apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

...is there any other damage?

i think between 200-300 is good. cause who ever buys it will have to fix it. which might be pricey.

maybe you can trade it for something...
hmm

Aw, sweet Nico.

Just put it up for informal auction - ask people to make you an offer, and take the best one.

Did the cat tag it as well? Frankly, in any case, I wouldn't give you a dime for it.

I'm looking around my living room at the incredible bargains I've found: a French iron table and Jens Risom chair, both left on San Francisco sidewalks; a midcentury, anonymous (generic? homemade?) dining set given to me by a friend; some choice pieces from flea markets, thrift stores, and one floor sample from a higher end store----the world has been generous with me. One doesn't need to sell everything for the price paid for it. $400 seems like a good asking price, but maybe bellaknollie is right, someone might trade for it. What would you pay for it?----that's probably what it's worth. Good luck letting go, and enjoy that new sofa with Nico!

It's a mass-produced chair that is still sold new (though Restoration Hardware is now saying about $1900 for that model), so it has no collectible value. People willing to get involved in reupholstering aren't going to accept a total cost anywhere near full retail.

Figure the total cost needs to max out near half of retail, which would be $950... with an $800 upholstery job, you could get $200 for your chair, tops.

Thanks to competition lower on the food chain from IKEA and World Market, I'm not sure you'll even get that for a serious fixer.

I have no insight into selling the chair, but regarding the cat, we've found that trimming our cat's claws with little nail clippers makes a big difference in scratching (both furnitures and humans). It's humane, and our cat even kinda likes it.

Yay to cats named Nico!

Not a comment on the chair, but if you want to protect future stuff, you can get covers for the claws--nail caps. I haven't tried it, I now just keep the cats out of the LR when I'm not around.

Please can we see a picture of Nico?

Also, not to start a debate that's irrelevant to this topic, I have heard the nail caps are not so good - they can get infected and other things.

I think the best way to proceed is to look at whats on CL right now. Just look at an armchair that isnt leather as well as some that are. I dont want to be insulting but I dont think with the damage you could get more than $100. Most people wont be able to see the potential that it has- let alone shelling out the money to reupholster. Especially when you can get a new club chair for $400-500 in some places.

When you list it, you might mention that mitchell gold makes slipcovers. would maybe make a difference if someone wouldn't have to reupholster the chair.

see wee need an AT pets.

lol

I know this is a side-topic here, but in light of the fact that Jon is about to purchase a sofa with "tightly knit fabric of course", how should one go about protecting said fabric from the claws? I am faced with the same problem, having just bought a wool knoll sofa and am warily eyeing my clawed feline...
Any tips from the experts?
It may save Jon's new sofa from a fate similar to that of his beloved leather armchair.

Help us save the furniture!

START ASIDE This thread will now become a thread on protecting furniture from furred family members. Which proves my point about AT Pets. All the other ATs are for special interest groups ie foodies, techgeeks, parents. If we want green to become a way of life it needs to be embedded in all the other sites. Otherwise its preaching to the converted. Embed Green!!! END ASIDE

If your chair were perfect- here's what you could ask for.
On Chicago CL:
Leather Club Chair and Ottoman for 600 http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/fur/376511765.html

Another leather club and ottoman for 750
http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/fur/375567682.html

Since your chair is not perfect it should be somewhere between the cost of a fabric armchair and leather chair.
Heres a regular club chair for 100 http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/fur/373082091.html

I didnt look at Minneapolis CL but its the same idea.

If anything, get scratching posts or somethong for Nico to claw on instead of the couch, chair or whatever. That can make a huge difference in whether the next piece of furniture gets trashed or not.

My friends had 2 cats and they were both declawed due to the fact that they are inside cats and didn't want them ruining stuff with their claws. I don't think that's inhumane as much as other tactics but still, it's an option, or just get the scratching post and let the cat do it's thing on there instead.

Too bad you don't live in New York, Jon: that chair would match our cat-attacked couch beautifully.

Another option: can you get include a slipcover for it when you try to sell? I like the "best offer" idea.

We use SoftClaws on our two cats. They come off a lot and the cats hate getting them put on, but the couch is still pretty much in one piece three years into our pet/owner relationship.

Oh, and one of our cats screams like I am amputating her entire paw when I try to trim her claws, so I usually wind up filing them. Cats being completely odd, she loves getting her nails filed, and she purrs the whole time.

Some articles on how to stop cats from scratching furniture:

http://us.iams.com/iams/en_US/jsp/IAMS_Page.jsp?pageID=A&articleID=279&paidkw&source=ps06

http://search.onlynaturalpet.com/search.aspx?searchterms=cat-scratch&click=5&s_kwcid=cat%20scratching|841347483&gclid=CK-H3cT8s40CFRGsGgod2R4B0Q

http://www.catscratching.com/

There are many more here:
http://www.ask.com/web?q=how to prevent cats from clawing furniture&search=search&qsrc=0&o=333&l=dir

nycflatcats - that's interesting that your cat likes nail filing. I should try that with mine. I don't think she'll care for it, but you never know. She loves emery boards. I'm terrified of clipping her nails myself, mostly of the possibility of me causing pain (me getting pain aside.)

My favorite radio show, Calling All Pets, on NPR, which focuses on animal behavior and pet training, has undoubtedly done something on this topic. It's not on all NPR stations, but the website has past shows:

http://www.wpr.org/pets/

I third the comments about having a pets section. They really do affect one's lifestyle and purchasing decisions.

i think it's important and "embedding green" to talk about saving furniture from pets.

AT Pets AT Pets AT Pets AT Pets.

