Hello Everyone! Hope you had a great weekend. It has been much warmer, and dare I jinx it, spring-like in my neck of the woods. I feel for you out there who are still covered in ice and snow. (well, unless you really enjoy ice and snow :) )
If you have been reading awhile, you know how much I love buying antique or vintage furniture pieces and giving them new life through upholstery. You can find some really interesting shapes and great bones in old pieces, and although discovering them before someone else does is getting a bit harder (don't you think so?), the end result is well worth it.
While doing some friend visiting and furniture hunting in Austin a couple of years ago, I went to an estate sale and found this $40 chair. I do have a love for this type of chair, which I lovingly refer to as the Mad Hatter. (I have a
similar pair I use as host chairs in my dining room.)
It has lived in my garage for a long time now as I waited for the perfect space for it. It came as pictured with no cushion, and at some point, someone took a marker to it, but I just couldn't sell it. Finding this type of chair is rare, and I knew it had a spot somewhere in my home. A trip into my
favorite local home store, Simple Things, inspired me, and suddenly I had an idea.
I saw this chair on their showroom floor, and I was sold.
If you remember my previous post about my closet turned laundry room, you probably recall how this "room" used to look like this.
We took part of my husband's closet to make this area a little bigger, and it has been great to have a good laundry space upstairs since that is where all of the bedrooms are. I have been wanting to decorate it a little more intentionally, and I knew I needed something smashing in there lighting wise. This is an area of my home that can feel dark since it is off a long hallway, and the light I had before was not cutting it.
A few weeks ago, I found this chandelier on Ebay, and I fell in love. I have seen many, many bamboo chandeliers in my life, but I have never seen one like this.
I posted the above image on my Instagram yesterday (
rowley company[/caption]
Are you familiar with lambrequins? Pronounced lam-breh-kinz. They are a more traditional window treatment that has been around since the medieval times, where they were used around windows as a pretty way to keep out drafts. As with all classic design elements, the popularity of lambrequins has ebbed and flowed, but they are popping up more and more in recent years.
So what is a lambrequin? It is similar to a cornice, but it has sides that continue to the sill or even the floor.
For example, these window treatments feature cornices;
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david hicks[/caption]
whereas, these windows are dressed with lamberquins.
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miles redd via elle decor[/caption]
When lambrequins were first being used, they were typically painted or stenciled wood, or covered in wallpaper. It wasn't until around the Victorian Era that they became more elaborate and covered in fabric. The photo below is circa 1850 from the book "Upholstery in America & Europe from the Seventeenth Century to World War I".