For the last few months I've been working on a fun project involving significant transformations of several rooms in a gorgeous old Tudor here in Seattle, with the primary goal of infusing the spaces with more color, interest, and, well, quirkiness.
For the master bedroom, one of the action items was to replace an outdated, overstuffed "chair and a half" with a more modern (yet not too contemporary) option, with a higher back to add some variation of heights to the space. We planned to upholster the lucky winner in a canary yellow faux leather...hello, gorgeous!
It didn't take me long to find the perfect candidate, the Tom Dixon by George Smith chair shown above. The only hitch? It's $8,000. For one chair. For some of you, that may seem reasonable (and if so, please call me!), but for me and my client, that was a bit of a stretch.
Time for round two. The contenders (aka options less than $8K!)?
A few options from Ironies:
This lovely from one of my favorite designers, Victoria Hagan:
And our favorite of all, this gorgeous wingback from Duane Modern:
Still, our favorite from Duane was going to run close to $5K, not including our custom fabric.
When I presented the much-loved Astrid chair from Anthropologie in chocolate brown print as a reading chair for the Living Room, it was an aha! moment. The client had previously sat in this chair and loved it, AND it was a comparitive bargain at $1,300. Done and done.
The best part of all? I found an orange one on craigslist for $800! Since we were planning to reupholster it anyway, we didn't care what color it was.
I love making money, but I also love saving my clients money.... And thus concludes Operation Reading Chair.
Stay tuned for some great before&after photos in the next few months.
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9 comments:
What a good find! Can't wait to see the before and after.
Fabulous, I love such thriftiness, and my clients always register this on the up side as well!
Looking out for them is one of my goals and making it fun. Love your post!
Victoria
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I have an Astrid chair and love it! I hope your client does too. Please post a picture of it once reupholstered...can't wait to see the final result.
Great story you got here. It would be great to read more concerning that matter. Thnx for giving this material.
Joan Stepsen
Girl geeks
Leah, do you have a good upholster that you use in town?
I am dying to find a pair of bergeres like these: http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6190871
and have looked high and low. Any ideas on where to find them under $1,000/each?
HDO, I have a few upholsterers locally who I have been very happy with: Manning & Son in U-Village and Walenta's, which is just a few blocks away from our old shop.
I see chairs like the ones you seek much less often than Louis XV styles...they don't even seem to be reproduced as freely. I would suggest trying Pacific Galleries and perhaps Susan Wheeler's new shop (where our old one once was!). I have a few other ideas to research for you back at the store, so stay tuned.
And don't forget to save a related eBay search...that could prove fruitful.
Happy hunting!
HDO, There's always the Hannah Chair from Oly:
http://olystudio.com/products/seating/pdf/hanna%20chair%20ottoman.pdf
Won't be under $1K, but if you get desperate, it's pretty similar.
Keep an eye on 1stdibs.com, too. Maybe you'll get lucky with a Saturday sale.
Leah
Awesome, thank you Leah for the great suggestions - you are always a great source of information! I need to visit the Georgetown shops to see what's new. In the meantime, I'm saving up for chairs and sitting on lawn chairs in the living room.....
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