From the Archives - How to Use an Area Rug

Originally published January 6, 2009

Area rugs bring furniture groupings together, add accent, deaden noise and act as partitions. When used correctly, they draw all the elements of a room together - pulling pictures, curtains, and furniture into the central color scheme.

Area rugs used in the living room to draw together conversational furniture groupings should be large enough to outline the groups. Each piece of furniture should be set at least partially on the rug. For example, an area rug that you place in front of a sofa should be as long as the sofa or longer.

Faux fur and flokati area rugs add glamour to the living room, and they can be washed gently and brushed when dry. Their soft, deep pile contrasts superbly with hard and shiny surfaces. They also add texture to a room without causing angst to any fluid lines.

In the image above, the swirling lines of the faux fur rug and the wallpaper are complemented by the round shapes of the table, chairs, and lamp base. The dominant colors are black, white and wood tones. Colors would seem drab if it weren't for the ripe red wallpaper, sofa and accessories. The pattern provides transitional lines between shapes and ties important colors together, resulting in an engaging and sophisticated room.

Related posts:

Top 9 Interiors Trends For 2009

8 Tips For A Living Room Layout

How To Make A Cool Headboard

How To Exhibit A Vintage Chair Collection

Still looking for a sofa

This image popped up in a file on my computer the other day. I have no idea where it came from. I must have saved it as inspiration because it's the perfect sofa for me. I found a similar one at Montauk but ouch - too expensive. She really should take her shoes off and use a coaster.

Quote of the Week - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

FYI - Fix Your Interior - The Foyer

'How convenient is your front entry? Does it lead guests into a transition zone where you can shake hands and take their coats, or does it unceremoniously dump them right into the living room? If your entry is little more than a door, then let this multiple-use divider change all that.
Besides screening your entry, the unit provides a setting for that fireplace you've always wanted, along with a flip down desk, compact beverage bar, loads of shelf space and even a firewood bin. Once the hearth and prefabricated fireplace have been installed you can construct the shelf systems with tension poles and plywood.' Better Homes and Gardens, 1966

Sounds like a good idea to me. Could we make use of this fireplace?

Source: lavalotti.wordpress.com

Star Finder 1970

Source: books.google.ca via Stacy on Pinterest

Sounds like a band name, come to think of it.
I need to brush up on my star gazing because all I can ever find are the Dippers.
Cassiopeia. Is there a word that is more fun to say?
Found in the December 1970 edition of Boy's Life magazine.

Business in the Front - Party in the Back

Source: modelscomposites.com via Stacy on Pinterest

Image from 1971
Back in the olden days we referred to these types of hairdos as hockey cuts (short on the sides, long in the back).
Looking at it now, I like it. Let's bring it back.

Self Induced Solitude

My car is my refuge. In fact, one of my favourite things to do is to sit in my car, alone, either enveloped in the stillness of music or in complete silence. It's like my own warm, peaceful cocoon. Today I took off into the pouring rain and sat at the waterfront for two hours. Judging by the number of single occupant vehicles that were parked, apparently I'm not alone in this feeling.

Quote of the Week - Edgar Allan Poe

Stacy Reynaud

Were I called upon to define, very briefly, the term "Art", I should call it, "the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul."

Scent - The Harbinger of the Unspoken

My Mom brings her own soap when she comes to stay at our place. She says I smell like a tree. I use Dr. Bronner's Eucalyptus Liquid Castile Soap, cedarwood essential oil and amber resin. Of course I smell like a tree, and it suits me just fine.

Tip of the Week - Highway Etiquette

When a motorist leaves a foot of snow on top of their vehicle and they travel at approximately 100 km/h, aforementioned snow will propel off the vehicle at approximately 100 km/h (pardon my physics) most likely hitting the rather unfortunate motorist - in this case me - behind them. Please remove snow from your vehicle before you hit the road. Thanks.

Could you pull it off?

Mink iPad cover. Made from 100% recycled fur and leather.

If you could, you should head up here and buy the heaps of vintage fur coats hanging on the racks in thrift stores. You'd make a small fortune.
available online at Shannon South

Design Lover - Greta Magnusson Grossman

estimate $3000 - $4000
result $11,250

estimate $3000 - $4000
result $11,875

estimate $1000 - $1500
result $5000

estimate $2000 - $3000
result $15,000

I would've liked to have been there while this bidding war was going on. Greta Magnusson Grossman was a contemporary of Eames, Schindler and Neutra but her work never garnered the same attention, until perhaps now.

