Temporary Measures

I've had a spot in my living room that has sorely needed a table for a long, looong time.  Every time we have guests over, it drives me mad not having a better place to sit drinks.

I waited and waited for a charming and affordable antique table, but nothing has appeared.  Then I stopped at a yard sale last week (the sign said Furniture, which sounded promising to me) and found this little butterscotch table:

While I'd prefer a good antique, the little pedestal table is the perfect size and scale and is exactly what I envisioned (minus the pedigree and perfect colour) for this spot. It even has little brass feet.  I think it'll be even more perfect when I paint it off-white...

And I love having another spot to create pretty little vignettes!

Have a happy week and sorry for my spotty blog posts (I've been savouring the cool and sunny summer here and I'm planning a very big event I will share soon).

Chair News

The lovely and amazing chair I blogged about last week is officially coming home with us from my favorite local interiors store, Maria Tomas:

David agreed it was time to retire the old recliner to the TV room.  Plus, the new off-white chair (coming soon) will be divine for reading, so he is not chair-less.

I have to show you the back of it - such great lines, which is wonderful since this is more or less the view of the chair when you enter the living room:

I was conflicted about the colour, but the sale price was so good, I could not justify paying full price for different fabric.  

It looks quite blue here but reads more like a gray TEAL sort of colour.  It is quite wonderful as it reads gray, then dark green, then slate blue depending on the light.  It looks fabulous with crisp white, silver and linens, my new scheme for the living room.  And it looked amazing with every colour pillow we tried...from bright yellow to greige.  

Now I really need a new living room rug...

Happy weekend!

The Chair

Hello all, I must apologize for not blogging much lately.  I have been suffering badly with headaches and had to take a week off work.  I ended up going for more Botox injections last week in my face and jaw and it has finally kicked in, so I have a little more energy today!  The odd thing is now that the headache has subsided, I feel emotionally drained from weeks and weeks of pain.  But I think that's a story for another day...!

I thought I'd share a few pictures of our new chair which I just ordered.  I've been looking for a comfortable reading chair for a looong time.  In addition to comfort (I have a contrary back), I wanted it to be high quality and good looking!  I had a hard time finding the good-looking part but eventually found I kept coming back to this luxurious chair, by Pearson:

It didn't quite have the look I wanted (a little more upright and higher off the ground) but the comfort kept calling me back.  This chair is like sitting on a cloud.  The seat is down and foam wrapped around a spring core and the back cushion is down.  The materials and workmanship are stunning.  I ordered this fabric, a lovely linen-cotton blend with a very soft hand, together with custom dark wood legs:

The chair will sit so that its side and back are visible when you come in the room.  From this angle, it still looks good:

I had a funny relationship with this chair.  It was so comfortable but I didn't love the way it looked at first.  But it's kind of like meeting a wonderful person who you don't think is your type.  I began to think about the chair when I wasn't with it.  And it made me so happy when I saw it.  And I couldn't stop touching it.  So I knew it was real love...!

I also like that the new chair has a similar scale, height, quality, and overall feel as our new linen-cotton sofa.  The fabric I chose (a little lighter than the one it is covered in at the store) is almost exactly the same colour as our new sofa but has a much softer feel:

Our new sofa the day it arrived (un-styled because I had to rush out the door back to work...)

Originally I planned to get a pair of chairs, but we already have a sage green reading chair in the same room (which David won't let me move), so I really wanted to keep the new pieces neutral and clean-lined to work with the existing chair and a fourth occasional chair that I have.  I am hoping for a new rug eventually...

Hope you have a wonderful week ahead...I will share photos once the chair arrives.

xo Terri

A Sneak Peak: Our New Sofa ~

I am generally too control-freakish to post un-styled, unstudied photos on the blog but I had to show you a sneak peak of our new living room sofa, right after it arrived this afternoon (the light was great, but I was running out the door, so no time to zhuzh!):

It is by Hickory Chair (Lorens sofa), and we purchased it at a beautiful shop here in town, called Maria Tomas. I just adore it!

In the coming weeks, we will be getting a new chair in a similar colour, and then I'll do pillows. I'll share more photos soon. It has such great lines, more contemporary, and really freshens and updates the room's traditional-antique vibe, but it still has a lovely hand-made quality to it, with its lovely stitching, high quality craftsmanship and natural fabric (cotton-linen)...

More soon!

