Currently loving...

The Ingrid bed by Oly in Raffia.









And I'm crossing my fingers my client loves it too :)

Vintage Wing Back Chairs - Yay/Nay

As I've mentioned before, it's really easy to find wing back chairs on Craigslist and in thrift stores, but not all are created equal. In fact, Tommy brought up the same thing in an episode of Sarah's House, and I think my husband thought I was crazy when I was saying to the TV saying "yes, I totally agree!!!".

Here is the pair I found on Craigslist and had reupholstered:

(wow, really bad lighting, my walls aren't pink and my floors aren't that red)

Here is what sold me on these chairs:

The Legs: I love when wing backs don't have Queen Anne legs, I'll get to that in a bit. Instead, these wing backs had straight legs and I love that.

The Wings: I LOVE a good, wide curved wing on wing backs. Something that hugs you when you sit in it.

Here are some wing back chairs in the YAY category:

A beautiful example of a wing back, via the Traditional Home Showhouse.


This one is currently on the Charlotte Craigslist. I love the curved wings and the straight legs. All the components are very proportionate.


Another Charlotte Craigslist find.. look past the crazy fabric and you'll find some good lines. Even though the legs are Queen Anne, this chair still has a great shape.


Pairs aren't too hard to find. Here is a great pair in Charlotte for $120:


You'll remember I posted these chairs I had recovered for a client around the Holidays. The wings are much smaller than the previous examples, but I liked how sleek they are. The chairs are pretty small, so the scale works.



Okay, here comes the NAY category. (In my personal opinion) if you see anything like these, keep on moving. I promise a good wing back is right around the corner!

What I don't like about this one: wimpy little wings that aren't to scale with the rest of the chair. Queen Anne legs.. I'm just not a fan. The chair is also too tall and skinny for my taste. I like a wing back I can curl up in and sit sideways.


More wimpy little wings. So sad :(


I like a wing back with substance, but this one has TOO much substance. Looks like it had few too many girl scout cookies (which I am totally guilty of lately, by the way).


I don't HATE this pair, but I don't love it either. I'd probably keep looking (and be super excited when I found the pair in the YAY category).


I hope this helps.. I realize there are very subtle differences between YAYs and NAYs and I hope I didn't confuse you!

Vintage Chairs

Whenever I'm working with a tight budget, I always look for vintage pieces to recover/paint, etc. Thank god for Craigslist and thrift stores!

Currently I'm "researching" (aka searing on Pinterest) for vintage chairs (or vintage looking) in living rooms.

If only I could find some like these! So cool.


Wing back chairs are the easiest kind to find, but not all are created equal. These (below) have a great shape. Maybe I should do a post about ugly vs. pretty wing backs....

It's A Sign

Yesterday I had a meeting in my office and my seating situation is quite embarrassing.



Yup, that's an old settee covered in a blanket. :-/

I went to ikea.com and this is what I saw:



What a great deal right now! The Erktop sectional I've planned for months and months to get for the office is $500. This would give me a $75 gift card, which is perfect because I also have a handful of storage items on my list for the office, too.

I have until December 20th to bite the bullet!

ps - I'll be announcing the Home Goods winner later today!

Beat It

Yesterday I was in Home Goods and they had some great new things. Here are some iPhone pictures I took..

I wanted to take this chair home but had no use for it.



They had tons of great beat-up storage pieces. They were a lot better in person than in my crappy phone pictures.





"Beat up" furniture (no, I won't call it Shabby Chic or Rustic) is a new thing for me.. I never liked it much but I've started to be really drawn to it. I think a bit of Charlotte (the city) is rubbing off on me; it's pretty common in design here.

For example, check out the "beat up" demilune tables in this Charlotte home I featured last week:


I really like when it's mixed with all contemporary pieces.

Here is a chair I'm using for a project, it will be reupholstered and put next to a contemporary Karlstad sofa (and yes the zebra cowhide will also be in the space).



And a goodie from Pinterest...


Old + New... I love it.

A really great IKEA hack

Lately I've been searching for the perfect dark gray sofa for a client. We're on a budget and currently my top contender is the Karlstad from IKEA:


This sofa has a really great shape and design for the price tag, which is only $499! It's also pretty comfortable given the price tag ;) This particular room is the formal living room; we'll be spending more on a higher quality sofa for the TV room where my client spends most of her "lounging" time.

Anna from Door Sixteen has this same sofa and it looks great in her space:



Young House Love has the huge sectional:



But I recently came across something that made me really excited. Check out this amazing Karlstad hack!



The couple from the blog Our Mid Century had the all cushions on their gray Karlstad tufted! Doesn't it look amazing?

I'm 99% sure this is the route we are going with for my client's sofa. I'll also be getting some fabulous new legs. Even after customizing the Karlstad, I'm estimating the entire sofa to still cost around $600. It's near impossible to find a good looking sofa for that price. And that just means more budget for amazing art, fabrics and accessories.

I will be sure to share the transformation when we bite the bullet!

Sale on Mirrors & Other Pretty Things

I like when I receive e-mails about sales, actually open them and then find myself pleasantly surprised at what I see. That's what happened when I got the email about World Market mirrors on sale.*

What I've found with inexpensive big box stores is you have to weed through a lot of the crap to find pieces that are good looking. But through the crap I sometimes see items that look like they could be in high end stores and priced 100% more.

Here are a couple great mirrors that I saw.

This mirror is very pretty. I love the organic shape and the cut outs are very pretty.

