Depending on your modeler, you should be able to control the polygon density of what NURBS objects will convert down into polys.  Stuff like the thin metal bars for the legs, that would be something like a NURBS sweep along a spline, with the shape of a circle; in Cinema (my modeler) you can define the circle to have 6 or 8 real points, and the length of the spline that is swept you can define specific maximums for how many points make up the spline.  While this tends to make a lot of polygons, I don't see how it would be all that reasonable to do a chair like that with pure subdivision techniques either.  The seat part of the chair, sure, but not the thin bars making up the legs.  You could do it, but it would be a real pain and would be quite difficult to keep all the tubing of a regular diameter.

You can always go back into the NURBS model once it's converted to polys and modify it, delete unnecessary edge loops or whatever.

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