Archive for category Furniture
Mad Men Chair – Part 1
Posted by Adam A. Ries in DIY, Furniture, Interior Design on March 2, 2014
That’s what I call it, because I am enamored with mid-century modern furniture as so often seen on the popular AMC television series Mad Men, set in New York City in the 1960’s. The fashion, the furniture, and the social context they build in this series had me hooked. And now I have my own Mad Men chair.
It was probably over a year ago, shopping with a friend at a nearby independent furniture store that I first saw it. The store was having a “retirement & going out of business sale.” Lots of new beautiful furniture, but even on sale it was all a bit out of my budget. First floor, upper floor, full of wonderful items to draw inspiration and future wants. But then the basement is where I saw it. A mid-century upholstered office chair, low to the ground and on casters. It just had “that look.” But it was broken, in the corner, and probably not supposed to be out where the shoppers could see it.
So I found the owner and asked her about it. She laughed. In a store full of deeply discounted new furniture, I wanted the broken old chair in the corner that was probably supposed to be in the trash a week ago and someone forgot about it. “Yep, that’s what I want!” I offered her $10, and the owner declared, “sold!”
Turns out once I got it home, it was a pretty popular chair made by the furniture company Paoli out of Indiana. The Paoli Chair (turns out they made lots of similar styles, all now very popular on Ebay). My chair even had the original label stapled underneath, dated 1963!
Unfortunately, I started taking it apart before thinking to take photos. Can you tell I’m not a professional blogger? Anyway, below is another chair just like it I found on Etsy (with a price tag of over $250!), but in much nicer shape.
Just imagine it all scratched up, with the armrests almost entirely worn of their color, and the upholstery so dirty you want to wash your hands after just touching it. And not yellow. The chair I bought is green, not yellow like the one above.
So here is the main body of the chair, seat removed, and starting to strip the finish.
I even took photos of removing the upholstery, to make sure I could re-upholster it the same way and get it looking as professional as possible.
I also saved the fabric. Why? I knew I wasn’t going to re-use it on the chair, but by saving the pieces I have an exact pattern of each piece to use when cutting the new fabric I plan to use.
Once the fabric and all of those staples were removed, I used a liquid furniture refinisher to strip all of the stain off of the chair Then I wiped the wood clean with mineral spirits and a clean rag. This cleans any remaining refinishing liquid off the wood. Then I let the wood dry completely.
Next comes sanding. You could tell where the old chair had constantly banged up against a desk or wall, it almost looked as if a dog had chewed on it. I knew I couldn’t sand those spots out completely without altering the shape of the chair, but I smoothed the spots over best I could. The rest of the chair needed just light sanding. A few spots will still show a little when it is re-stained, but that gives the chair character. It shows the piece of furniture has been used and loved before I came along. When refinishing furniture, I’m not trying to make a piece look brand new, but rather respect the craftsmanship and give it another life.
I’ll reveal the finished chair in the next post. But below is a very similar chair by the same company that I used as inspiration for the finished product.
I’ve always been a fan of monochromatic gray, and I think gray together with wood tones results in a masculine look. The gray fabric on this one is a little light, but I really like how the back rest and seat are upholstered with the stitched lines to give it a little interest. I’m not entirely sure how to obtain that effect, especially since I’ve never done anything more than a simple fabric covered board for a seat. But I strive for perfection, and I’ll post photos of the finished chair here soon, because it turned out great!
To Dream
Posted by Adam A. Ries in About Me, Furniture on March 1, 2011
Everyone has a dream job, and I know mine. It would be owning and operating an architectural salvage yard. But not so much a yard, more like inside a building. It would be part antique mall, part furniture store, contain items from deconstructed buildings, and offer furniture restoration and modification services. We would offer to disassemble doomed houses and buildings rather than see them bulldozed and land-filled for eternity, and in turn sell the salvageable building materials for new construction or renovation. But since I am only scheming dreaming at this point, I thought I would post photos of Etsy treasures I like that would be similar to items sold in my enormous warehouse of cool things store.
These vintage drawer pulls would look sweet on a refinished chest of drawers or old apothecary cabinet. Customers in my store would find these in the Hardware aisle.
Without a doubt we would have an aisle for those great big heavy antique wooden doors which have so quickly been replaced by fiberglass and steel. We would offer services like fitting a leaded glass window into the opening, as well as fitting a new weather-tight frame around the door so that it would be ready to install in your house.
In the Small Storage aisle, you would find interesting little drawers and cabinets of all sizes and materials. This one in rustic green would look great on your kitchen counter as a recipe card holder. Keep it as is or spray paint it something bold to make it a standout piece.
