The 10th Ultimate IKEA Bargain

Apartment Therapy just ran a piece on their 9 Ultimate Cheap Chic Classics from IKEA and I decided I needed to chime in on my own 10th item. I don’t disagree with the items they are listing. After all, I have mentioned their number 1 item, the Stockholm Rand rug extensively before, I have used their #2 item, the Billy Bookcase in pretty much every space I have lived in and I am currently using a pair of their number 7 item, the Malm Dresser in my elder daughter’s bedroom. But I think the best bargain at IKEA these days – and one that is nowhere near as over exposed as the other nine – is the Tobias chair shown in our dining room above. Lately, I have noticed it popping up in some higher end places, so I think there are those out there who are agreeing with me.

At 79 dollars (or 265 Qatari Riyals), the price is excellent. In Japan, the chair is just over 15,000 Yen, so it’s about twice as expensive, but everything imported has about that same mark-up. I had never really given the Tobias any thought or attention until I moved to Doha, where IKEA plays an even bigger role in basic necessities than it did in Japan, and certainly than it ever did in the USA. I don’t think there is a single piece of IKEA anything at our beach house. When looking for chairs here to go with our Saarinen Tulip Table and Louis XV style chairs, they seemed like the perfect inexpensive placeholders until we found what we “really” wanted. Ironically, they have become a favorite item, being incredibly comfortable, easy to care for and slide effortlessly across the newly installed Madeline Weinrib dhurrie.

The flatweave/tulip table/Tobias chair combo is not a particularly new one, but it just works.

What has caught my eye lately is the places it has been popping up. I noticed them in the May issue of Elle Decor, in Ellen Rakieten’s Anne Coyle designed LA apartment. About as different as can be from her Chicago library – one of those all time favorite rooms of mine.

The larger room deserves a peek too, as it is making me continue to mourn the loss of the French chairs and desk I had scored.

Caught the smoky gray version of the Tobias in the portfolio of Michelle R. Smith when I was writing about her last week. There are also numerous other example all over the internet of it paired with farmhouse tables showing how it plays well and mixes well.

And they have recently launched a lilac version so I’ll be curious to see what folks do with that one. Girls room desk chair anyone?

What’s your favorite IKEA bargain?

Image credits: 1-2, me, 3. Elements of Style, 4-5. Elle Decor May 2014, photo credit: William Abranowicz, 6. Michelle R. Smith, 6. IKEA.

May 16, 2014 By tokyojinja in Furniture, Interior Design 6 Comments Tags: Anne Coyle, Ellen Rakieten, IKEA, Madeline Weinrib, Michelle R. Smith, Tobias chair, Tulip table

Dining Room Decision Made…Oval Saarinen Tulip Table

So I didn’t have a chance to post properly on this before our winter holiday trip but the Saarinen table was delivered just hours before we left for the airport. Yay! You can see that I went off to vacation extremely happy as the table looks even more amazing in the space than I had hoped!

For those of you just tuning in, earlier this fall I posted a three-part series (here, here and here) on trying to decide what to choose for our dining room. Years in small homes in NYC and Tokyo meant that we never really had space for a proper dining room set up. After writing about the Saarinen table as option 2, a dear friend living in Malaysia wrote to say that she had one and didn’t need it anymore as she was moving back to an already furnished home in the US! Since the table is not available here in Doha we looked into shipping and it really wasn’t an unreasonable proposition for a table this fabulous. Six weeks or so later, it arrived.

I always planned to do a mix of chairs as I find a matched set around the oval table to feel very heavy and dull (peek in Google images and you’ll agree). Mid-century chairs are one of my favorite looks but there are none to be had here. On the other hand, a curvy French chair, like this bergère, also sets off the lines of the table perfectly.

French chairs look great mixed with more modern ones too.

Remember those French chairs I got for free? That story still needs to be told but when I got them I knew they would be perfect for the table – it was just a matter of reupholstery. While I am still considering patterned fabrics, the light backgrounds on those seem like they might disappear against all that white and pale gray. I’ve also been weighing up using a solid, in particular a strong clear green to pick up the color from the Japanese screen at the other end of the room.

To balance out the more serious formality of those (and perhaps because I just don’t have many other choices here) we are going with 4 IKEA Tobias Chairs to round out the seating. Using a clear lucite chair with the tulip table is common as it lets the lines of the table shine through with less leg clutter. Typically people use a Louis-style Ghost chair but I have seen only a single one for sale here and I never actually find them that comfortable to sit in. The Tobias is very comfy, simple and so inexpensive that they can serve as placeholders until I find something else.