New Year New Furniture

I feel like I accomplished very little over the holidays except nursing headaches and drowning my sorrows in chocolate squares and cranberry cake. I switched medications and have been suffering terrible insomnia as the previous medication was very sedating and I'd taken it 10 years!! I worked down my dosage to zero, and have been paying for it these past two weeks. So the holidays feel like they were about sleep deprivation and exhaustion more than anything else.

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But yesterday, I did finally settle on fabrics for our new chair and sofa! We are hoping to replace our sofa and chair within the next 6 months. I want to do neutral solids on each as I am not pattern-adept and want to keep our small space clean and simple. I plan to do some beautiful pillows to add back colour to the room.

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The sofa fabric is the rougher linen in the background. It's a linen-cotton blend with some nice slubbing for texture:

The sofa we're planning is from Hickory Chair and looks like this:

I love the clean lines and the tight back, and also the higher back and arm for long periods of sitting and reading. I originally wanted a bench seat, but don't want to pay the customization charges and actually like this look. If I reupholster it in the future, I can always do a bench seat then.

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The sofa is 81" long, which fits our small living room perfectly (our current sofa is 84"). The frame is kiln-dried hardwood and the springs are hand-tied and all those other good things which will make this a very good sofa for a long time.

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The chair fabric is in the foreground. It is very soft and is also a linen-cotton blend:

The chair is this one, from Lee. which you've seen a few times! It is perfect - a wonderful reading chair that is more modern than I wanted, but has grown on me due to its immense comfort, tall back, great reading arms and wide curl-up seat:

I want the swivel version, so unfortunately I have to do a skirt. I'm hoping for a skirt that looks like this, if Lee will customize it for me (still waiting on this info!). Otherwise I may have to break the bank and have it slipcovered after it arrives:

That's all for now. Biscuit will miss the big arms on our current sofa, as they are his frequent perch!

The old furniture will go to the TV room, where it is sorely needed!

Hope your work week is great!

Serious Chair Love

If you've been reading this blog a while, you know I've been wanting to replace my living room furniture. I've been fixated on this Lee Industries sofa (3106) and finally sat in it...but I'll tell you more about that later!

In the meantime, I've been scouting for an interesting chair to go along with this (or similar) sofa. Calgary isn't exactly a design mecca for us (semi) traditionalists, so I've struggled to find good quality pieces with great lines (that make a nod to tradition), serious comfort, and that have beautiful fabric choices (I just can't afford to do COM on 2-3 new pieces!). I really need to go shopping in Atlanta...

But I've found a few:

Option A: I really like this Lee chair (1822), which I blogged about before. I've sat in this chair at three stores in Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria (thank heaven we travel!). I think it would go well with the sofa, with its similar lines.

It's a modern wing and sits soooo comfortably. I have a bad back and sit in the living room in the evenings to read, so I really like the very high back, with its perfect pitch. It has down seat (Haven fill), and the seat and arm heights are perfect. I also like the slightly larger scale seat, for curling up. I love the way this chair sits, and like its looks, but I don't LOVE the way it looks. I like a chair that sits up a little more, on taller legs. So my dilemma is...do I get the chair that's most comfortable (at the best price), but not the most beautiful? Or do I find one that's better looking while still fairly comfy? Sounds like shopping for a husband...

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Option B: I found this beauty recently, by Pearson, at my favorite furniture store (Maria Tomas). This one is covered in an exquisite Chilean wool, and down filled. I love the way it looks (elegant but approachable) and it sits soooo comfortably, like floating on a cloud. But it isn't as high and supportive at the back. It also costs ~2 to 2.5 times more than the Lee chair:

The seat is really generous (and still comfortable) if you remove the cushion - great for reading, sitting cross-legged, or curling up with a reading pillow or bolster. The back is high enough for comfort, but I can't rest my head back for a wee nap. I love the stitching details and find it very pretty and versatile:

Option C: I found this gorgeous chair (Milling Road European Club) by Baker at Eisenberg's. It sits really great and has a higher back. I like the clean lines and know David would like it. The Baker fabrics are gorgeous and the price point is about 2x the cost of the Lee chair (and the sales rep seemed flexible on price!).

It looks sooo beautiful in a neutral linen with nailheads, and would be very versatile. The little camel back would go great with the Lee sofa, but the arms are quite different:

Which chair do you like best to go with a new sofa? Maybe I need to buy two...

