JOURNAL

• SUSTAINABLE STYLE: REFURBISHED PAINTED FURNITURE

  

  This installment of Sustainable Style is timely, as I am about to paint a couple of pieces of furniture for West End Avenue. I was sold on the power of paint after I painted a ho-hum, second hand desk bright glossy green while in college. I put it in the sun room of my apartment, which was in an old Victorian home, and it totally made that room.  And I didn't stop there. The latest piece of furniture to be given a new lease on life via a bucket of paint was this old china cabinet that now serves as my pantry. I used Ivy Coatings, eco-friendly paint that is locally made in Brooklyn.

  

  The green credenza used in the top image is actually a new piece from reGeneration, which began as and still is a purveyor of fine mid-century furniture. I used it in the mock-up because this is the color that I was looking for. However, the idea is to find a piece of vintage, old, thrift, flea market furniture, like this guy on eBay, and spruce it up a bit. I would search locally on craigslist, because unless it is a great deal or a great piece it is probably not going to be worth the cost of shipping. Then, if you have a decent budget and the piece is in fairly good shape, you could take it to get lacquered - or at least professionally sprayed. That will probably look the best. Otherwise, sand it a bit, prime it and paint away.

  

  I found a fairly good quality dresser by Lane for the bedroom in West End Avenue. We did have a shipper deliver it because it was in nearby Connecticut, we had two other pick ups for him in the vicinity and the dresser was only $75 - a pretty great deal.

  

  As you can see, I am still deciding on the color. I am leaning toward blue. Here are a couple of inspiration photos.

  

  

  I am also planning on taking my paint brush to some not so old furniture. It is still sustainable, made from mango wood, so I will include it here. I've long been a fan of these carved African tables...

  

  I used a couple of them in this sunroom design plan...

  

  I had seen them lacquered white before, but never red, which I liked. I think I might try it in a pumpkin orange for the West End Avenue living room. No spray lacquering is in our budget, so I will be rolling up the sleeves and conquering these projects on my own. I have had some clients look at me as if I'd asked them to perform brain surgery when I suggest they go this route to save a little money. By all means folks, if you have more money than time, there are loads of people selling vintage furniture that has already been painted for you. Or I am happy to find a great piece for you and send it out to be lacquered, it is just as sustainable either way. But if you want to give it a try and you aren't sure about your skills, start small, look for a little side table and give it a pop of color before you tackle a bigger piece. Good luck!

  • Feel free to comment here.
  • To see more sustainable style go here.
  • Why is mango wood sustainable?
  • How to paint furniture.
  • Ivy Coatings
  • Eco-friendly paint.

• ART: CHRISTIES VS. ETSY

  

  The beautiful Louise Nevelson sculpture Rain Garden ll was expected to fetch $50,000-70,000 at today's auction of post-war and contemporary art at Christie's. If I were bidding, this would be on the top of my list. However, here are a few other items in the catalog that also caught my eye.

  

  Yayoi Kusama's Wave of Sea is fantastic. I wonder where this will go. Will it end up in a room in someone's home? In a personal gallery? Donated to a museum?

  

  Roni Horn's sculpture is simple, portable, thought provoking and in one of my favorite color palettes.

  

  Alighero Boetti's little pieces of handiwork caught my eye... that is a lot of embroidery my friends - and the perfect segue into Etsy. Here things can go a little more arts & crafts than arts, but there are still good pieces to be found, from newly handmade to vintage.

  I believe that there is good art at all price points. It may not be as easy as flipping through the Christie's catalog and sending your minions to do your bidding, but a little sifting can reveal things of interest. That is just the thing with art, you should buy it if it speaks to you, so the point is to have fun looking around. I scored a bunch of inexpensive paintings at different flea markets and thrift stores this summer. Although I was hoarding some for clients, I have hung on to a few. Because I am not investing $40,000, it is a lot easier to experiment with these pieces in my home. So here is what a relatively quick search on Etsy brought up.

  

  Since we were just on embroidery, let's now move into quilting. Don't be afraid to hang or frame a textile. This guy comes in at 79" x 58". Try to find an abstract painting that size for $75.

  

  These brushfire tree totem sculptures are pretty cool. A little pricier than the quilt, but if you'd spend a couple thousand on a good sofa, then why not on some art if it makes you happy.

