Oh Dear Cane

I can't remember when I fell deeply in love with cane chairs, cane love seats, and pretty much anything of the cane and rattan family, but it is deep and never ending. To most people when they think of cane dining chairs they are immediately taken back to Grandma's house when they were covered in a rainbow assortment of crush velvet fabric….um, yuck! What grabs me mostly about these unique chairs is A: how easy it is to change the fabric, B: the wood frames are made of strong wood, C: they call to an era of traditional basket weaving that I find so beautiful. Now companies produce mass quantities of pre made cane that can be cut and fitted to replace the old, but once upon a time, furniture makers (mostly of the English colonial and French) used to actually hand cane these awesome chairs. Yeah, I do lots of research and go deep in terms of caning…it's like a fine art to me.

Mostly when I think of caning, I get homesick, and not because we had tons or any pieces in our own home, but it was the basket weaving of the ladies from Charleston who spent hours sitting and weaving gorgeous baskets (sweet grass baskets), a tradition that dates back to West Africa. Something about caning just makes it feel more like home, especially since being a military family and constantly moving, these little details can help.

So now that I given you a rather ridiculous history lesson in why I love cane so much! I.LOVE.CANE!!! I was in search of some cane dining chairs, something I could obviously DIY myself because as I was researching online for new ones I came to a quick realization, we weren't going to be able to afford a set, they run very expensive and since Restoration Hardware came out with a new line of awesome cane dining chairs, everyone is remaking them. Oh boy, I was never going to get my cane dining chairs because I needed six and who in the world has six cane dining chairs in good condition that won't cost me a crazy about of money?!

One day after dropping Chrispy off at one of his preschools, I decided to go to this Goodwill Outlet, which is not for the weak or weary mind you, with bins of "crap" and old furniture. Yes, I went in and started just looking around, mainly at the weirdest people you have ever seen with gloves on digging through bins. Gross! I managed to make it back to the furniture section and all of sudden, I saw a chair out of the corner of my eye….and it looked like cane :) I ran with the passion of a tiger hunting walked over and discovered that six cane chairs were gathered together, holding up the top of table. Could it be? Could the heavens really be giving me this awesome amazing gift of cane chairs? (insert teary eyes)

I stood there next to the chairs and as soon as a manager came by I yelled asked him to come over. The first question was can I buy these chairs and the next was, do I have to buy the table that goes with them? I got the best answers. Yes I could buy them, but I would have to wait two days before I could purchase without the table. I snatched grabbed the tickets off of each chair, so someone would think they were already sold :), and left. Two days later, I showed up at opening time ready to bring home my cane chairs (already very possessive). My excitement would be short lived as a new manager was on the floor that day, now I had to convince him that I wasn't a crazy woman and that this deal was made two days earlier with a different manager. After about 30 minutes of sweet talking but not letting them go, he agreed to let me have the chairs, probably to leave him alone, and at only $8 a piece!!! OMG!!

After he wrote out a new slip for the chairs and handed it to me I happily ran walked to the front of the store to purchase my new babies! I couldn't have handed over my Debit card fast enough and with the purchase complete they were already bringing the chairs to the front of the store to load up in my Jeep. I pretty much smiled the whole way home, like my cheeks hurt kind of smiling, and once I got them home I couldn't wait to start on stripping the paint off of one immediately.

Like this picture? Chrispy is actually in the car with me, but directly behind me this picture!

They have been a real labor of love stripping all the dark white/beige/ivory paint off and reupholstering but every time I finished one, mind you there are six!, I would get excited again. As of now, four are complete and two are out getting the cane replaced by another crazy cane lady. It is honestly one of the best thrifted purchases I've ever had!

I seriously am just so in love!!! I really went for the Restoration Hardware look and was considering nail heads but with a toddler I have a feeling that I will have to reupholster a few times so I'm leaving them as they are. Aren't they just so awesome?!!!

Is there is particular style furniture you just can't seem to let go? Special reasons why? I know its just furniture but I love furniture and decorating and making really beautiful spaces. Happy thrift shopping weekend to look for your favorite pieces :)