The green velvet chairs ordered last year have been a disappointment all the way around. What was supposed to be a 5 to 6-month lead time turned into nine. Once they arrived, the color was significantly off from the fabric sample we saw in the showroom. The company we ordered them from went out of …
An unintended consequence of furnishing the library/office is we scavenged furniture from other places—mainly the living room. Now we are in the process of reimagining what that space is going to feel like. Chelsea wants it to feel elegant and cozy. To that end, she decided to find a Chesterfield sofa as the anchor piece. …
I am torn on this project. The fan cleaned up nicely and I love it as an object. The issue is that it doesn’t run as well as I had hoped. My assumption was that after it was greased/oiled and rewired it would run like new. That is not quite the case. I can’t get …
Originally estimated to be delivered in early July, the rail for the rolling ladder arrived a couple of weeks early. What didn’t arrive was a definitive answer on how high to mount the rail for our particular ladder length. The rolling ladder manufacturer expects the user to tell them the rail height, then the company …
I am very excited about this. What we have here is a mid-1920s desk fan with brass blades. It runs, but not smoothly. Someone attempted to restore it 13 years ago. By restore, I mean they spray painted about 90% of the components (even the brass ones), and rewired it using an ugly plastic lamp …
This is a curiosity. While antiquing at one of our favorite way-out-in-the-country stores, we ran across this. At first glance it appears to be a Globe-Wernicke stacking cabinet. The finish, shape, and metal banding on the side all point that direction, but a few things don’t add up: There are no markings on it that …
It is a subtle change, but we spent part of the day adding brass dust corners to the stairs. They were first used in the Victorian era to make cleaning stairs easier. Their shape helps keep clumps of dust and, in our case, pet fur from clumping up in the corners. Since ours are unlacquered …
Q: How did you design the bookcase? A: A couple of early decisions made the design and construction much simpler. We knew we wanted the bookcase to look like it was original to the house. To that end, we wanted fixed shelves versus the ones that use adjustable pegs. We also knew it was going …
When we found our first set, I was actually looking for some to fit in this space. If you have been following the blog you’ll know the others are designed to sit in an open corner instead of a tight space. These do not have a maker’s label. I have reached out to someone who …
This style of artwork was obviously very popular at one time. We now have two vertically oriented pieces and one horizontal one. All are floral arrangments sitting on some type of table top. They make me happy.