This is one for the Thrifty! Hall of Fame.
Vintage. Herman Miller. Eames. 670. Lounge Chair.
Sadly no ottoman.
It did come with some unfortunate Thrifty! issues:
– A broken spider base…look at that aluminum peel.
-Missing seat buttons and some wear and tear on the leather.
-The urethane coat was flaking off the molded plywood panels.
-Deep gauges, scrathes and paint on the wood.
-White paint on the seat.
-Dry and FILTHY leather.
The bad boy could be fixed up a bit to restore some of it’s original luster. I sanded off the urethane and treated the molded plywood with Danish Oil and eventually buffed with Feed-N-Wax.
The spider base had snapped in two places. I used JB Weld to epoxy them back together. Ugly but works! Still not sure how to handle that peeling aluminum base…
The chrome got buffed with some steel wool and the leather got treated and cleaned with a spray on leather conditioner.
So here is the best part.
I was driving to the lumber yard near my work and of course was keeping an eye out at a couple of the weird thrift stores on the way. I drove past this small thrift store (I can NEVER remember the name) called the Help Center something or Earth Aliens or something weird and SLAMMED on my brakes. Backed up (on the main road through town) and pulled into the dirt lot.
Sitting outside was the saddest dusty but very obvious Eames lounge chair. Hello beautiful.
I waited patiently next to it while the owner chatted on the phone and after he was done I casually asked after the price.
“Oh this chair? I just picked it up a half hour ago”. Then this other lady owner shouts. “Hey, ain’t that one of those Eames chairs?” BUSTED.
Then for like five minutes everyone discussed that yes indeed it was an Eames chair, and wow those are pricey, and what a nice chair, and oh we should clean it up it’s so filthy…
Then the owner man was like “Well do you know who’s chair this is? It’s Richard Page from that band from the 80’s, oh you know – Mr. Mister. He’s a wonderful artist, you should see his work. Just amazing. I know you like the chair don’t you? I saw you in the road stop and back up…”
I have to confess, I had NO CLUE what Mr. Mister ever sang (it’s Broken Wings BTW), but it just seems like such a weirdly specific thing to lie about that I’m inclined to believe it may have actually been the lead singers from Mr. Mister old Eames chair.
Finally the topic of price came up after an excruciatingly long time…
“Why don’t you give me $60 for it.” I countered with $50 because of the poor condition. “Alright sweety, $50 it is. You got yourself a good deal.”
FUCK YEAH I did.
