Moving in with your boyfriend?

The other day my friend Heather, who recently moved into a place with her boyfriend, told me how she wanted to do something to modernize his tradional Louis chairs (a cat conveniently took care of his leather club chairs...lucky). She is looking for a place to perhaps reupholster and lacquer them. I think it's a great idea because while they may be too traditional for her personal style, the chairs boast a classic form. I recently came across Margaret Elman's Chair Couture collection at New York's Distant Origin. She "re-dresses" vintage French and Italian pieces with bold, modern fabrics. The above is one in a set of six called, "Billy, Steph, Ella, Fritz, Patrick, and Ted". They were once carved French mahogany dining chairs, circa 1900—but Elman lacquered them in chartreuse and added an aqua wool fabric called "tonus" by Kvadrat. This chair might be a little too funhouse for my apartment, but it just may be the right type of piece for someone else.