a chair story

I have a great appreciation for chairs. It's become somewhat of a problem. I have chairs from all different eras scattered about my house. I love them all. Especially the iconic ones. 

There is a certain mid-century chair called the broomstick or wishbone chair that I've been eyeing for quite some time for my kitchen table. It's not quite iconic (at least I wouldn't say, but with as often as I see it these days, maybe it is?), but it's pretty recognizable. This is it:

This chair made its first debut to the forefront of my design mind when I spotted it on a manufacturer close-out list in black. For so, so cheap. I leapt for joy, sent my husband a desperate pleading text message (to which he kindly and smartly obliged), and I faxed in my order. About the time I expected a shipping notice I decided to call and check on them. To my dismay the order had never been placed (grrrrr) and they were already sold out. I was quite sad. Still sad.

Fast-forward about a year or so down the road. Here I am on my weekly TJMaxx trip to see if I can spot any good deals, and these bad boys leap out at me.

Not too shabby at all for knock-offs. But the knock-offs were not so greatly priced for being at a discount store ($99 each), and I needed at least 4 of them. I located two others at another store, but one was damaged. So l left without them. Sad again. 

Fast-forward to just a few weeks ago to my weekly scroll through Ikea's website, and what do ya know. Look who else is in the knock-off business? (But we knew this, right? Ikea has some other pretty great knock-offs, not limited to a knock-off of the Eames Shell Chair). 

I'm telling you, this chair is taunting me. We are meant to be together someday. But I'm holding out for the real thing. And, every so often you can find it in a trendy new color, in addition to the dark, medium, and light stained wood traditional looks. Take a look at this green! 

Bow-chicka-wow! It really is a great chair. And there are so many more out there for me to collect. And every time we move I'll accept with gladness the movers' comments that usually go something like "so uh, you have a lot of chairs--what's with that??" I've taken pride in weirder things ;)