Life, work, travel and February have gotten the better of me. February in general is a difficult month, especially here in the Pacific Northwest. The wintry fun of the holidays and New Year has passed; spring feels beyond our grasp. (That rhymed…poet that didn’t know it. Ha!) My enthusiasm for house projects wanes as I simply try to re-coup after traveling to the UK last week and heading out to New York this week. I am ready for my house to be my home and sanctuary, which is difficult when everything feels half-done and I have no energy to touch the other half.
Enough whining already. That was a long rationalization for why I said in Monday’s post that I would share the update on the chairs with you ‘tomorrow’ when I am now doing it on Friday.
So today is the grand reveal of the multiple chairs I have purchased in the past six months at thrift stores. Remember this and these? (And oh my, the old furniture in the living room! So glad that is gone.)
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Today, they are fresh and new after being re-upholstered with fabrics I love. The two chairs will live in the living room, cozied up opposite Taylor when he arrives. I envision Taylor against the back wall (until we get my fantasy wall unit, of course) with the gorgeous ladies opposite him. (The ladies need names. Suggestions? UPDATE: The marvelous Michelle suggested Betty and Joan. Perfect!) The fabric I chose for the wood chairs is a warm neutral with green, orange and a wee bit of red woven in. It pulls in the green from the entry wall (Yolo Leaf 04), the orange from the dining room (Yolo Petal 01) and the hallway buff color (Yolo Air 04) perfectly. (Read about Yolo here.) The chairs still need a bit of sanding and refinishing on the wood, but they are still in pretty good shape and really, one thing at a time, people.
My favorite fave is the armchair.
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I love the fabric, a nubby deep charcoal gray, and I have visions of it in the corner of my bedroom, making a little reading nook with my imaginary but very cool mid-century floor lamp and side table. Kind of like the photo from Braxton and Yancey blog.
The legs still need staining, but we will get to that eventually as well.
So here’s the kicker: The re-upholstery was way more expensive than I thought it would be. I thought I’d spend $500 and it would be good. For the fabric, foam inserts and labor, we paid $1200 for all three pieces. That’s in addition to the $130 for the original purchases. Hmm.
At first, I thought, so much for being thrifty. But then I started looking around and decided I got a pretty good deal. Chairs like these are going for way more than that on Etsy and Ebay…one pair for $2500. Three chairs for $1300? Sounds like a good deal to me given the market for this kind of thing. Plus, the work and craftsmanship on the reupholstery is excellent. (I have a great resource in the western Washington area if you would like.) What do you think? Have you had reupholstery sticker shock? Was it worth it?