apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Dont buy new - start looking on Craigslist for vintage pieces that will have far more character and last much longer than anything from West Elm or IKEA.

for $60 a chair they are just going to fall apart again - especially if you buy them new.

Vintage is a much better way to go. Or, spend extra on the chairs, and buy like 2-3 at a time instead of all at once. Remember - kitchen chairs get a LOT of wear and tear.

I agree with the above comments. Keep an eye out on CL for vintage. I'm in the phx area too and this guy http://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/fuo/1077932241.html regularly has vintage chairs like you're looking for. Good luck!

Chairs are hard to find vintage in a set of four.I really like a mix of like minded chairs and it can be sooo cheap,but if you are going to buy new I have found the only difference between west elm and Ikea is the price ..NOT the quality.Check the import stores ,they have updated to a more modern style and sell in sets of 2 or 4 ,plus they have good sales.
cheers!

If you don't have the patience for searching vintage, you could try World Market: http://www.worldmarket.com/Furniture/dining-room-furniture/chairs-benches-barstools/Loft-Dining-Chair-Set-of-2/lev/4/productId/4715/Ne/1100001/Ns/TOP_SELLER_INDEX%7C1%7C%7CCATEGORY_SEQ_3042%7C0/N/1100188/Nty/1/view/10000/perpage/0/index.pro

They're on sale right now and you can get an additional 10% off with a promo code: HELLO2009.

These are a little more than you wanted to spend, but they will be delivered to your door, and will probably last well past when you get tired of them

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=330315581320

maybe you could use 6?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=370177796517

I agree that chairs are a big deal - an area that you might not want to go the ikea route (i'm on an ikea chair right now and I'd prefer standing than sitting on this thing one more minute.) and finding a vintage set of 4 is going to be hard.

Have you thought about going to a hotel liquidator? A quick google search for your area should do the trick. Since most hotels update every 5-12 years, they'll sell their old stuff to liquidators and because most rooms are identical, you shouldn't have a problem finding matching chairs. You may have to repaint, but cheap none the less.

I really like the West Elm chairs. Have you signed up for the W. E. emails? I get an email from them like, every other day, about some discount. (I've already checked - none are for those chairs. But wait, like, a day.)

Oh! And West Elm is a part of the Williams-Sonoma group, and i'm pretty sure that they take pottery barn and williams-sonoma gift cards. If you have any gift cards lying around the house that you won't use, see if you can swap them on some gift-card swap site (they'll take a %, of course) for a W.E. gift card.

I hope everything works out!!

*if you have any other gift cards (for anywhere - home depot, gap, target, etc.) you can switch them for other gift cards via card-swapping sites.

sorry - the last post made it seem like you should take the pottery barn and williams-sonoma cards to said sites to switch them to a west elm card. Don't do that. West Elm should accept those cards, should you have any.

I recently purchased a mid-century teak set with a table for $500 on Craigslist.
So it is possible to find. I see a few even now from my city (Toronto) so I can imagine the US has a much better selection.

I would keep scouring. Also, they sell these at a lot of our antique shops for around $100 each.

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs038.snc1/2609_76120591006_551701006_2703575_1164963_n.jpg

This is the set I bought.. Pretty good for $500. I checked West Elm and almost settled on something there but kept checking... It's worth the wait. You never know. I would hold out for something that's perfect.

Jennifer, those West Elm chairs are the exact ones we were looking to buy, but didn't for the same reason... price. We ended up buying a set of vintage chairs that look almost exactly the same (the only difference being that the seats are padded). It was worth the wait, because they are exactly what we were looking for, we paid only $50.00 each, and I'm reusing instead of buying new! So have patience, and watch craigslist and any other local classifieds in your area, plus check second-hand, vintage, consignment, and thrift stores.

Thanks for the tips everyone, I guess I'll keep checking Craigslist every day. So much for instant gratification, but you're all right, I'd rather wait for something I love. So, we'll make do with three chairs for now (there's only 3 of us anyhow!).

-Jennifer