I’ve been assuming the addition of a Madeline Weinrib dhurrie underneath for some time. I’m thinking Mandala in Platinum or Steel, but more likely the former as I love the striations in the weave.

The fun part is layering in the unusual accessories. The long stored Chinese embroidered bed valence is coming out for the window treatment.

A pair of Italian gilt sconces that I scooped up antiquing in New Jersey this summer will be the new family coat of arms.

A gallery wall of favorite art including this etching by Shinji ANDO as well as my many shrine sale finds will grace the wall above the Empire dresser, which funnily enough is the first real piece of antique furniture I ever bought as a young adult. It has followed us from home to home, country to country and is still one of my favorites.

And a massive gorgeous painting by Doha based artist Pip Hoy will be the centerpiece of the opposite wall.

So not to get ahead of myself, but here’s a sneak peek of progress as I publish…

Not finished with all the art hanging, but as you can see, I’ve been a busy beaver since we got back.

Image credits: All photos via my Instagram feed or as linked with the exception of #2. Lilly Bunn, #3. credit unknown, photo via The Green Room Interiors.

Jan 13, 2014 By tokyojinja in Doha Move, Furniture, Interior Design, Rugs and Carpets 14 Comments Tags: dining chairs, dining room, dining table, Eero Saarinen, IKEA, Madeline Weinrib, Tobias chair, Tulip table

Dining Room Option Two…Inspiration from Angie Hranowsky

So dining room option two should be an easy and not unexpected one. How about a classic Eero Saarinen Tulip table? The lines are pure and timeless. It comes in a few different diameters and a large oval. And because it is a modern classic, some version of it tends to be easy to find anywhere in the world. One of the things that is so great about the tulip table is that it works with just about any dining chair, from its matching Tulip mate, to Thonet style bentwood to quirky vintage. Danish modern chairs with neutrals tends to be one of my favorite pairings like here…

…and here..

…and here in the Chicago apartment I have been working on this past year.

Since our space is so light and I am working with a few clear colors in the living room/dining room – lavender, pink and green – something modern and white might just be perfect. But it does need to mix with my antiques at the same time. Charleston, SC designer Angie Hranowsky has a fabulous way of blending the old and new, all while being daring with color. She used a Saarinen style table in her own dining room, which was open to her living room with an art wall on one side and a full wall of windows on another, quite similar to my space. Her chandelier even reminds me of my own vintage brass piece from Japan. Bright silks for chair cushions would be easy to come by too.

I passed up an amazing zebra skin at a shrine sale just before I left Tokyo. It was so not a Japan “thing” that I didn’t buy it. I’ve been regretting that decision ever since.

Since then, she has used the table again with bold lavender(!) walls and a different set of brightly upholstered chairs. But I see something else sneaking in there – two black antique chairs to add some funky mix.

The chairs are quite similar to an antique staple – Hitchcock chairs – and as you know I have a set of those which happen to be currently residing in my kitchen. But we have a few extras and it is nice to see that in the case of dinner guests, we could pull them up to the table and it would look good.

While we are talking about antique black chairs around a Saarinen tulip table, I have to pause and worship at one of my favorite dining spaces of all time – the NYC apartment of jewelry designer Temple St. Clair. Her chairs are actually rush seated Washington vase backs, but the idea is similar. A moment of silence for this one.

Whether to buy a real one or a copied reproduction, the marble or the laminate, are the usual questions people ask themselves. Well so far in my pretty extensive travels around Doha furniture stores I have not seen a single one. Not even vaguely. How that is possible, I don’t know. So this whole plan was off the burner until yesterday. Upon reading my Dining Room Option One post, my dear friend George of Paper Glue Bamboo mentioned that she has the large marble-topped oval version she needs to unload. Yowsa!

The catch? The table is currently in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! We are looking into shipping and vaguely hoping to find an expat moving from KL to Doha who might have room in their shipment. Cross your fingers…

Oct 1, 2013 By tokyojinja in Doha Move, Furniture, Interior Design 8 Comments Tags: Angie Hranowsky, Danish Modern, dining room, dining table, Eero Saarinen, Hitchcock chairs, Tulip table