How We Scored Eight Parsons Dining Chairs on Craigslist — and Our Plan to Update Them

Thanks to a Craigslist tip from our friend Sandra (muchas gracias!), we finally found the exact dining chairs we had been searching for: Parsons chairs. The price and construction were right, even if the upholstery pattern wasn’t our taste.

We originally saw them listed at thirty dollars apiece, then negotiated down to twenty-five dollars per chair — eight chairs for a total of $200. For solidly built Parsons chairs with clean lines, that was too good to pass up. The green-and-blue swirly fabric is… memorable, but the frames are sturdy and in good condition, and that’s the most important part when planning a reupholstery or slipcover project.

Because the price was right and the chairs matched the shape and silhouette we wanted, we decided to go for them. We looked up a few online tutorials on dyeing upholstery, making slipcovers, and reupholstering Parsons chairs to help plan the makeover. Our goal: eight well-made, affordable dining chairs in a fabric and color that suits our room.

To bring them home I borrowed my sister’s Ford Explorer, since our Altima wouldn’t have fit them all without multiple trips. It was a 90-minute round trip to Mechanicsville. I wish I’d taken more photos at the pickup location — the seller lived on a large horse farm with beautiful scenery. Sherry and Clara stayed home so we could maximize space in the car, and I regretted not being able to show them the setting in person.

The seller was a memorable character. I expected to collect the chairs from a dining room, but instead he led me to several large storage crates in his backyard. At first, I had a moment of Craigslist-induced hesitation — it felt unusual — but when he rolled up the crate door it revealed it was completely packed with the same style of chairs. I didn’t learn the full backstory, but my guess is they came from a hotel liquidation or auction. In any case, they were clean, smoke- and pet-odor free, and structurally sound. The seller was happy to let me take eight, and I was happy to drive them home.

Back at home, I posed with our haul (cheesy, but sometimes you indulge the photographer). Fitting all eight chairs in my sister’s SUV in one trip felt like a small victory — I even teased Sherry on the phone that I could only fit six, then revealed “just kidding!” when everything fit.

Here’s a reminder of the dining room before the chairs arrived — a vacant space that had been waiting for the right seating solution.

And here it is now with our new occupants. We currently have seven chairs out on the floor for a more open, “everyday” look; the eighth lives in our playroom until we need it. Even with the bold upholstery, the chairs instantly changed the feel of the room because of their silhouette and proportion.

We keep reminding ourselves to look past the patterned fabric and appreciate the deal: these are well-made Parsons chairs with clean lines, at a fraction of the cost of new ones. The best price we’d found for similar new Parsons chairs was about $85 each, and retailers like Pottery Barn sell comparable models for much more. That means if we can update the upholstery or add slipcovers for less than about $60 per chair, we’ll still be saving a significant amount overall.

As for the makeover, Sherry found tutorials on dyeing fabric on furniture, making slipcovers, and reupholstering. Dyeing is an option but can be tricky, so we may opt to make fitted slipcovers or reupholster the chairs in the crisp apple-green color Sherry has been imagining. Either approach should give us the clean, cohesive look we want.

That’s the story: a farm pickup, eight Parsons chairs squeezed into an SUV, and a plan to transform them into the perfect dining room seating. If you’ve had a great Craigslist find or an “I can’t believe that fit in my car” moment, we’d love to hear your story — and any tips for DIY upholstery or slipcovers are especially welcome.