sofa

Ticking Takes The Stuffiness Out

Ticking stripes have been on my mind for a while – actually for at least 15 years if not more – but it was only with the unearthing of this great back issue of Elle Decor that I could finally complete a post on it. It contains photos of Marjorie Wollan’s apartment that had lived in my mind as one of the first great “undecorated” spaces I had seen at the time. I am happy to report that the entire apartment lives up to my memories, but more than anything else, it was always this ticking stripe Chesterfield sofa on the cover that blew me away.

Humble ticking, traditionally used to cover mattresses, is tightly woven to keep feathers and straw inside where it belongs. As a result, it is also great for upholstery projects. My favorite use is on formal furniture like that Chesterfield, and more particularly on those pieces with a wood or gilt frame, such as Louis XV and XVI or Sheraton style pieces. The ticking makes “important” furniture look more casual and approachable and thus more modern. Designer Jan Roden does it here with another of my influential old tear sheets, using ticking on the French chairs, lending a relaxed feel to the room. You can see another favorite of mine – a Bennison roses print – on the chair in the corner.

Imagine this ornate piece without the casual stripes…

One of ticking’s biggest successes was in this hugely popular photo of the Odette Sofette from Mitchell Gold that Good Bones, Great Pieces author Suzanne McGrath used in her daughter Lauren’s first apartment. I think every blogger out there has it saved in their files. I think I was extra partial to it because I already have two Odette chairs in my living room!

I have an entire Pinterest board devoted to moody blue libraries, but I think this one designed by Nate Berkus is by far my favorite! The gallery wall yes, and also the white frame sofa upholstered in blue and white ticking!

And to quote House Beautiful directly: “Natural linen on the tufted sofa and ticking stripe on the settee keep the living room of this New York apartment from being ‘too stuffy or precious,’ says designer Ashley Whittaker.” You can just see the ticking stripe peeking out on the framed sofa on the right. This is one of those spaces you just know would be comfy to live in.

Another incredibly relaxed space from the late Chessy Rayner’s Southampton home has a stripe covered settee among an eclectic variety of furnishings. More photos from this lovely home can be found here.

Ticking is also great at balancing ethereal whites and florals in the bedroom. Here it anchors a Louis XVI style settee in this dreamy bedroom.

And it looks fabulous scalloped with the stripes playing off the curved edge – either directionally with the stripes or against them. In this Jane Moore designed space the scallops on the coverlet run in the same direction as the stripes – which by the way, play off a Bennison floral once again. I know I have another great image of a scallop edged coverlet that runs in the other direction, but no matter how much I have looked for it I can’t find it. Bummer!

In this bedroom by Lars Bolander the narrow ticking stripes trace the curves well – like giant scallops!

The closest piece to Marjorie Wollan’s sofa that I ever came across is this Ralph Lauren Mayfair tufted chair. But I think it would be relatively easy to find a vintage tufted piece and have it recovered in ticking.

See! Ticking really does take the stuffiness out!

I loved this regency chaise with its tiny ticking stripe – another one of those things I wanted to buy but had no room for!

Camille over at The Vintique Object just had great posts on the Odette Sofette and on ticking too – take a look!

Image credits: 1. Elle Decor Feb/Mar 1996, 2. House Beautiful December 2003, 3. House & Home October 2007, photo credit: Virginia Mcdonald, 4. Traditional Home, photo credit: Max Kim-Bee, 5. Elle Decor March 2010, photo credit: William Waldron, 6. House Beautiful February 2010, photo credit: Francesco Lagnese, 7. via One Kings Lane, photo credit: Thibault Jeanson, 8-9. via Cote de Texas, 10. Country Living, October 2012, 11. Elle Decor March 2008, photo credit: Kang Kim, 12. via Chiarabelle’s Flickr account, 13. credit unknown.

Sep 27, 2012 By tokyojinja in Furniture, Interior Design, Textiles 10 Comments Tags: furniture, Marjorie Wollan, Odette, sofa, stripes, ticking, upholstery

Sheraton Style Follow-Up…John Derian’s Versatile Cove Sofa

There is simply no one who understands the charm of things from yesteryear better than John Derian. Since the day he announced his furniture line collaboration with Cisco Brothers a few years ago, I carried around the ad page (not quite as cute as the ~~Hugo Guinness~~ Virginia Johnson illustrated one above) featuring the 6 original pieces in the line, took it out of my inspiration folder and sighed over it regularly. He took a Sheraton sofa, a Hepplewhite settee, a Napoleon III armchair, and added to them a versatile tufted bench and stylized loveseat to make a perfect collection of vintage inspired modern-day furniture with modern-day sized people in mind. It has everything good about the original pieces with more comfort and lovely Belgian linen upholstery.

Nowhere did is show itself to better example than in his own 1789 Provincetown home, where a pair of Cove Sofas with a simple Sheraton-shape, took up roost in his living room, complete with peeling wallpaper and paint. Being John Derian, he did not renovate, but instead loved the integrity of the old finishes and details.

Funny how lighting can effect the colors in photographs! What looks like a bright yellow in the Vogue Living photo above is actually closer in color to the pale yellow in the Boston Globe photo below. You can see the corner arm of the Cove and the same throw pillow.

In a newer spread in this June’s Bon Appetit, the Cove sofa looks like it has been moved into a new location – a window niche. There is a great photo of John and his friends playing anagrams while sitting here too.

Another room in the house features the Geranium sofa, based on a Hepplewhite piece from around 1780. It is more upright, less comfy and slouchy than the Cove. I think it would make a good dining banquet.

I can’t resist sneaking in this photo of his guest bedroom too. If you are a longtime reader you know how fond I am of faux bamboo furniture. My guest bedroom here at the shore has a faux bamboo bed and dresser.

