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We had a power outage in our neighbourhood yesterday, which meant no blogging, no laundry, no anything that required more than muscle power. Fortunately, Mike and I always have a project or three stowed away in the garage and since the weather was beautiful we decided to tackle those MR chairs I found on a curb a couple of months ago.

The reed seats were damaged and the chrome was a little pitted so we got down to work stripping the old weaving using garden snips . . .

The reed came away nicely but we discovered that the lacquering process left nasty zebra stripes on the chrome. So out came the extra-fine steel wool and the Blue Magic metal polish. After some fruitless rubbing, I upped my firepower to straight Butane, which is frequently used to renew chrome. Still no progress. Finally, I turned to our most noxious option, paint stripper. I was leery about what it might do to the metal finish but it worked like a charm with no apparent damage to the steel.

The whole job took about two and a half hours and now we have three superb chair frames to work with. Our plan is to make lace-up seats and backs from cowhide and I can’t wait to share our next lesson, which will be in hide cutting, gluing and grommet insertion. Stay tuned.

One other point to note is that while removing the reed we found tags that said “Made in Italy” — a good sign. When you find something in the trash there’s no way of knowing its provenance so to discover this clue was a bonus. The MR chair was designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1927 and manufactured by Knoll. According to the Sourcebook of Modern Furniture, the MR “represents the first resilient cantilevered steel-tube chair. The design spreads the tension through a curve rather than a sharp angle, taking advantage of the spring-like quality of the tubular steel.”

These are going to look wicked in our dining room!