This chair also came from my mom's house, but before that I remember it being in the basement at my grandma's. Don't know if it was a family heirloom, or one of my grandfather's "finds". My mom had it redone for my bedroom just before I moved out. Like the gold chairs, the upholstery was shot; in addition the seat was blown out, so Bill added plywood just before last year's graduation party so none of Megan's relatives would fall through it. It has been a cat favorite for years.
Redone in the same small-pattern fabric I chose for the sides and back of the large sitting-room chairs, it's still a cat favorite. The upholsterers removed Bill's plywood insert, and added double webbing so it would be both authentic and strong. They also re-sized the cushion so it covers the entire seat area, and used super-heavy-duty foam. Isn't it GAWJUS???
A pair of these chairs came from my mother's house. The day they arrived we said, "We need to get these reupholstered as soon as possible!" Since then, every November they've been moved to make room for the Christmas tree, and Bill has said, "Let's get those chairs redone while the tree's up."
Well, of course over 20 years have gone by while I searched for someone to do the work, thought about fabric, and wondered how much this was all going to cost. Two years ago, I was talking to my friend Phyllis, who does a lot of beautiful refinishing, and I asked her if she knew someone. She emailed with a name; the email sat in my inbox folder for another year. Finally last fall I decided Bill's footstool needed to be fixed---I was tired of looking at it torn apart. I made The Call to Barrios Upholstery and got a quote over the phone which sounded pretty reasonable, so I said I'd be there the next day. They did a fantastic job on the stool. It was my test project for the chairs, so when the 2010 Christmas tree was put up, I took pictures and measurements and went to look at fabric samples.
I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, and Jaime Barrios was nice enough to let me bring sample books home to show Bill. Jaime also steered me away from the expensive fabric I was looking at, and toward some that looked almost the same for half the price. (How often does THAT happen???) The sample book had all their swatches color-coordinated, and when I showed my favorites to Bill, his comment was, "I like the onion-face." What? OK, so there was a large-repeat pattern on the same page as my favorite swatch. It had a design that could loosely be visualized as an "onion face"....in the right light, if you were standing on your head, and you were wierd to begin with.
It wasn't what I had in mind, but I liked it. And it was color-coordinated with the small repeat that I wanted to use on the back and sides. We ordered extra fabric to make sure the repeat would be centered (otherwise I knew I'd hate them). Phyllis talked me into "lightly" refinishing the frames before having them reupholstered. She made it sound really easy, but it was a lot of work! In addition to being generally dinged up, the frames had each separated on both sides, probably from the dryness in their years in Colorado. Lots of sanding, filling and staining, followed by multiple coats of spray varnish. At least I didn't have to worry about getting anything on the fabric!
They were worth all the work, though----they're now MY chairs!
