Making Bentwood Café Chairs
Oftentimes it is easier to modify an existing miniature piece if it is similar enough and cost effective. I found the perfect little café chairs and tables on a big sale. They sported a shiny factory-black finish and rustic woven seats (which I promptly removed). The chairs were then coated in fine primer and repainted in brown-black acrylic to resemble bentwood. The cane mesh was a little tricky. I first thought rattan table mats would work but the scale was way off. Then there was an attempt of creating a grid of tiny holes in thick paper to simulate the effect. Finally the solution appeared in a miniature forum: petit point paper! Did not know this existed and it’s a great way to make needlepoint bookmarks, if you are inclined. I tried to make seat backs of the mini rattan but it was ineffective. Waxed Irish thread became the traditional split cane wraps on the bentwood and finally the café chair became a tad more realistic.
Guéridon Tables
The pedestal tables with shiny white tops were transformed into French Guéridon tables by means of sanding and repainting the table tops in a faux marble to simulate Italian Carrara and gilding the edges for a brass effect.
Side note—did you know the brass rims on the Guéridon tables are to protect the marble edge from getting chipped?
The pedestals were painted in black enamel to become cast iron and the finished sets were placed with backs to the building to enable people-watching. Interesting that these compact tables were specifically designed for tight sidewalks.
An Error in Chairs
Not long after admiring my work, I realized I had made a mistake in Parisian café culture. I had crossed an iconic Thonet 214 bistro chair with an iconic Drucker café chair. A French faux-pas.
As I have learned, a traditional Thonet bistro chair (like the style of mine) is primarily for inside a bistro. It has screws that keep the frame intact, well, actually six pieces of steam-bentwood, 10 screws and 2 nuts. A Drucker café chair is bent rattan with woven jacquard-like patterns in various signature cane-weavings. Its frame is supported by the split cane wrappings made to withstand outdoor use at cafés. Drucker chairs are exterior extensions of interior "wicker" seating.
All of these chairs are made to strict standards, so my Thonet-Drucker-chair-mixed-breed is a sacrilege on top of being in the wrong setting, indeed a café chair culture conundrum.