Update: Found Treasure - Thonet & Lane before and AFTER

I love house hunting.  Whether renting or purchasing, I've loved looking at a space and envisioning what it would be with a little work, and a bit of decorating.  There are few things I enjoy more than evaluating a space and sorting out where furniture would be best placed - my friends and family might call this a sickness of sorts.   Before landing on the Bungalow, I toured some doozies - most of which were either too work intense, or just not in the right spot.

But, one fortuitous evening we toured a great little brick bungalow in Rodger's Park.  The homeowner had recently passed away, after more than 40 years in the home.   The home was not for me, but when touring, I noticed two great little club chairs, wrapped in their seemingly original psychedelic upholstery.  My very patient broker, Tawyna, agreed to reach out to the estate to see if I could purchase these gems.  We agreed to $80 for the pair, and I prepared to give them a bit of love an attention:

With a terrific recommendation in hand, I dropped these beauties at Comfort Upholstery last weekend.  David of CU told me that these are c.1975 Thonet club chairs, and that a pair recently sold at auction for $1200.  He advised that the fabric alone was worth quite a bit of money - however, I don't have a lot of (read - any) orange mod in my house, and the upholstery reeked of 40 years of smoke.  So - white leather is about to make it's way on to my now-even-lovlier club chairs.  After photos to follow next week...and yep, I know exactly where these will go in the new home.


I picked the chairs up today (Aug 15).  They look terrific, and it's a treat to visit David, his father and family hard at work on Halsted!:

Also last week, I scoured Craig's List for some older pieces that, when painted, would work well in the basement as end tables and a coffee table.  I came across the following set for sale at a 2nd hand store in Indiana - $125 later, I'd loaded the three pieces into the back of the SUV, and dropped them at CU for a spray in bright blue - Behr Azurean.  The coffee table is to get an upholstered tufted ottoman top, utilizing some grey/white Designer's Guild fabric I'd brought back from London (fabric was used on my Restoration Hardware dining room chairs as well).

Before:

After!!! (Ottoman-topped coffee table still to come...)  These are tucked in the guest room for now, but will be basement end-tables in the future Bungalow.