Friday, September 25, 2015

Construction, Disruption, and Design Challenge

I see that it has been a while since I have posted. There are many reasons, including moving and construction. The state, because of a highway widening project, took and tore down our building which housed my business for 5 years and my husband's business for 30 years. Blogging was moved to the back burner.

The impetus to blog again came from an email I received from Holly of Chairish a curated site selling antique and vintage furniture. The idea was to take a space from white to colorful all designed around a vintage chair chosen from an extensive collection of chairs in every style imaginable. I chose a very traditional club chair. We were asked to create a style board, and write a blog around the project. I scrolled down the chair photos for quite a while before I settled on this chair.

 I am stuck on plaids lately as you may know, if you have been reading on facebook about the new line of name brand vintage clothing, Name Droppers, I am introducing to Just A Second


The fall season also influenced my choice. The nights have been cooler, the dawn is arriving later, and all in all, it puts me in a mood to cozy up. 

And so I decided on a rustic lodge theme and designed  "a room around a chair". My own personal preferences also played a part. I love red, and although it is difficult to see in the photo, the chair I picked has a red stripe in the plaid and red around the bottom. The resolution of the chair photo is not very good, and the more I enlarge it to try and point out something, the fuzzier it gets as you will clearly (or fuzzily) see in the photo of the style board.

As an aside, I have not done a style board since I took a course at our community college many years ago, but here goes:


I wanted a red rug to anchor the room and came across this natural fiber one which I really like. A red wool would work very nicely also, but I thought the fiber rug provided a very nice texture. For the walls I picked a medium grey, which is neutral and goes with the chair. In searching for sofas, this olive rustic one caught my eye. I have always loved a red and olive combination, and I have been reading that olive is making a comeback. I cannot tell for sure, but there may be an olive tone in the stone of the fireplace as well as in the wood tones, and in the plaid of the chair. I picked many natural elements, the stone fireplace which picks up the grey of the focus chair, but also brings in the rustic wood tones, the "stump" end table, hand thrown pottery, the deer head, and norfolk pine plants, plus the upcoming Christmas season's evergreen wreath.

The pillows pick up the reds, the black in the chair, and add more of the lodge element to the room, as does the buffalo check of the drapes. And of course, every woman and every room needs a little "bling", so I could not resist topping off the room with this chandelier. Don't you love it!!! 

Be sure to check out more plaids at Just A Second inside Stella & Notte, located at 1416 N. Main Street, right across the street from the North End City Market and open Saturdays from 9-3. Jeanine and I look forward to your visit.