Set of 14 Provençal Painted Dining Chairs With Wheat Sheaf Backs, 1980s

These fourteen dining chairs have been a fixture at Chanteduc, Patricia and Walter Wells's farmhouse and cooking school in Vaison-la-Romaine, for decades — drawn up to the table for countless meals, cooking classes and the kind of long Provençal lunches that drift well into the afternoon. Made in the 1980s by a local ébéniste, they are a piece of the house's own history, crafted nearby and chosen to suit the rhythms of a working farmhouse kitchen. Each chair is painted in a warm, creamy beige — a tone that sits easily in southern light — with a tall, elegantly proportioned back featuring a carved wheat sheaf motif: slender spindles fanning outward and bound at the centre, a detail that nods to the agricultural landscape surrounding Chanteduc. The turned legs and scalloped apron are neatly finished, and the woven rush seats add warmth and texture, their natural honey tones a pleasing contrast to the painted frames. Patricia explains that these chairs have long alternated at the dining table with another white set from the same maker. A set of fourteen is a genuine find — generous enough to seat a full table with ease. They would work beautifully in a farmhouse dining room, a garden room or a relaxed kitchen, equally at home around a scrubbed oak table or paired with something more contemporary. Their Provençal character is specific without being fussy, and their long life at a well-used table speaks for itself.