Last week I had a great run of thrifting luck. I found some fantastic objects, some of which have already made it into my Etsy store, like this super cool wine rack shaped like a tee pee. Totally Camp Wandawega, right?

But since I have an incurable love for chairs (oh, and dressers, but this post is about a chair), this bentwood chair was probably by favorite find.

You’ll often see these chairs referred to as “Thonet” chairs because in 1859, Michael Thonet invented the process used to bend wood into these types of shapes using steam heat. However, this is not an original Thonet chair. It’s an old copy made by someone or other and imported sometime either a little before or a little after the turn of the last century. It does have part of its original label, which I always think is pretty neat.

That said, what I really like about this chair is the shape and that fact that it’s solid wood. And the reason I like it is that it sort of echoes this chair that I already have around our dining room table.

Plus, being solid wood, that makes it very ripe for paint! So I’ve gathered some images of rooms I like featuring bentwood chairs onto this Pinterest board to help me decide how to paint it. Here’s a round-up of some of the cool painted (and not painted) bentwood chairs I found!

It’s going to be light blue for sure. But should it be solid blue? Blue with natural wood “feet” via that dip-dyed look that’s been making the blog rounds this summer? Mostly natural wood with just a blue top? Only time will tell!

How would you paint it?