Anything i bring into the house my first thought is " is luca brasi going to sleep/bark/pee/destroy/hate this item"

sad but true.

i once got a throw blanket on a whim..without thinking of the furry kid at home..well it lasted one day. i left to work , came back the next day..DESTROYED..
he hates certain fabrics.

what a snob he is.

Because we have cats, we tend to buy upholstered furniture only in velvety or microsuede-type fabrics--these don't have "loops" that they can get their claws into. It does limit our choices, but I prefer this approach to trying fruitlessly to train our (11-year-old) cats not to scratch.

We've been using Soft Paws for about 5 years now. Our cats tolerate application but they don't like it. Our vet put them on the first time and showed us how to do it and keep most of our skin intact.

We haven't had any problems with infections or anything.

We've been using them for three years with no infections. When they were young and dumb the cats would get the caps stuck on things, but we've learned not to have anything loopy around. Our vet has approved of our SoftPaw usage, although I never thought to ask about the emery boards.

On a side note, we once got a hideously ugly pink polyester throw blanket for Christmas. The cats have no taste: they love it, knead it, sleep on it, etc. The one thing they won't do is claw it to bits and give me an excuse to throw it away!

I'd say 200 max. (I just sold my MG leather recliner for that much, no damage).

I don't have much to add to the pricing discussion, but I wanted to weigh in on the protecting-furniture-from-cat-scratching discussion.

This is what's worked for me: provide lots of dedicated scratchable items for kitties (scratching posts, corrugated cardboard trays, etc.), and make the items they're supposed to avoid as untempting as possible . I used to dot tea tree oil on the edges of my sofa when I had two cats, both with their claws, both former ferals. After an hour, I couldn't smell the tea tree oil anymore, but it seemed the cats could smell it for weeks. If I saw them put a claw on the couch, I'd reapply and they'd avoid it again. I had a tweedy fabric couch, and I never saw any staining from the oil (but I tested it on the back first).

I purchased a two way tape at PetSmart. This tape is longer and wider than and made for this purpose. (I don't have a product name), You peel the tape of the backing paper and position it on the item not to be scratched or walked on, etc. Then you peel the top paper off the applied item. Cats don't like that sticky feeling. It works well for on the applied tape surfaces. I did the front legs of my couch, and then the back 'corners', they have left it alone.

VickyA, you left it on for how long? just long enough for them to get the idea or forever?

Cats tend to be reluctantly trainable. I have Rudy a 14 yr old with all his claws. He gets regular pedicures, whenever I see him look sideways at the corners of furniture and if I think he might need it. If your cat has whitish nails you can see where the sensitive reddish vein is, be sure you don't cut that deep. Black nails, let your vet or a groomer teach you how to clip. Rudy has several scratching surfaces available to him at least one in each room he hangs out in. If I see him put a paw on furniture in a clawing way I always respond verbally and he usually just moves on. When he was a kitty we had a squirt gun which was only partially effective - he was/is a kitchen counter roamer which I hated now he's kinda old for all that jumping.

Yes, we do need AT pets!

My wife and I adopted two kittens from a stray agency. They turned out to be Maine Coons. She eventually agreed (after my insisting) to have our kittens de-clawed. While I have no doubt the kittens suffered a little from the surgery, having those Maine Coons de-clawed was the smartest thing we ever did. If you buy another nice piece of furniture and hope that your same Maine Coon won't scratch it to bits, you are just crazy. I don't mean to sound harsh, but we tried scratch pads, clipping claws, double sided tape, but they scratch anyway. It is a Maine Coon trait just like their weird "chirps" and chewing on everything. Half of their scratching is actually stretching. Your bigger problem is that you have a Maine Coon. The spray bottle/squirt gun worked about 3 times, then we read online that Maine Coons actually like to play in water, explaining why the squirt gun stopped working. One of them actually got up on the counter while we were at work, and chewed the trigger off the bottle. Our Maine Coons are very affectionate adult cats now, and every time they scratch on our furniture, carpeting, doors, dining room chairs, corners of the steps, I realize how much easier it is to like them when they can't damage anything with their scratching. As to the chewing, about the only thing that works if double sided tape coated in pepper. If anyone has any suggestions about chewing, I'm open for suggestions.

i had a dog once ( not luca, but a japanesse chin named pearls) who hated leather. i dont know why..she would see it and scratch it until it was ripped to shreds. we tried everything...the only thing that worked was tea tree oil..

i also used that to tame luca's barking.
works great

annalyssa, I use the stickypaws two-sided tape too. I thought the cat had learnt, but when I took it off, she started scratching again, so in my case it's a permanent situation. It doesn't look as terrible as the dangling threads did.

I would keep the chair if I liked it that much, and find some other way to deal with the scratching, cos the new sofa would probably get scratched too. Nico is a great name for a cat! Also, hurray for all the responsible pet owners! De-clawing cats for the sake of your furniture in unnatural and horrible. I know you could argue that keeping animals as pets at all is unnatural, but come on - if you're not prepared to get your stuff scratched, don't get a cat. I hear goldfish are pleasant company.

That damage is significant and I think $400 is unrealistic - this piece is not an antique and I doubt anyone will take on the effort and expense of reupholstering. I would start at $200 and include all the information about purchasing a slipcover directly in your posting, plus state that you are negotiable.

On the cat front, it's important to note that individual cats behave VERY differently when it comes to scratching. My two furballs could not be less interested in leather furniture, which is why I replaced my fabric sofa (which ended up with quite a bit of damage on the arms and back) with a leather one.

When I was investigating the issue, I came across a ton of postings on various sites where people said leather was the worst, but I knew they never scratched my leather chair and it turned out to be fine.