The Estate of Things

On occasion I will come across things that…make me want to lick the screen. China Seas fabrics would fall in to that category.  I’ve included a few of my favorites.

Nothing could be more perfect for my $5 flea market chair than this.

Veranda

As I scroll through Quadrille’s editorial portfolio and their collections I think to myself what more could you need. Quadrille has everything. Their collections have appeared on all kinds of surfaces in so many of my favorite rooms.

Fez fabric on bed skirt, House Beautiful

room by John Willey via House Beautiful

At Home

On Tuesday I posted about my mother’s porch swing and the accent pillows from Terrain that I suggested she add to the mix.

Aqua Thistle pillow, Terrain, $54

And then I was perusing Tonic Living for fabric for DC’s room and I saw this…
 

Sweet William Teal, Tonic Living, $9.95 a yard

Finally, I found the same pillow at Tonic Living for $24.95,  SCORE!

I left three couches behind in North Carolina. I love all three of them. I equate my love for couches with my love for jeans. Its not so much that I go out and by the most expensive brands, I just like jeans and I want lots of them and I can’t bring myself to get rid of any of them. They are the staple of many a loved outfit for me.

So, the next phase of the LA Apartment Hunt indicates the dawning of new era! A NEW COUCH, the staple of building a room! I’m excited. Aren’t you? Since hauling my new three piece Ikea Karlstad sectional up the stairs to The Treehouse (that’s what we call the apartment), the place has felt a million times better. Its also helped to shape up some ideas for what to do with the common areas and I’m really excited about that too. Plus, Kate likes it.

This is what I haggled over in the As-Is section of the Carson Ikea until I walked away with it for $399. No joke!

With the low price tag for the size, I decided that I wouldn’t mind dropping extra cash down the road on a new cover for this sofa. They have a nice dark gray as well as an interesting natural linen that I could maybe choose.

I spent some time perusing the Ikea couch cover opions over at Bemz tonight….. and now I’m feeling like I wouldn’t mind going nuts with the options for my new huge L shaped sofa.  But now I need my mom to start pricing out shipping on the older Ikea sofa that I’ve been hanging onto since my days living in Philadelphia. The Allerum… I really wanna make this couch sing out on my big patio with the right fabric choice (what do you think? Marimekko?)! $250 isn’t bad.

Earlier in the week Betsy wrote a post about the dining set her roommate inherited. How could they upgrade it?

Might I suggest…

Painting the chairs and the base (?) white and applying this fabric

The fabric is Kravet Streetwise in Cafe. I found it at Modern Fabrics and on Ebay. I thought this fabric would jive well with the House Beautiful kitchen Betsy admired from the tiny kitchen post.

This image from the recent Flor catalog also got me thinking about Betsy & Kate’s dining area.

Looking at the table above made me think that if the table top isn’t in acceptable shape, maybe it might look great white and the base could be left black.

I think I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the stylists for the Flor catalog are pretty damn good in my opinion. There is a really strong mix of modern, antique and traditional in that catalog, free inspiration comes in the mail every few months.

Liberty of London will be coming stateside on March 14, 2010 to a Target near you. The collection will not be limited to clothing, home and garden goods will be included.  Those of you that can’t get enough of Liberty’s florals will certainly be drooling.

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.

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

Oh where oh where does the striped fabric come from?

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

“Bike” by MAL WEBB

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Scooter print, Good Bloom

Echino Scooter Fabric by Etsuko Furuya, Lucky Kaeru Fabric

Barquentine Skirt, Makool Loves You

I heart my bike print, Michele Maule

Photo by Toni Meneguzzo via Remodelista

Cruising, Den-10 Studio

BMX fabric, Sew Bettie

Personalized Cards, Farouche

Eloise and Ramona Ride Their Two Seated Bicycle, flapper doodle