Antique Settee Daybed Reproduction

Well my friend, this week has been a fantastic week. First of all, Anthony and I made a last-minute decision and jetted off to Czech Republic for a much needed break. Prague is now among one of our favourite European cities - I will write more about it later on when I get around to organizing the photos. 

Secondly, this much anticipated Swedish sette I had custom made by Anne Quinn Furniture has arrived! I am head over heels in love with it! 

Remember it started at an elaborate drawing like this. 

The finished product turned out to be exactly the same better than expected. Just look at all the intricate carvings along the fluted legs and the entire frame. 

So many motifs and patterns work harmoniously together to create a cohesive look. 

I am so happy that I insisted on a slimmer finial at the base of the leg which resulted in a much more slender and elegant look. 

The settee/daybed is super deep and comfortable, and the removable cushion is practically a mattress! The slender legs make the sette look so light and airy, but the piece is very solid and actually weighs a ton. 

How do I know? 

We ran into a snag with getting the settee into one of our guest bedrooms. Brian from Anne Quinn Furniture and Anthony hauled this thing up our curved staircase with this hernia-rupturing expression all over their faces, only to learn that the settee was too wide to fit through the door! Normally we could have squeezed it in by tilting it at an angle, but the three-legged construction made it impossible for them to find any wiggle room. Poor guys had to drag it back downstairs. Brian offered to take it to his repair guy to make the middle legs removable. I was heartbroken because I would really hate to have a pristine brand new piece of furniture cut apart and modified. A few days later after we came back from Prague, Brian came to pick up the settee, drove all the way to his repair guy only to be told to try to fit the piece through the door vertically! The standard door is around 80" high, and the settee is slightly shorter than that. By standing it on the side and lifting it up vertically, they basically turned the piece and fitted one side in at a 45-degree angle, then made another turn, and the entire piece was into the room! Had the new maneuver been a little more difficult, three of us wouldn't have felt as embarrassed :). What happened with thinking outside the box?! The good news is that no modification was needed, and the settee went into the room literally in one piece. 

Brian went back and forth three times trying to make this right for us. This just shows there's nothing Anne Quinn Furniture wouldn't do to make their customer happy. And that's why after so many years, they are still my go-to custom furniture store. Customer loyalty is not bought; it is hard earned. 

Another good news I would like to share is that my vintage bar cart styling was featured at Elle Decor and Harper's Bazaar. Links to the article here and here. 

I will be back next week to write about an exciting art collaboration project, and a small front porch landscaping facelift. 

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians! 

The Joy of Custom Made Furniture

Just before we left for our vacation in June, I came across this Swedish settee on Eloquence. I had seen similar style settees before, and always assumed it was French. It's actually Swedish Gustavian style which is a simplified version over the more embellished design of the Baroque. It strikes a perfect balance between the French flamboyance and the Nordic sense of practicality. It can be as formal as a settee, or as casual as a daybed for those weekend afternoon naps. I immediately fell in love with it, and needed to have it in my house. To have a massive piece of furniture like this delivered all the way from U.S. isn't realistic, not to say some companies don't offer international shipping to start with. It didn't take long before I realized I needed to go custom again. And there's no better place I would like to work with than Anne Quinn Furniture. 

Within days, Christine the proud owner of Anne Quinn Furniture, emailed me these design templates from her manufacturer. I was completely blown away. The drawings even captured all the different carving patterns throughout the settee. 

 Different finial details throughout the frame. 

By the time I came back from my vacation, the frame was already constructed. I couldn't believe how amazingly intricate all the wood carvings are. There was but one problem. Did you notice anything that didn't seem to belong with the rest of the frame? The bases of the fluted legs were so round and chunky that it looked like I was going for bun feet! 

Her manufacturer took my feedback, and immediately tried to trim them down. Better here in the next two pictures, but not quite there yet. For me, the legs make or break a piece of furniture. 

Christine was very patient and determined to get them right for me. So after another round of trimming and sanding, the legs are finally perfect. 

I like legs of any chairs slender because they look more elegant to me that way. I picked a stain-resistant fabric in grey but the lighting in the pictures below almost made the upholstery appear taupe. I will be anxiously waiting for it to arrive in October to see it for myself. 

I am so happy that this is yet another custom furniture which turns out to be exactly the same as better than expected. Do you do custom furniture?

