Well, this week I spotted a Plycraft bent plywood chair with a nice low starting price and those words 'local pickup only.' I peeked at the ad anyway, expecting this to be in California - and discovered it was in Silver Spring, MD, a few miles from where I work!
Two photos showed a mismatched covering on the armrests, missing upholstery buttons, and no pics of the plywood backs. I emailed the seller and asked about condition and he said he would add more pics. He finally posted them and I decided to go for it.
And when the auction closed Thanksgiving night, those good old words 'local pickup only' finally worked to my advantage - I got the Plycraft set for the opening bid of just $75! Woo hoo!
So from what I can tell, the upholstery is leather, and the armrests are vinyl.
I'm going to tear it all apart and give it a good going over, shine up the chrome, repaint the black on the leg frame, refinish the bent plywood and probably get some nice leather and try my hand at reupholstering it.
That's a beauty, congrats for the find.
ReplyDeleteJust don't "try it out" before you tear it down. It'll take forever to "getting around to it" if you find out how comfortable it is before hand! I've never seen that style of armrest. I wonder if they are custom (home made). Nice score.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Red Jet Whistle has a great "how to" on fixing up one of these.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theredjet.net/search/label/eames%20lounge
Scroll down a bit to see the posts.
Thanks lo-tech
ReplyDeleteMr. Mod - I have been sitting in it and I know what you mean, very comfortable. Thanks for the link
Mr. Modtomic:
ReplyDeleteI've seen that kind of armrest before with the upward-curving rectangle in some other not-eames loungers, it might be a swap from one of those chairs if that's not the Plycraft shape.
I think the armrests are correct for the chair, just not the vinyl covering them. In the past few days I've seen some other Plycraft chairs with similar armrests, at least one black on is on ebay right now.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like it will be fun. Can't wait to see the progress!
ReplyDeleteNICE! Super good score I can't wait to see the resto. These chairs are a serious classic!
ReplyDeleteI'm telling ya, I love sitting in this chair - I'm plugging away at my floor tile project in the basement and everything is torn up, so it's probably going to be a little while before I can get to doing this chair. More time to wonder about the best color of leather to pick. I'm leaning toward red, but white sure does look good, and black is a classic choice. All I know for sure is the awful brown has to go!
ReplyDelete