Furniture, like the best things in life, comes in a variety of flavors. But normally, once you’ve committed, you’re living with the piece for the long haul, or at least until you’ve used it enough to justify whatever you’ve spent.
Not so with the Darwin chair by Stefan Sagmeister, presented at Design Miami/Basel a few weeks ago. The chair features 200 uniquely patterned sheets that can be torn off as they wear.
I love other people’s children. But I’d love them even more if they were snuggling atop an tiny Eames lounge or enjoying a coloring book in a Saarinen womb chair.
Turns out, I can get my wish. Little Nest is an Australian company that makes tyke-sized modern kids furniture. Even more adorably, they give each model a kiddish twist on the name: so the Swan chair becomes the Cygnet, the Egg Chair the Yolk, and the Bertoia wire chair the Little Bert.
There are lots of understandable debates in the mid-century communities about originals vs. knockoffs, respecting artist works vs. their extremely high prices, etc. But these things are so adorable, you’d think Charles and Ray and Eerio and Arne might just be okay with it.
[See them all at Little Nest]
I have a serious fabric obsession. I frame it, stitch it, stamp it, staple it, stretch it and even jot notes on it with Sharpies for a soft-feeling notecard. I haven’t developed the same passion for oilcloth yet, but the more projects I see, the more I feel the need to cover every surface with the stuff. Originally used as floor covering, modern-day oilcloth has tons of practical applications for your home and it’s not all patterned with flowers and fruits.
photo credit: darlingclementine
To update an old table, simply stretch your oilcloth over the surface area and get to stapling. The patterns in these two table projects pep up each space and are a good pet-friendly alternative to tablecloths for those of us who own beasts with chewing habits. I covet table linens at thrift stores on a weekly basis but they wouldn’t last ten minutes with my pup.
How great is this chair cover? Wynzia told Apartment Therapy how she did it: “The chair seats are removable by taking out a few screws on the underside of the chair. I ordered this fun oilcloth fabric from Denver Fabrics. Using the removed chair seat as my pattern, I first figured out my pattern placement. Then, I cut around the seat but added approximately 2″ extra; this allowed me to have enough fabric to wrap around and staple to the back of the seat. I used my heavy-duty stapler for the task of attaching the fabric, pulling the oilcloth snugly, but watching to ensure that I kept the pattern centered. Then, I reattached with the screws on the underside of the chair, and stood back to admire my handiwork.”
Placemats are a no-brainer use for oilcloth. Wipe up your spills and keep it moving, no washing machine required. Koneil Kinson posted a super easy Flickr tutorial on how to make these picnic roll-ups just in time for Spring.
Put oilcloth to work as shelf-liner in your kitchen, pantry or bathroom. I’m betting stuff slides around a teensy bit but at least you’ll have more nifty designs to choose from than you would in the contact paper aisle at Office Depot.
For more projects with oilcloth check out this tutorial round-up from Oilcloth Addicts.
To Purchase Oilcloth
Fabric Worm
The Needle Shop
RRMexicoSupply
I confess to not having set foot in a neighborhood furniture store for most of my adult life. From the outside, they look pretty scary, with their rows of overstuffed couches and expensive mattresses. I wasn’t that interested because thrift stores and Craigslist yielded so many amazing finds.
All of this is pretty ironic since I grew up on a farm outside of a town dominated by one of Nebraska’s largest furniture stores, Ernie’s in Ceresco. The children of Ceresco always looked forward to a visit to Ernie’s since they always offered free popcorn and soda (plus mattresses to bounce on and plenty of secret hiding places). I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Ernie’s.
When we moved to Humboldt County, California, the amazing thrift store furniture dried up. Craigslist here is a fraction of what we were used to in Atlanta and Orange County. When we started looking for a couch after we moved into our new house, we quickly realized that we were going to have to broaden our search.
For kicks, we went into a couple of local furniture stores to see if there might be some neglected mid-century modern furniture, or at least something with “clean lines”.
We were wrong.
Chris Gardner lives and makes things (music, art, furniture, dinner, messes) in Columbus, Ohio. He contributes to the home-design community Curbly, and also runs ManMade, a DIY and handmade site for the postmodern male.
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Garth Johnson and Claire Joyce are a pair of artists who are renovating and decorating their first home, a 1905 Victorian in Eureka, California. They would like to share the joys and frustrations of home-ownerhsip, and to hear about the same from you. See Claire's art here, and get more of Garth on his blog, Extreme Craft. Claire and Garth's home-owning adventures to date are collected at Keeping Up With the Johnsons, also on ReadyMade.
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Sonia Zjawinski is the co-founder of the pet site Pawesome. She's been obsessed with animals ever since she could grab hold of her parents' first cat, Pimpek. When she's not wrangling cats or training dogs she's writing for Unpluggd, Wired, the New York Times, and ReadyMade.
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Megan Jeyifo is a twenty-something married who loves black coffee, chaotic thrift stores, picking up new crafts and putting them down after 25% mastery has occurred, repurposing castoffs, the back porch, her dog, the Midwest and letters on real pages. She writes the blog Urban Casita and lives in the great city of Chicago.
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