I've known Meg Crossley, House & Home mag's senior editor for, well, ages. We've shot a gazillion things together over the years including a memorable out-of-town home shoot where the place actually turned out to be haunted. Fun times? Yep, especially with us both squeezed into a twin bed terrified about having another 'visit'. And so, with that kind of history I just had to ask her to contribute to that one great thing.
Meg Crossley: I love love love this chair my father made sometime in the early 60s. It was for the first little house he shared with my mom when they were newlyweds. As they got more established, their tastes changed and the chair ended up in our toy room -- where my brother and I kept Barbie's and GI Joes, games, the record player, the Meccano set, you get the picture. It became part of our "pretend" house or apartment furniture. Then the lovely thing was moved into the garage not to be seen again for years. My brother resurrected it in the 80s for his university pad (the cushions upholstered in something I would call School Boy stripe, very dark and masculine), then back to the garage. I rescued it just a couple of years ago, when I started to reno and furnish my basement. I needed low furniture because the ceiling was so low in the basement and I wanted to fool the eye into thinking it was higher. This did the trick. After a little lemon oil on the wood and a slipcover in white denim (it is a testament to how well it was made that it was so easy to resurrect), it mixed well with some of my quirky vintage things and my more traditional furnishings -- it is all about the mix after all. We shot my basement for a Makeover issue for House & Home and it landed front and centre, on the cover of that mag. Needless to say, my dad was thrilled.
