Showing posts with label amy butler august fields. Show all posts
Showing posts with label amy butler august fields. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Do your (grand)mama proud

Grandma Mary was all sassafras

The chairs before being reupholstered

threadbare arms

The chairs came back from the upholsterer (last weekend, sue me). They are PERFECT! My grandmother, who was a working class fashion maven, would have been dismayed to see how run down I had let them get. But I was attached to that old fabric because it was hers. I had so many memories of her and my grandfather sitting in them. But my grandmother never would have had something so shabby in her living room, and I learned from my parents that the old fabric was actually something that grandma had them recovered in, sometime in the mid-70s. SO it wasn't the original fabric anyhow. So nice to have something that my grandmother picked for it's good bones. Maybe my grandchildren will be recovering them 50 years from now.
Amy Butler Coreopsis in green

Amy Butler Coreopsis in aqua

Grandpa and Grandma's chairs after being reupholstered

I had a hard time choosing the fabric. It was between three different fabrics from Amy Butler's August Fields collection. The Coreopsis fabric seemed to be a modern version of the fabric that was on the chairs. After draping them in the one yard samples I ordered, I finally decided to do them in two different colors of the same pattern. The set is actually two different chairs (I call the short one grandma's chair, and the tall grandpa's). It looked very anthropologie-ey to me, and tied together all the colors in the pillows and the jadite, franciscan, and murano glass dishes in the fireplace cabinets. Yahooee!


Now about that rug... Sadie and I both bought this stupid rug before we had kids. Before we had people who would lose cheerios, mac and peas, and boogers deep down inside it's wooly pile. I had it cleaned in December, but it's already disgusting. It really needs to be in a bedroom, where it's softness can be appreciated. SO, here are some options I've looked at. They're both from Anthropologie (quelle suprise). I want something colorful, and HUGE to go under the entire area. 

Friday, May 7, 2010

upholstery mania!

I don't really want word to get out on my upholstery guy, but I have to crow a little bit. I'm not sure how he is making a living wage with what he charges, but until he realizes that he is a national treasure and starts charging accordingly, I'm having everything under the sun re-upholstered.



It started with the kitchen curtains which he made for $200. What?! I know! Ridiculous! 


Then my neighbor put this perfectly good 1950s swivel chair out on the curb, and my mom brought it home. It was in rough shape, but had good bones. I didn't take before pictures because I am a bad blogger, but look at it after, and imagine a pumpkin being turned into a gilded carriage. It was that bad. 

The arm cover rubbed raw on Grandma's chair. Shame...

Nikki's Anthropologie chair that her dog ruined. Boo...

When he dropped off the little chair, I had him pick up my grandmother's chairs, and my friend Nikki's chair. It's like I'm a clearing house for disabled furniture. Nikki was over here last week, shooting her scenes in our pilot, and saw the extra fabric I had from my crazed nocturnal internet shopping spree.  She had a chair that she got at Anthropologie that her dog ruined, but she can't bear to throw away, so she's going to use the extra fabric for her chair. Maybe that's why I ordered it. Somewhere out there I knew an Anthropologie chair needed rescuing.

Amy Butler Full Bloom in Orange

I tried to give him our pouf chair to recover in this fabric, but he thought it would look like crazy town, and encouraged me to find a solid color I like. I demurred because he's a kind old man who transforms furniture for what seems like peanuts, and I didn't want to cross him. But after he left, I thought "crazy town" is exactly the look you are going for dumb dumb. "Crazy town" is what you're all about. So I'm going to take the pouf and the fabric to his shop, and tell him that I know it goes against all good sense to do it that way, but I'm not a well woman, and it's my dying wish... or something like that.

I'm not telling what fabric I chose for Grandma's chairs. It's a big freakin secret. You'll just have to wait for them to be done. Which should be any day now. I asked him to please finish them before my dad visits next week. Otherwise, we'll all be getting very cozy together on the couch.

Oh and also, apparently my second favorite color is orange. I had no idea...