The Thrifty Gourmet-- Chinese Edition

You know when you've been trolling Craigslist FOREVER, hoping to find a set of 4-6 Chinese Chippendale dining chairs within driving distance that cost less than $550 per chair (looking at you, Jonathan Adler)?  Like, a lot less?  Because you don't have several thousand dollars to spend on trendy dining chairs?  But you sincerely doubt you'll ever find them because everyone knows they are worth a ton of money and that's why they're upwards of $1000 per set on eBay?  And why would anybody sell them for cheap when they could make a ton of money instead?

Well, maybe you don't know about that, but I do.  We've been living here for a nearly two months with no dining chairs, which probably wouldn't be a big deal if 1) we weren't staring directly at the dining room every time we sit on the sofa, which is where we've had to eat dinner since we didn't have any dining chairs, and 2) we didn't have an epic list of people whose dinner invitations we need to return.  And the chairs needed to be small (the dining room is 10' x 10' and the table is only 48" round), but not so small that a man couldn't sit comfortably.  They needed to be visually interesting since the open dining room can be seen from basically every other room in the house.  And they needed to be cheap.

I settled on Chinese Chippendales because they are SO HOT RIGHT NOW (aside to Zoolander fans: Hansel) plus Tori Spelling has them in her kitchen and I love Tori Spelling.  Is that weird? 

After weeks of obsessive / fruitless antiques-store-, thrift-store-, and Craigslist-stalking, I finally hit the jackpot.  Four Chinese Chippendale-ish chairs for $75 in Salem, OR.  A mere hour away! We picked them up immediately.

Couple of problems: one, they were cherry red.  Nothing against red really, but the shiny lacquer was just taking the whole Chinese thing a bit too literally for my taste.  Second, the red paint was in pretty tough shape.

 Our grill looks like a sad little gray ghost in the background.  Ha!  Also note the old hearth tile it's sitting on.  Awesome.  

 Bit o' damage in the paint finish.

I'm not sure what color they'll wind up in the end, as we have a lot of other, larger color-related decisions to make-- upholstery on new sofa we will someday get, new upholstery on corduroy chair, rugs, etc-- so I defaulted to my standard choice of gray.  Two packs of extra-fine-grit sandpaper, a whole Box o' Rags, and three cans of Rust-oleum later, this is what we're working with:

A herd of wild dining chairs (plus bloody-looking rags used to wipe 'em down after sanding) in captivity on our deck.

They still need more paint-- a couple of them need some light repair before the final coat, and I ran out of ammo before I fully finished spraying the last chair-- and eventually they will get cushions upholstered in something awesome for maximum Tori Spelling / Jonathan Adler-ness.  But for now they're looking pretty comfortable in the (completely unstaged, artless, accessory-free-for-the-moment) dining room. 

Definitely not loving the enormous glare from the odd desk-lamp-y light fixture in the dining room.  I've got big plans for you, buddy.  And by that I mean I'm throwing you away.  Or maybe taking you to the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store where perhaps you'll be adopted by a family of people with horrible taste?