The Sofa & Chair Quest Continues

In September, I posted about "The Sofa That Wasn't", which is this Lee Industries sofa (below). I had coveted this sofa for a long time but decided not to order it (during a custom furniture sale) due to concerns about dimensions of the piece (read my post here) and not being able to sit on it. I have tried enough Lee furniture to know that the seat will feel great in their Haven fill package, but I was concerned about seat depth (24", requiring a pillow behind you) and the deep rake of the back:

I have tried quite a few Lee pieces in the meantime and know that I might have to order a piece "sight unseen". I am becoming more comfortable with that as I know how their seats feel and what dimensions work best for our bodies. But it is hard to know how the back will feel.

Because I'm 5'5", I don't even consider a seat height above 18" nor a seat depth above 22" if I want my feet to hit the floor! However, a seat depth at or above 22" does work well for curling up your feet under you (which I like to do while reading). 22" is the perfect depth for sitting normally and curling up.

I also like a tight back as I don't want a lot of pillows, which to me look messy. And because I have a very bad back, I tend to like taller backs, which make it feel supported. So many criteria! Besides size, this furniture will be used a lot for reading and resting, so it has to be comfortable, besides looking crisp and elegant.

At the time I was considering the sofa, I also coveted this Lee chair, a modern wingback (which I had sat in and LOVED). I did not initially love the look of the chair (I didn't even notice it at first) but it felt wonderful to sit in. It had me at hello as a perfect reading chair:

In the last few months, I've been on the prowl around town, trying sofas and chairs everywhere. While I have found many pretty items, nothing has met all my criteria and my other high standards: perfect dimensions, clean-lined with a nod to traditional, very comfortable, plenty of beautiful natural fabrics to choose from, and environmentally-friendly.

I know exactly what I want if I could just afford to custom-design my own!!

I am still thinking about the Lee sofa. Here it is in the apartment-size (76") with a slipcover. We would need to get this size as the full-size (94") is too large:

To throw a wrench in the works, I just discovered this newly-introduced sofa on Lee's website:

It is only 75" long but the interior length is 67" which means I can lay the length of it!!! And the scale is perfect, with an 18" high seat and a 22" seat depth, perfect for me and the same as our current sofa. I would prefer a bench seat (which Lee can probably do for extra). Now I am wondering if I can live with the slip-covered look.

I've always adored slip-covers in other people's homes, but prefer the more polished look of legs for our house. This little sofa is very tailored and more "skirted" than slip-covered and I think it looks very refined in its skirt.

The coordinating chair resembles more of a slip-covered look, but is also listed on Lee's site as upholstered. I think the chair is just darling. I don't think I would ever tire of a classic piece like this. It has all the right dimensions too, but the back is not quite as high as I normally prefer:

I think the slipped look would be nice in our living room which already has plenty of legs (the console table, the coffee table, the cabriole leg on the china cabinet, and the little armchair which is waiting to be reupholstered), as you can see from these Christmas photos. Legs o' plenty!:

Since I just bought a new car and spent $2k today on winter tires and rims, I think it will be a LONG while before I allow myself out of the house with my wallet to go further than the grocery store. So I may have a while to dream about this...

What do you think? Do you like the tailored slipcover look? Or do you think I should follow my first instincts and get the deep sofa (which would be great for curling up on) and the chair I loved? I do think the second set looks more attractive and coherent but the chair is not as good for reading.

Thoughts?

Dark & Light: The Essential Mariette Himes Gomez

I have become obsessed with clean traditional rooms that feature an airy, pale background with a few striking dark elements. These rooms are by my interior design idol, Mariette Himes Gomez.

The furniture in these rooms is architectural, which adds to its beauty and impact. The dark furniture is a beautiful accent in these light-flooded rooms...

I used to think the lightest airiest rooms were full of white, but the lightness is highlighted best by the touches of darkness. It is high contrast that accentuates paleness best.

Mariette chooses important pieces and elevates them with her quiet, pared down, but carefully orchestrated interiors. She can do no wrong in my book. You have to be a master to achieve simplicity like this. This kind of simplicity is the ultimate sophistication (to misquote DaVinci!).

Her work is my inspiration as I slowly try to pare down, declutter, and distill my rooms to a purer form. I love antiques and I want to create classic rooms with beautiful things I never tire of. I am not a trend follower, but even a trend can be added to these timeless rooms without disturbing their quiet perfection.

