Monday, January 12, 2009

I do ask for help on here a lot, don't I.

So I think I have nailed down the "style" of our house decor. I am going to call it Bohemian Modern due to my tendency to lean towards dark wood and Jetsons influences combined with Matt's leaning towards brightly colored rugs and tapestries. However, we just inherited a 100+ year-old family heirloom that is going to make things even more complicated.



The Ikea chair has been retired, and this is its replacement. The in-laws have promised to pay for reupholstering the seat as it is currently concave with springs dangling from the bottom. The question is, where do I go with it?



I am in LOVE with this fabric from Door Sixteen's adorable living room pillows. I would be tempted to order it in a green and make a spare pillow to go on the couch out of whatever was left. If it wasn't so darn expensive. And I wonder if the pattern will look just a little too wack-a-doo on such an old-fashioned chair. Which makes me leery of using a pattern at all since I passionately do not want a pattern of the same vintage as the chair (I am picturing brocade flowers, and gagging). And I also will not be pulling an AT makeover and staining the chair a darker color or painting it white or a bright color. The couch and the loveseat are now both shades of tan microfiber, so there will be no more ANYTHING in tan or beige coming in to my living room.

So should I suck it up and do a solid in blue or green so it doesn't become another piece of diva furniture? At least a plain navy would not fight with the rug or anything. Or am I just being too safe and need to take some risks? That antenna-shaped cutout in the chair back kind of goes with the fabric pattern...

5 comments:

zooza said...

I see multi-coloured stripes.

Anonymous said...

What about a modern botanical? Something Marimekko inspired, maybe? I think the lines of the back are rather Swedish, actually.

I do love that antennae print, however!

drwende said...

I'm seeing a modern pattern that picks up the curves of the chair back. Lauralynne may be right about "modern botanical."

Take a look at Amy Butler's fabrics. They're not all over-the-top froufrou, and she does try to straddle the line between modern and traditional. If you hate them all, at least that'll narrow what you're really after.

Anne At Large said...

The picture that I should have posted is where the chair will actually be (there is a sofa in the way right now though, sigh). It is in front of the brick fireplace against a wall of amps (don't ask) covered in a black-and-red tapestry (double sigh) on a very vividly colored oriental carpet. I love the Marimekko/Amy Butler ideas, I think that is kind of what I was picturing, but would it just fight too much with everything around it?

drwende said...

Am I right in guessing that the carpet also includes either black or red?

If both, my first thought is then a stylized modern botanical in the same black and red. Or do whichever color is also in the rug, plus one of the rug colors. But keep to shapes that are almost silhouettes.