Trending: Vintage Navajo Rugs and Mid Century Furniture

The last few weeks I gave myself permission to not just "buy and sell" but to spend some time creating original pieces.  I can't tell you what a difference it's made in my attitude towards my business!  It's so hard to just have a bunch of iconic pieces and no way to express myself!  Who lives like that??  It's criminal.

I've always had an overwhelming need to MAKE things (ask my mom about my infamous butter sculptures!), and now that I've given myself permission again, I CAN'T STOP!  Hide the butter, mom!

You might have noticed and been amazed by the turn-of-the-century Thonet and Hudson's Bay blanket chairs from my last post:

I used the same fabric on an early 1900s Bell telephone operator's chair:

I love that the base is so Victorian, but it also has a certain industrial appeal.  Plus every time I look at it, I imagine a lady named Pearl punching a bunch of old-timey buttons and connecting you to the milk man or the horse taxi.

But this transformation is the one I'm most excited about:

Before you have an aneurysm over my desecration of a Mid Century chair and a vintage Navajo rug, believe me that they weren't that great on their own.  I said they weren't, and I saw them with my own two well-trained eyes.  So trust.

The chair was avocado green vinyl (you know, the color of your grandma's refrigerator in the 70s?)  The rug...well, o.k., the rug was really pretty.  But the ends were unravelling and it was oddly shaped and as great as it was, it wasn't valuable in the least.  Go on Ebay and look...you can get 'em cheap.

And, I was really careful not to cut the rug (pun!) until I had stapled it into place and was absolutely sure it would look amazing.

I think you can see this was a case of the sum being better than the parts.

I wanted to make sure the bird symbols with the emerald green eyes made it onto the piece!

I still have the back to finish today, and then I'll work on polishing up the walnut frame.

I can't stop looking at it!  Neither can you!!

Guys, if you followed me on Instagram you would be getting the blow-by-blow of all my furniture and thrift finds, projects, new shop listings, as well as gratuitous photos of the gross food I eat!

You can also use the Twitter button up there on the right, since I upload most of my Instagrams to Twitter.

Stay tuned for the next episode of Chairs Gone Wild, when I make butterfly chair covers out of old Army blankets!

Most of these projects are intended for the shop, so check in if you're interested, or email me directly at modernhaus@gmail.com !

CHAIR TOWN {leather, linen, chrome, wool, and sling!)

Have you noticed that vintage stuff travels in packs?  Some weeks I'm up to my armpits in lamp after beautiful lamp.  Some weeks everything is marble.  This week, the vintage world is trying to tell me to take it easy...by sending me chairs.

I have a pair of these chrome beauties.  Yesterday I designed and sewed up the blue felted wool sling to sleek them up.  The previous upholstery was a huge, thick padded affair done in mauve (or "private parts pink" as I like to call it) RV fabric.  Now they are lithe and sexy, like chrome and wool ballerinas!

I'm not joking-these are SO comfortable!  I am thinking of designing a narrow built-in pillow at the top.  What do you think?

Because they're slings, they don't look deep enough until you sit in them.  Kind of sculptural, no?  I have to iron those suckers, but I couldn't wait to show you!!

This heathered blue wool is my new favorite fabric.  Like soft focus lighting, it makes everything else around it look gorgeous!  It looks SO GOOD with my "trick, it's not a Beni Ourain it's from Pottery Barn" rug.

I also ran like the wind a few days ago to pick up these handsome chrome chairs.

The upholstery has that great, streamlined Mid Century version of tufting.  The color is caramel with a hint of orange?  But not TOO orange.  I understand everything better when put into food terms.  How 'bout you?

These suckers are HEAVY.  Neat-o, thick chrome frames.  I'm thinking Milo Baughman (pronounced Bowman if you're new to the game, Boffman if you're in-the-know, and Boggman if you're a retarded estate sale lady).

I have to verify this, though.  Seriously Baughman, you designed so many chairs.  Help a girl out-make a master list?!

Speaking of Boggman, did you know DWR is reproducing his recliner?  For $2800???  For a less-well-made repro??

Do people buy these things?  I can't imagine why, with beautifully restored originals going for half that!  Now that I mention it, I have one that I'll be listing this evening.  What a coincidence!

This is documented Milo Baughman, but a very unusual piece.  It took me weeks to authenticate because, well, there is like one other one out there.  The arms are really wide, sculptural, solid walnut, and the upholstery is much more substantial than on the more common version.  It's been profesh redone (meaning, not by me) in a nubby off-white material that makes you fall asleep when you touch it, and the mechanics have been cleaned, oiled, and checked for smooth reclinability.  Mmmhmmm,  that's a word.

Furthermore, there is this chair:

It looks like Paul McCobb, but "looks like" is as far as I got in the authentication process.

I had it rebuilt and re-done in a heavy, charcoal grey linen.  It is brand new, but better.  Because it is brand new old, which means it will last for 300 more years.

It pairs well with a sheepskin and an ethnic pillow.  Probably any ethnicity will do.

Bleached out-looking because Instagram, y'all.

So, one may ask, "Where can I get all these fine sitting devices?"

Well, only the off-white Baughman/Bowman/Boggman recliner will be in the shop tonight.

The others will probably be listed soon, but you can also email (modernhaus@gmail.com), text, Tweet (modernhaus), or Intsagram (modernhaus) message me if you just can't wait.

You probably want to get your hands on my creations now, before I totally blow up.  I'm already super-big in Upstate New York, the gateway to design fame as we all know.

Over and out.

SHOP UPDATES

Hey, look at me being a man of few words! I think we can all use a break from my soul-searching, no?

I love each of these pieces more than the last. Get 'em while they're hot and fresh in the shop.

SHOP UPDATES

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The shop sure is looking pretty today!

SHOP UPDATES: Milo Baughman recliner, Moroccan rug, and a unique dresser/nightstand

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Three lovely and unique pieces in the shop now:


A completely refinished/rebuilt/reupholstered Milo Baughman recliner in creamy white:























A fantastic dark walnut modular piece with an extra set of conical legs...combines into a gorgeous highboy as shown, or separates into two smaller chests when extra legs added:

















A cool vintage Beni from the estate of a lovely Eastern European couple that traveled the world in their younger years: