DECORATING ON THE PRAIRIE
This should be a fun packed thing to do, but for so many reasons I cannot relax about decorating. Tense. Purchasing new furniture isn't something I do every day. I hope the furniture I finally get will last as long as the upholstered furniture I had that was thrown away due to house fire. Perhaps longer.
What's popular in colors changes ever so often. At this point in life I need to select colors that I want to be around so much of the time in our HOME. A GOOD FIT. I need to select a color theme that I find pleasant and inviting. A furniture style that is durable, but comfortable. FURNITURE in our price bracket.
I want a look that is more on the lines
of traditional and not sloppy cozy.
We traveled to Kansas City to check out fabric samples for furniture. It's been about 5 months since visiting a Ethan Allen Gallery and I was saddened that they no longer make the style of camel back sofas and wing chairs like I had. I took a catalog home at the time and studied up on what they had to offer. We returned with an idea in hand.
IN THE MEAN TIME, I checked other furniture stores and online websites. I had to cool my jets about selecting living room furniture. I know times change and styles morph into something different. Doesn't mean I have to like it. I was perfectly happy with my traditional look that I had in my Parlour/Living room. I was so happy with it that I wanted to repeat the pieces of furniture in my HOME just with a different color.
I LOVED the formal look I had for 16 years. I wasn't ready for what I heard when we went to Kansas City and were told WE DON'T MAKE CAMEL BACK SOFAS ANYMORE AND THE STEWART WING CHAIRS ARE A NO GO AS WELL.
I left the Gallery sad. Months later, I was ready to try again with a different style. Here I be thinking about what I want.
For Mother's Day appreciation field trip, we returned to Kansas City to look at fabrics. Decided that after we select new furniture style and know what colors we are going with, that this would be the way to go to decide on a coordinating wall color.
Closer to declaring what I want. I went into the Ethan Allen Gallery with color on my mind. Wanted to see fabrics/patterns in color themes made-up for a sofa and wing chairs in dark blues, powder blues, champaign, dusty rose, and garnets.
Wanted to see their fabric samples in person. No greens this go round as I had greens for 16 years. Still LOVE green, but ready for a change.
AFTER the house fire my beautiful Parlour furniture was thrown in a dumpster. The legs were sawed off the camel back sofa. My husband did the honors as the movers were trying to break the legs off. He had some compassion and decided to do the sawing himself. sigh. We had saved up for 12 years to buy these fine pieces of furniture and to see someone trying to break the legs off wasn't what he wanted to see. Even with the pieces going to the dump...it was a challenge. I wasn't present when this took place, but heard all about it and didn't like visualizing this in my head.
Sigh, but... I saw my pink sofa that had been in mint condition before the fire being thrown off the roof after it came out of the Master Bedroom window. That HURT. Wasn't much I could do, but watch. That's that. I sure liked that pretty sofa that I barely sat on.
If I hadn't been in shock at the time I would have told them that I wanted the furniture frames. I would have cut the fabric away and had them OZONE the frames. Then had a talented upholsterer upholster the frames with new fabric. I had no idea how challenging it was going to be to get the same style that I had. No idea.
Too late now. Insurance allows us new upholstered furniture of like kind and quality so this is what I am working on deciding now. After the order is turned in, it will be 6 to 8 weeks until order is delivered.
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| PARIS SOFA WITH BENCH CUSHION AND KICKPLEAT SKIRT |
Interested in their PARIS SOFA with bench cushion and kick- pleat skirt. Interested in their Giles Wing Chairs. Found out that there are three stores in the United States that has the Paris Sofa in their Gallery. I could travel to Florida, Georgia and New York to see first hand a Paris Sofa. I didn't really want to order one without actually sitting on one. The E. A. Designer showed us one that they did have on the Show Floor that was similar to the Paris. It sat nicely.
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| GILES CHAIR |
We sat in the Giles Wing Chair when we first visited their Gallery so we kind of remembered what it felt like. Their Giles was now sitting in the Symphony Show House elsewhere in the city. Forging ahead we could look at the fabric samples.
I told the Designer that I need to sleep on the decision which means I will be cautious as to what I go with. A nice problem to have.
We made up a navy blue colored theme, a coral one and a light blue one. No garnet, pink or champaign ones.
I'll sleep on it for a few days and then decide. With it taking 6 to 8 weeks to get a order delivered to your HOME, I will have time to go through all of our boxes of what has returned to us in good condition after being cleaned. Our wood furniture that is being refinished will be done in a few months. SO by the end of AUGUST I believe we will have a furniture filled house once again.
This will be a hal.le.lu.jah moment.
Hallelujah,
d
