Chairloom: Furniture Reinvented

I was flipping (virtually) through the new issue of Lonny Magazine last night when I came across an ad for Chairloom. I believe I had looked at them a long time ago, but had completely forgotten about them (gasp!). This company does pretty much exactly what my sister and I have talked about doing forever as a business which is to buy antiques and redo them in fabulous paints and fabrics to bring them back to life so it was natural that my original reaction was to be completely smitten with all of their work. They have just about every style of antique/vintage furniture you can think of and offer a fabulous array of fabrics including 3 of my favorite organic textile companies-Oliveira Textiles, Rubie Green (on wingback chair above), and Mod Green Pod. What's also great about them is that they offer both finished pieces and unfinished pieces for which you can provide your own fabric or order fabric through them.

I have done this type of thing for my own home on several occassions. I recovered a wingback chair I paid $35 for my freshman year in college with a great sunbrella (kid-friendly) coral print fabric and an oversized victorian couch that I picked up at a tag sale for $40 when I graduated from college has now been recovered in a fuschia and gold damask fabric by my sister and is in her living room. We were also handed down several pieces of furniture by my husband's mother and a good upholsterer was able to revamp all of it to fit our family friendly lifestyle. There are two reasons why I love this idea. First, re-doing an older piece of furniture is better than throwing it into a landfill. Second- as cliche as it may sound, they just don't make furniture like they used to unless you are going to a really skilled craftsman.

If you don't have the time or aren't up for digging through antique shops, tag sales, and fabric stores yourself or if you have been searching for something in particular and haven't been able to find it, I highly encourage you to check out Chairloom. I think the prices are really reasonable and it's a great way to create a custom look without having to go through a designer if that's not in your budget.