It will be a long process for me (lacking time and this kind of budget...), but I intend to slowly create a home with just this feel...which I call pared down classic, with the interplay of light and dark.

Imagine living in quiet perfect rooms like these (her own Manhattan apartment):

Bliss!

Check out Mariette's website and her beautiful books: "Rooms", "Houses", and "Apartments". They are as wonderful to read as to look at...her philosophy on decorating resonates deeply with me. If I could do my life over again, I would study design at some great school and then in my fantasy world, beg Mariette to let me learn from her and her beautiful mind!

Enjoy.

The Sofa that Wasn't

As mentioned in several posts, I've been coveting this Lee Industries sofa and was all lined up to buy it. But I was a little concerned about the seat depth (24"). It's 2" deeper than my current sofa, which fits my 5'5" build perfectly. I don't mind curling up on a sofa, but for a living room sofa, this piece needs to accommodate various people who will want to sit "normally"(feet on the floor). Since no one in the Pacific northwest (or western Canada) seems to carry this sofa, I was unsure how to proceed. I finally contacted a shop who contacted their Lee representative for me. She confirmed my fears. She said this is a "perching" sofa or a "curling up" sofa (unless you are tall). To sit normally (feet on the ground), you need to put a pillow behind you. She got me this great side photo from the production floor:
Why can't Lee put side profile photos on their website?

The sofa is beautiful, without a doubt. But the seat is too deep. Someone my height or shorter cannot sit normally without a pillow behind them. The back also has a significant rake, making the piece very deep (41"). I cannot ascertain whether the pitch of the back would be comfortable or would it pitch you backwards? Our current sofa, though not gorgeous, is SO comfortable, so I'm comparing everything to it in terms of dimensions and angles. Yes, I am an engineer too! The Lee sofa has a significantly more sloped back than our current piece, which is a bit more upright and supportive for my miserable back. I sit A LOT on the sofa to read and listen to music in the evenings and weekends, so it must be comfortable and supportive.

The Lee rep said the sofa is "very elegant", but you "need a pillow behind you". I think that sounds annoying. I can handle a deep seat in a TV room, but not in a proper living room where guests want to sit normally.

So until we can test this sofa, it isn't coming home with us! Comfort is king in our house. I want elegant and stylish but it must be comfortable and normal for this much money.

So sadly the new furniture is on hold. I'm a little dejected as I spent so much time on this and already had my perfect linen chosen for the sofa and chair. But I want to get this furniture right so I'm glad I was persistent in getting more information.

So, I started looking for something else.

I found this little beauty at a local shop:

The manufacturer is not as reputable as Lee and the fabrics are awful, but I can always do custom for a zillion dollars more. The other problem with this piece is that it's small - a small sofa or large loveseat, at only 71" long. My current sofa is 86" long and the Lee sofa is 78" long (apartment size). Darnit. The universe is conspiring against me!

This little sofa sits very prettily in the room and has nice proportions. It is very comfortable and I love the nestling comfort of the back, although it does not have the good "reading arm" I've been wanting.

It actually would fit the scale of our small living room, but isn't as accommodating as a larger piece that can easily hold three.

I love the side and rear views:

I'm thinking of bringing this piece home on approval to test for scale in our room. I do think this size would feel very nice in our small living room, together with a similar chair and my existing two chairs.

So now I'm waiting again...for a new sofa crush.

New Furniture: Linen Selection & Dye Lot Differences

After much deliberation, I think we've finally picked out a fabric for the new sofa and armchair.   David referred to all the linens I brought home as "beige" and "crunchy" so it was hard having a discussion with him about which he preferred, or rather didn't hate.  

He is also worried about all the "beige" in the room when we replace the green furniture, so it took a lot of convincing that "beige" or off-white will actually be more versatile and will let me add coloured pillows (golden yellow, dark green, blue, pinks) that I couldn't do quite as easily with the sage green furniture.

In the final analysis, we also decided to upholster BOTH pieces in the SAME fabric, for a coherent look since we already have two odd chairs in the room and don't want all four pieces to differ.  The new furniture does not match (but has similar characteristics), and once covered in the same fabric, I hope it will look coherent.  I'd love to do a matching pair of chairs and a new sofa, but it ain't happening budget-wise!