  

  Hello, 24" x 18" abstract painting for $85. Beautiful colors, seriously, it is all I can do not to buy it for either myself or my client - it is the perfect palette for West End Ave... ok, I caved. I just bought it. I will save on framing by buying an off-the-shelf frame and having a matte cut for it. Where will it end up? Here or there? You'll have to wait and see.

  

  I love this wire and wood automata sculpture. Yes folks, it moves, which means hours of fun - and if that doesn't make you happy, the $165 price tag will. See, there is no excuse not to live with good art.

  • Christie's
  • Etsy 1, 2, 3, 4
  • comments

• SHOPPING: GLASS & POTTERY (BLENKO & RED WING)

  

  I have been stockpiling blue glass and pottery for the West End Ave apartment I am working on. I want to pull this color out of the rug a bit to balance the large amount of earth tones happening. We've ordered a beautiful blue velvet sofa, so that will go along way, but I also want to pull the blues - and greens - over to the other side of the room with some accessories. Since I have known this is in our color palette, anytime I see a reasonably priced piece I pick one up. Today I found the large Blenko glass vase and blue covered glass dish at the local flea market and added them to the ceramic pieces I had already picked up on an earlier visit to Housing Works thrift shop. (Oh, yes, I even picked up a belt for myself today! It's a disease - what can I say!!) These pieces may not all make it into the final edit, but it is good to have options - and most of these were under $20, so if I end up living with them for awhile, I am not out a ton of money. In fact, they are looking pretty good styled up on the counter...

  

  Here they are mixed in with some pieces I already own - a blue Red Wing vase and a turned wood bowl that was made by a family friend. I keep a stack of linen napkins in it and use them instead of paper and just toss them in the wash. Don't have any white chrysanthemums? A shell necklace can pinch hit. This is an easy, low-cost way to bring color into a room - and it is easy to change too when you are ready for something new. Just vary your shapes and sizes, add a dash of greenery and you are good to go.

  So, what is Blenko glass? Blenko is a family owned company that makes handcrafted glass pieces. They have been operating out of West Virginia since 1893. They are still in business today and committed to carrying on the handcrafted tradition. Their vintage pieces are collectable, but new pieces are also available.

  Red WIng pottery hails from Red Wing, MN, on the banks of the mighty Mississippi. It is another family owned company that still operates today, All of their pots are still hand-turned by skilled potters. I bought this piece (that is in front of the Blenko vase) years ago and have always loved it's blue glaze.

  • Blenko
  • Red Wing
  • Housing Works

• SHOPPING: SARREID BRASS TRUNK & BONUS MATELASSE

  

  Yesterday I did a partial install at West End Avenue. Things are starting to take shape. We put up the two huge mirrors. The two vintage Drexel Villa Escalante case pieces look great, love their heavy brass fixtures. We've got a bit of that Spanish rustic-y thing happening, so what is the perfect coffee table? A vintage Sarreid brass trunk, of course. Sarreid began as a Spanish company in 1967. They originally sourced antiques with Castilian flavor and then began producing their own goods - brass clad furniture became a signature. I have always had an eye out for one of these that didn't cost a couple of months rent, so I was pretty stoked when I found two - one for the client, one for me (mine is pictured above). And I received a bonus bed spread...

  

  I got these "blanket wrap" shipped from an antique store in Florida. My contractor for this job was helping me out yesterday. He unwrapped the trunks and we were temporarily dazed by their awesomeness - I might have been jumping up and down. When we started to clean up the job site. We noticed they took  "blanket wrap" quite literally. They had wrapped one of the trunks in a vintage matelassé bedspread. I didn't have the heart to throw it away. So I carried it home with the trunk and threw it in the wash. I figured I would donate it to the Textile Recycling Center that sets up at the Tompkins Square Farmer's Market every Sunday, but it cleaned up really nicely and happened to fit the bed perfectly.

  

  Matelassé is the french word for quilting or padding. This textile is made utilizing a weaving or stitching technique that creates a pattern that appears quilted. It is meant to mimic the style of hand-stitched quilts made in Marseilles, France. Vintage spreads like this can be popular - 22 bids on this baby. Bates is one mill from the 50s that is still in operation in Maine.

  • comments
  • Bates
  • textile recycling
    
  • Sarreid

• ECO ART: VINTAGE BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS

  

  Eco in this case stands for both economical and ecological. Framing illustrations or photographs from vintage books can be a low cost way to get some art up on the walls.  I fell in love with the simple black and white illustrations in this old book I found, Animals of the Southwest Desert, so bought it for a few dollars.  They are small, but I thought they might be interesting grouped together.