My First Vintage Dining Chairs

So, yesterday Space Commander over at Atomic Living blog shared photos of his unbelievably cool kitchen.  While looking through the photo tour, I noticed that I had the same kitchen chairs, as well as a couple of other things.

I've already posted about my primary color Pyrex mixing bowls (here) and my vintage Sunbeam Mixmaster (here) and the new one I just got (here).  But, I have not yet shared these chairs.

These chairs are a fun trip down memory lane for me.  Back in my younger days, say about 8 years ago, I was getting ready to move into my first place.  Now, most college kids just rent an apartment, but I couldn't stand the thought of throwing all of that money away on rent!  So, I purchased a mobile home and had it moved into a trailer park for me to fix up live in during college.  Three years later, I had it paid off.  Four years after purchasing it, I had my first teaching job, and I had my sights set on purchasing the Shack.  I sold that trailer for more than a gave for it (a pretty good amount more) and used that money for the down payment on the Shack.  How's that for thinking ahead?  I got my money back out of it and was able to buy a house!

Anyway, the story of the trailer, and the experience of living in a trailer and a trailer park are for another day, although it would be a very colorful story!

Back to the chairs.  When I was in the process of moving into my first place, I knew that I needed furniture.  I was, of course, attending estate sales even then.  I was at a sale that had a fun gray and white Formica and chrome kitchen table that had been used in a shop.  It was in good shape, just needed to have a little surface rust removed from the legs.  I got that table and a great heavy duty mid-century ironing board for $3.  I still use that ironing board.  Now I needed chairs.  I found a set of three of these chairs at a garage sale.

They were solid black, and one of them had the back all bent up.  Two were usable.  There used to be a factory here in town that did chrome plating, so I had a family member that worked there chrome plate the inserts in the back when I disassembled the chairs to repaint the black.  The white vinyl is all original.  They really looked great with that table.  I had the whole table and chair set for around $10 (the chrome plating was free).

I would still be using that set if I hadn't found and purchased my much loved Duncan Phyfe dining table and chairs.  So, the Formica table sits in the shed, and these chairs have been stored in the garage (so they might be a little dirty, even though I wiped them down before taking the pictures).  Someday, when I'm feeling adventurous, I'll dig the table out of the shed and take a picture to share.

Someday, I'm going to have a house with a formal dining room and an eat-in kitchen so that I can have them both out again!

Have a great Tuesday, thanks for sticking with me through a rambling post!