A few months ago I decided to get myself an Eames Lounge Chair for my office because it really caught my attention when I had first seen it in someone else's office. However, I played cheap and thought that I could save a few bucks by getting a replica. I researched online for a couple months and finally decided to purchase one for $900. To make a long story short, it had to be replaced a few times due to poor quality. After the third replacement, the chair finally came in intact, with no scratch, broken veneer, ripped cushions, etc. As far as aesthetics, I found it acceptable and it was comfortable enough for me. However, as time went on, there's more and more of an irk growing in me that said: "This is a fake; this is a fake......."
Due to that nagging feeling, I started looking at CL for used ones. Lo and behold, I saw one asking for $1,800 in my area. I went with my wife to check it out and was able to bargain it down to $1,500. I have to say, at the time, I wasn't aware of the ins and outs of an authentic one although I had been doing research on the replica. Also, there's no tag to suggest authenticity of the chair/otto. For us, we decided to buy the set because 1: we sat in the chair for like 45 minutes while inspecting it from every angle. 2: we were really impressed with the quality and detail of the chair, from the veneer to the thickness of the leather, to the fact that all the cushions were removable and interchangeable. We figured it would have been too labor intensive to create a fake like that, so we made the plunge.
I was excited to bring it to my office after we bought the chair. I cleaned it and examined it further. The following day, I sat in it for about an hour, and you probably know where this is going. Yes, the achilles of the chair snapped, the shock mount giving in. The right side of the back rest popped off, detaching from the metal bracket. Fortunately, I was able to regain my balance as soon as I felt the pop, so that my body weight wouldn't cause the wood shell to swing the other way, causing more damage to the wood shell. Obviously, I was in complete disbelief and I had all these questions in my head: "Did I get a fake one again? Did the seller know about this?" And most important of all, "What the hell am I going to do about this now?"
The very naive side of me decided to call the seller and politely tell him that I was disappointed in the purchase because of what happened. Of course, he denied knowing any of that and insisted that the chair was absolutely authentic and all the parts were original and never failed. In fact, what could I do anyway? Call him a liar? Ask for a refund especially after I sat in the chair for 45 mins? I decided to suck it up and started looking for ways to fix the problem. To be continued......
In the end, my dad and I...
In the end, my dad and I (mostly my dad, actually) restored this beautiful chair and I finally could sit in it comfortably. I do have to say that the failure of the old shock mount was a rather traumatic experience for me, so I'm still being very cautious not to put too much pressure on the back rest. Hopefully, as time goes on, I'll be able to fully get rid of that feeling. To this day, I'm still not not 100% sure of the authenticity of this chair because I still consider myself an amateur although I've been reading up on the details of the original. To me, I think it's the real deal. There's a part of me that doesn't want to post this thread because I don't want to find out that my chair may not be authentic, but I think I'd still rather know the actual facts. So please tell me what you think. If indeed it's authentic, I think I got a pretty good deal for $1,500, consider how good condition it's in (except for the broken mount). Also, what veneer do you guys think it is? Anyway, thanks for reading and contributing. Love to hear any feedback!
That's how I came across...
That's how I came across this wonderful forum. The thread on fixing the shock mount saved my chair. Although only 1 of the shock mounts failed, I ordered 4 from Special K (they were incredibly helpful and supportive btw) just to be sure that I wouldn't have to worry about it in a long run. The mount failed due to oxidation of the rubber but not the adhesive because it was a pain in the butt to get the old mounts off of the wood shells. It took me and my dad altogether about 6 hours to saw off and sand off the old mounts. I have to say we're no professionals although my dad is a very good handy man. So in the process of removing the old mounts with all the sanding, we did leave some marks on the inside of the wood shells. Luckily, it's not visible at all after assembling the chair. The tricky part of installing the new mounts was finding the precise positions on the backrest wood shell to put on the mounts. For some reason, there were markings by a blue maker on the backrest to indicate where the shock mounts should go. However, they turned out to be pretty off base. And I didn't realize that until I'd glued on all the shock mounts.
After I assembled the chair back, I realized that the seat was too erect; in fact, I wasn't even able to put back the arm rests because the backrest was too straight, getting in the way of the armrests being assembled. Of course, I was very upset because I had been waiting for the moment of being able to sit in my chair for more than a week! Again, back to the drawing board with my dad. Instead of the removing the mounts again and finding the right positions on the shells which would have been too wasteful of time, energy, and money, we decided to drill another set of holes on the arm rest metal brackets, so that the back rest could be readjusted to the right angle. We knew that it wasn't going to be the perfect angle, but it looked close enough for us. For me, I knew this was going to be a chair for me to sit in comfortably for a LONG TIME and I wasn't thinking about resale value, so I decided to make modifications necessary for me to achieve the goal of comfort without causing any outer appearance problem (since the new set of drill holes on the brackets wouldn't be visible after putting on the arm rests). More to come.....
To post images...
another DA member posted this easy-to-follow guide....
You can easily add up to 3 images per post. First, your images must be hosted on the internet. If you don't have your own server, you can easily host your pictures on websites like Photobucket, which is free.
To associate your images to your message, place the url of your images in the 'associate web image' field in the submission form.
If the image is hosted on your server, the url will look like this: 
If your image is hosted on Photobucket, the url will look like this: 
Add only the direct link. There?s no need to add fancy codes like [IMG]
See? Easy....
Very tough call.
What is throwing me off is the "botoxed" leather. Could you post a picture of the shaft that connects the base to the wood (on both the ottoman, and the chair)?
ps consider deleting your second thread. It's better to keep your question all in one thread.
Best,
Mark
Story of my life
After sitting in my restored chair for a week, it finally happened--one of the shock mounts broke off again. I attribute it to my using too much clamping pressure when gluing them on. I cleaned up all the debris and glued back on yesterday. This time, I made sure to keep a thick enough layer to allow better adhesion. It find it ironic and embarrassing that a few days ago, I left a comment on another post reminding people not to use too much clamping pressure when fixing the shock mounts!!!
My dilemma now is what to do with the other 3 apparently "healthy" mounts since I glued them on the same way. Is it just a matter of time when they'll come off? Sure will keep you posted......
Well, I guess I can stop wondering
why it is that Mark never smiles for any of his fine (self?) portraits.
... he can't!
At least now we know it's not due to Bell's or a stroke, thank goodness.
KL, in the trade we call that a "starved joint" and it's a common problem when using unfamiliar adhesives. It's hard, even for pros, to guage ideal clamping pressure. Technical literature for high-performance two-part systems often recommends a film thickness range, but not clamping pressure, as this would require calculations unique to each application. Production manufacturers employ engineers. Most of restorers just go by feel and experience.
Don't feel bad. It happens to everybody eventually. Sometimes, though, we can learn from other's mistakes... NO BOTOX for heaven's sake!
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