The Estate of Things

Toast’s Spring/Summer catalog revealed itself in my inbox this week.  I took note of these cross stitched sheets

Its at Aubrey+Lindsay’s blog, (the champs of the Ikea Rast Overhaul), where I read about Tonic Living. All this talk of fabric swatches for $1 is what drew me in. I went and I ordered.

I ordered this outdoor pillow for the little sofa on my porch, this little ditty was $9.95 on clearance and I couldn’t pass it up.  There were several other cute pillows on sale that were $10-$12 each.

And because I’d like to recover some vintage club chairs (in the next 10 years) in my living room, I ordered these samples for a buck a piece.

I am really taken by a classic ticking stripe.  The example given below is the very sophisticated and timeless loveseat at Lauren’s apartment from Good Bones, Great Pieces.  This apartment was featured in this month’s issue of Traditional Home.

Truthfully, I’m terrified of upholstering those chairs in something trendy, incurring all that expense and hating them a couple of years from now.  It’s so tempting to trick them out in some graphic print but I must resist.

The can’t go wrong, ever popular, Hable Construction linen pillow x 2, espresso beads on wheat.

Thanks Santa, I knew I could count on you!

Last week I got a little bored with my daily blog reading list. So I decided to venture out and choose some other blogs I had either been meaning to read for a while or just travel down some different rabbit holes.

For about 30 minutes I felt like I was trapped in the Michelle Adams vortex, which was perfectly ok with me. In fact even as I write this post, I had to refocus because I started to get sucked down another hole that started at M.A. Belle.  Maybe you’re wondering who Michelle Adams is or maybe you’re thinking oh here we go with another blogger posting about Michelle. Either way I felt like TEOT would be remiss if we didn’t give Michelle a little of our time.

This is an image from the feature on Michelle, in her apartment in Harlem.  Michelle says those are IKEA tab top curtains which she fashioned rings to.  Before Domino folded, they began overhauling Michelle’s apartment for a possible shoot there but it obviously didn’t happen. Michelle continued the process but on a much smaller budget.

Let’s take a look at the whole spread of Michelle’s apartment from the July ‘09 issue of Real Living.

Michelle is the owner of Rubie Green, an environmentally conscious fabric design company.  Rubie Green recently introduced their own line of organic bedding.

Diane Bergeron home in Vogue Living Australia, Rubie Green’s East Village used on pillows

Michelle also maintains her own blog, M.A. Belle.  There are lots of juicy tidbits of info to be found there like the Tastemakers sale conducted by former Domino editors Dara Caponigro and Tom Delavan earlier this year.

And finally if all that isn’t enough inspiration, Michelle and her friend photographer Patrick Cline, will introduce the online decorating and lifestyle magazine Lonny this month. The magazine is named for both of their favorite cities, London and New York.  One of the first features is Eddie Ross‘ new farmhouse, sounds like a winner. I’m definitely stoked.

Lonny Magazine cover

I hope I didn’t miss anything, Michelle has got a lot going on!

Modern Fabrics reclaims fabric from the cutting floors of some of the most acclaimed furniture companies including Maharam, Knoll, Kravet, Designtex, Bernhardt and more. They offer all of this at 50-75% off the list price. 

They have recently opened their online store making them widely accessible. Not only is the price right and the product high in style, Modern Fabrics is also reducing the manufacturers impact on the environment by rescuing these beautiful fabrics when they otherwise would’ve been tossed in the landfill.

To sweeten the deal even more especially for those of us living in NC, Modern Fabrics has a retail location in Charlotte in the South End Design District.  The shop is located at:

128 East Park Avenue
Charlotte, NC 28203
Between South Tryon & South Blvd
Hours: 11am to 7 pm Wednesday – Saturday

John wrote in with a search that he’d like to ask TEOT readers to help him with. John is looking for some sheets he saw on an old episode of Six Feet Under. By the way John, Six Feet Under is one of my all time favorite shows.

The sheets are from a scene with Brenda and Nate and if you watched the series you may remember that Nate spent a significant amount of time at Brenda’s house. I’m guessing the sheets were on Brenda’s bed.

John describes the sheets as having a white background with a large colorful (autumn) leaf print. Garnet Hill came to mind first but because it’s not fall I didn’t think I would find them there.  And they weren’t there but I’ll bet something like that will show up in the fall. Crate & Barrel surfaced next and this is what I found there (all Lehtimaja by Marimekko),

Plow & Hearth Sears

I got excited about this but quickly realized Glenna Jean only makes this Latte line for cribs

I also had a hunch that it might be Amenity. They use a lot of modern, natural prints. But no luck there.

This is a nice set from Alenska but still not John’s sheets.

Has anyone got any ideas for John? He would appreciate any and all suggestions, or maybe you know exactly what sheets John saw on Six Feet.

Thanks for your question John! If anyone else out there has any other questions send us an email and title it Dear TEOT, we’re happy to drop it into the public forum.

Oh where oh where does the striped fabric come from?

Does anyone happen to know what the fabric is on the long pillow?

This is Marimekko…