As you all know I'm up to my third forehead wrinkle with kitchen renovation plans. Figuring out where stuff goes, when to order things, what day cabinets will or will not arrive.
Plus of course, there's keeping up with the blog, the animals, the house. And I was hired for a rather fun, but time consuming, side job last week (which I'll tell you about later). These are all things I need to do. Not just should do, but need to. Otherwise, you go unentertained, I make no money, the animals die and the house falls in on me, with my little nostrils peeking out of a landslide of garbage for their very last breath.
So it should come as no surprise at all that I am spending 12 - 14 hours hours of the day ... looking for a living room chair. That I don't need.
It all started with a chair from Urban Barn. A very retro looking leather chair. And then the search for the chair I don't need became an ongoing, never ending obsession. I have no idea why.
I'm sure a psychologist well versed in midcenturymodernitus could probably pull it all out of me in less time than it takes to skim an old issue of Dwell magazine.
What I needed was a midcentury modern wingback chair. Not an easy thing to come across. So I widened my horizons and decided I'd accept other offers that beckoned to me as well.
These are some of the wingback chairs I came across in my Internet travels.
Lawrence Peabody on Etsy - moulded plastic midcentury modern chair
Crate & Barrel - gray new traditional chair
Lawson-Fenning - blue/gray velvet chair
Costco - bonded leather chair
Would you like to save this stuff?
We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
Restoration Hardware - curved lines, beige chair
Urban Barn - retro inspired leather chair
Ikea - gray and orange chairs
Etsy - houndstooth chair
Lawson-Fenning - beige chair with sharp lines
West Elm - black leather, button back chair
Made - yellow chair
Some of the chairs I love, some I like and some I'm not sure about. What I am sure of is, I may not need a new chair, but I want one. And that's a dangerous thing.
Once I tried to ignore the fact that I wanted french fries. For 3 days I fought the urge. Then, on the 4th day, my head exploded.
True story.
Which would make an even bigger mess in the house I'd have to clean up. Seems smarter to just buy a chair.
amyfaith
Not to add to your compulsion, but I have so much love for this chair… I'd be on in it in a heartbeat if it didn't cost more than a thousand: http://gusmodern.com/collections/chairs-gliders/products/carmichael-chair
Ronda J
Urban Barn, Ikea, Made...that's all I have to say about that :-) Happy US Thanksgiving from Tennessee!
Patti
Ooh! I love that restoration hardware one - so fancy! But I also love the prices of the ikea ones! Good luck AND good price! But I'm super cheap, so that's often the way I select things.
Super fun, Karen!
Reg
I hate when that happens.....wanting something you don't really need. It becomes an endless loop in your brain and you see the object of the obsession everywhere. Maybe you could order the one you really really like and it will look horrible in the room or make everything else look shabby and not in a chic way. Then you would have to replace everything in the room. See what I mean? The endless loop.
I like the Urban Barn chair, it would look great in my living room. hmmmmmmmmmm No! Everything is fine just the way it is.
Feral Turtle
Comfort is the most important thing in a chair! I would probably pick the couch! But some gorgeous chairs!!
nicole d
WOOOO.... love the crate and barrel one! second choice is the west elm... third place is actually the IKEA... they are all beautiful!
Magpie
Since we share much of the same taste, might I mention my ultimate fantasy wingback.
WEGNER PAPA BEAR CHAIR
Stefani
I feel for you. Once I get something in my head that may be doable (leaving out an around the word cruise) I just as well get it. I know in my heart it is going to happen. I would try out the cheaper versions first though....
Ann
Love the Urban Barn one. I would just be careful about the leather quality. We bought what should have been a top of the line leather couch and found out later the leather was not the highest quality and we did not end up with it having a good long life.
I love midcentury modern. One year I was participating in a log cabin tour here locally. One of the million dollar cabins had this awesome mid century modern living room chair that I obsessed over for the longest time. Did the same thing you are doing. I finally gave up and let it go. I eventually found the cutest upholstered ladies chair at the Salvation Army for $25.00 that I use instead. And I love it as much as I would have the one in the cabin.
Marianne P.
Check out Thrive Furniture. The collections are named for dead presidents. I think you'll really like the Coolidge chair (it looks great in Omega Pewter). And no - I don't work for them!
