We finally found chairs for the dining room, all thanks to a Craigslist listing our friend Sandra emailed us (many thanks!).
You might be thinking: Parsons chairs? Yes—exactly what we wanted from the start. Thirty dollars each? Sold. The odd green-and-blue swirly fabric? That can be fixed.
Because the price was right (we negotiated them down to $25 per chair, $200 total for eight) and the frames were solid and well made, we decided to take the chance. The shape and clean lines matched what we’ve been looking for, and we found plenty of tutorials online for dyeing, slipcovering, or reupholstering Parsons chairs. Our plan is to transform these into eight affordable, attractive chairs without that distinctive fabric—ideally sooner rather than later.
To get them home I borrowed my sister’s Explorer, knowing our Altima wouldn’t hold them all without multiple trips. It was a 90-minute round trip to Mechanicsville. I wish I’d brought a better camera—the seller lived on a large horse farm with beautiful scenery. Sherry and Clara stayed home to leave room in the car, so I missed the chance to photograph the property for them.
The seller was an interesting character. I expected to pick the chairs up in a dining room, but he led me to large storage crates in his backyard. For a moment I had a tiny Craigslist horror-story flash, but when he opened a crate it was packed full of chairs. I didn’t learn exactly how he acquired so many—my guess is a hotel auction or similar—but they were in good condition: sturdy, clean, and free of pet or smoke odor. He was happy to let me take eight of them.
Back home with our haul (that’s the chairs, not anything else), I struck a cheesy pose because sometimes you just play along when Sherry runs toward you with the camera. I was proud I fit all eight into my sister’s car in one trip. I even called Sherry and teased that I could only fit six, then told her “just kidding!”
For comparison, here’s the dining room before we had chairs:
And here it is now with the new chairs in place. Only seven are shown—Sherry prefers a slightly airier look for everyday, and we’ll bring in the eighth chair when needed. For now it’s stored in our playroom with much of our extra stuff.
We keep reminding ourselves to look past the busy fabric and appreciate that we scored the exact chair style we’d been hunting: clean lines and solid construction at a great price.
The best price we’ve found on a new Parsons chair is around $85, with comparable options at higher-end retailers going much higher. If we can correct the fabric for under $60 per chair, the purchase is a clear win. In the meantime, the dining room may have a brief hotel-conference-room vibe, but it’s temporary.
Sherry found tutorials for dyeing fabric on furniture, though dyeing can be intimidating. We might skip straight to making slipcovers or reupholstering in the crisp apple-green shade Sherry has wanted. That’s the short version: a trip to a farm, eight $25 chairs squeezed into my sister’s car, and a plan to make them ours. Do you have a recent Craigslist find or a “how did that fit?” story to share?