My GF and I have a pretty wacky kitchen at our place, sort of retroish.. but the one thing we didn't have were cool chairs for the kitchen table..

My parents are aware of our "funky" kitchen, so when they spotted these babies on the side of the road with a "free" sign on them.... they snagged em for us..

http://randy.mainevwscene.com/images/chair2.jpg

After we both got a good look at the chairs, we decided it was worth spending a little money to refinish them..

They had a sticker on the bottom that said "ARVIN, Chrome plated dinette chairs"... so I did a little reaseach, and it appears they were made sometime between 1951 and 1953... I guess they did chrome proper back then, becuase the chrome plating on these is in remarkably good shape..

not to mention they really don't make things "like they used to" because these chairs are really solid, and can be taken apart and put back together quite easily..

Dissassembled the chairs..

http://randy.mainevwscene.com/images/chair3.jpg

polished up the chrome with some mothers chrome polish..

sanded each white metal backing plate and then repainted fresh white.. (taped off the original manufacturers sticker)

then went to JoAnn fabrics and purchased one yard of red marine grade vinyl for 10.50$..
Recovering the chair pads was super easy, I got a quote from an upholstry shop for 85$ PER CHAIR so I decided to give it a shot myself, turns out it was very simple..

I believe the total cost of this project including sandpaper, paint and fabric was 30$

and this is the result

http://randy.mainevwscene.com/images/chair5.jpg

http://randy.mainevwscene.com/images/chair6.jpg


I'm sure I could sell these for a pretty penny, but I think I like em to much to part with them now.

Does anybody have any information about this company or chairs similar to them?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: thelumpya2,

Sorry, don't know anything about the company, just wanted to say you did a great job on the chairs. I can't imagine that the upolstery guy could have done any better.

WoW!!!!!! Beautiful job. Love the red & white!

I have an original 1950's set table and four chairs. Chairs are a little different and I have been wanting to recover mine too. Thanks for the inspiration!

You did do a great job on the chairs! My DD likes the step stool type of this vintage chair!