Yesterday I blogged about how grain sack upholstery can make an antique chair more casual. But if you want to be really casual, go for patched-up old truck tarps on your cushions, like the ones on this steel and teak Cargo chair by CS Basics which I saw while I was at ABC Carpet & Home last week in New York. At $1,200 a chair, this is the interior design equivalent of really expensive torn denim. Yet there’s something appealing about it. Perhaps it’s that there’s no reason to worry about ruining it—it’s already ruined.

—GINA BAZER