Secondhand Score: Mid-Century Lounge Chair

Secondhand Score: Mid-Century Lounge Chair

As you may have noticed, I haven’t been doing very much secondhand shopping as of late. I used to post near-weekly updates on all the thrifted finds I bought! But our home is nicely settled right now, and I feel like we have the perfect collection of pieces to love, so there hasn’t been as much motivation for me to go out shopping for new (or, rather, “new to me”) thrifted treasures. Whenever I do go out to the antique stores now, it’s usually because I’ve rearranged a space and ended up with a blank corner to be filled, but every now and then I stumble upon something I just plain want while on the hunt for something we actually need.

Of course the title of today’s post gives away the point I’m leading to, but I just so happened upon one of those pure “want” items last month, and I absolutely, positively couldn’t leave the item in question behind even though we didn’t really have room for it in our house. Fellas, allow me to introduce you to the vintage lounge chair of my dreams!

Secondhand Score: Mid-Century Lounge Chair

I had been on the hunt for an Eames tufted lounge chair and ottoman for the past decade. If you know anything about this particular chair and its iconic design, you know that the price tag tends to range between $5,000 and $6,000. As much as I pined for a true Eames lounge chair, there was no way I could justify that price tag, so over the years I’ve been hunting for a reproduction version within the $500 to $800 price range.

I know there are plenty of brand new reproduction versions of this chair on the market at that price point, but something in the back of my head has always told me to hold out for a vintage reproduction. And I finally found it at Heyday Antiques & Vintage in Charlottesville. This chair was listed for just over $500 and was upholstered in my very favorite amber color leather. We didn’t have a spot for it in our house, but I knew I could make space (I ended up selling an extra chair we already had, and did some rearranging to make room for it). The price, unique upholstery color, and condition of the chair were all just too good to be true, so I packed it up and brought it home with me.

Secondhand Score: Mid-Century Lounge Chair

Secondhand Score: Mid-Century Lounge Chair

So, speaking of the condition of the chair…It’s definitely not perfect, which, I assume, is why it was priced so inexpensively. The rod under the lounge chair has a bit of wobble to it, so when you lean back, you lean back fast and far. You do eventually hit a solid “stop” point, though, and all of the metal parts are solid otherwise. My engineer dad and I have plans to shore up the rod underneath the chair to hopefully get it feeling more solid and tight. The good news is that the ottoman has zero issues, and the leather upholstery, while creased up from age, is still in great shape with only one tiny hole to speak of in the ottoman.

I know it’s silly, but I don’t think I’ll ever forget the moment when I found my own vintage Eames-style lounge chair. It’s that iconic of a design for me, and, as I’ve discovered over the past decade, is really like finding a needle in a haystack. I did some researching online when I got home to try to identify the particular model of chair I had purchased, and I think it’s a Plycraft chair from the seventies. Feel free to share your own guesses in the comments if you know anything more about these chairs!

At any rate, I’m so glad I held out until I found “the one.” Who knows. Maybe someday I’ll be able to afford a true Eames lounge, but for the foreseeable future, you’ll find me loving my current 1970s reproduction with every fiber of my being.

Secondhand Score: Mid-Century Lounge Chair

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Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

*This post was made possible by Loloi. All opinions are my own.

Did you hear? Amber Lewis (one of my favorite interior designers!) teamed up with Loloi Rugs to release a new collection of home goods that are out-of-this-world beautiful. I was able to preview the collection over the summer, and remember going completely starry-eyed at everything on the launch list. The rugs look so elegant but still have a welcoming feel to them, so they work in practically any space or home, whether it’s formal or ultra casual.

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

When Loloi kindly offered to let me test a few pieces from the #AmberLewisxLoloi collection in person, I decided to pay the gift forward to my parents. I asked Mom and Dad if they would like me to help them pull off a full living room makeover centered around a new rug and pair of pillows from the Amber Lewis x Loloi collection, and they were game, so I started where I always do: with a Photoshopped mood board!

It took a couple of tries, but we ultimately landed on the scene you see above. We wanted to incorporate lots of rich blues and greens alongside plenty of creamy tones and hits of black to ground everything. Wood tones were also central to the room makeover to warm things up, and balance out the light upholstered furniture.

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Those photos show what the space looked like before we kicked off this project. My parents had brought lots of furniture and accents with them from their old house when they moved to town a couple years ago, and we all decided that it was time for a refresh. The furniture was in fabulous shape, but their new home’s color palette is filled with light aqua and green tones whereas their old house was more about red tones and navy. The good news is that we only needed to swap out a few things to bring this updated look to life.

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

First, we sold their previous area rug and pair of classic plaid armchairs. With that money, we purchased a secondhand creamy white swivel armchair from Facebook Marketplace, and a traditional mid-century wooden side table from Circa, one of our favorite antique shops in Charlottesville. We also bought a secondhand table lamp in a dark charcoal finish, and I brought over a couple of extra accents from my house (namely, the green table lamp and pillows) to round things out. We also updated the art using a few pieces from Juniper Print Shop framed in simple Target frames.

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

So, what do you think of the updated space?! The new airy color palette feels really refreshing and calming. It’s practically begging for us to take a seat with a glass of wine (which, consequently, is exactly what we did after I snapped these photos).

The Amber Lewis x Loloi “Zuma” rug is so luxuriously soft and the pattern is an absolute show-stopper, of course. From further away, it looks like it’s made up of a classic blue and white color palette, but when you kneel down to ground level, you’ll see shades of rust and even some soft sage green. The neutral Diego pillow pairs so nicely with the blue-toned Palomar pillow on the sofa, and helps draw out the color palette of the rug. If you look closely, everything in the updated room connects to something within the space, which is why it reads as so cohesive.

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

Big thanks to the Loloi team for supporting this creative project, and for giving me a special opportunity to give back to my amazing parents! It was a lot of fun for me to step out of my comfort zone to decorate a more traditional living space, and I hope you enjoyed seeing something a little out of the norm here on the blog. I’ll be back with more room makeovers very soon.

Modern Colonial Living Room Makeover | dreamgreendiy.com + @LoloiRugs #gifted #TheLoloiLook

*I earn a small percentage from purchases made using the affiliate links above. Affiliate links are not sponsored. Rest assured that I never recommend products we wouldn’t use or don’t already love ourselves.

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