Since you can’t always find great wooden dining chairs in matching sets, although I got lucky at this particular auction, we would have a great selection of mismatched chairs for you to assemble into a dining set. We could either stain them all a dark chocolate brown or paint them obnoxious colors for that bohemian vibe (Monica’s apartment on Friends?).
There would be more architectural items than we could know what to do with. Like this wooden gem, probably an enormous newel post topper or something of the sort.
And then the light fixtures. Indoor, outdoor, ceiling and wall; every design style you could name, we would have an authentic light fixture (or two) from that period.
So much for dreaming. Back to the day job. But if you stumble upon this blog, say, 20 years from now, perhaps it will be the website of my own architectural salvage company.
Note: I haven’t been compensated to highlight the above items listed for sale on Etsy, I just enjoy sharing some the unique finds and treasures that I see while browsing the thousands of items for sale.
Looking Back, to the Future
Posted by Adam A. Ries in About Me, DIY, Furniture, Home Improvement on January 1, 2011
Yes, there may be a reference to the title of one of my all time favorite movie trilogies in this post title. No, it wasn’t completely intentional, but I allowed it to happen.
2010 may have been a short year in terms of this blog (it all started with this post back in October), but it has been anything but uneventful. It began with an internship with the American Greetings headquarters outside of Cleveland, OH, in the retail merchandising department. Alongside my internship, I was forgoing sleep fully engulfed in my thesis project; studying the rise and fall of the indoor shopping mall, researching heavily a suburb of Akron, OH, revealing the dangers and worldwide epidemic of electronic waste, and proposing a revitalization of an empty big box retail building there. I designed an exhibit of my work which was displayed at my college’s Spring Senior Show, which is always a networking event to look forward to. Although not completed to my own severe standards (I feel all designers are their own worst critics), my thesis presentation went well. Graduation came just a week or so later and it was back home to NW Ohio. There was a great visit to Chicago with three of my best college friends somewhere in there, too.
My DIY adventures were just as busy this year in between school and work. Most occurred before this blog began, but I imagine I might recount them on here at sometime.
- There was a partial kitchen renovation with cabinet refinishing and cabinet building, installing a vented exhaust hood, and painting walls and trim.
- There was a partial bathroom renovation which involved tearing up the subfloor to fix a leaking toilet drainpipe, laying a ceramic tile floor, and stripping and repainting the vanity. I built a shallow wall cabinet for added storage, painted the walls and ceiling, and installed a new light fixture.
- Installed two entry doors, one fiberglass with a leaded glass window, the other steel with a screened double hung window. Both required full removal of the old door and rebuilding of the threshold sill with treated lumber.
- I helped my sister completely redecorate her bedroom with dual tone walls. I built and she painted a 12′ shelf to run the entire length of one wall, with trim continuing around the other walls at the height of a plate rail. I assisted her in painting a vanity dresser white and found her a wooden 4-poster bed on Craigslist.
- To add storage to the utility room, I salvaged cabinets from a nearby Habitat for Humanity ReStore. After sanding the off their varnish, I hung them above the washer and dryer.
- After giving my advice to my sister and brother-in-law, they revamped their kitchen with a few gallons of paint, beadboard cabinet doors, and new light fixtures. With their kitchen looking much younger in age, I designed and helped them build a corner office area for their laptop computer consisting of a few salvaged cabinets and deep shelf underneath.
- Acquiring a set of 6 antique dining chairs in need of refinishing and re-upholstery. Three are finished, three are waiting refinishing yet.
- Salvaging a sideboard from alongside Lincoln Highway, I fully refinished the two door cabinet, documenting the entire process in stages for this blog. It has since found a place in my living room storing cards, board games, a large cloth checkerboard and a few coasters.
- With the arrival of the much-anticipated new windows, I was anxious to begin installing them. This past weekend I was able to get two installed, which you can read about soon in an upcoming post.
So what does 2011 hold in store for this blog?
Firstly, I am going to try to share some of the projects above since they happened before this blog happened. Projects in store for this year?
- Continuing to install 10 remaining windows, including a double window and a large picture window.
- Trimming out the newly installed windows.
- Refinishing and upholstering remaining 3 antique dining chairs.
- Painting the utility room including walls, newly hung cabinets, and trim. Hanging window treatments and finding salvaged bi-fold doors for the water heater closet.
- Painting and redecorating a master bedroom for a family member.
- Refinishing an antique vanity dresser.
- Refinishing the chairs purchased at a local auction back in November.
Those are the ones I can think of now. I know there will be other, smaller DIY projects that come up during this new year. I can’t wait for all the exciting things that 2011 holds. Happy New Year.
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