Refinish, restore, remember…

Mr. Chair for Plycraft by George Mulhauser – 1950s.   Mulhauser, and Plycraft for that matter, are probably best known as the mind(s) behind one of the better selling knock-offs of the seminal Eames Lounge Chair.   While not a bad chair in and of itself, the original is infinitely more palatable (flow, dimensions, etc.).    What has gone missing, at least to me, is the genius of the Mr. Chair.   Mr. Chair is an original design of the same era of the Eames Lounger.    One cannot help but wonder how Plycraft, and Mulhauser for that matter, might be seen had they come to be known for things like Mr. Chair instead of being the poor man’s Eames.   Fair disclosure – I have an Eames Lounger, and bought this as I wanted another of era original lounge chair that was meaningfully different.

While advertised as ready to roll, this one took some work, and will need more as the mechanical pieces are not an easy fix.  The seller (and his friend) started picking up items are garage sales over ten years ago (an “OG” if you will).   With baby #2 on the way, he was politely told that it was time to start getting rid of some stuff.   He wanted at least $250 for it, and I was able to take it home for $250 as the seller ended up living in my neighborhood and he also seemed to like that I planned on giving his old chair some TLC.   As with other projects, being “real” in the sourcing phase pays dividends.    This guy came to me in pretty bad shape – the arms were fully covered with the original yellow naugahyde (swank baby, swank), and the plywood was raw, dry.   The chair is essentially just a few pieces of cleverly bend ply with cushions – all hardware is exposed.   I decided to take it apart and refinish everything.   The back of the chair has a significant abrasion.  I was able to fill it and smooth it, but the scar is easy to see.   In addition, the seat panel of the chair was damaged by over-tightening of the base structure hardware some years ago.   I was able to fix most of the damage, but it remains another scar.    I decided to stain the ply dark as it appears that this was the designer’s original intent.  I also decided to keep the yellow pads – they look much better against the darker exposed wood that I expected.  As for the mechanical – the seat adjustment mechanism is missing what I assume to be a large rubber stopper.   I will need to keep an eye open for something that will work as original parts are hard to come by.   In the mean time, sitters need to be mindful of the lack of dampening as the chair rocks back into lounge position. 

I think a lot of people would have been upset to find the scars on this chair during the reworking process.  As with many of my other pieces, I like the story, especially the story of the designer and manufacturer.  It seems only fitting that this chair be a little less perfect than my Eames Lounger.  This is another beauty in the eye of the beholder case study, especially after the scars were discovered.        

In all, I am into this guy for $250 and a few days of work.   This is difficult to comp given the scars.   Models that claim to be in good shape appear to go for as much as ~$1,000.   I think $500 is probably fair for mine, especially as the models I have seen out there are all very plan black upholstery and mine has the swank yellow.

I am not looking to sell this chair at current, but if you are interested in finding one, or something similar, please ping me on the blog and we can go from there.  Given the extensive work I did on mine, I will also claim to be one of the few people around who has working knowledge of this chair to refinish another.