Vintage chairs reupholstered with coffee sacks

Etsy seller blanaid upholsters overstuffed chairs with coffee sacks, for a great, rough look.

These reclaimed vintage armchairs which I covered in worn vintage coffee bean bags.
The chairs are 'sold as seen' - I love them dearly and hate to part with them!
We made them to suit our studio, but have been inundated with requests to sell them and make them etc...so we're going to start doing that! These are the first two, we have some more up our sleeve, but they are different shapes to these two beauties.

vintage coffee bean bag chairs (via Crib Candy)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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pdffs

Mmmm, scratchy!
http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis

How soon before we see knock-offs of these in major chains?
- toyg
  
  Actually, Natuzzi had a design challenge in the UK to “reinvent” their Sound armchair, and one of the resulting designs used exactly the same technique. This sort of stuff is not particularly original these days, to be honest.
- http://www.jimdraws.com Thorzdad
  
  I think they’d have to be both comfortable and attractive before any chain will care.
http://twitter.com/txhoudini Eric

Further proof that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
OakCliffClavin

LOVE it. I bet they smell great too.
- Paul Renault
  
  Smell? The bags were for green coffee.
  
  Green coffee is almost odourless, although it has a slightly sweet unique ‘vegetal’ odour. I haven’t been able to think of something I can compare it to. But it’s a very faint odour.
  
  Oh, yeah: And these chairs must be soooo easy to clean, eh?
Catherine Verrilli

Indeed, Eric~ I think these are brilliant. I hope to have my dining room chairs reupholstered in this. Recycle, Reuse. Why not? They’re not your mother’s family chairs.
- blueelm
  
  … mine are.
http://illustratorhints.com/ Jesseham

They look great but I can’t imagine that they’re too comfortable.
Steve Taylor

Scratchy hessian – that seems like such a bad idea. I guess they’d be ok if you didn’t sit on them.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Scratchy hessian – that seems like such a bad idea. I guess they’d be ok if you didn’t sit on them.
  
  Scratchy? Wait until you run into the bayonet.
http://twitter.com/a_w_young a_w_young

I think they look beautiful and comfortable. The only discomfort would come from the scratching on the skin, but that’s easily addressed with a throw blanket or something.
- Punchcard
  
  If your replacement fabric covering for a chair requires another fabric covering before you want to use it, I think you are doing it wrong. As Zaphod would say: “okay, ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking.”
- robuluz
  
  that’s easily addressed with a throw blanket or something
  
  Yeah I saw someone selling some awesome throw blankets on Etsy made out of recycled coffee sacks. They’d match perfectly.
- Jerril
  
  A … throw blanket.
  
  Spend a bunch of money to reuphuster your chairs in an “attractive” fabric, and then cover it up so you can’t see the looks, because the fabric is scratchy and not good for chairs.
  
  Right. Have fun with that.
  
  Recycling is “sustainable” if you actually “fix” something that’s worn out or broken. If you replace worn out fabric you can’t sit on with other fabric you can’t sit on, it’s… just a waste.
  
  Use the sack-cloth for tote bags or rucksacks or something!
cdh1971

These might be attractive to adherents of ascetic religious sects.
LydiRae

I always wanted to learn how to reupholster old chairs, but these look scratchy.
- LydiRae
  
  Also, I need a new craft/hobby like I need a hole in my head.
http://twitter.com/mjfgates Michael Gates

If they’d wanted to be really original, they should have reupholstered those chairs in indentured coffee plantation workers.
Agua_Caliente

Perfect…..

for cats.
- lonnieburnie
  
  oh yes– our cats would love this fabric and would promptly shred it to bits.
  - ernunnos
    
    I have some acoustic panels covered in coffee sacks, and even though they’re hanging up on the wall, they occasionally catch a cat.
WillieNelsonMandela

They’d look good in a local coffee shop. Sure, they might be scratchy but I wouldn’t plan to sit on them naked.
lonnieburnie

Can’t wait to see the hair-shirt version for those seeking corporal mortification through upholstery.
cwap cwap

OOOh! Burlap on “vintage” chairs, does that mean they also come with complementary bedbugs?
- http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood
  
  They do! Single origin bedbugs from Madagascar.
Soliloquy

Hmm, perhaps you could soak the fabric in something that would soften it up before you used it?
ladykatey

Don’t Restoration Hardware sell furniture like this for like $3,000 a chair?
blueelm

Also… wow. 90′s overstuffed chairs are vintage now. I have an old loveseat that is waiting to become antique I think.
http://twitter.com/ColumbusArea Adolph Marx

I remember when burlap
went on the INSIDE.