ISO The Perfect Dining Chairs

Our dining chairs are so tired they literally scream at us each time we sit in them.  They creak so loudly, it's like they are saying: Put me out of my misery!

We've dithered forever about what to get to replace them.  We've spent so long looking, the pressure has now mounted, and we're on the hunt for the perfect dining chairs.

We have a long, narrow, farm table with a thick, oak top and black base.  What we really want are six to eight interesting, not too formal, antique chairs with character.  

Something like this spindle chair:

Ann Morris Antiques on 1stDibs.com

Or comfortable, English country chairs like these:

Jean Williams Antiques on 1stDibs.com

Or these fine but informal rush-seated chairs:

Spurgeon-Lewis Antiques on 1stDibs.com

Wouldn't those all be great?  Of course, it's not hard to find furniture worth dreaming about on 1stDibs. And not hard to buy it either if money is no object!  But the reality is, our chairs will get abused over the years, and we might be better off with less precious, new chairs.  Here's a roundup of some that have caught my eye.  I've listed prices where I know them.

Here's a worthy candidate.  It's Hickory Chair's Seymour Side Chair.  It's very traditional, but also a little modern.  Definitely a classic:

Prepare yourself, I'm going to go all over the dining chair map.  

How adorable is this little painted chair?  Although maybe not terribly comfortable.  It's Baker's Tulip Side Chair, based on a historical design from Charleston, SC.  I especially love the handle:

The wood seat on this industrial classic warms it up enough that I think it would look at home at our table amongst a collection of informal antiques.  The 1006 Navy Side Chair with wood seat from Design Within Reach. $725:

I took a look at the options at our nearest unfinished furniture store.  Would it be crazy to have a set of these Queen Anne arm chairs, and leave them unfinished? I would cover the seats in something with an earthy texture and color.  If that doesn't grab you, what about painting the chair in high gloss in a great color, like navy, ivory, rust, jade green, or chinese red?  For $159 plus paint, it would make quite an impact.  Since our table has a black base, I could see them painted black with a fresh blue and white fabric on the seat.

Here is another interesting option from the unfinished furniture mart.  A Beech Steambent tall arm chair.  I think this chair has to be black, or maybe red.  I think of all of them, I'm drawn to this one the most.  It's traditional, but unusual.  A little bit Asian, a little bit New England.  $164.

If I'm going to venture into the realm of modern furniture, it has to have character and warmth to help it blend with other styles.  I don't live in Philip Johnson's Glass House, for pete's sake.  We have a motley crew of inherited furniture and wedding presents, no style in particular predominating. IKEA's Reidar Chair would disappear a little, but be an interesting surprise once you really looked at it.  Did I mention it's aluminum?  What about the fact that it's stackable?  And how about the price?  $49.99.

Alas, none of them is perfect, so I will just have to continue the search.

Update over a year later: We finally found them!  

They are windsor chairs made in England by Batheaston.  We think they are cheerful and full of character.  They remind me of English pubs.  They are also supremely comfortable, and very practical.  I was drawn to a lot of chairs with rush seats, until I realized they would get caked with food over the next few toddler years, and no one near us in Wyoming can replace rush seats.  These chairs wipe clean and have even survived puddles of milk left overnight on the seats!  Here is the side chair of the same style:

And another chair made by Batheaston that I absolutely LOVE and was tempted to get instead.  But I decided a set of eight was a little much in this style:

Antique Prints

If you have a taste for fine art, but don't have the budget to match, antique prints are a practical and fun thing to collect.  The older prints are hand-colored, so they have a very human quality, and the natural fading and yellowing of the paper gives them a great patina.  And did I mention you can get them for a song?  

I remember reading that when Jackie Kennedy Onassis's estate was sold at auction at Sotheby's in 1996, one surprise was the dearth of original art.  She had mostly collected prints. Here is a photo from the auction catalog of her Park Avenue apartment.

via Habitually Chic

The first antique prints I bought were several James Sowerby botanicals that I found in an antiques store, and they hang on our bedroom walls.  Here is a print by Sowerby of Feverfew that is similar to the ones I own:

Printed in 1791, it's for sale on Panteek.com for $25.  Not a bad price for an 18th century antique.  There is no question our prints are the oldest things in our house.  

Panteek also has an eBay store, and if you are lucky, you can get prints there for even lower prices than on their website.  I have many that I bought from them on eBay for under ten dollars, because there were no other bidders.  They do a beautiful job of packaging the prints, and sending you copies of the title pages of the antique books out of which most prints are taken.  All of the prints below are for sale on their website.

This adorable little hummingbird print is as tiny as its subject.  The paper measures four by six inches.  Perfect for a powder room full of itty bitty curiosities.  It's a 1833 Jardine print for $45.

Here's a pretty John Ellis Coral print, published in 1786.  $165.

These egg prints seem to be everywhere I look.  The colors are wonderful, and they look right up to date, so I can see why.  1867 Morris egg print.  $29.

I love these Johann Weinmann 1737 prints for their boldness and scale.  These are large: nearly ten by fifteen inches.  This one of a horse chestnut is $245.  Everything about horse chestnut trees is beautiful: their form, their leaves, their flowers, their pods, and of course, the shiny brown horse chestnuts themselves.  Sometimes I daydream about a whole room of comfy furniture slipcovered in Rose Cumming's Chestnut Leaves  chintz, below.

But I digress...

Here is another from the Weinmann series.  How great would this look in a kitchen over a breakfast table?  I love the combination of olive green and burnt orange.  $395.

