Eames Lounge Chair

The chair that, in my opinion, best defines the forward thinking of mid century design is the Eames lounge chair.  Basically, whenever you sit in a comfortable chair nowadays, you can thank Ray and Charles Eames and the work they did to develop the 670 Lounge, and 671 Ottoman.

I have always, and still, want one but my pocket book doesn't allow for it quite yet so for the last couple years I have used my Plycraft knock off to watch tv in, listen to records, sleep, etc.  I am not a supporter of knock offs as a replacement to the original but they do have their place.  For example, the Plycraft chair was a re-designed version which had features not found on an original like the reclining/rocking base.  It was also much less expensive, and although its price is reflected in it's overall construction quality, the fact that it is put together with screws rather than heat bonded rubber shock mounts makes repairing it much less expensive than a real Herman Miller chair.  There are people who say that the Plycraft chair is more comfortable than the real one, but I am not willing to facilitate that debate.

Our chair looks like E.T.

One day while searching craigslist, I came upon an add that featured two "retro bentwood chairs" among other things at a garage sale.  In the photo was a Plycraft chair, and what appeared to be a real lounge chair in a light tan color.  I went to the sale, offered $75 for it, and brought it home.  Although it is not real, it is much closer in appearence to the real one and will make a nice replacement to the Plycraft chair. This one has metal hardware made by Middleton Mfg. Co., and the wood shells are made by Davis Wood Products.  I am still researching to find out the age, and company who sold these because as you can see it is very close in proportion to a real one.

Last night I began the process of cleaning it all up.  I will post photos of that process, but I have taken all of wood shells off, stripped, sanded, and stained them and they look much better.  The seats are real leather, so I am actually going to dye them black with a process used for dying auto upholstery and if I screw it up I will just have them re-upholstered by a professional.   Stay tuned...