Prices realized October 6, 2011 at Wright auctions, Chicago IL
images © Wright

1979 Manhattan Apartment of Geoffrey Beene

Images via Architectural Digest September 1979, pgs. 89-95

Quote of the Week - Edmund Burke

Manners are more important than laws.
more

For Rent Mid-Century West Vancouver

I'm tired of smelling other people (cigarettes, perfume, cooking) and wiping anonymous hairs out of the washer before I put my clothes in.

West Vancouver Lewis mid-century home rental. image Stacy Reynaud

I took a look at this rental house on Friday. 

I was excited to view it (as were six or seven others) because it was noted on the West Vancouver Survey of Significant Architecture. It's a Lewis home built in the mid-50s. 

Unfortunately, there was a For Sale sign out front when I arrived. 

In West Vancouver, a For Sale sign translates to, 'You need to tear this house down because it's not big enough to show other people that you think you're rich and therefore really important.' 

A For Sale sign usually means the house is vacant as well. 

By the state this one is in, it has probably been so for at least a year. 

Dandelions were growing out of the hot tub cover, Lynyrd Skynard and Van Halen spray painted on the walls of the 'den,' the living room carpet squished water out of it when I walked, the bathrooms were straight out of Trainspotting, and it stunk like raccoons had been living in it. 

All this for $2300 a month. 

I feel like dropping a note to the realtor who showed it, giving him a piece of my mind.

On Saturday, I took a look at this haunted house. It's located right across from Dundarave Beach. 

It had a self-contained 'suite' downstairs, which would've been perfect as one of our fellow apartment building dwellers is interested in leaving the building with us if we can find the right place. 

Gross, not this one. 

The first floor was workable, although the kitchen cupboards had 74 years of grime. 

The other two, however, oh, my cat. 

Let's just say if I was in university again (i.e. I was 19), had ten friends, lots of incense and hippie blankets, no lovable fluffy senior cat members in my family and only a backpack of possessions, I'd be moving in this week. 

So, for $3500 a month, I'll have to decline as I've already been down that Nag Champa road.

West Vancouver Seawall. Image Stacy Reynaud

What makes 'landlords' think that because you're a renter, you automatically have low standards and aren't worthy of a clean, safe home? 

I love architecture and would love to live in a home that I could proudly point out and explain its architectural significance. 

It's a shame so many sit vacant and uncared for when there are probably 100s of people in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland who feel the same way I do.

West Vancouver Mid-Century Lewis Home. Image Stacy Reynaud

A Lewis home listed on the West Vancouver Survey of Significant Architecture. In case you're interested, it's at 2707 Rosebery.

I posted some photos of some North Vancouver West Coast midcentury homes we visited last summer on the Bijou Living Facebook page.

Design Lover - Manoteca Desk

Italian design company, Manoteca, repurposes lost industrial items. Obviously, each is one of a kind.
source Manoteca

Much cooler than Hunters

text reads, "Rainy rain, you cannot hurt me. I would not go out without galoshes. Because of Rezinotrest [Soviet rubber-industry trust] every place is dry for me. Sold everywhere." poster by Vladimir Mayakovsky, 1923
source

6 Things I Got Into in 2011

rollerblading, Nickelback, spandex, iCulture, cow print, Charlie Sheen.
You know I'm joking, right?

1. Lindeman's Framboise Lambic
2. Doubling my 1967 Tias Eckhoff for Lundtofte collection.

3. Vintage dinner napkins because new ones feel disgusting on one's skin.
4. Organic Blackstrap Molasses (unsulphured) - In late June I found out I was anemic. My get back to health regime included a morning dose of Floravital, Megafood - Blood Builder, and Chewable Vitamin C ; which was followed in the afternoon by one big spoon of blackstrap molasses in a cup of warm unsweetened almond milk. It worked, I am now attractive to Vampires again.

5. smashing, melting and refrigerating

6. Definitely not a new fixation but I finally found a record player (a cool enough for the MoMa vintage Bang & Olufsen Beocenter 7000 I may add) and pulled out all the old Zeppelin - which is so much better on vinyl.