My lawn chair renaissance

I think it's safe to say that summer is here. To me, summer means sitting in the sun- either watching baseball, or camping, or telecommuting. I do a lot of sitting. Today I sat and thought about chairs.


It is remarkable how many steps backward the outdoor furniture industry has taken over the last 10 years. These ubiquitous umbrella style canvas chairs that are popular now are remarkably uncomfortable, cumbersome, and poorly constructed. They are comfortable for the first 3-4 sittings, but then the fabric seat begins to sag... which means your knees are way above your butt. The arms invariably become detached from their insertion points. They rarely fit nicely back into their carrying bags... and they are heavy and bulky when folded up. I've seen unlucky sitters pitched forward and pitched backward. Legs snap. Drinks fly out of the mesh cupholders. These chairs are disasters.

I thought that perhaps my seating dissatisfaction was my own fault, for buying middle-of-the-road chairs. I foolishly paid quite a bit for a top-of-the-line butt sling, and my experience was not improved. These chairs are just a bad idea.

Last year, I got fed up with those crappy chairs. I found myself cringing anytime anyone larger than me would sit in my chairs because and I didn't want them to sag my seats. I went so far as to buy a pair of folding umbrella style camp stools, hoping that their small, uncomfortable appearance would dissuade any seat-stealers from stretching my chair. Didn't work...I just ended up with two uncomfortable, small stools.

Then, I found an old-school lounge chair made from aluminum tubing and yellow nylon webbing at a garage sale, in really great shape. This was the beginning of my Old Chair Love Affair. It's by far the most comfortable lawn lounge I've sat in , and it has the added bonus of reminding me of summers 30 years ago. (I get my sitting in the sun talent from my dad.)

Even better than the Yellow Lounge are the two Zip-Dee chairs I found at an estate sale. Zip-Dee chairs are the finest folding chairs ever made, I think. They are manufactured by the Zip-Dee awning company, and one pair of chairs used to come with every Airstream trailer. The chairs matched the awnings, of course. There are springs and wooden arms, and best of all, no sag. But if for any reason some sag should develop, we can send the chairs back to the Zip-Dee company in Indiana and they will replace the fabric or springs.



My vintage chair collection is almost complete. What I really want now is a metal framed chair with a macrame seat and back. Then I will sit like a queen on my throne.