The search for chairs

As you may know, while Mom was here I purchased a beautiful Nigoshi table from Sears. It's a black table in an "Asian" design, and I love it. Unfortunately, I didn't love the chairs meant to go with the set, so I didn't buy those. Since then, I've been hunting for just the right chairs.

It's harder than I thought to find chairs with a black finish, let alone chairs in a plain or (heaven forbid) Asian style. I thought I had found a decent chair at Target, but last night I decided to check some furniture stores just in case.

First I went to Ashley Furniture HomeStore in the Augusta Exchange. This was the only chair I found that was close to what I want:

The chair was comfortable. I know Sean would approve of the padded seat, but I personally would prefer a hard chair that you can add a cushion to if you so desire. The back of the chair is problematic because it's not quite right, style-wise. My bistro table has stools with skinny, straight lines across the seats, and so if I'm going to have parallel lines, I'd like them to sort of match. However, I'm open to chairs with a rectangular cross-slat pattern, because that simulates the look of shoji screens. These chairs have a big panel in the center of the back which doesn't really do it for me.

Next I went to Haverty's. This was their only selection in black. They actually had the shoji-style I'm interested in, but only in "chocolate", which is not black!

This has the parallel lines, and not too thick, but it has a cross-bar up top, and while this sort of does the shoji thing, it's not consistent across the entire chair. Still, I really liked how these chairs felt to sit in. They are also available in end chairs with arms, which are comfy as well.

I decided to check the mall next. They used to have a Macy's furniture store at one end. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have it anymore! I walked the entire length of the old mall and didn't find any stores with furniture. At that point I was too tired to worry about looking at all the new mall stores that opened recently...I want to really take my time in exploring them, anyway, especially the Williams-Sonoma. So I hopped in my car and headed out.

Since I was already on Wrightsboro Road, I stopped in at Rooms to Go...but they had nothing. Nothing! At this point I was pretty disappointed that I had only found two candidates, and neither of them was exactly what I wanted.

After that I went to Target to look at my original choice again...and I was shocked to discover that not only were they more expensive than the chairs at the furniture stores, but they were of weaker construction! So...never mind, Target.

Right now I'm leaning towards the Haverty's chairs. I like how they feel to sit in, the design is pretty close to what I want, and I like the end chairs with the arms. But I'm still weighing my options.

And that is why I went to the antique store today, though I ended up buying something completely different...