When I searched 'black sofa' I got this shot of the dog, the fire, a footstool and my glass of sparkling red ... I think I sent this to my husband when he was travelling somewhere to show that I was missing him dreadfully and having a terrible evening.
And when I searched 'leather chair' it turned up this shot of the time we borrowed the prime minister's jet ... this is why I sometimes miss my job. I'm not usually this happy on a ten hour flight.
Anyway, the point of this blog post is to tell the story of these black leather chairs, that we bought when we bought our second house in Weetangera in 2001. We went from our first house - 1950s cottage, un-renovated, three bedrooms, one bathroom, one cupboard - to our 'forever' house - 1970s orange brick mansion, four bedrooms, four bathrooms, family room, study, basement, the works ... but of course had absolutely nothing to put in it. So we bought a lot of furniture from the sellers, who were downsizing, including these two black leather chairs and matching footstools. The owners did a big reno of their house in the 1980s (lots of grey and peach curtains, a chrome bar and a 16 seater marble table, we didn't buy that) and these chairs were probably the most stylish part, and we bought both sets for
$400. Here is an action shot of when number one was about four months old - my petting zoo - there is a tortoiseshell cat in the black chair although it's quite hard to see. (We also did buy that incredibly uncomfortable moulded plastic desk chair for $40, bargain).
The chairs have done well over the years - indestructible for the family room, make excellent forts when tipped on their side, beloved by pets - but they take up a lot of space and don't really fit the vibe of our new place. We were tossing up whether to donate or use as porch chairs (because nothing says classy like a lounge chair on the front porch) but then decided to google if they were worth anything ... turns out they are highly sought after Tessa chairs, so we took the easy route and emailed a collective of furniture dealers asking $1000 for the lot - got a call back within half an hour from a guy who drove out in his ute that afternoon and took them off our hands! One email followed by a wodgeful of cash to end the day, and a nice clear space in the lounge room.
We are quite startled that anything we own could be worth something ... I like watching the antiques roadshow very much but neither of us are from 'old stuff might be valuable' families. And this blog post has taken me about an hour to write because I got distracted by google photos AND old photo albums. Retirement!
Now that I think about it, I can't recall ever sitting in one. Good places to put folded washing. Definitely an essential part of the place, though, and I'll miss them.
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