Fred Sanford Style

I'm not an expert in antique furniture, but I can spot a good deal when it's free.

That's what happened two years ago when I saw three of these chairs out near a dumpster in a warehouse area in East Dallas. They were all beat to hell, had suffered massive sun exposure which burned off most of the finish, and two of the three I found were missing their cushions.

I loaded them into my truck, took them home and over the course of a weekend, I stripped all of them and stained them dark red mahogany. I repaired the seat cushions and covered them in fake red leather. I would have used real red leather if the material was readily available.

Upon further research, these are authentic English barley twist chairs. The barley twist refers to the two contorted front legs. The chairs were popular around the turn of the century up until the 1930's. These are likely products of the 1920's seeing as they are a bit more utilitarian than Victorian era furniture.

I just looked up photos of other original unrestored barley twist chairs. Most of them are stained dark red mahogany and are covered in red leather. Pleather had not yet been invented in 1920, so I got that wrong. But for the most part, I seem to be in tune with the antique gods.

On Ebay, most of these chairs are going for around $350 a piece. I could sell them, but then I wouldn't have anything to sit on.