Nice chair. No way I'd even consider paying that price. Shop around you'd be surprised at what you can come up with that comes very close to the same look and feel. It's all about patiences.

I'm thinking there has to be a way to do that yourself. For only one $.

The price is crazy. I think you could find a high quality chair similar style for less $$$. Perhaps part of the price tag is the hand made art aspect, and that can be highly personal so I do not judge people. I would say wait for it to go on sale but my guess is that she probably makes each one as the order comes in.

schoolhouse, how could you like that chair!!?? lol. it is veryyy expensive. that blows my mind. i guess it's kind of like the ripped and distressed jean fad that came out 7-8 years ago :p

You can buy an inexpensive chair from Goodwill or Craigslist in the style you want and make it look like that with paint.

Go to the link below, and look at the raspberry red sofa in the first pic. He painted that fabric sofa to look like leather. The instructions are shown at the end. Google painting fabric and you'll see many hits.

The chair in your link shows some stenciling on it, which you could easily do after you paint the chair, to make it look more like that one.

Here is a link that might be useful: Magnaverde's painted upholstery instructions

Is the word classic written upside down on the side of the chair cushion? That made me laugh. This chair is trying too hard to be "cool" at a very un-cool price. My first thought was how dingy it looks. Sorry, I don't want to be unkind and to each his own.

my3dogs - site is bookmarked! Thank you. The writing and the words on the fabric - I really wouldn't want that, but I know I could paint the rest of it to look distressed. I do that alot with outdoor concrete statuary.

You are are quite right boysrus2, dingy is the word alright, but...I just like it.

I like a lot of Anthropologie things, in fact one of their lampshades is on my "to die for" list....but that chair doesn't do a thing for me. I probably lack the imagination to picture the room it would add something to. Also, I know myself to be very fickle when it comes to things with very time-specific prints or patterns. I might buy a throw pillow with words on it, but not a chair.

"she reupholsters vintage frames in her signature coated-cotton canvas fabric. Layered with rich pigment then screenprinted and hand-distressed, each chair ends up with a durable, leather-like finish."

Translation: She covers them with painted cotton canvas dropcloths.

I'm with boysrus2, This chair is trying too hard to be "cool" at a very un-cool price."

Not to mention the font "classic" is set in is horrendous!

Well, on the bright side, there are very few $5000 chairs you could bring home, and not feel like new the chair made all your other things look shabby. LOL

uh... it looks like it smells...

sorry.

Trust me though. If you bought that, even if the money wasn't an issue, in a couple years I pretty much guarantee you'd be saying, "what was I thinking?"

I like it. I am a sucker for that look.

The problem, as I have said before, is that a piece like that should come with a story, not a SKU.

In other words, it is art. If you are an artist and you make that, it is wonderful. If you buy it from an artist, I say good for you if you like it and you are supporting the arts.

But to buy it from Anthropologie, is just trying too hard. In 5 years it will be absurd. If it were your own work of art or you had some story about finding it or buying it, it would never be absurd.

That chair would give me nightmares at that price.
Come to think of it, I would not want it at any price, unless they paid me, lol.....

It is safe to say, I fail to see its charm.

hideous and stupidly priced.

"why do I like this chair and why is it so $$$$$"

I have absolutely no idea.

Interestingly, right next to it on the website is an actual painted-fabric chair. Your skin will recoil just looking at it. Ever touched fabric stained with paint?

When I first saw that chair, I loved it, too. Then I started to dissect it and stopped loving it. I like the looks of it. It has the sink-into-it/sat-in-the-professor's-office-for-fifty-years look that always calls to me. However, painted, coated fabric actually repels, it doesn't invite, and it is not nice against one's skin. That, alone, makes the chair a no-go for me. Chairs have to feel good or I don't want 'em. As for the price, it's being marketed as a piece of art. Is there only one? I didn't check. I would look for chairs with the lines and "stuffedness" of this one, but different upholstery. Or, learn to upholster on your own. The imperfection of the work on this chair adds to the appeal. I don't know much about Anthropologie, so I can't comment on their gallerist aspiration.

Sorry, but writing "classic" on a chair doesn't make it so.

I agree that it is trying too hard, at too high a price.

If I saw that chair in an antique shop, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Not for that price of course - for much, much less. The fabric would probably be cracked and flaking leather or faux leather, and once inside a warm house and with use would crack and flake more. How do I know? Because I have an antique Arts and Crafts solid oak sofa bed in the same shape that I bought 15yrs.ago from an antique shop. This Spring I was ready to send it to a benefit auction and get something new for a change, but guess what? At the last minute I couldn't part with it. It's just so....me..ugh. Sorry, I still like the concept of the Anthropologie chair, not the silly writing on it, but the shape and fabric color.