Go Big or Go Home

In case you haven't noticed, of late I have been writing less frequent but longer posts with a lot more pictures. Summer is beautiful but short here in Canada, and we don't get to take the entire season off. So between work, life, travel and cottage, I would rather spend the very limited amount of time I have on quality posts. The number of projects at home has certainly picked up during the warmer months. I also have a grand master plan to transform our cottage, so I will write more about that later. 

Remember this tired-looking pair of Louis XV chairs I picked up months ago? This was the before. 

This was the mockup done up in Photoshop. The leopard fabric choice was a very bold move for me (you know how much I like to play mainstream and safe), so I needed to make sure. 

And I was completely stunned by how gorgeous they turned out! Paint It Like New again did an awesome job painting these chairs in BM Cloud White. I am glad I went with the white frames because, coupled with the leopard fabric, they look softer and more feminine. Fabric via Discounted Designer Fabrics on Etsy. 

They are not in the living room to stay. 

What's better than one brass pineapple? Two of course! Just when I was about to give up on finding a perfect brass pineapple ice bucket at a reasonable price, I came across a Canadian (Ottawa) listing by TwoMoxie on Etsy. Price? Amazing. Condition? Mint. Service? Top notch! I couldn't be happier. Now I am one step closer to finish styling my bar cart. 

On our way back from cottage this Sunday, we made a stop at the HomeSense in Barrie, and picked up this huge gold dot wire bowl. Bungalow Classic was the first to carry it, and it was going for $365 before it was sold out. I must have spotted this very same bowl tens of times but never had the urge to buy it. And I am glad that I did this time. It was in a whitewashed shabby chic finish, so I took a little Rub N Buff action in gold leaf to glitz it up. 

It can be used as a candle holder or fruit bowl, but I think it looks impressive as is so I am not going to adorn it with anything else. 

I made General Tso's Chicken for the first time and I think it turned out great. Patience was the secret sauce. 

Lastly, a spot near our cottage at dusk. There was nothing to see according to Anthony. Exactly. 

Antique Shield Back Chair Transformation

If you like lots of pictures in a post, then this one is for you. A few months after my initial purchase, our kitchen dining chair upcycle is finally a wrap. I am pretty thrilled with the outcome. 

It started with these antique Lenoir shield-back dining chairs from Creighton House Antiques. I was debating whether to take up the task of spray painting these chairs myself. After all, I did pull off a few decent paint jobs before. These chairs are for our kitchen dining room which we use almost every day, so I need the paint job to live up to daily wear and tear. Having thought over that, I quickly came to the conclusion that I should leave the paint job to professionals, and I can't think of a better place to send them to than Paint It Like New! Paint It Like New sanded the chairs thoroughly, cleaned, rinsed then primed, sanded again, primed again, and finally finished with two coats of zero-VOC acrylic paint. Having our master bathroom vanity painted in oil-based lacquer which stank for a very long time, I totally appreciate the zero-VOC latex acrylic paint Paint It Like New uses. I have no doubt that these chairs will survive our use and abuse for years to come. You can read more about Paint It Like New's process here and here. 

My upholstery guy was very thoughtful to preserve this original Lenoir label for me in the new upholstery.

I am also pleased with my decision to go with Faux Ostrich vinyl fabric from Discounted Designer Fabrics (thank you Tim from Design Maze for the positive reinforcement).

This is the Shield Back. Paint It Like New does live up to their company name! 

With these vinyl chair cushions, I don't have to constantly worry that I might accidentally spill my food and make a mess. Instead they are designed to deal with daily messes - all I need to do is to wipe them clean! 

Compared to wrapped upholstery like this, seat cushion upholstery is less permanent and looks more casual - just what I want for an everyday dining nook. 

The Marlborough leg. 

The see-through shield back chairs make my kitchen dining room appear so much more spacious. 

Now I just need to find a new lighting fixture over the table. Maybe I should start buying lotteries so that I can afford one of these :).

Source:

Antique shield-back dining chairs: Creighton House Antiques in Jordan Ontario. 

Chair painting: Paint It Like New.

Paint: Benjamin Moore Cloud White. 

Ostrich fabric: Discounted Designer Fabrics. 

Upholstery: Donovan and Bev.