Segovia Mirror - $79.99

And another mirror that looks much more expensive than it is... I'm a sucker for mango wood. And I love the nailheads!

Austin Studded Mirror - $119.99

World Market has some other pretty little things, like these tables:

Vance Table - $139.99

Tristan Table - $79.99

This ottoman is really cool, I wish it came in other colors.

Leather Ottoman - $249.99

A really great dining room bench/settee for a great price. I'm really impressed by the fabric, too (it has a good texture).

Linen Dining Bench - $449.99

* World Market isn't compensating me in any way nor do they know I'm even writing this post. I just thought I'd share some good deals with you as I often like to do :)

A New Piece for Slate

This past weekend was busy busy busy.. one thing I worked on was this updated secretary for Slate:



Originally I had planned on painting the piece white, but lately I've been more apt to keep the original finish on vintage/antique pieces if they are still in pretty good shape. As much as I love painted furniture, sometimes it's sad painting over beautiful wood that has been untouched for decades. I even like it has a couple scrapes and dings... it gives the piece character ;)

Even though I didn't paint the piece, I did give it an update. The bookcase had doors but they were in bad shape and couldn't be salvaged.. so I tossed them and kept it open. I papered the back walls in leftover grasscloth from our bathroom. After I added the wallpaper, I stepped back and was glad I didn't paint it!

It's currently available at Slate.

On my wish list

This sideboard... I'm in love. I've been thinking about it for WEEKS. Maybe even months.



It was originally available at Jayson Home & Garden but is no longer available. Even if it was still available, it'd be out of my reach.

It's exactly what I would like for a TV stand in our family room to replace the hand-me-down we currently have.



This sideboard is currently on Craigslist, but it's $270, the mirror would need to be removed and most importantly the burlwood is too pretty to paint over and distress:



Yup.. I have major furniture integrity :)

I thought I'd put this out into the world... maybe there is a local reader who has one sitting in their garage waiting for a new life. haha I wish!

New Sofa... almost

I was THISCLOSE to buying a new sofa this week. Which for me is HUGE. In my entire life, I've never had a new sofa. Every sofa has been given to us by family (which we do appreciate!). But I think buying a brand new sofa is sort of an adult rite of passage.

The other day I was at West Elm looking for accessories for a client, and as I was leaving I came across this beautiful piece:



It caught my eye.. I look at West Elm's website at least once a day (for design boards) and never "saw" this one. Well, I have but it's much better looking in person.

Then I saw this:


What?? $699 PLUS an additional free slipcover? omg. what an amazing deal! And it'd be so perfect for our living room, which currently looks like this:



I've been thinking about a layout for this room for a while and recently decided on one. One of the black chairs will go beside the other window so they are facing each other. And a sofa will float in front of the doors, facing the windows. I have had this image saved saved as an inspiration image:

[ lonny ]

I went over our finances... we could swing this. Even my husband was on board! So I took my blue painters tape and taped out the sofa. I always recommend this to clients when deciding on a new piece of furniture.

The sofa was WAY too large. Deep down inside I sort of already knew that.. but I played with the painters tape for a while and it was confirmed.

So the sofa that almost was, wasn't. I had to share it with you though.. it's a GREAT deal and I hope someone out there can take advantage of it.

I did, however, confirm exactly what I'm looking for in a living room sofa:

- flat back
- tight slipcover with skirt
- white (reason for the slipcover)
- LOW back (because of the french doors)

The West Elm sofa was a whopping 87" long.. which is way too long for the space. For our space, an "apartment" or "studio" sofa is in order.. less than 80".

So the living room will remain pretty much empty until the perfect sofa finds me.

Mid-Century Furniture Graveyard

Our living room has become a graveyard where mid-century furniture goes to be resurrected from the dead. (note to self- when the weather gets warmer, I will be cleaning out our garage to make it my "studio" aka where I paint and hold furniture).

I have to admit - I love having a booth. It makes me incredibly happy rescuing amazing pieces of furniture that people have tossed to the curb and giving it new life and a new home.

Let me tell you the story of these chairs I'm about to show you. Yesterday I stopped into a thrift store and these babies were sitting there. I just about ran over to them and searched for a tag to yank off. There wasn't a tag! I figured they had been sold but I had to ask anyway. After hovering and talking to not one, but two employees, I found out there was a table that was being sold with the set, and there was another man who already claimed it and was waiting for the table to be delivered.

The man saw how much I loved the chairs, and worked out a deal with me. He bought the whole set and sold me the chairs. He was an antiques dealer and was a really nice guy. He did make a nice little profit right there in the thrift store, but not as much as he could have if he had kept them.

So here they are!









The upholstery is in PERFECT condition. It's cream small-scale patterned microfiber.

And here is what I mean about my living room being a furniture graveyard...



[ the naked settee is for our master bedroom. I am painting it white. ]

Here are some other mid-century chairs that I saved. They are missing some buttons but are waiting to be fixed:





The vinyl on these are original and is in perfect shape. The buttons will be recovered in suede (I think!)

And last but not least, this big beast of a cabinet:





If you see, the top is a faux-burl wood laminate. It's pretty ugly. I'm going to have a glass top made and gold leaf underneath it (very similar to what Jenny is doing with her glass fronts here).

All these items will be going into the booth at Slate as soon as they get their TLC.

Speaking of the booth, here are some shots of what it currently looks like:






If you have any questions about items, shoot me an email at brynalexandra@gmail.com