Change of Mood

I had some fun today when a friend who likes the way I’ve laid out the house, but has more traditional taste in furnishings, asked for ideas for her new sitting room. The brief was early 20th century, with colours taking a lead from the curtains (her first purchase, shown here on the John Lewis website) and to complement the lovely warm wood floor she’d had laid.

The house still had both its fireplaces and one of the alcoves is perfect for a reading nook, which set me off looking for a vintage-style standard lamp and suitable chair. It’s not a massive room so a conventional armchair wouldn’t work – we’re talking accent chair or small footprint upright arm chair. And I fell in love with idea of Edwardian style fringing on the lamp.

At the moment I’m strongly preferring the pink or green velvet (both from Made.Com) to the leather (John Lewis), which I think might look ‘rustic’ beaten up rather than ‘vintage’ worn in real life. But this is a hypothetical project for now, so I don’t have to worry just yet. Also you’ll have noticed that the chair colours don’t exactly match the curtain colours – but since they’d be a good couple of metres away from each other I think that’s fine, and it also gives you some other colours to pick up in smaller decorative items. Two of the shades are from Decor Harrogate and the lamp base is from Home Lights Direct.

There’s also a dining table dilemma. There would be plenty of space in its traditional home in the back half of the room, except that it has to share it with a piano. So I’m favouring an old style gateleg with turned or barley sugar twist legs which can be put up or down or halfway as required. Fortunately there are tons of these on ebay – to be snapped up now before the ‘brown furniture revival’ really takes flight.

 

I rather like this sofa too – from IKEA along with a couple of the cushions, the others being John Lewis, Dunelm and Housing Units. It’s affordable so fits the brief in that regard, and also on legs which will help the room look more spacious. I think she could go one of two ways for the cushions – lux to complement the lightshades, or floral to pick up the curtains- or maybe a bit of both.