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rgps

Help me not go overboard: whorehouse version

rgps
9 years ago

I've made some selections for covering my LR/DR furniture and I need some honest feedback about if it's just all TOO TOO much. I still have 2 non matching wing-chairs to chose fabric for so looking for suggestion for those that will help tone the room down to a roar from a scream.

Sorry I still can't do multiple photo posts despite being given excellent instructions on this site and playing around with the process for 2 hours. Maybe it's my ipad.

So first the givens. Walls are Navaho white and floors are natural white oak. There will not be any window coverings.

The rug. It's real big.

Comments (99)

  • busybee3
    9 years ago

    if I had to have one of the 2 paisleys, I prefer the one on the right--- would get rid of the left lower.
    but, don't know if that's the best choice with some of your other fabrics-- colors on monitors are sometimes not accurate...
    the elephants are a personal thing- I wouldn't choose, but I think it's ok if you love it. definitely don't like the bottom L paisley with the elephants..... the only fabric you show that I would pair with the elephants is the solid, but don't think that's the best choice- would keep looking!!

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    Re: glass shower surround:

    I am SO disappointed! Going to have to go pout now for a bit.

  • katrina_ellen
    9 years ago

    I like the more olive type green sofa fabric with those colors, the last one you posted looks more olive toned.

  • kitchendetective
    9 years ago

    I have been in homes where no effort whatsoever was made to match colors in Oriental rugs. The rugs were purchased during WW II, and I am wondering if that was a Forties' decorating style. Anyone know?

    Also, thinking about your sofa fabric, I thought the first non-olive looking green was one of your inspiration greens. Now I am confused.

  • PRO
    Diane Smith at Walter E. Smithe Furniture
    9 years ago

    Jumping in midstream but just wanted to throw this out there...

    Keep to solid fabrics for most of the larger pieces and let your rug be the star. Then add personality with accessories, over-sized art, a large ornate mirror, or an interesting chandelier.

    I love that last green you posted for the sofa. Perhaps try the dining chairs in a deep indigo blue in a chenille or velvet, the wing backs in a chevron and the swivels in a nubby blue or even a warm saddle colored leather.

    You could then use that adorable elephant fabric on your window seat and valance over the kitchen sink.

  • kswl2
    9 years ago

    Much prefer the first green for sofa than the second. First looks better with rug; second green fights rug vehemently.

  • peony4
    9 years ago

    Oh, I like Deedee's compilation!

  • nosoccermom
    9 years ago

    I haven't read all the replies, but at least on my monitor it looks like your rug is more towards the cooler, bluish tones while the fabrics (with the exception of the green/teal solid) are all more towards the warm, i.e. yellow/brown/orange.

    Remember the old dress by what season you are? Seems to me that the rug is a winter and the fabrics an autumn.

  • selcier
    9 years ago

    Lol. No one can agree. Which means everything you decide on will be fine! At some point, (myself included) we over-think everything.

  • Gooster
    9 years ago

    I've been glancing at this tread just because of the title -- I think you are the one that described your decorating style as "Istanbul whorehouse", as I recall.

    Instead of the olive green, what about the blue that was posted by deedee? I've admired some of the blue upholstered pieces people have had done, and the current House Beautiful has tons of beautiful examples.

  • rgps
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Deedee, I love your compilation of elements. The solid blue velvet in there is a winner and where did you find the red and blue paisley? I love it.

    As for the chandy, weeeelllll. We have one of those and it stays. No one better make fun of it (although tibbrix tried a few months ago) because my dear papa made it. Until last year it had painted orange juice cans instead of glass for the shades so I has come up in the world.

    Remember folks, this is a homemade house in the forest, not a KipsBay candidate. Sentiment wins over good taste in my neck of the woods. As if it's not obvious.

  • PRO
    Diane Smith at Walter E. Smithe Furniture
    9 years ago

    I'm hitting the 'like' button on your chandelier!

    I have been mia on gw for the last few months. Looks like I have missed lots o' design excitement, rgps.

