Thonet Bent Plywood Chair

Many months ago, I was walking through the store at work and noticed this chair. It was actually significantly more grungy than this picture shows, since I had to up the brightness to compensate for a poor exposure.



I sat down in the chair. It was comfortable. It was unusual. I loved the short arm rests and the way the arms and legs were all one piece of wood. The black paint was wearing off and the white vinyl was grungy and a very poor covering job. The price was $90. I walked away.

Later that day, I came back and sat in the chair again. For a plain slip chair, it was just so comfortable. I finally decided I had to have it. My coworkers tried to talk me out of it, since they didn't think I would enjoy the recovering project. I told them, "I am a project girl", but I guess they didn't believe me. I threw the chair in the car and took it home - excited to start tearing it apart.

The next day after work, I went to a local fabric store. I had envisioned covering this in a large pink paisley fabric. They didn't have anything like that at the store. I originally bought a red/gold/green/brown piece of contemporary fabric for the chair. After taking the fabric home, I decided I really didn't like it. So I returned to the fabric store again the next day and found this lovely fabric of a cream/pink/green polka dot pattern. Even though it was a bold pattern, I thought the chair was bold and could handle it. I'm so glad I did. It turned out really well.



This chair was unusual in it came completely apart. Since the arms and legs were one piece of wood, I had to completely remove everything. Besides, I wanted to give the wood a nice new paint job of dark espresso brown to match my bookcase. The seat of the chair was easy enough to recover with only a little trouble near the curved corners. The back portion was a little more difficult, since it was rounded all the way around and curved in the middle.

While in the process of revamping this chair, I was looking at a design book and noticed a bent plywood chair, which looked similar to mine. It didn't have any covering and the arms were not short, but it could be the same style. The chair in the book was made by Thonet. The most common Thonet bent plywood chairs look like this:



I pulled my chair out to look for a tag. I found the original tag listing the maker as Thonet in New York 16, NY. I did some research and found that Thonet was the inventor of the bent plywood chair, which is the style of this very chair. The term "New York 16" was used in the 40s and 50s...so clearly this chair is from that era. Although I have been unable to find this exact chair online, I have found many like them listed for prices starting at $250. Truly a mid-century piece of history.

I love the way the chair turned out and what a find at a great price! Sorry I didn't take pictures of the recovering process, but I will next time.

Total time spent - about 5-6 hours
Total expenses - $90 for the chair plus $60 in upholstery, paint and other supplies