I'm sorely tempted by these 1912 French fashion prints, especially these shooting outfits.  My husband is a serious bird hunter, so to me, these are a hoot.  $165 each.

I could spend hours on Panteek's site.  I'll try to restrain myself to just one more favorite ... this 1815 Turpin print of an oak for $35:

Your friend, the upholstered headboard

I am a big proponent of upholstered headboards.  They are inexpensive enough to be the perfect first bed for a singleton's apartment or a new couple's first house, and if after ten years you tire of it, you can replace it with your dream four poster, or canopy bed, or whatever you wish.  Or pick a new upholstered headboard from the endless variety available and keep on updating ad infinitum.  But you may just love your first headboard so much you never change.  My mother's upholstered headboard endures after forty years.

Upholstered headboards also take up a lot less room than most bed frames.  My husband and I switched out an old cannon-ball bed for an upholstered headboard, and we gained a good nine or ten inches of space at the end of our bed.

Here's a classic from West Elm, available in Queen in this Jute for a mere $449.

Or it can be special ordered for the same price (as far as I can tell) in more than a dozen other fabrics, including this velvet in Lagoon.

Or this paisley:

I'm partial to the Stevenson Nailhead headboard from Ballard Designs (it's what I have) and I love it in their Parish fabric:

Even Target has upholstered headboards.  The Brittany in Aubergine velvet is pretty good looking, and even better looking when you know the price, $284.99 (on sale at the moment).

Not Your Grandmother's China

I confess, I have a weakness for china. And I have no business even thinking about china: my husband and I are lousy with family china from both sides, and it would be sheer insanity to acquire any more.  However, while Christmas shopping yesterday, I stopped dead when I saw this unusual pattern.  

It's Gien's Sultana.  If this were your china, I can guarantee that when they inherit it, YOUR great grandchildren will one day say, Wow, that great grandmother of ours, she was pretty hip.


Another favorite of mine is this one from Mottahedeh:

The pattern is Torquay Blue, but it's been discontinued and is only available now on eBay or through Replacements.  It also came in green.  It has to be one of the only china patterns with seaweed in it.

My all-time favorite, Royal Copenhagen's Blue Fluted, Plain really might have been your grandmother's china.  And her grandmother's grandmother's.  It's been in production since 1775, but I think it still looks totally fresh and modern.  I think it always will.  Apparently a few other people must agree, because Williams Sonoma is now selling it. 

A Few Rooms...

... that took my breath away when I first saw them.  These are some images I've torn from House Beautiful over the years and revisit frequently because they are JUST SO DARN GORGEOUS.

In Praise of Club Fenders

clubfender.com

No one's ever accused me of being a slave to trends.  I doubt there will ever be a club fender craze, but in my humble opinion, this survivor from the Edwardian era would deserve it.  What could be cozier than perching on an upholstered bench with your back to a blazing fire?  (Subtract the teddy bears above from this scenario, please).

It seems to me with some minor modifications, a club fender could look quite current.  Take a simple style like this one, which can be ordered in all kinds of finishes: 

clubfenderusa.com

If it were covered in a color that was unexpected and less staid than the traditional oxblood or hunter green, it might almost look hip.  Eggplant in a rich texture would look great.  And maybe the base in a black, wrought iron finish.  (I can't imagine polishing all that brass, anyway.)  Can't you picture it in a room full of jewel tones with a beautiful oriental rug?  How romantic!

  

Bombproof Upholstery

After enduring three dogs, one toddler, and bleaching, high-altitide sun, our sofa is looking pretty disreputable.  I've been thinking about recovering it in Sunbrella.  We have it on our outdoor daybed, and I've been impressed with how well it has held up, and how easy it is to clean.  So, in my spare time, while I'm not chasing said toddler and three dogs, I've had fun looking at Sunbrella and other outdoor fabrics online and have ordered a stack of swatches.  What's exciting to me is that so many of them don't look or feel like outdoor fabrics at all.  Take a look.  All of these are outdoor fabrics.

See what I mean?  This is Robert Allen's Arizona Way in Bluebell.  Doesn't exactly scream SAILBOAT, does it?  Now, this one isn't cheap, but I might splurge on a couple of yards for pillows.  It would look great with more pillows in:

Robert Allen's Cross Road in Bluebell.  Then maybe the sofa would be chocolate brown, like: 

Sunbrella's Heritage in Mink, which (bonus!) happens to be made of 50% recycled content.  And it's only about $16/ yard to boot.

Elsewhere, maybe on an arm chair, I could use a straw-colored fabric with a subtle patterned weave, like Kravet's Diamond Rafia in Amber, below, which would echo the diamond patterns in the pillows.  And maybe I should hunt for a rug in cream, navy blue, and chocolate brown (while I'm dreaming).  

Just Add Roaring Fire

It's nearly December in Jackson Hole, and that means evening comes around 4:30. I'm deep into Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts, a dark and engrossing book, and I have reading chairs on my mind. Maybe I always do. If I come across any furniture line or find myself in a furniture showroom, I usually look for chairs with just the right deep seat, high back to support my head, and arms that are right where they should be to prop up my elbows. It seems to me this might be the perfect reading chair, copied from a c. 1890 chair found in an Irish castle. The 6438 Chair from Baker:To me, this chair calls out for a mossy green velvet. And while I'm dreaming, why not do it right and add a summer slipcover in something cool like Peter Dunham's Fig Leaf, below?