Never have sat on painted fabric, but I have produced art using artist's canvas or fabric painted and draped while the paint was still wet. I'd think sitting on it would wear away the finish.

Not to change the subject, but did you see the Reverse Rug chair on the same web page....now that is one ugly chair. Not as expensive though.

I've never looked through that company's catalog before, so I quickly checked out a few pages. When's the last time I saw so much overpriced stuff? And so ugly, too? (Oh right, there was that RH discussion not too long ago....) I never expected to find a complete catalog filled mostly with uglier things than in the RH one. I hope to have time to go through it page by page at some point. Oh boy, that is going to be fun!

Please read the following knowing I have CDO (known as OCD to those that don't have it) and that it has nothing to do with your taste....

One word describes the thought I got when I opened that link. "Ewwwww!!!!!" It creeps me out so much because it looks as though it's something one dug out of a pile at the junk yard. I can only imagine what touched it while there. Even knowing that's not the case with this chair I wouldn't be able to touch it for fear of what germs would get on my hands.

Do you feel that way because of the chair or is it based on feelings about the company that is selling it? Hey, it's overpriced I totally agree, but I like most of Anthropolgie's things. If I was young again or just plain skinny, I'd buy many of those clothes, too!

Anthro is a force. They have done a great job of bringing a new genre to design.

I like Anthropologie. I call it "artsiness for the ordinary" (me).

les's answer sums up mine very nicely. And made me giggle.

I enjoy looking around that store, they do have some nice bowls at reasonable prices. I once bought a beautiful vase there that was on sale for very cheap. But, some of their things (including some of the clothes) are just so...strange...and so over the top expensive that I just do not get it.

For that kind of money for a chair, I would expect it to be made FOR me to MY specifications to fit MY body and MY room. Not a mass market item.

I need to tell about a purchase from Anthro. Some years ago I bought a beautiful big etched mirror from their catalog - just had to have it. I don't remember the price, but couldn't have been over $100 or on sale. It finally arrived, but one corner had a big crack. I called, they told me to send photos of the mirror and the damage, which I did. Later when I called to follow up, another operator told me the photos shouldn't have been necessary, they are sending me another mirror - they advised me to throw the other one away. Second mirror comes - cracked in a different corner. I called again, they told me they are getting reports of shipping damages with this mirror and they will return my money - again, keep the damaged mirror. Throw it away, be careful for safety reasons. I kept both mirrors - too beautiful to pitch with only one corner cracked, and I hung one of them in my bathroom. Got my money back,too.

LOL Somehow I missed Les's reply. Had I seen that I would have just ditto'd it.

About schoolhouse's last comment on their customer care...
At the prices they charge they can afford to do that. Just like Tupperware that will replace any of their products years, even decades, down the road. You and others are paying for that kind of service at the time of purchase. Still it's nice, since not all companies that "over charge" do that.

It's kind of cute and I can see the appeal schoolhouse, but this chair I don't understand at all...though it's only $998!

Here is a link that might be useful: reverse rug chair

umm I like the rug chair too

As to the reverse rug chair, give me some fabric with a loose weave and Frank could turn that out in a few weeks. He'd only charge about half that, too.

I kind of like the chair in the OP, but I don't care for the writing on it at all. Beat up, distressed, crackly, yes, but the verse written on the seat is kind of creepy.

I bet you could buy a similar canvas-covered chair and do the Magnaverde treatment on it and it would be fabulous.

Crack me up! I like the rug chair too :-) and I like their clothes. I guess what I like about anthropologie chairs is that they have the traditional style that I love but just "funked up" a bit. But I just couldn't spend $5k on a chair. If you had lots of free time and found a great bones chair you could try to recreate the look for less. Or pay more and get an upholstery shop to do it. I have seen the house of the guys that own Anthropologie in design mags and it is soooo gorgeous.

I used the Magnaverde method to paint chairs before and they turned out scratchy. The problem was that I got tub chairs from goodwill that had very stiff synthetic mohair upholstery fabric. When done there were spots left like sandpaper. I do think the method would work very well on a smoother fabric and I think you could recreate that chair on your own. The added bonus would be that most people would never have seen the anthro one and think you were really cool and artsy :-)