Grandpa's Chair

[Gogar]

Right around a year ago I had this opportunity and I needed some help,

My aunt Judy who is of failing health was slowly cleaning and moving out of her tiny home in Salem Oregon.

She had in her possession lots of my grandparents' authentic MCM furniture. Eames, Knoll, Saarinen, etc. etc. Great stuff! I totally salivate over cool MCM-era furniture, more than I should.

Aunt Judy thought it was nice, but she wasn't in the physical condition or mindset to understand what she had.

So, it sat in her SHED OUT BACK for about 15-20 years. Out back in Salem Oregon. In the musty, moldy, wet shed. Oh well.

Anyway, it came time for Aunt Judy to move and let go of some things, and my mom convinced her to let some of the stuff go and be shipped out here to me (and mom.)

So, i thought of the spectacular resource that is PPOT
And general all-around badass pelican NOSTRIL CHEESE agreed to drive from Portland to Salem to help me recover and ship the first item: Grandpa's Eames lounge Chair.

NOSTRIL CHEESE took it upon himself to drive an hour each way, get Grandpa's chair, and take it to the Fedex store to have shipped. Thanks weren't enough!

The package arrived nicely, and inside was a moldy, tired, dirty, and broken late 1960's brazilian rosewood eames lounge model 670/671, with some smelly original cardboard foam/goosedown leather cushions. Beautiful in it's time, but not out of this box.




As is very common on these chairs, the neoprene rubber mounts that hold the back of the chair to the base had disintegrated and come apart. Someone had attempted to fix it some time ago with some hot glue. I imagine it lasted about an hour.



So, after lots of reading and youtube videos I took it upon myself to repair, sand and oil the chair myself.

First was the mounts:







These replacement neoprene mounts have a threaded steel plate embedded in them that you screw the chair pieces to. Scrape off the old mount, and reattach the new one in exactly the same orientation to the wood with some seriously sticky industrial-strength super-glue epoxy stuff.

[pete3799]

Ehhh......he's just looking for free tickets.

[Gogar]

Next, sand and oil the chair.

After removing all the hardware, a careful sanding of the rosewood with 300-400 grit paper to fix a few scratches and get off the gunk and freshen up the wood.

Before



During



1 sanded piece, one wet.


dry vs. 2 coats.



So, after sanding and LOTS of coats of real tung oil and LOTS of waiting, and some steel wool and more tung oil and steel wool and waiting and tung oil later, I was done.




Aluminum faces polished, Bases cleaned and repainted with Wurth satin black as my secret tribute to the help i got on PPOT.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by Gogar

So, it sat in her SHED OUT BACK for about 15-20 years. Out back in Salem Oregon. In the musty, moldy, wet shed. Oh well.

A few years ago a college student had one of these chairs on the front porch of an older home in my neighborhood.

I asked him if I could take it off his hands and take proper care of it, he declined.

He explained that his grandfather was an architect and this was the worst one of five chairs his family had.

I have my Chinese knock-off, not the same but close enough for me.

Looks like you have a real treasure there.

[Gogar]

I had this idea about how I would take the original leather cushions and have them massaged and refilled with new foam and goose down.

Unfortunately, they smelled pretty bad and the backing of the original 1950's-early 1970's cushions is made of cardboard, which didn't fare too well in an old lady's backyard shed for 15 years.



Leather and a zipper sewn to cardboard only lasts 30 or 40 years I guess.




So, I sucked it up and figured out the good places to get some new cushions made. Herman Miller makes new ones, but they are made of top-grain leather and filled with 100% foam, which looks like shyte compared to the old aniline, goose-down 'catcher's mitt' style of the earlier chairs.

There are a few people out there who have "authorization" from Herman Miller to make new cushions, (whatever that means) and will use the proper materials for whatever era of chair you have. So there you go.

These cushions are from humemodern On Venice Blvd right about Fairfax. These use a plastic shell backing like a modern factory HM cushion but foam-goose combo fill and aniline leather, like the older style cushions. Took about 2 months, and as much as I didn't enjoy the ambitious price and the wait, they are really perfect. So kudos to Alfie Hume and everybody over there.





All Done! I think Grandpa would be happy! And it makes my mom teary-eyed, which is just as cool as having this neat chair.





Next up: Grandma's early '60s Hans Wegner Wishbone chairs. I'm a little tired, might have to go with the "patina" look for a while.

[Gogar]

Oh yeah and one more time for NOSTRIL CHEESE! (the pelican, not the actual cheese.)

[herr_oberst]

That looks fantastic, Jeremy. Nice work, a true labor of love.

(The whole time I was reading this I was thinking "Keith Richards gets "A" list movie stars to break in his shoes; shouldn't a member of one of the finest rock bands in America have enough juice to get someone to sand his Eames chair for him?)

[herr_oberst]

Is that Grandpa's Cervélo in the background?

[Gogar]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Is that Grandpa's Cervélo in the background?

Nah that's mine, sometimes I like to ride over to the park and impress the ladies.

[fintstone]

That is great and your restoration looks wonderful.. I must admit that I would have just thrown them away. Glad you appreciated/knew what you had.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by Gogar

Nah that's mine, sometimes I like to ride over to the park and impress the ladies.

She's showing up, full respect!

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Awesome stuff - looking forward to more photos of these!

[porsche4life]

Very cool Jeremy!

[Noah930]

Very cool, Gogar. That's the chair that a lot of people want. With a history like that, it's actually a piece that means something to you, too.

Originally Posted by peteremsley

My house is full of vintage Miller/Knoll/Danish stuff. Looks great, but most of it is uncomfortable as ****.

Odd, because just about everything of that era that I've "tried on" has been really, really surprisingly comfy. I've always though that was part of the reason they're still made and coveted half a century later.

[aigel]

Very cool project! The wood is stunning! The chair looks like you need a side table with an ash tray and a set of high line tobacco pipes to smoke!

G

[dan79brooklyn]

Love that chair/ottoman. Definitely deserving of the restoration. Good work.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by aigel

Very cool project! The wood is stunning! The chair looks like you need a side table with an ash tray and a set of high line tobacco pipes to smoke!

G

Yep, all he needs now is a smoking jacket.

[scottmandue]

Very cool, love Eames stuff, we had a few things here at work he did and even an elderly coworker that has done some side jobs with them.

[Gogar]

Originally Posted by peteremsley

My house is full of vintage Miller/Knoll/Danish stuff. Looks great, but most of it is uncomfortable as ****.

Originally Posted by Noah930

Odd, because just about everything of that era that I've "tried on" has been really, really surprisingly comfy. I've always though that was part of the reason they're still made and coveted half a century later.

I find that most of this stuff is made for . . . when people were smaller. Seriously. So that's why little teeny tiny guys like Alarick love it.

That's why I think there are two different sizes of the Eames Lounge chair.

You'll also notice that lots of mid-century dining furniture is designed around the idea of a 28" table height, instead of the more modern 30". So when you buy a old school chair and try to sit at your brand new 30" table it's a real bummer.

[Scuba Steve]

Awesome work!!!

Seriously jealous of having MCM furniture. There is zero around here, I had to trailer back a large dining table and chairs, sideboard and salvaged vanity from Austin just to get some.