Chapel chairs...

I just never see these chairs in the hundreds dozens of magazine pages I flick through each month  so I was very excited to find this room while flicking online recently.

These are MY chairs. Wooden chapel chairs I bought in London -  the church authorities there have been replacing them with a more practical (and much less charming) plastic option. 

I found a couple at a Chiswick antique store and then tracked down more at a tumble down barn in Surrey that housed all manner of church antiquities - altars, candle sticks, robes and of course church pews. An old wooden chapel bench came back to Australia with us too and has sat in quite a few hallways since.

The chairs are sturdy, made from elm with a slight curve in the seat and a ledge for your song book or bible - or toy car, fork or sandwich crust in our house!

I love my chapel chairs  but so too did the borer that hitched a ride back to Australia. I know, I know, criminal. But how was I to know?

Luckily they were well wrapped in the container and didn't munch through all my other furniture. For some reason the quarantine officials didn't find them either.

Only four chairs were infected - when I found the sawdust  I panicked, banished them outside and liberally doused them in borer killer and again twice more for luck.

Then I painted them. Now don't YOU panic. They look quite good or they will when I paint them for the final time and find just the right shade. But that's another story for another sunnier day. When I get a break in the weather I'll get them outside and tell you all about it.

Pictures from here... these chairs live in a rather grand house - well worth a look.


AND a footnote - I have just popped over to Marie Nichols' blog and she has them in her London home and has posted pictures of her house today. Odd how life works like that...