Emerald Leather For the Win

Sooooo... remember how much I loved that peacock leather?

I really did love the color. The leather is gorgeous (and can be found at this eBay seller), but the light in our dining room is funny and it would totally wash out the leather from most angles. Not that that was a big deal, it's just that I was counting on the leather for a bit of color in the room and it's not really peacock blue in the room if it always read as black to my eye.

I went back and forth a little about the decision and hadn't pulled the trigger yet when I stumbled across these hides in a local fabric store called Mesa Sales.

Hello, turquoisey emerald! Where have you been all my life?



Is this color me, or is it me!?

It's me. But still I didn't buy it on the spot (leather is on the pricey side - about $250 for the full hide). So I mulled it over for a few days while I was working on other stuff and then when I came back to Mesa Sales to buy the hide, the sales guy told me someone had put it on hold like literally five minutes before I walked in (!) and that they had a seven day purchase period (seemed overly generous to me at the time - harumph). So I left empty handed and bummed.

I called exactly seven days later and my luck was with me - the hide was available again! Sweet mercy. Come to momma.

The color is obviously different and my chairs are different (I'm keeping the caning on my chair backs), but I kept thinking about Grant K. Gibson's San Francisco Showcase dining room chairs. What a fun hit of color in that space. I hope my new leather does the same for my dining room.

New John Widdicomb Louis-Style Chairs

I've been having the best luck with thrift stores and vintage furniture shop finds since we moved here! I won't lie, it feels like a super-sweet consolation prize for leaving New York's great vintage shopping scene (which I had been really sad about). It might take a little more work to find the great pieces here - but they do exist and they are cheap. It feels a lot like Delaware did, where people either don't know what they have or they know and don't like it so are willing to part with things for a song. Which is still weird to me because, you know, the internet exists! Why not sell the stuff online? Not that I'm complaining about getting deals!

I've lived in lots of different cities at this point and I think the best way to find new sources is to be willing to stop your car everywhere you go. Whenever you're driving, be watching for signs for thrift stores, used furniture and junk shops and even consignment stores. Don't ever judge a book (shop) by its cover (window displays/signage) either. Often times the weird new stuff will be  prominently displayed in the front and the great vintage finds will be tucked in the way back. This exact scenario played out for me a couple of days ago when I was driving around Scottsdale, waiting for my cracked iPhone screen to get repaired (why I don't have any real-time photos of the experience). I saw a consignment store had banners and balloons out front saying they were closing down, so I decided to pop in even though the place looked like it was going to be a major flop in the finds department.

I nearly turned right around about three steps into the store. It was almost completely empty except for a handful of oversized Tuscan stuff that is (was??) so popular here. But I kept walking around and found a back room area that had a pretty good selection of vintage things. The owners were moving things out of the room. Apparently they had officially closed down the day before. I did a quick once over and the only thing that really caught my eye was a dining set in the very back corner of the store. Six chairs and a table.

I asked how much for the set even though I thought I wouldn't take it. Only $50. It was a steal. I went over to take a closer look at the set. The more I looked at the chairs, the more I wanted them. The proportions were perfect and I loved the elongated oval shape of the backs. The tight caning was in perfect condition and I really liked the style of the weave. So simple.

Then I flipped one of the chairs over and saw a flash of a gold name plate. That was a good sign.

WHAT THE JOHN WIDDICOMB.

No wonder the shape was just perfect and they weighed about a million pounds each. So solid.

I told the sellers I would love to buy the set and asked if they were sure that $50 was enough. While I was asking that, my mind was racing with Do I or Don't I ethical questions about needing to tell them about what I figured was the real value of the set. And then the owner completely put me to ease by saying "Oh, aren't they great? Did you see they're by Widdicomb? I wish more people cared about great mid-century design here. I'd be happy to give them to you for $50 just so I don't have another set to load up on the truck."

I still felt a little guilty, but I was also so excited. Find of the century for me! I've been wanting Louis chairs for a long time, but I've been too picky up until now to spend a ton of cash on brand new chairs. I'm so glad I waited. I gave Ali, my sister, the table already since I think we're going to use the old Drexel table like I mentioned before. I think the two styles will pair really nicely together!

The same day I found this cute pair of swivel arm chairs for $30! I love the shape of the arms. They need to get reupholstered, but I think they're going to look amazing in a new fabric. I'm thinking maybe the library?

Since my luck was running so high that day, I also swung into Home Fabrics to look for a vinyl for the Louis chairs. BINGO.

Dark gray. Buttery soft. So much like leather in look and feel. Not thin, squeaky or sweaty like most vinyls. And is was only $6.99 a yard!

Most anything would be an improvement on the current fabric though. Looks like these chairs got a little face lift in the 80s. Time for some new clothes, ladies!

Now to figure out what color I should paint the frames. My mom and I were talking about it and she suggested considering leaving them mostly as-is, just a good cleaning and brightening. I like the idea a lot and it might look good to have something a little more antique-y looking in the room, but I don't want them looking too vintage in the bad way. You know? If I go bright white though, they might look too new and cheap-looking. Black would be a similar result I think, unless I did a chalky, matte paint. But then, fingerprints! I could do a bright color, but I want to paint the lanterns red, so that would be overkill. I was also thinking about stripping the frames and doing sort of a limewash look... Lots to figure out!

Hello From AZ

Michael and I both had business trips scheduled in Arizona this month so we decided to move things around and travel together at the same time. We brought Evie along with us which declared this trip decidedly unromantic, but 100% more cute. She charmed just about every person on our flight last night, which was no easy feat since our flight was delayed twice followed by an hour of sitting on the tarmac before take off. I'm excited to give her some extra attention over the next few days. So far she's loving room service and sleeping in a Queen bed all by herself. :)

One of the things I'm doing while we're out here is meeting with a long-time client who has this exact vintage burlwood dining table. I'm unbelievably jealous of it. I do like having a round table, but sometimes I miss having a really, really long dining table where you can spread out a bit.

Angie Hranowsky - How crazy good is that wallpaper-light fixture combo?!

Anyway, we're going chair shopping while I'm in town. My client needs something for an event she's hosting at her house in less than two weeks, so we're really limited with options. Cross your fingers for us! :)

Salad Plates

My favorite way to set a table is a really basic, solid color dinner plate with a fancy, colorful, patterned salad plate layered on top. If it's Thanksgiving or Christmas, I like to pull out the gold chargers and the table linens. It's sort of fool-proof and even fun to set the table with this method. It's just a matter of figuring out which salad plates will we use this time and what the flowers will look like.

So whenever I come across salad plates for a fun price, I have a hard time passing them up. It was pretty much impossible for me to not buy these tumbling blocks porcelain plates from CB2. $2.95 each! Won't they be perfect for outdoor dinner parties this summer? Eight are on their way to me (along with a couple of these (cute hostess gifts!) and a handful of these (love yellow!)).

How do you set your table? Do you have one china set or many? Growing up, we used my mom's beautiful wedding china for holiday meals and sometimes just for Sunday dinners. I always liked that my mom was willing to use her nice china often, even when we were young kids.