scrub up :)
Am beginning to think that your imagination knows no bounds. love your chairs and cushions.Your blog is really inspiring to all of us without that gift of repurposing old items and making them into something beautiful.
Lisa's MOM
I think those are Thonet chairs, and if they are, you got a better deal than you think. I have two, even older than yours, I believe the Thonet company (been around since the early 1800's)made the first 'bentwood' chairs. Mine's legs, including the bent part, are just like yours, but my seats are solid wood with the indentation for the 'behind' and a different backrest. You can google this company and also google pics of their older pieces, to see if you can find yours. One of mine had an old company sticker on the bottom, but I read that some will have the company name or the distributing company's name, engraved somewhere on the bottom or legs.
Mine are still natural wood, but I have been considering painting them and looking for tie on cushions like you did.
Awesome street find!!
PS forgot to mention, I still have not been able to find my chairs online, over the years there have been many many different designs...and I also wanted to say that mostly the Thonet chairs were made for cafes, bistros, ice cream pallors etc.
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