The Classic Bentwood

I spent today sourcing stools for an upcoming photo shoot at work and these gorgeous replica bentwood stools at Matt Blatt caught my eye.

I've long been a fan of bentwood chairs and would have loved to use them for our wedding ceremony.  I love their clean lines and classic design.  It is a testament to this classic design that these chairs are still so popular now considering the No. 14 chair was originally designed by Michael Thonet in 1859! That's 1859 folks!!  How gorgeous do they look as bed sides tables below!

There are quite a few chairs on ebay for reasonable prices or keep an eye out at your local tipshop, recycling centre or auction house.  Although I prefer the natural wood style these chairs also look great painted.  A quick sand following by a gloss paint can completely change the look of your room.  

 

 

 

 

 

M xx

  

Images: here, here, here, here, here, here and here

The real deal?

On one of my first trips to the tip shop here I found these amazing chrome plated chairs that were being sold for the bargain price of $5.  For some inexplicable reason I didn't buy them at the time and by the time I realised my mistake and went back they had already been sold!

'THE' chair is the one on the left!

Since that day I have kept an eye out for a similar chair each time we have gone back there... persistence pays off as when we went back recently we found the below! 

Not quite the same as the original ones but I love this bucket style chair even more.  They are super comfortable and although double the price at $10 each they were still an absolute bargain!

As soon as I saw these chairs I knew I wanted to paint them.  Neon is everywhere lately and with the grey tones of our balcony I thought a pop of neon would look great.

The chairs had a bit of rust on them so when I was sanding them back I found a small 'Made in Italy' sticker on each.  I thought perhaps I better do some research before painting them! So after some research they look a lot like a chair made by an Italian company called Cidue.  From what I've read Cidue were a high end Italian furniture company from the 1960s-1970s.  Could they be an original Cidue chair?

Until I do some more investigating they are staying as is.  I will keep you posted.

M x

Images: mine, mine, here, here, and here