Tuesday, April 21, 2009

JL Moller #78 Teak Dining Chairs - Or, why I love projects

On my last trip to Seattle, I bought a set of 7 (yes, 7 - if anyone has a single chair in this model for sale, DO let me know!) fabulous JL Moller #78 dining chairs. If this means absolutely nothing to you, JL Moller is/was one of the more respected makers of Danish furniture. They are probably most famous for their dining chairs, which are notable for their solid teak construction and sculpted frames. The #78 is perhaps the most desirable of Moller's models, with its delicatey sculpted back and nifty pointed "knees". A set of #78 chairs in rosewood might just be the holy grail of Mollers, but these teak chairs aren't too far behind.

Gunk n' grime - nothing a little Feed n' Wax can't take care of!

I bought them from a friend who is also a dealer - who gave me a very good price on them because, as is fairly common with these chairs, the seats need to be redone, which is a reasonably costly proposition. They either need to be rewoven with Danish cord (VERY expensive) or reupholstered in leather (LESS expensive, but still not cheap). The previous owner of these chairs had attempted to re-weave the seats themselves, but let's just say they could have used a little more practice. A few of the chairs were only halfway done, meaning that even if you weren't bothered by a less-than-perfect weaving job, they still needed to be redone.


A less than professional weaving job.

I ordered the leather today (black) and in the meantime we are waxing the frames and pulling off all the old cord (and pulling out all the nails that the cord is held in with. Matt gets all the fun jobs). I will re-post when we get them all ready, they should look fantastic.

3 chairs, stripped, waxed, and ready for their new black leather upholstery.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pretty cool stuff, I saw this site with some useful info on antique dining chairs. I hope it helps you.

JeremiahNowell said...

this is oiled teak, and shouldn't be waxed. in fact waxing is probably what caused all the gunk and grime along to top to begin with. it clogs the pores of the wood. Jerry

Unknown said...

Hello,

I have 8 of these chairs and have been stressing about the cord breaking. I thought about selling all my cats for kabob meat but I think much of the damage happened before they came to me (from my cat-less mother). How do I fix these? Also I have more vintage Scandinavian teak furniture that I have not seen on ebay, etc. Can you help me price these things?

Thanks much

Mlle said...

How do you know how much to sell these chairs for? I was given 4 of these chairs for FREE! I restored them with light sanding and teak oil and have rewoven the seats with Danish cord... over here in Europe where I live, it seems Dealers aren't willing to buy them from me unless it's for s steal and no one will really tell me what to ask for them if I sell on my own. Seems the MCM scene is tricky to get into.