Thursday, January 17, 2013

House Tour: Leah's Lounge

My sweet-hearted and design minded friend, Leah, {that you all got to know in my Anthro DIY Snowglobe post back in December}, has both great taste AND a knack for seeing the potential in things. She is our hostess today, so that we can see her latest adventures in re-upholstery.


This is Leah's aqua-slate, sleek, mid-century style sofa.  It started off looking like a 1962 floral prom dress. And now it is the belle of the ball!  She has welting/piping in the same fabric {called self-welt}, giving it a finished, tailored look. She has painted the stackable tables in front...one mustard yellow, one gray and the other is a natural dark wood that she has placed near her sitting chair {see pics below}.
She teamed ikat and chevron patterns, giving this otherwise traditional look an updated POP of sass. And check out her cool chunk of wood lamp.

Here is her fabulous and adventuresome chair. She txt me as she was picking out these fabrics...they are gorgeous. A little gray, a little mustard, a little cream and a little aqua thrown in here and there, coordinating them to make a splash on her chair. She also painted the dresser to give it some charcoal gray chalkpaint lovin'. 
I love this dresser.  She framed the TV on the dresser by hanging a shelf, mirror and picture frames/shadow box- clustering the tv so it doesn't stand out visually against the wall.

Ikat, chevron and the welting/piping and tufted buttons on the chair are the aqua fabric from the sofa.  And don't you just love the little stackable cube table?
                                  
Here you see a close-up of her chair.  See the aqua contrast welting/piping? 

Don't you just love this OWL pillow? So, you think it's from Anthropologie, no? NO. Leah found it at SteinMart. Just goes to show you that you should have your eyes open everywhere. Don't be a label snob. Look for bargains everywhere. You never know when and where you'll find something that could be just the right thing to MAKE your room. 


Back and side of the chair chevron awesomeness. Leah had wanted to be bold and mix up the patterns from the front to the back. And it really makes a statement from the side. But as a tip for your upholstery projects: unfortunately, her upholsterer 
zigged when he should have zagged and didn't match the seams
 in the pattern.  Leah forgave him...you live and you learn. She knew and assumed that most professional upholsterers would
 have matched the pattern, but when you're paying someone 
don't assume. Spell it out. It wasn't a deal breaker on her love match with her fast, budget friendly and pick up+delivery upholsterer... but this is an excellent example of discussing details, whether you are paying someone to reupholster for you or whether you are planning to tackle it yourself, always remember to match up patterns as closely as possible... especially with a bold geometric print or stripe.  
If you are a novice upholsterer and you are just starting        out a few of your own projects, I would recommend using        a solid fabric for your first few projects.

So, you love this room?
The look:
-Traditional furniture shapes
-Dark wood unifies this space. (dark wood tones in furniture, lamp, curtain rod, dresser, cube side table next to chair, dark brown fur throw).
-Choose a 3 color plus cream/white as a pallette {in Leah's Lounge she chose: gray, aqua, mustard + cream/white. 
-Choose 2 fabric prints...that's it...that is what gives it such a soothing and clean look even though she has bold things going 
on here.
-Add some interesting accessories: Leah's owl pillow, fur throw and wood chunk lamp add character to the space.
-Keep your larger visual elements solid: Sofa, Curtains and rug 
are all solids. 
-Her art work sort of blends in with the other colors going on. 
No stand out colors, they are soft and soothing landscapes.
-She keeps everything balanced...even though she chose 
overall cool colors for her fabrics, incorporating mustard {in the walls, and hints of mustard in the accessories} and warm/dark 
wood tones balance the cool tones keeping it warm and inviting. 

Thank you, lovely Leah, for letting us linger in your Lounge today!

XXXOOO.

2 comments:

  1. love the furniture and fabric! And the owl pillow. Its all beautiful. The couch is amazing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The couch is crazy cool. She has an eye for envisioning what things will look like with new fabric. I love this clean traditional, look, too.

      Delete