IDS10: Butterflies and blurry dressers

Things are reaching boiling point in getting everything confirmed for the Ultimate space I'm working on for the IDS and, so far at least, things have been going in the right direction. Bev Hisey has come up with a brilliant prototype for something called a Butterfly Chair (there's a snap below of her playing around with the materials). All I can say right now is they're huge, cool and incredibly comfortable. Beyond that snap you'll see a couple of blurry cellphone shots of vintage furniture that is currently going from icky to spectacular at Beresford's, getting a lovely new coat of colour. McMaster by Para to be exact. Well, lol, that was the plan, until I went to actually buy them both and found that one had already sold. Blurgh. And it was that weirdly gorgeous vanity with the mirror. Double blurgh. These things are sent to try us, as someone so wisely said, so I found a pretty fair replacement. Honestly, that piece was so mine, and it was only $40 (I will now be kicking myself for the next while, and should really listen to my own rule of buy it when you see it).

Feeling a little rough around the edges

I happened across a totally interesting furniture firm yestreday while researching a Trendwatch feature for House & Home's March 2010 issue. They're called Casamento, they're based in a suburb of Cape Town and well, I think they're all kinds of fabulous. Check them out and you'll see they mix handmade and mid-century with an artist's eye in their vintage and reproduction furniture and upholstery. The folks behind Casamento love the process of stripping down and re-building old pieces, and that's the idea behind their Raw collection, and that sweet re-done vintage chair below. I love its deconstructed look, and almost inside-out construction with the waxed twine stitching proudly on show, and the fact that it's just so relaxed and imperfect. Lovely!

 

A pocketful of sunshine? No, a van full of furniture

The house has been turned upside down, and I've been relegated to a small island in the middle of the living room whilst controlled pandemonium occurs, well, everywhere else. The Ikea installers (hello guys) have almost finished all the cabinetry in the laundry area, plus they've started in on the Besta media storage for the basement tv room and the Pax wardrobe in the bedroom (more info on that soon). Oh, and Rod the wallpaper guy is about to put up the last panel of grasscloth in the bedroom and then he'll be onto the paper for the living room and powder room.

Below is the truck full of furniture that we drove, bleary eyed and very early, out to Tim the furniture finisher to get sprayed. We managed to fit a motley crew that included eight dining chairs, two 2-drawer end tables, a 4-drawer chest and a 9-drawer dresser. We'll have to wait a week or so, but everything will be coming back in either a lovely Benjamin Moore Oxford White or Baffin Island. In the meantime all of our clothes have been relegated to plastic bins dotted hither and yon. Ummm, when will this be over? lol