Margaret McDonald
My hubby lusts after wing chairs too but he wants old fashioned chintzy ones. Ugh! My brain would explode on those.
I like the Lawson-Fenning for reading. The top one. The second one on round base- not so much.
Imagine it and one of hub's in a room, would be like the two people at a party that have absolutely nothing to say to each other after "hello"
Barbara R
Karen, why not find an old one, and then teach us all on how to pick a new look, how to refinish, how to chose paint/material, and then how to reupholster it; all things I'd love to know!
Kelly
i'm not sure which is worse: us not being entertained or you with no money, but either way, these are definitely dire, end of the world fates to be avoided. As to your chair obsession, I think that's perfectly normal. I have one, too, not confined to wingback chairs. I am lusting after a vaguely French Modern one on Wisteria, which thankfully does not ship to Canada. I find it much cheaper and easier to collect pictures of the objects of my desire, rather than the things themselves. I dream that ''one day'' but have come to realize if I actually buy something, I'll have to give up my fantasy life and I'm plain not ready to do that. But if you give in to the urge, good for you and good for us: you'll be impecunious and having to keep blogging to pay for the darn thing! Hope your headache's all gone.
Ev
Urban Barn, very nice but $$$$. Costco, close, less $$. What to do, what to do!
jainegayer
When you "need" something, you just NEED it. There's no explaining it. I "needed" a rattan wing chair from the Pottery Barn a couple of years ago. I insisted to the sales clerk that she sell me the floor model (and I didn't even get a discount, that's how crazed I was). They loaded it into the trunk of my car. It was half in, half out, bungee corded in place. I somehow pulled it up the 4 steps to my house, dragged it to the staircase, then pushed/dragged it up the stairs to the second floor. Then I had to wiggle it around the corner to my bedroom.
Finally the chair was in place next to the bed... and I noticed the cotton cushion cover did not look good with the present decor. That started the quest for the perfect dye color. 6 hours later when the color was right, I fell across the bed and slept for 10 hours.
Just go with it, Karen. Don't even try to fight the urge. Exploded heads are not pretty!
Karen Rains
I'm not sure about some of these chairs. I think the houndstooth is too traditional what I think is your taste. A place to perch is a personal thing and a Goldilocks moment. I feel I would enjoy (and look great doing just that) in the yellow chair...
karen
Love the Ikea and the made!!
Dianne
Karen, I must selfishly say I'm glad you have a lack of will power to resist the urge to research and potentially buy the practically unnecessary wing chair because you've exposed me to some nice options for a chair. Unfortunately, I don't NEED one either but the seed has germinated and now has a chance. Anyway, I suggest you include the Claire armchair from Structube now on for $399. It's a mid century style, not a wingback but you can tell it wants to be - just look at it! It's quite gorgeous and comes in a select few vintage-y colours. I really want one but I'm trying to root out whether I need one which, I think translates to, I'm trying to convince myself I need one.
Dianne
The Elliot armchair, $499 from Structube, is a proper mid century wingback chair. This is another contender for me. Note: I don't work for Structube. I've just been eyeing these for a while and I know how much time it takes to scour modern electronic resources for solutions to problems you don't have but like to create. :)
Tigersmom
How in the hell am I the first commenter? I even went and read all the comments after my own on yesterday's post first. (Good job everyone for filling in for our temporarily fallen heroine, by the way. I now have a new arsenal of semi-clean jokes.)
Or am I not and it just looks like it because none of the preceding comments have been approved yet?
Good to know you have other ways to get your head to explode besides a migraine. It's nice to have choices.
I understand your searching for the perfect one issue. When I renovated our house from halfway across the country I spent days (more like weeks, actually) looking at every available option from faucets to light fixtures and toilet paper holders to baseboards.
Often the item I would ultimately choose was one of the earliest ones I had seen, but I could not make the decision until I was sure there was nothing out there I liked better. Plus, I never like all of the items that come in a matching suite (like bathroom faucets, towel rings, toilet paper holders, etc) so I would have to find ones that still looked good together and were of the same style and general finish as the other pieces. And the only way to do this was online as our reno was going on almost 3 years ago after the recession and none of the stores were carrying much of anything in the way of inventory.
This is why I have no interest in being on Facebook or any other social media. All my time is occupied by finding the perfect fill-in-the-blank on the internet. : /
su
A wise friend once told me... you must address your wants as well as your needs... nuff said