apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I too love 'vintage office' for the solid, robust build-quality and the industrial feel. Commercial furnishings are almost always built to higher standards than their residential counterparts -- and you can often score some great deals.

My dining chairs are all Sam Spade-type wooden swivel desk chairs (bought individually for about $50 each). I'll never go back to non-rolling dining chairs.

I worked for Casey from 1998 to 2000, and back then he started experimenting with stripping and sealing techniques on tanker desks and steel furniture before Pottery Barn and other stores honed in on trend. In fact, don't know if he still does, but Casey used to supply to Modernica, Orange, and Blackman Cruz... Anyhow, Casey sells excellent product and he knows what he's talking about. And his pricing is very fair for the labor that goes into each piece.

We bought a vintage 1950's steel library table from Past Present Future that we use as our dining room table and we love it. We paired it with some more modern looking Emeco chairs and it looks great, plus it's very low maintenance.