Before & After: How I Restored Don Draper’s Patio Set
I own Don Draper’s patio set! I didn’t know it at first. It was just a rusty little table and chairs at the Nashville Flea Market. One of the chairs was missing some scrolls and the top was gone, but I fell in love. $100 later I was loading it into my neighbor’s truck.
Lucky for me, there’s a powder coater near the flea market and I brought it straight to him. He had another company recreate the missing scrolls and weld them in place. Then he powder coated it a nice satin white. I had a local glass company make the top and voila! A fabulous patio set was born.
Along comes season 5 of Mad Men and the piercing screech of a woman who has discovered she has the same patio set as Don Draper. During the next commercial I ran outside to verify, and (squee!) it was. I have since found out that the set is by Arthur Umanoff for Shaver Howard in the ’60s. What fun it is to discover a diamond in the rough!