    I'll try to google you and see what an Istanbul house of ill repute looks like! lol!

  • 1929Spanish
    9 years ago

    If you look on the selvage of many print fabrics, you sill see color dots or squares. Those are the colors used on the prints.

    Choose your favorite - can't live without - print. Check the selvage for those colors and use them as a jumping off point.

    I know what you're looking for, but I think it's one of the most "curated" styles. You can't scrap it together and be happy with the result for the long term. This comes from someone who has had three fits and stops over fabric in her own office. Lets just say...I have a TON of aprons and bags to sew with the fabric that didn't work out!

  • rgps
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    1929- that's funny, I already have more fabric from generations of leftovers so what's a few more. Some people do shoes, me, I'm the one who does textiles.

  • junco East Georgia zone 8a
    9 years ago

    I think Deedee's mood board would make a beautiful room--but it wouldn't reflect your Istanbul whorehouse idea. Maybe her blue for the sofa can be combined with some of the wilder prints (and the elephants) to make it "your" room--which, if I'm reading you correctly, would be a collected rather than curated look.
    I love the chandelier!

  • rgps
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Collected vs curated? Not sure I understand the difference. Discuss.

  • junco East Georgia zone 8a
    9 years ago

    from 1929 --"one of the most curated styles. You can't scrap it together and be happy with the result for the long term"

    I think what you're looking for IS a "scrap it together", happy accident sort of look. At least that is the impression I got from looking at your first group of fabrics.
    In this context, curated is carefully chosen, and collected is accidentally acquired.

    Here is a link that might be useful: 2009 NYT's article on curating

  • kswl2
    9 years ago

    I like Deee's mood board but not necessarily the olive green In the same room. Maybe the olive color would work in the dining room. It would look good with either of the paisleys you posted Tuesday at 20:10, and velvet is a wonderful fabric for your dining chairs. You could do the entire front of the chair in either green velvet, and use one of the paisleys for the chair back (preferably the one lower left, and the other is very muddy looking.

    Then, you need a smaller print for your window seat cushion. Is this a horizontal cushion on the window seat itself, or are you referring to pillows? If you use a small print on the underlying cushion you ***could*** use one 18" or 20" square pillow propped up on the cushion, just one elephant centered on the pillow.

  • OKMoreh
    9 years ago

    I'm coming in late, but I want to agree with this:

    I love elephants, too. LOVE THEM. But . . .how about more a "nod" to where elephants live (personally, I think African elephants are cuter than Asian) vs. an actual depiction of elephants in fabric?

    Example . . .my 12 y.o. loves Les Mis. She read the book a billion times and researched it extensively. So, when it came time to do her room, she wanted a LM theme, but it was more about it being a modern-meets-old-France apt. vs. textiles with the word "PARIS" written on them or the iconic Eiffel Tower (which, she explains, wasn't even around in the time of LM).

    I had a similar experience once when I wanted wallpaper for an American Colonial room -- that it, it had colonial-style maple furniture. Salespeople kept showing me pictorial wallpapers with images of bedwarmers, toasting forks, etc., on them. People in America of the time I imagined, if they could afford wallpaper, didn't expect it to depict bedwarmers and toasting forks; they had real bedwarmers and toasting forks.

  • Holly- Kay
    9 years ago

    I'm with KSWL regarding the first green being much prettier for your sofa. I still love, love, love the elephant print and wouldn't care a wit if it looks twee or not (what does twee mean anyway?), but then this is coming from a person that has three ceramic monkeys dressed in 17th century costume playing different instruments.The lower left fabric just has to stay as it is heart stopping beautiful imo.

    You know RGPS if you are waiting for a consensus from us your room will be redone right about the time hell freezes over.

  • kswl2
    9 years ago

    Lol, Holly-Kay! Too right you are!

  • peegee
    9 years ago

    The beloved elephant fabric might look super framed....Love the rug and the first green. Remaining fabrics are beautiful but IMHO do not at all play well together. There are soooooooooo many equally stunning fabrics out there; please keep exploring!
    ......your gorgeous furniture and you deserve it!.