So did anything ever come of all that mournful sighing? Why is it I can rave so enthusiastically about the comfort of the Cove sofa? Well, because I have one and it solved such a design dilemma too! The beach house living room has a pair of bay windows that almost make the room seem round. When I first saw the real estate listing for the house I thought it had a turret! Turns out the windows meet in such a way that there is only one stretch of flat wall – exactly 72 inches in length – just the same as the Cove sofa. That wall had a giant radiator on it so the room seemed almost unfurnishable. Luckily, we were able to remove the radiator, and I knew the Cove would be perfect. The back is low and comes right up to the edge of the windowsill – many modern couches would have sat way too high – so it nestles in the window embrasure just perfectly. I had a washable cotton slipcover made, both because I love the look and wanted that tiny pleated skirt, but also because I figured that the Belgian linen, while durable, might not hold up to beach house wear and tear.

Now I’ve used mine in a vintage-y kind of way – not quite the peeling paint of John Derian’s house – and mixed it with my beloved Bennison Faded Floral, Indian print textiles and Moroccan tray table. But the Cove isn’t limited to antique type designs and when styled differently can look very modern. Covered in the dark grey linen – called Vintage Steel – it takes on a very different feel.

Want that Belgian-French look? Cover it in grain sack linen.

The Cove can do pops-of-color trendy too.

Not convinced? Come by and spend an afternoon reading – you won’t want to leave!

Image credits: 1. Virginia Johnson via Ruthie Bird, 2. Cisco Brothers, 3. Vogue Living via Habitually Chic, 4, 6-7. via Shelter Pop, photo credit : Julia Cumes, 5. Bon Appetit June 2012, photo credit: Cedric Angeles, 8. me, 9. via Hammertown, 10. via Remodelista, 11. House Beautiful via Decor Pad

Jul 14, 2012 By tokyojinja in Furniture, Interior Design, Renovation and Decoration Report 6 Comments Tags: beach house, Cisco Brothers, Cove sofa, John Derian, sofa, Virginia Johnson

A Windsor Smith Revival…Camel-Back and Sheraton Style Sofas

So I declare that giant oversized couches and seating are officially dead. Not for me to decide or declare, but saying it anyway. Even Restoration Hardware has come out with that apologetic ad and its new Big Style, Small Spaces catalog. And as a side note, their baby and child line also has some nice smaller pieces like this iron Parisian side table I just ordered during their July 4th sale.

But back to the topic at hand! One classic piece that has fought its way back to the forefront of fashion is the camel-back sofa. Common as ice in Alaska in its big early 20th century revival, it fell out of favor as dated and grandma-ish, since everybody’s grandma had one! For me personally, it was designer Windsor Smith who led the charge in pulling it out of its old lady depths, with her oft photographed and changed example in her own home. In one of its earliest published incarnations it was a soft sea-foam green, partnered with that amazing Indian octagon coffee table I am perpetually obsessed with. I have to thank Kristen Kerr of Simply Smitten for the link to where to get one… But back to the sofa – it is the Gwen Curved Arm Sofa from Smith’s own furniture line.

Its most famous version was in her iconic pink living room, featured in House Beautiful and later put on the cover of their pink issue. I have this memory that designer Kathryn Ireland gave her the amazing blue embroidered textile she used to recover it, but I can’t remember if that is actually true.

The side angle view with that amazing upholstery job…

Here’s a later view of the same room. Sorry, while the wall art and inlaid chair are fabulous, this room looks absolutely bland with the modern sofa and table in comparison to its pink incarnation above. I love the wall color of both spaces, but wish the camel-back was still here in this one.

Never one to rest on her laurels for a minute, she is always changing things around. I am feeling too lazy to track the chronology of it all, but the ceiling moulding tells me this is a different room than the one above – the sofa is now in her family room.

So not to get off topic into a Windsor Smith design crush or to fight with those who would argue it was Ruthie Sommers who resuscitated the camel-back on that very first Domino magazine cover – an equally valid argument in my book – I want to offer up the ready availability of these sofas in great condition at truly inexpensive prices in antique and secondhand shops around the country. Pick a fabric, whether it be bold David Hicks style, ethnic embroidered, humble ticking, velvet, or even a more avant garde choice, and you’ll have the most modern, streamlined, practical piece for your home. The charm and comfort of them lies in the fact that almost their entire length and depth is devoted to actual seat space and not wasted on oversized puffy arms or big loose cushioned backs.

Camel-back is a casual name for a sofa with a curved center hump and scrolled arms, first encountered in the late 18th and early 19th century as the whole concept of sofas and settees was invented. Prior to that there were chairs, but the idea of sitting in comfort was new. Those three famous “cousins” Chippendale, Sheraton and Hepplewhite, cabinet makers in the late 1700s, were influential through the early to mid 1800s when styles changed, only to become popular again in the early 20th century Colonial revival craze. Those are the pieces that are easily found today.

This is how easy it is. Last week while doing the rounds at Point Pleasant Antique Emporium, I could not believe how many nice, inexpensive camel-back and Sheraton style sofas they had out on the floor.

Camels…

Sheratons…

And this was just one large multi-dealer shop! Produced in huge quantities for the last hundred years or so, those from the 20s-40s are the best made so don’t forget to shop your grandma’s attic.

I am not the only one with camel backs on my mind. Michael Penney recently sent a recovered camel-back on its merry way from his new shop – Penney and Company – covered in this fabulous blue ikat.

Ally over at From The Right Bank took a Sheraton style settee from this…

…to this, with some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and new velvet upholstery.

You all know I have been drooling about Nightwood‘s deconstructed pieces for a while now. Katy Elliott just posted their custom Parker Sofa as an idea for recovering her family heirloom camel-back. The linen upholstery on this piece has such an organic feel.