Linderhof


Gardening, Cooking and Decorating on the Prairie of Kansas


Welcome to Linderhof, our 1920's home on the prairie, where there's usually something in the oven, flowers in the garden for tabletops and herbs in the garden for cooking. Where, when company comes, the teapot is always on and there are cookies and cakes to share in the larder.

Monday, January 22, 2018

The Breakfast Room Chairs . . . .

Our Breakfast Room
or 
Breakfast porch
tacked onto the back of the house



It's where we eat most of our meals

It's not original to the house
We added it in 2007
And a wonderful addition it has been

But this isn't about the breakfast room
It's about the breakfast room chairs!


Duncan Phyfe from the 30s or 40s I expect
They came with our dining room set
Mahogany
As most of these sets were
When I bought our "good" dining room chairs
I relegated these to the basement.
They were too good to get rid of.

And then we built the breakfast room
And I had chairs in the basement!

Husband Jim insisted on painting them black.
I'm not sure why, but we did
(and I hate to paint wood)

We covered the chairs in a black background toile 
Which seemed to fit

And we lived happily until 2015
For the black was starting to wear and I wanted my
"wood chairs" back!
So we stripped them

black painted chair on the left, refinished wood chair on the right

The black toile did not look as good and I found these wonderful
needlepoint chair seats on ebay
(and I so love needlepoint)

The chair seats
Summer of 2015


And they were pretty needlepoint
But there was just something
"not quite right"
with the needlepoint

The chair seats
August 2017


I found this toile that I thought went better with the wooden chairs



Better than the needlepoint

And then this January, I was housecleaning
Well, actually doing by January
"cabinets, closets and drawers" cleaning

I found fabric
Fabric I had bought for the breakfast room  chairs
about three years  ago
at a wonderful upholstery/drapery fabric shop in Springfield

I think the reason why I did not change out the chair seats then
was because they were black
And the fabric did not look good with the black chairs

But they're no longer black
And so one January afternoon,
I took the chairs apart again
And put the new fabric on the chairs!


I like them
A gold on gold textured damask
Which looks good with the wooden chairs
And the rest of the breakfast room furnishings.

So far my tally is:

Original chair seats -- 8 years
Needlepoint chair seats - 2 years
Second Toile chair seats - 5 months

I don't feel like I'm a changer just to change
But when something is "not right", I'll continue to work on it
until it is!

And hopefully, the seats are "just right"!

Part of my busy January!

2 comments:

Sandra said...

I do love the chairs "unpainted"; and the newest fabric looks perfect with the natural wood of the chairs. Hopefully you will feel like these are your forever chairs. I too will keep moving and changing things around until I feel like "yes, finally its perfect".

marilyn r said...

Love the look! You have a very good eye for colors and coordinating fabrics, etc. Martha, I was worried about you and am so glad that you are back!