  • 1929Spanish
    9 years ago

    I think of collected as happening over time. You are trying to put it together at the same time, so you need to curate.

    Collected can look scrappy if your taste changes or you try and mix things that were acquired without thinking of the whole.

    Pulling everything together at once, it needs some curating so that it is cohesive and gives the impression of being collected.

    I love what you are going for. Just take some time. Think layers. For me layers happen with a better result if I also layer my decisions over time.

  • junco East Georgia zone 8a
    9 years ago

    Exactly! It all depends on how scrappy the OP wants the room to look.

  • rgps
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I think hell really would freeze if we all agreed. I've loved hearing all your thoughts and ideas, you all have made this process not only bearable but down right fun.

    Right now I'm waiting on my Fabric samples and then I'll have to actually start forking over $$ and commit. Has to all be ordered before I leave and go back to phoenix for the winter in a few weeks. I love deadlines!!

    I leave you with one more little yum yum I ran across. Sadly I don't think it's available any more but probably just as well knowing me.

  • bbstx
    9 years ago

    Oh, yes, it is available.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Grand Estate Gold Jacquard

  • Holly- Kay
    9 years ago

    BBSTX, it is wonderful that you found the fabric available for RGPS but isn't the Grand Paisley even yummier?

  • rgps
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Bbstx, gee thanks. That little post of yours just cost me $$ for even more samples. I'm keeping the USPS in business singlehandedly.

    1929, thanks for the explanation. I think I won't worry if it's collected vs curated just now. The furniture has been collected by family for centuries, it's all just now needing new outfits. They haven't been redressed in over 30 years. Yikes!

    Peewee, as you can see I am taking your advise and continuing to explore.
    And I haven't even hit Africa or South American. Oh my.

    Holly, a photo should have accompanied you post about the monkeys. Please!
    Okmoreh, love your example. Point taken but those elephants are going to finagle their way in here somehow even if they just end up on a bathroom wall.
    Kswl, there you go again with those rules of good taste. Bah humbug.
    And junco I think you explanation of my game plan is spot on.

  • bbstx
    9 years ago

    {{!gwi}}

  • Holly- Kay
    9 years ago

    RGPS, they are at my other home but I will be close by on Saturday for DGS birthday. I will see if I can get them and bring them here. I rather think my tenants will be glad to be rid of them.

  • bbstx
    9 years ago

    holly-kay, are your monkeys Meissen, by any chance? Meissen produced an entire monkey orchestra

    One year when I went to market, I was tempted to buy a piece or two. But even wholesale and even reproduction, the ones I saw were terribly expensive.

  • rgps
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    That monkey conductor would go mighty fine with crocheted Babar. Now that the squirrels have been banished from our home it's time to bring in replacement critters. Is there no end to my bad ideas?

  • Holly- Kay
    9 years ago

    BBSTX, I imagine they are reproductions. I purchased them at a B & B estate sale. I loved the quirkiness but what made them absolutely perfect was that one was playing a pianoforte, another playing the violin, and the other trumpeting. They were the instruments that my children played so naturally they had to come home with me. I do collect Meisen blue onion and love it!

    RGPS, love Babar! You need some animal art to go with your beautiful elephant fabric.

  • patricianat
    9 years ago

    What makes prints work together is that you vary the sizes but not the colors. You MUST have varied sizes of the prints from pin dot sizes to humongous paisleys or in this case, elephants, but try not to have any two prints the same sizes that bear the identical colors or it looks like you went out and bought it all by mistake and you want it to look evolved/planned. So looking back, it seems everything is working until you get to the elephants and then you get to the use of the two paisleys, not unless there is a huge disparity in size and the colors are the same. You need to use more textured color to achieve some of the differences. That is JMHO and it's worth about as much as what it cost to type this. I would go with a pin-dot size, a glen-plaid size, a large scottish plaid size, a mid range paisley and a huge other thing. Can you find tiny elephants instead of elephants that are the same size as the paisley and use more textured colors to create diversity rather than prints.

