What are the odds?

When we moved into this house almost eight years ago, we purchased two chairs for the table in our kitchen.  My father-in-law had refinished a beautiful walnut table for us, and we wanted nice chairs to go with it.

The chairs we found are wrought iron and wood and look like bistro chairs.  We fell in love with them the moment we saw them.  At that point, we only needed two chairs, so we didn’t buy any extra.  Plus, we have eight chairs at the dining room table, so if we ever need an extra, we could grab one of those.

Fast forward five years, and we add another person to our family.  We don’t need an extra chair for her, yet, because it will be a while before she can even sit in a chair.  Not to mention, we’ll do a high-chair for a while.  Plus, what are the odds that we’d be able to find a chair to match the ones we bought five years ago?  There is no sense in worrying about it yet.

Fast forward another year.  Claire has her own high-chair.  This will last us a while…no need to panic over finding a matching chair.  Not to mention, when we’re done with this chair, we’ll go to a booster seat, and we wouldn’t want to put that on one of the nice chairs anyway.  We have a folding chair that will work perfectly for that purpose.  Plus, what are the odds that the big outlet store would still have that style?  There is no sense in worrying about it yet.

Fast forward another year.  Claire no longer wants to sit in her booster seat, so she’s been using a chair that we’ve pulled from the dining room.  The perfectionist in me is starting to twitch, because not only is there one chair missing from that table, there is now a mismatched set in the kitchen.  But, it’s not the end of the world, so I’m trying really hard to not worry about it.

So, yesterday, we’re out and about, and on a whim, we decided to stop at the furniture store to see what our options are for kitchen chairs.  I’ve resolved myself to the fact that if we can’t find a matching chair, as long as it’s similar, I’ll be okay with it.  I mean, it was almost eight years ago that we bought the first two…what are the odds that they still have them?

My husband suggests that we look at getting two additional chairs so that if we ever need the fourth chair to go with the table, we’ll have at least two that match.  (The table is designed for four people, but it has two leaves on either side.  We flip one leaf down, jut the flat side up against the wall and just use three chairs.)

I think this sounds like a great plan.  I mean, what are the odds of finding the exact chairs this time, let alone if we ever decide we want that fourth chair to go with the table?  He’s right.  It’s best to complete the set now.  In my head, if one chair has a mate, and the other two chairs match each other, I’ll be happy.  And, as long as the two pairs are similar, they don’t have to be exact.

So, we finally find the right section in the huge store, and we cast our gaze across a sea of kitchen and dinette chairs.  The possibilities are endless, but none of them are wrought iron and wood.  We decide not to panic until we’ve looked through the whole section.  We start off in one direction, planning to work our way through the maze.  As we turn the corner, we can’t believe our eyes.

Our chairs!
The exact chairs!

And, they have been discontinued, so they are on clearance!

So, we bought two on the spot.

Click to enlarge.
I’m standing on the fourth one to take the photo…

And they’re a perfect match. What are the odds?