Grandma’s blue chairs

I love this image of my littlest, she’s not always the most patient of models but I love what I see in her eyes. I also love this image because of the chair she’s sat on. I’ve always had a thing about chairs, particularly mid-century chairs ever since I took a product design class at art college and was seduced by Mies van der Rohe, Breuer, Eames and Jacobsen.

My Grandma’s blue chairs are not anything special from a design point of view, quite utilitarian in fact. What makes them special is that my Grandma lovingly reupholstered them herself after taking an evening class in the 70’s. They’re actually quite uncomfortable to sit on now, I always thought I’d recover them and give them new springs.

But somehow, I still love to sit in one and have a morning cup of tea after the school run. I like that a couple of buttons are missing and the pile of the fabric is quite worn in places. Though not my favourite, I have even grown quite attached to the blue colour. I think my Grandma would be really pleased to know how much pleasure I still get from her old chairs, in fact I like to think that my Grandma is sitting with me having a cup of tea.