upholstery details

since i touched on the 'small things' yesterday, i thought it would be fun to continue sharing tips on how to take a room to the next level; this time through upholstery. suzanne kasler does an amazing job w/ upholstery details...in fact, i think she nails it. one of my favorite things about suzanne, is the fact that she can make a room look fabulous by the smallest touches...for instance, by adding a small tape banding behind the nailhead of a dining room chair, you get a truly custom looking piece. or take an alternate fabric and create a banding at the bottom of a sofa or chair skirt- so easy but it takes the piece to the next level.

or say you fall in love w/ six dining room chairs in a store. they are upholstered in a great neutral linen...well, to get a more custom look w/out having to reupholster a perfectly fine chair, just do the host and hostess chairs- add a pouch of color on those two. or just have an upholsterer add a different fabric to the backs of the chairs-a simple ticking stripe looks awesome....

another tip i think can carry you a long way is adding nailhead trim. polished nickel looks fabulous on an upholstered piece. if you are creating an upholstered headboard, nailhead gives a great custom look...or if you have an upholstered chair, just simply add a small accent detail by the arms to jazz it up...

none of these tips are mind blowing but if you just remember them when you are decorating a space, it will give you such a great custom look. remember 'small things' can go a long way!!

*images courtesy of suzanne kasler/hickory chair, decorology, house beautiful/ballard design

Eddie Ross...before & after

so awhile ago i wrote about how i was having a dilemma about painting "antiques"...well, thanks to eddie ross (martha/ top design coolio), i have now decided that painting is OK. i adore what he has done with this secretary- too freaking cute. it looks awesome and makes me want to grab some primer and get to work right away (only i don't know if it's good to paint when you have had some wine in your system)....i think i have moved away from wanting to paint my DR chairs and am now focused on my china cabinet....if only i was a good painter....

i'll take the beach please.....

this weekend i realized how lucky i was to be able to roll out of bed and be at the beach 10 minutes later. my husband has a sat. morning tradition of taking barron to the beach so he can run and play in the water. for some reason, i never go...that is, until this sat. me and tay joined the boys and headed to the beach. it was one of the best 2 hrs. i have ever spent on a sat. AM. taylor loves the beach and with the dogs running around (there is a leash law on our beaches- they can only be on the beach from 8-10 am), she was just thrilled. we actually spent a lot of time on sullivan's- dinner on fri and then we went to the beach both sat. and sun. what i love most about the beach is the feeling you get when you drive up to it; it's like all of your worries go away and you just become carefree....

this week, i think i am going to devote my posts to living at the beach and so here are some things i want in my "pretend beach house":

rachel ashwell's warrenton shelf, kerry cassill's cobalt swirl fabric, laurin copen's french steel baguette trolley's ....

star light, star bright....

how much fun would this add to your sitting arrangement? love this hammered, iron turquoise star table...it would give any boring outdoor collection a life of its own!! and believe me, i have been doing a lot of outdoor furniture exploring and it gets REAL boring! would it kill the companies to liven up a little?

you can be my benchwarmer....

how cute is this...love the idea of the old school locker bench for seating and at this price, you might be able to afford it!!

ralph lauren...

working on a house at the beach draws me to ralph lauren's home collection...i mean, the man can work some fab furniture. the pieces are just visually stunning. that tufted ottoman has me drooling and then pushing the contemporary envelope, the red dining room chairs are nothing short of sexy....

the white sofa, part 2...

hey y'all, i am super busy today trying to get together a furniture plan for a house i am working on but i wanted to share this white sofa from chapman radcliff....when i say i love white sofas, what i really mean is that i LOVE white, chesterfield sofas that are at chapman radcliff home!! :) happy hump day.

the white sofa....

i LOVE a white sofa...although i have to admit, we bought our sofa when we moved into this house 4 yrs ago and its a flax linen blend. but that doesn't keep me from loving white sofas.... i am working on a residence where the house screams white sofas! the wife secretly wants them, the husband thinks dogs and practicality... so the dilemma remains. there are so many variations of white fabrics out there these days...slipcovers can be washed (but can be a pain to have to juggle w/ getting them back on perfectly), the outdoor fabric industry has exploded and there are so many outdoor fabrics that have the same properties but w/out the look and stiff waxy feel. so if you own a white sofa, are you left to be become OCD or to you just roll w/ it and sip your red wine w/ the best of them??

pink + greek...

last night i was doing one of my favorite hobbies (ha, ha)- looking at my design magazines. it really is an obsession, a hobby, a job- whatever you want to call it, it's what i do!! this particular night i was on my house and garden (god rest their soul) collection circa jan 07'....for any of you out there who share the same hobby as me, this is the mag with chloe sevigny's house- aka. kw trellis wallpapered hallway w/ the antique bike. anyway, i don't know why i am ranting on about this but to make a long story short (i don't even know how i got a story out of this), its where i spotted these beauties...once again, my eyes are being drawn to pink and add a little greek key nail head and my heart skips a beat. way to go madeleine stuart, i now want, no need, to own two of these little beauties....

love her....

for obvious reasons...victoria's interiors are far from contrived and the furniture exudes coolness.

my ultimate find....