  • rgps
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Can you tell me more about textured color. I don't have a sense of what type of fabrics to look for content and weave wise. Some examples would be greatly appreciated. Will look for some tiny elephants now. I will NOT be using this chair as an inspiration.

    This post was edited by rgps on Fri, Sep 12, 14 at 14:04

  • Holly- Kay
    9 years ago

    Hah! I love the lines of the chair but holy cow, or holy elephant even, I don't like the print.

    BBSTX, The Meissens look exactly like what I have though I think the ones pictured are brighter than mine. I love the pianoforte one as the dressed monkey is on the back of another as shown above. I honestly had no idea what I was purchasing I was just rather drawn to them. I was in the process of buying furniture and décor for our other home at the time and I just had to have them. They are very odd and quite gaudy but I love them because they are interesting. My DD thought I was nutso!

  • bbstx
    9 years ago

    h-k, sounds like time for a trip to Antiques Roadshow! First, practice saying, "No! Really? Not really? Are you kidding me?" with a wide-eyed look on your face.

  • PRO
    Diane Smith at Walter E. Smithe Furniture
    9 years ago

    This vintage 3'x4' piece of fabric on Etsy would be perfect as toss pillows if you did the sofa in navy.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Etsy elephants

  • rgps
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    You guys are killing me. I just bought the fabric deeee posted. How could I not ?

  • PRO
    Diane Smith at Walter E. Smithe Furniture
    9 years ago

    I'm always happy to help people spend their money! :)

  • kitchendetective
    9 years ago

    What do we think of Robert Allen South Mesa Chenille Jacquard?
    Fabric.com has it. Probably others, too.

  • 1929Spanish
    9 years ago

    Remember....you can always sew aprons and bags with the extra! ;)

  • Holly- Kay
    9 years ago

    I don't even want to know, LOL. I will use the things I love til the day I die and then the kids can do the research and say "Can you believe this ugly old thing is worth that much?" and be darn glad to have it.

  • rgps
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Kitchen detective. That one didn't wow me but it got me to that site and I found something else I love ( of course) so thank you.
    What do we think of it or have I just really lost my grip. I was thinking for a wingchair. I know it doesn't go with some of the other things I've picked but it could work with the sofa fabric (solid blue green velvet) and the rug. Maybe sorta kinda. It would cause me to ixnay the elephantay but so be it. I already am getting elephant pillows with the fabric deedee posted. One of the paisley sis already on the trash heap. I can stand to cast off another beloved and live to tell the tail. I suppose.

  • rgps
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Never mind. I just saw it next to my deede elephants and all I can say is barf.

  • Holly- Kay
    9 years ago

    I like the last fabric you posted better than Deedee's elephants but not as much as the original elephants.

  • Holly- Kay
    9 years ago

    RGPS, I picked up the monkeys and a crystal decanter that was at our other house. Here is a pic of the monkeys on our piano. The piano seems like a perfect place except that I will have to remove some other items so they fit better. I thought my monkey was playing a violin not a bass but still a giant violin so to speak.

    BBSTX, my monkeys are repros. They are stamped with made in China on the bottom so no celebrating as to worth, they are just Meissen wanna bes.

  • rgps
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Ah, that would be a cello. They are great. Glad they aren't the real thing or you'd have to worry about them. Thanks for sharing.
    Some samples came in. I'm more confused than ever.

  • Holly- Kay
    9 years ago

    Ahhh thank you for the correction RGPS. I probably wouldn't worry too much, they are ugly as sin but interesting.

    The more samples you get the more confused you will become. I do adore your original elephant material. If I could sew I would order it and have pillows made for my John Wayne sofa.

  • bbstx
    9 years ago

    Love your ugly monkeys! Sorry that your moment of fame on Antiques Roadshow isn't going to happen. You can now practice saying, "Awww. Oh, okay. That's disappointing," with a sad face.