The Independence Chairs

It seems to be an inadvertent theme around here that I find myself acquiring chairs and writing about them on the holidays. See Memorial Day. This week was no exception, when my friend and former boss offered a set of four adirondack chairs for us to enjoy.

We’re those people. Those people who you see randomly walking through the neighborhood with assorted pieces of furniture slung over their shoulders. Fortunately my friend lives right around the corner, because I don’t think I could have fit more than one chair in the car at a time. Adirondack chair parade, anyone?

As a set, they’re fantastic.

She had a new set of outdoor furniture, so she claimed, and these were extra. OK, twist my arm, I’ll take them. Sometime there will be a day when I too, have too many adirondack chairs for my own good, and maybe I’ll be offering them up to my friends too… I just don’t know when that will be.

I had been planning to learn to make my own adirondack chairs, or some outdoor chair model kind of like this awesome CB2 Sawyer Chair tutorial from The Design Confidential, but when four chairs are given to you, sometimes the DIY dream flies out the window and you find yourself drafting your next post with a Mike’s Hard Lemonade (Black Cherry) balanced on it’s perfectly wide arm.

For the most part, the chairs were in good shape. Painted and starting to peel, I’ll probably reward myself with a nice power washer (that’ll actually be my mom’s, since I recently broke hers) and blast them down. Maybe re-paint them. Maybe let them continue to weather naturally. We shall see.

For the interim, all they needed was a little tightening up after years of weather, wiggling, and wobbling. Not unlike any chair you’d find at a garage sale, you’d just want to give her a tune up a little bit before trusting her fully in balancing your big glass of wine on a cloudy evening.

One in particular had a cracked back support. An aversion to some, but something worth trying to fix in this case.

I remedied it with Gorilla Glue and some clamps. Nothing hard core, but it’ll hold.

The scene’s pretty nice from behind. Such a classic chair, they’re so pretty when they’re nicely weathered the way you’d want them photographed for your spread in Better Homes & Gardens.

It’s a sign: Time to start planning that backyard patio.