eames chair project

yesterday's art project seemed like such a fun idea that i was thrilled to add a project from reader, chris kerrigan. we spoke after my eames chair post and he mentioned that he and his wife had taken on a project of refinishing and repainting a series of eames armchairs. they decided to create unique patterns for each piece and i thought they might be of interest. what follows is the project in chris' words- we'll have more images and chair designs here at d*s as they finish them. [thanks, chris!]

"This chair is one result of our design collaboration called c&c projects. We're big on new crafts, DIY design, and PROCESS (our work tends to be labor intensive). In just about anything we do, we try to find a way to reference a combination Cynthia's design heritage (Indonesian) and my own (american). A while ago we found a pile of dilapidated Eames chairs that were saved from a auditorium fire and knew we had to do something more than just recondition them. In this case we decided to re-work a traditional indonesian Batik pattern and apply it to the chair.

• we started by pulling off the fabric and foam and got it down to the to the glue
• we used acetone, a rag, and LOTS of elbow grease to get the glue off and
  get it down to the bare fiberglass
• most upholstered eames shells have metal threaded hardware embedded in the fiberglass. this is where the legs screw into the chair. the problem is that it leaves holes in the seat
• we chose to take out the metal pieces and replace them with shock mounts (used on the non-upholstered chairs). *readers can contact me about this process and where to get mounts*
• we used an oil based metallic copper enamel to paint the pattern
• last step is to spray the chair with several coats of high gloss
  indoor/ outdoor clear enamel. (don't use varnish because it yellows
  over time)

I'd say 3-4 days will work with dry time. If anyone wants more info, they can get a hold us through our website: candcprojects.com