Furniture Refresh - Dining Table Chairs Hunt

We've been in our 'new' home for 3 years and things are starting to wear and tear. Aircon aside (the damn thing was crap from day 1), I think the furnishings have lasted quite well. I mean you can't really compare to yesteryears when everything lasted 10-20 years. Those don't exist anymore ... you would be lucky anything last more than a year or two now given 99% of them are "Made in China".

So our dining chairs have started flaking few months ago. I have to confess that this might be my own fault. I accidentally spilled coffee all over the table and chairs. And to clean up the mess I used the floor wipes which may have contained anti-septic chemicals or something to that - it surely smelled so. I suspect the chemicals corroded the PVC leather and now there are patches all over a few of the chairs. 

Hence it's been on our mind to change new set of chairs though we weren't in a hurry, the old ones are still useable. We were at Ikea a few days ago for dinner and chanced on the Bernard chairs again. Now, we have been eyeing this since we saw it first time a year or two ago. But at $269 getting a set of six for the dining area would set us back at least $1,650. Even with the price we distinctly remembered this set though simply because it was very comfy. The cushion had this nice springy feel and the angle and height of the chairs gave me a good ergonomic 90 degrees on my knees when I sat down.

They have it in green now and Meimei jumped at them the moment she saw them. I offered that a combination of white and green would look really good. The whites ones though are a concern since they are likely to colour after awhile. Several online reviews mentioned that the plastic joints would turn yellowish after awhile and there was nothing you could do about it since cleaning it wouldn't turn it back. We are likely to go with all black. It's priced at $195 now so it's 'cheaper', but still pricier than normal ones. I supposed we could wait till the turn of the year, cross our fingers they still ship these and see if the price drops further. We'll continue to hunt for a set of chairs but I doubt we'll find something as fitting as these. We'll see :-)

Update 27 Sep 2013 - We were at Ikea again to look for little plant pots for the office. They have new colours for the Bernard chairs, love them! Since the initial hype, Meimei has calmed down and is now looking for chairs with high back. So I supposed we will be giving these a miss. Then again they might work well in the study ... my study chair has been flaking for the longest time. Well we'll see.