I personally would go with leather since it's so much easier to wipe clean and care for. Since your couch is a dark brown (?) you may chose a color leather to not have things too dark or matchy match. Great chairs!

Great score.
I would opt for a lighter color since every thing else in the room seem to be in darker tones. Maybe a yellow fabric with a patterned woved into it.
Good luck

You could also think about moving the rug a different place, keeping the fabric, and getting an inexpensive cream shag rug to pull it together.

Whatever you choose, make sure that it is a heavy, durable fabric. Otherwise your lovely new upholstery job will look like crap within a year or 2.

I do love a good heavy linen!

I think they're perfect!

Lucky find!
I found a mid-century chair recently and looked online for period appropriate fabric. I came across winterbeachmodern.com which has very reasonable prices. You can also get Maharam and Momentum fabrics on eBay.

I think the fabric they have is pretty nice, but if I were reupholstering and wanted something sturdy, I would do upholstery velvet or tweed.

Another vote for keeping the chairs and swapping the rug.

(But if you do recover them, please... not chevron.)

The current fabric is pretty, but if they were my chairs, I'd opt for new upholstery also. I'm not an expert on fabric (I can't tell a cotton from a tweed, etc.). BUT . . . I did get a couple of mid-century chairs myself last year and had them reupholstered. Here's what worked for me . . . after trial and error and asking around, I found a very good local upholstery fabric store with a huge assortment. (I'm in Miami.) Then I spent hours looking through their fabrics. I finally found what I wanted, based on the touch and feel, expected durability and color. I then bought enough fabric and took it the person who did the reupholstering for me. So basically, I just looked though hundreds of options and just picked what looked and felt right. The chairs came out lovely. I'd post a photo, but I don't know how. hehe

I am glad you are reupholstering. I don't like the current fabric and think cream will look beautiful. Synthetics are often more durable than natural fibers. Also, when flipping through fabric samples there is usually a number on the back ranging from 7,000 - 120,000. This is how many rubs the fabric can take before it wears. As you can guess a fine linen might be 7,000 and a durable synthetic 120,000. I used to cringe at the thought of synthetic but I realize there are some great ones out there. The lines of this chair are so classic and the wood so pretty that I would stay away from a print and use a cream that has a pretty though subtle texture to the fabric.

If you want durable, go with Sunbrella. They used to be an outdoor fabric company, but now they make indoor fabrics in a range of textures, patterns and colors. Many of them are washable, too. I got my sofas reupholstered with Sunbrella (we have 3 large dogs) and have washed the sofa pillow covers about 10 times and they still look great.

I would suggest going to a store that carries upholstery fabric or even a store like JoAnn Fabrics that has a section with large fabric swatches that can be checked out and brought home to evaluate how the fabric works with your rug and sofa, etc. LCAM suggested Sunbrella -- a great option. Or check out fabric lines such as Robert Allen, Brunschwig & Fils, Duralee, DwellStudio, etc. depending on how much you want to invest. Finally, you may want to consider using a subtle tweed or menswear inspired fabric or even complementary flat weave rug to re-upholster the chairs, and change out the pillows on the sofa.

I think the rug and current chairs go great together! I would live with them for at least a while and not change them until you decide you hate them.

If you are going to change, agree sunbrella is great fabric.

The colors and size of the patterns of the rug and the new chairs seems very compatible. That is a bold rug, and if you like, I think you should use it like a focus point! I'd keep those and instead, I would slip cover the sofa in something 60's retro, like a solid hot pink or orange that coordinates with the wonderful colors you have in the rug and chairs. Then paint the walls a warm white, and get an air-y white TV stand, maybe with a small slab of marble on top. Ikea-type pendant lamp, white or crystal-looking.

Move the sofa where the TV is, move the TV opposite (if you have a cable outlet behind the TV now, you can get a long coaxial cable and run it around; mine is 25 feet long and works fine. It's down low by the baseboard). Then I'd put the two chairs where the sofa is now, with a small mid-century table between.

Well, this is more than you probably wanted but I think you just stumbled into a fabulous jewel of an opportunity to create a very '60's Cosmo girl look. Don't waste it! You can always go drab later.

I recommend a wool felt. Though it's costly, it's durable and beautiful. Comes in a rainbow of colors. I used a saffron yellow that is gorgeous.

I inherited 2 chairs from my grandparents, with almost identical frames. I ordered zippered cushion covers online, in a beige twill. I sometimes wish I had gone for something more bold.

I took the old fabric off before covering, but if you are questioning keeping the old fabric, you could probably zipper right over it, and then take the cover off if you want to go back.

http://www.slipcovershop.com/Product_List/zippered_cushion_cover.asp

I have always wanted to use an old wool blanket for re-upholstery sort of like this one: http://sit-read.com/shop/blanket-chair-no-7

I think your cream color fabric would be an excellent choice with your motif. I would suggest pulling another color from your fabulous area rug and use it for your welting. Leather is expensive but is the most durable. Denim is also very durable and would look quite nice as well. Happy Recovering!

this fabric is nice, but goes neither with style of chairs nor rug. original fabric likely was rough solid, in beige or med blue or lt orange or mustard or black (all match rug, btw; maybe orange or mustard here since just chairs?), also olive or acid lime. fabric would be wool or thick cotton or linen, woven & tough. might keep welting. grete jalk is a danish designer to reference.

I really like the fabric they currently have and think they match the colors in the rug, but i understand your desire for a different look. What I have done many times with my danish modern chairs (since i redecorate a lot) is get another fabric and simply covered the existing chair cushions with it, thus keeping the existing fabric but having an alternative. It seems in the photo the cushions are detachable, but if they are not I have crafted fabric over mid century modern danish chairs with a staple gun.

The fabrics here are intelligently applied on upholster. We have beautiful fabric collections that will best fit to your needs. I hope you had a chance to visit theme here

We would like to see our fabrics collection being applied next time on your interior designing.

We would be more than happy to provide free samples for you