New Dining Room Chairs!
You know how when you lose something, you inevitably find it when you stop looking? I'm starting the think that the same thing happens when you're questing for "the perfect thing". I yammered on for years about wanting to replace our brown vinyl dining room chairs and as soon as I stopped looking, I found a set I liked! I actually stumbled across them at HomeSense, and hauled them home from Toronto (I love having a truck).
Although they were but humble chairs from Jysk, our brown chairs were seriously comfy, so every chair I contemplated paled in comparison. I'd recently decided to just spring for new upholstery, but the cost of that seemed daunting - as did attempting to tackle the job ourselves. And, if I'm being honest, I was leery about spending hundreds to reupholster cheap, made in China chairs - even if they were comfy, and we hadn't had a single problem with them in nearly a decade of use. (We picked them up for $69.97 each, 50% off their original sticker price because they were discontinued and on clearance).
The new chairs are supremely comfortable and the blue tweed upholstery is gorgeous. It's eerily similar to the fabric I had chosen for re-upholstery - and a perfect match to my stolen Lotte lamps. Actually, this shade of blue pops up in the living room artwork, the dining room painting - even in the kitchen, courtesy of one of the little enamel pieces above the stove and my cathrineholm bowl.
They're solidly built and made in the USA, which I love. They have a slightly curvier, more interesting shape which is nice, plus the silver upholstery tacks are a fun touch! I like that they look modern because although I love mid-century, I don't want my house to look like a time capsule. I would have preferred walnut(ish) legs instead of espresso, but I could easily paint or re-stain them later. I recently added furniture with a really dark stain somewhere else in the house, so the finish doesn't look too out of place here. They were $149 a chair, which isn't bad for something manufactured in North America. I'm always willing to pay a bit more for stuff that isn't made in China!
The first day that I made the switch, I couldn't get over how much brighter and airier the dining room felt. I hadn't realized that the darker chairs made the room feel heavy and really grabbed my attention. Now my eyes travel over the dining room table to the lake view beyond. Next to go is the dark brown ottoman in the living room. It's falling apart, so we plan to build a custom one - with storage - this fall, and we'll probably still stick with the blue tweed I was ogling.
For anyone who is on a similar hunt for comfy dining chairs, these are made by Sole Designs. I scooped mine up at HomeSense (like HomeGoods, for my American friends). But the company sells their chairs on Amazon too, and I found the same shape in an insanely adorable orange and aqua, Mondrian-inspired print. They make a mid-century inspired ottoman with the same pattern and I want it. Sole Designs also sells this style chair in a sweet pink Greek key pattern and busier blue and pale purple fabric. I'll keep you posted on how these wear. I already gave them two coats of ScotchGuard (which I've never, ever used) in the hopes of protecting the upholstery from stains. I've grown very accustomed to wipe-able, dirt hiding brown vinyl!
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