So...drum roll please:

The fabric we selected is the off-white linen on the left, which also feels quite soft:  

I think it will look beautiful on this:

Here is another photo of the same fabric in late afternoon light.  It looks very pale in sunny daytime light but darkens as the light fades:

Here is the chair again, which will be done in the same fabric:

Unfortunately this is a very expensive fabric.  The otherwise fairly-priced sofa will cost $1000 more in this fabric than in the runner-up fabric.  Woe is me.

On that note, the runner-up fabric  has me rather perplexed. I picked up samples at two different shops because they looked different to me.  And sure enough, when I got them home, I could see that they were in fact different.  

In the photo below, the two swatches on the left are the "same" runner-up fabric, with obvious dye-lot differences (the 1st place fabric is on the right): 

David's right - they're  all just "beige"!!!

Here's the runner-up fabric again on two swatches, which show dramatic dye lot colour AND also texture differences.  Though they bear the same name, the fabric on the left is greyer and quite rough while the fabric on the right is beiger and softer:

I was surprised to see such dramatic differences in mill runs.  I would expect variations but not this much (I wonder now what the fabric I have chosen might end up looking like!). I wonder if this is real, or if one of these is mis-labelled?

On a final note, regrettably, I've also eliminated the brown stonewashed fabric you all liked:

I love it so much, for both the texture and *gorgeous* colour, but honestly I'm afraid it will look too casual and disheveled for the sofa (since now we're doing matching pieces).  It might be okay on a tightly upholstered chair, but I'm afraid it will look unkempt on the long bench seat of the sofa.

 And since it is the highest grade of all the fabrics I've chosen, it would be a VERY expensive experiment. 

Ok, that's my update.  What do you think of my selection of the lighter, softer linen? What about matching fabric on the two pieces?

A Modern Wingback: Coming Home with Me?

In my eternal quest for a living room sofa, I stumbled upon this modern wingback (1822-01) from the venerable Lee Industries.  I found this beauty at Walls Alive, a lovely custom interior decorating store here in Calgary.  

I would usually walk right past a modern-looking chair but I was oddly drawn to its clean lines and yet subtle nod to tradition.  What sold me, however, was the comfort.  This chair looks austere but is so comfortable to sit in:  

The high back is supportive (I have a bad back and it felt very supported in this chair) and sits at a perfect, relaxing angle.  With the tall wings you feel positively enveloped.  The seat has a down-wrapped core so it's also supportive but soft and cushy.

The chair is shown in a fabric called "Campbell White", which is a crisp 100% cotton with a very soft hand.  I love this fabric but white simply isn't practical and it only comes in dark colours otherwise.  I like to eat cookies in my chairs so white just isn't a candidate.

I've decided that this chair should come home with me, along with the (possible) new sofa.  I really like the profile.  It also comes in a coverall, as Lee calls it (aka slipcover, not shown):

Here I am in the store testing fabrics.  I am drawn to all the rough linens for their texture, but they are rather rough and hard to the touch.  David calls them "crunchy", which is an apt description:

I brought several swatches home of the softer linens and also a few cotton blends.  My favorite for the chair is the one on the left (below), which is called Stonewash Belize Flax.  Unfortunately it's one of the most expensive grades (just my luck).  It's 100% linen and is quite wrinkly but very soft to the hand:  

I'm not really sure how this fabric will look on a tailored, upholstered piece.  It is more of a casual slipcover fabric, but I'm drawn to its colour and softness and think it would be a very interesting fabric on a tailored piece.

I've shown the fabric with a piece of moss green velvet beside it since I'm planning to make Christmas pillows in this fabric and I want it all to work(!):

Here is another shot of the chair fabric (left).  I have all the samples laid out across a white sheet on the back of my sofa.  The potential sofa fabric, also linen, is shown to the immediate right of the green velvet.  It's a paler linen called Belize Natural.  At the far right is another potential sofa fabric called Patton Flax:

Crate & Barrel has a 25% off custom sale until mid-October, which would make both these pieces much more affordable.  If you didn't know, Crate & Barrel carries Lee furniture and has most of the fabrics available.  For a larger fabric selection, check out a dedicated Lee dealer.

 I picked up my fabrics at Walls Alive, mentioned above, which has a wonderful, kind staff.  Walls Alive had excellent prices on Lee, better than any other store I checked, but with the 25% off sale at Crate & Barrel, it's the hands down winner!

Any thoughts on upholstering with linen?  Do you like this chair?