there are many reasons why i love living in the "lowcountry" but this week i love living here b/c of things like this- my find of the century! my parents have a house in beaufort, sc ( kind of a "mini charleston"). the town is surrounded by water and beautiful old trees, thus making it a perfect setting for many "designer showhouses". which brings me to my story- my new dining room table.

my parents and i love going to yard sales and if the sales are a bust (which if you go enough you know this definitely happens) then we usually stop by the local habitat for humanity resale store. my mom opted out of going this trip which was fine b/c usually its my dad and i that really dig the place. you just never know what you will find. we walked around the entire store looking at old doors, random electrical cast offs, some odds and ends and it wasn't until the very last second that i discovered it...there hidden under some ugly china and behind a tapestry screen was my luca table in all it's glory. a donation from this designer showhouse that had been sitting in the store for two months....needless to say, i flipped out! i wanted it sooooo bad but i knew i had a hard sale...i had to convince my HUSBAND that we needed that table. being semi- new parents this is the last thing we need but w/ a little twisting of the arm and telling him what a "deal" it was, we are now new owners of the table....unfortunately, we can't get it from my parents garage to our house b/c it's so big but i am just as satisfied w/ it sitting in there b/c i know it now belongs to me!! (btw, i owe a huge thanks to my dad which is why i featured the table w/ his prize possession on it- his dog)!!

julian chichester....

so this is a company that i have used and think they have some amazing products. they do a fine job of giving a contemporary feeling to classic designs...that fish scale finish on the chest of drawers is gorgeous! and the polished nickel base on the Dakota dining table- hello!! if they have it in stock, the product is yours very quickly (it comes from NC). if you happen to be hitting High Point, you should checkout their sample sale...the beautiful chocolate velvet library sofa will be there!

bringing the outdoors in...

the items you see at marsh, a new orleans shop, just might have you rethinking exterior decor...i can see so many of these pieces translating beautifully inside of a home. this month's cottage living featured b. braithwaite's own, chaffee braithwaite, and her bungalow is all about bringing the garden indoors.

MW rocks

madeline weinrib is hot(no wonder, checkout who she is the great granddaughter to)!! i don't know why it takes me so long to find these things but when i stumbled upon her website i was shocked. what great items...they have a very original quailty to them. i would LOVE two of the french tufted chairs. they have great fabric too. have a great weekend. i am going to spend mine curled up on the sofa with a box of kleenex, a zycam shoved up my nose, and a sick baby crawling all over me.

maybe its the weather (suppose to be 72 today)....

or the fact that i live 5 minutes from the beach but i think the stuff at beach dwelling is great. they have a very calming and relaxed feeling in their style of furniture and accessories. i LOVE the tideline dresser- the pulls are fab and the fact that it is on wheels makes me like it even more (i have a thing for wheels). the ella dining chairs remind me of the ones in the suzanne kasler tourquiose dr...the room w/ the mixed, matched chairs. they are super cute. and this woven blanket makes me want to curl up on my sofa after a day at sullivan's island spent laying out (i know its horrible for you) and then heading to poe's and getting a tuna taco and a margarita...ok i am totally day dreaming of a life i use to live- pre- kid.....

orche

i love it when i stumble across something that takes my breath away; orche does just that. this company offers a line of furniture, lighting, and accessories that are beautiful. the lines on the pieces are modern with elegant, classic propotions. the company is headed by british couple harriet maxwell macdonald and andrew corrie and you can go to their store in nyc (462 broome st. to be exact). i love the earth tones that are found in the upholstery and the sleek wood finishes. another thing they are famous for are their beautifully handcrafted lighting. i inquired about this company and immidately got a response back (thanks dana) to see if they worked with the trade. it seems like they are very designer friendly.

the bubble chair

does this chair not turn heads? it was on the cover of the august Charleston magazine and ever time i see it, i love it. (i ran across it again when i was doing my magazine clean up a couple of days ago!) i have this obsession with acrylic and lucite and the bubble chair just makes my heart putter (so does the price tag). originating in 1968 by designer Eero Aarnio, this chair is still just as amazing nearly 40 years later!

*the color is off in the cushion and garden stool; its actually this great chartreuse green that really pops not that mucky green it scanned in as.

vintage baker chairs

does it get any cooler than these circa 1950's Baker chairs? The arms just kill me. gosh, they are just gorgeous....i am envious of the home that they will one day belong to.

stools anyone?

i love these mid-century stools from 1st dibs. i think they would look great with a kitchen table. instead of your typical chairs with backs, i think it would be fun to use these. to add some comfort you could always do circular pillows on the seats. i can see the pillows in maybe this fun mod green pod fabric adelaide, piped and backed in a mustard yellow velvet. i think this DWR pedestal table would complete the look for my "new found" kitchen eating area....

budget-friendly headboard

what a great upholstered headboard from U.O. with all the fixings (ie. nailhead trim, great shape, & wallet-friendly). there is only one catch or i'd be ordering it up for my master bedroom....it only comes in a full/queen. and seeing that we just invested in a king so that our whole fam could sleep in the bed w/ us (babe and golden), this won't do. but for the other people in the world who are without kid, dog, and still enjoy smaller beds to cuddle w/ their significant others, this would be a great addition to any bedroom!

*and with some classy bedding(maybe a dark coverlet-chocolate or slate gray, w/ monogrammed euro shams, light throw at the bottom of the bed), you could really dress this up and no one would ever know that it didn't put a dent in your wallet buying it