Showing Some Leg.... or Not

Have you ever noticed that some upholstered ottoman/coffee tables look like fabric-wrapped, steroid-enhanced hunks that have been plopped in the middle of a room? Perhaps that's one reason why I find this particular upholstered table, seen above, so attractive. Designed by Paolo Moschino, the table is a lightweight, slimmed down approach to the traditional upholstered ottoman table.  The void in the bottom two-thirds of the table is so refreshing and airy.  The shelf, on the other hand, helps to visually balance the top part of the table and provides a perch for books.  And that fabric is so crisp and snappy, perfect for this former fisherman's cottage in Cornwall, England.

The table immediately made me think of those great upholstered ottomans, chairs, and beds in which the legs were upholstered in fabric, too.  This kind of seamless upholstery seemed to reach its height of popularity in the late 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s and counted all kinds of devotees like Angelo Donghia, Billy Baldwin, and Stephen Mallory.  Sometimes the piece of furniture was covered in a solid fabric, while on other occasions, a zippy print was used.  What's interesting to note is that there are times when a slipper chair or ottoman, for example, can look squatty with its upholstered legs.  For this reason, it's probably best to consider this kind of upholstery on a case by case basis.

And hopefully you'll notice that I didn't include photos of fabric-covered bun feet.  That is something entirely different and not altogether very attractive.

Angelo Donghia's raffia-like upholstered dining chairs are so timeless looking, especially considering that this room was decorated in 1975. Actually, the entire room still looks great today.

A white cotton upholstered daybed, feet and all, in this Kips Bay Show House room decorated by Stephen Mallory sometime in the 1970s.

I love this zebra print covered chair and ottoman in the apartment of decorating doyenne, Betty Sherrill. The photo was taken in 1968.

The bedroom of Jay Crawford and Anthony Tortora was swathed in a geometric-print chintz. See how the bed's short feet were fabric-covered just as the bed's box spring was?

I have always admired the East Hampton home of Harry Hinson. Ignore the crease down the middle of the photo and try to get a good look at the small upholstered slipper chair. The fabric, I believe, is Hinson & Co.'s "Merlin", a long-time favorite of mine.

The Library of a Park Avenue duplex, which was decorated in the 1970s by Arthur Smith. The green fabric that was used on the chairs and sofa add a splash of color to the otherwise brown-toned room. Smith even trimmed the legs and bottom edge of the chairs in nailhead trim.

These waterfall-style stools were completely upholstered in quilted fabric, as was the nearby sofa. (David Whitcomb, designer.)

Would you have guessed that this 1970s-era room was located in an 1882 townhouse in Savannah, Georgia? This space was a dining-sitting-garden room, which explains the choice of white fabric for the upholstery. (Home of designer Pratt Williams Swanke and her architect husband.)

So, the Crayola colors and flamestitch rug scream 1960s. Still, think about what these chairs would look like if covered in updated fabrics and placed in updated spaces. (Braswell/Cook Associates.)


Top photo of Paolo Moschino interior from House & Garden, British edition, August 2013, Paul Massey photographer; photos #2-4 from New York Interior Design, 1935-1985, Volumes 1 and 2 by Judith Gura; #5, 7, 8 from Architectural Digest New York Interiors; #6 from Architectural Digest Country Homes; #9 from Decorating American Style by Jose Wilson and Arthur Leaman; #10 from The New York Times Book of Interior Design and Decoration.

The Brighter Side of Donghia

While doing research over the weekend, I came across two 1968 photos of Angelo Donghia's work that caught my eye. Are you surprised that Donghia decorated these rooms? If the answer is yes, then you're not alone. For years, I only associated Donghia with his work from the mid- 1970s and 80s- rooms that were contemporary, at times sleek, frequently neutral in color, and that really embraced the spirit of the 1970s. But if you go back and look at his work from the 1960s, he captured the zeitgeist of that era too. When I started collecting vintage 1960s magazines a few years ago, I found that the rooms that captured my attention tended to be those by Donghia.

Take, for example, the room at top. House Beautiful declared that in this room, "The Thirties return with a Sixties flourish." There's that loop chair again, although that's not what I noticed first, nor was it that graphic black and white rug (so 1960s). Instead, it was that gray silk slipper chair. How beautiful is that? Normally, I'm not a bun feet kind of gal, but these silk covered ones are kind of weird and kind of fetching at the same time. And I love the shape of the sofa and those punctuations of chartreuse.


And then there's this shot of Donghia's own foyer. Try to look past that unfortunate clipped hedged green carpet, because the story here is Donghia's use of color. You've got that pretty blue and white floral paper in the foreground and the soft blue and red portière. And look in the background- I've never thought mixing lavender and bright red. You know what? It actually works.

(Both images from House Beautiful, October 1968)