draper

smokey blue velvet.  charcoal gray circular geometric designed back.  stained wood in jacobean brown

available for purchase on esty

I'm not sure if the name is going to stick, but that's all I could come up with for now.  If you're a Mad Man fan, I'm sure you get it.  Let me know if you have any name suggestions, I'm open!  For some time now I have been on the hunt for a mid century modern chair.  But no such luck until I came across this one!  I can't wait to find another.  It's really well made, and super comfy!  

The velvet is actually a curtain panel from Pottery Barn.  Now I can't remember why I bought it originally but I've had this velvet for a while now.  I started with the velvet, and loved how it looked, but thought it needed a little funk added to it!  That's where the Dwell fabric on the back came in.  My husband said I should name it the "mullet" -- it's work in the front and a party in the back.  I think I'll stick with "Draper" for now!  

Texas BBQ in New York City

This past week a woman contacted me needing somebody to design the furniture in her new brownstone she’s currently renovating.  Wow!  Chase and I made the trip up to Washington Heights to check out her place.  There’s lots of work to be done on it, but if she’s anything like me she’s going to have a blast rehabing it!  She has been buying old furniture off Craigslist (sounds like somebody I know!) for the last few months.  Her collection is so great, 3 sofas and 5 chairs...thank goodness she doesn’t want me to store all these pieces in my apartment!  Check out our design board and the before pics of her furniture on www.thewhitedesign.com -- FOLLOW ME tab.  Here are the first three fabrics we’re using.  I can’t wait!!  As y’all know I’ve been wanting to use this pink fabric for some time now! 

A trip to Harlem wouldn’t be complete without a stop at Dinosaur BBQ.  Yumm!  When you get off the train you can smell their pit smoking your lunch from three blocks away, you know that’s some good BBQ.  No where else in NYC is like that.  It reminded me of driving past the original Sonny Bryan’s in Dallas, that smell means home to me!  Dinosaur BBQ is no original Texas BBQ but it’s definitely the closest I’ve had up here.  Can’t wait to go back!

Cheers!

Kristen

cpw

golden cut velvet on gray background.  tufted.  trimmed with french natural nailheads.  stained jacobean wood.

Before Thanksgiving, I finished up a custom tufted ottoman for a fellow Upper West Sider.  I absolutely love how the tufting turned out!  This fabric is my new fav!  Originally she wanted an animal print -- I wouldn't call this animal print but it definitely has that feel.  This fabric is amazing!!  I have it in pink too, but I have the feeling I need to find a single girl to use it -- I know my husband wouldn’t be too excited about a pink side chair in our living room.  It would be really cute in a little girl’s room, but all of my pregger friends are having or had boys!  Come on ladies. 

Greyhound Guinea Pig

I have to begin by saying thank you to KP for being my “Greyhound Shipping Guinea Pig.”  I shipped her beautiful ikat bench to Austin last week.  What a learning process this has been!  The adventure began with my husband and I attempting to fit the bench into our small car.  Always having SUV’s in the past, the thought of “Will something fit in my car” never has crossed my mind.  I really should start thinking this way, especially after trying 31 different ways we got it in!  Who cares if the windows had to be down.  The bench was wrapped in trash bags and packing tape, as I didn’t want the paint to be scratched; but it still looked pretty ghetto.  Next I was posed with two questions: How do you fit a 56 in long bench into a box; and, Where do you find said box?  Answer:  Buy 3 boxes and a role of duct tape at Staples, of course!  Thankfully we took it up to the White Plains Greyhound Station, knowing that there would be a parking spot (gotta love NYC).  We assembled the box, I guess you can call it a box, and after a bumpy ride from NY to Texas it arrived and put a smile on KP’s face when she walked into the Austin Greyhound station.  Hopefully the expression on her face was a smile and not an “Oh geez, what did I get myself into!”  Thankfully it made in one piece and KP was able to hack through the duct tape and trash bags to find her new bench -- and the two lived happily ever after!  


My newest project is an ottoman for an Upper West Sider neighbor.  I picked up the piece in Connecticut last week and found some fabulous fabric while I was home in Dallas.  I love this fabric so much I bought it in two different colors.  My Mom described it best as tiny little velvet pebbles.  

The main purpose of my trip home on Sunday was not for fabric, but to see my beloved Texas Rangers in the World Series.  What an experience,even though they lost!  And of course I couldn’t resist  fabric shopping all day on Monday with my mom, after taking my husband to the airport at 5:45am so he could get back to work and pay for my fabric shopping adventures.  Needless to say, we found some amazing things that I can’t wait to use!     

 Go Cowboys, just kidding, long live the Rangers!

tailored

brown velvet pin-stripe. silver nailhead trim. painted light blue/gray

I bought this from a lady in the LES, actually I can't say bought, she gave it to me! Crazy, I know! I had been wanting to take on a sofa, and it turns out this wasn't as difficult as I had imagined. The one catch with the "free sofa" was I had to pick it up. Another obstacle of living in NYC, nobody has Tahoes, trucks, etc. I found a struggling actor/model, orginally from Mexico and had just moved up here from San Antonio. Of course Tex-Mexicans had a truck and wanted to help others!

SoHo

painted two-toned white, with light blue green velvet

I found this chair in SoHo at a little antique store. I've been wanting to finish a chair with the studded detail. I love how it turned out! Instead of selling this chair, it's become our desk chair. Maybe one day I'll sell it.