Here I am! Hello! Good to see you again!
It's been too long. Holy crap, why has it been so long?
Well, I've been a little busy. The hip post-surgical rehab thing is top on the list of busy. But, I'm sick of the hip thing and providing just this one paragraph to the subject because presently I'm on Vicodan, an effective but freaky drug that makes me emo and anxious instead of considering the up-side of it all. Which is....um....I could park in highly convenient handicapped parking spaces for the next 6 months. That is, if I got the prescription from my doctor. But, I can't just hop in the car and fetch the prescription from the doc then stand in line at the DMV for the little blue license plate sticker because my hip hurts. Hurts! And hurts pretty much 80% of the time, especially after physical therapy, a brutal topic onto itself. Ibuprofen doesn't get to the core of the pain, so I've had to deploy the big guns of Vicodan. I wouldn't be able to drive anyway, there's a little label on the Vicodan bottle that provides what's probably very good advice - don't operate heavy machinery while on this medication, therefore ruling out driving and other heavy machinery operation like, perhaps, a combine harvester.
Okay, that's it for the hip. Gory but thrilling surgery details forthcoming.
In the meantime, I'd like to share with you, Dollin Reader, how we have been happily stimulating the economy and doing so responsibly without cracking into Molly's college fund. There is a crisis involved, but it has a happy ending.
For well over a decade, the Hubs and I have been stuck in a comfortable but boring home decor rut. We had to snap out of it for we may be geezers, but we strive to be exciting geezers. Thus, we launched our House Rehab project, executing the style transformation of our living room from Pottery Barn Grown-up Hippie Cozy to Mid Century Modern with Eclectic Touches Sleek.
We considered adding more seating space than what our old Pottery
Barn couch and its matching armchair had to offer. Like the wonks we are, Hubs and I researched the
options. A sectional with a chaise lounge side appealed to us, but the research also revealed that these could cost some big
bucks. Room and Board had some beautiful examples, but the pieces looked untouchable. An abundance of beige-y putty tones in the store didn't help. We're all for subtle, but
not sterile.
Then, we looked on Craigslist and found this beaut':
Black leather sectional advertised by a house stager who has to rotate her furniture and home accessory inventory. I guess it was too 2008 for her? The sectional was previously displayed in swanky Marin County real estate offerings. We followed up on the ad, met the stager in Mill Valley, took a seat on the sectional and bought the chrome and leather wonder on the spot. It's in perfect shape, no scratches, no owies but because it spent time on display, the stager offered a considerable discount. In other words, total score on the couch.
Admittedly, we were a little nervous that the sectional would be too intense and even intrusive in the room, like a big black steer had parked itself in the middle of the rug. Remarkably, it blended in quite nicely, even with the late 19th century Morris Chair seen on the right. And, that's one of the eclectic mash-ups - an Arts and Crafts design melded with modern contemporary lines.
The orientation of the room also changed for the better. The sectional faces a wood burning stove. The TV behind the couch was moved to the right of the stove. The Morris Chair faces the couch, facilitating conversation. In fact, the whole rearrangement of the living room is configured for great face-to face contact, vastly improving the social vibe of the room from what we had before, where the focus was not directly at each other but to the TV in the corner.
Clearly we had to have a coffee table. Our old table is a fabulous piece, sort of a view/display box really, with a hinged glass top and curved cast iron legs. But the wood table/view box is of a light pine. Light pine = Pottery Barn Grown-Up Hippie. No more of that! The next step had to be a bold one, not unlike the purchase of the sectional. The room needed the magic of the Noguchi coffee table!
Behold:
Everyday art at its ultimate finest: The iconic Noguchi coffee table,
structurally balanced and stable in its mesmerizing curves, simple wood
and glass transformed into timeless sculpture. Functional and sexy!
I know about the work of Isamu Noguchi through the extraordinary museum in Queens, NYC. But, even thinking about owning a reproduction of his furniture was beyond me. I have to thank the current batch of 30 something hipsters who have embraced Noguchi's coffee table and mid 20th century design in general for creating a demand for the authorized reproductions and a world of cheaper knock-offs.
Again, I tapped Room and Board as well as the Design Within Reach showrooms. Both stores sell the authorized reproductions, but there's a month and a half shipping/waiting time from their source, Herman Miller, the licensee and manufacturer of this and other mid-century classic furniture. The Hubs is not patient, so to keep peace in our evolving household, I went directly to
the Herman Miller website, located an obscure local office
furniture design and product contractor from their list of dealers, called these local folks and they had two Noguchis in stock. No shipping, no waiting, happy Hubs.
Bonus - as this was a floor model (but flawless as this dealer does not
get the typical retail traffic), we scored a 30% discount. Hubs picked it up, we set it up, admired it from all angles and I got lucky that night.
Lighting was next. The sweet but boring Pottery Barn floor lamp with a pleated ivory shade was retired and replaced with the ultimate, the big Kahuna, the floor lamp to end all floor lamps - an Arco Lamp designed by Pier Giacomo Castiglioni in 1962.
Enter the dragon:
I will have to admit that choosing this lamp was a lemming move on my part. Everyone knows this lamp, it's everywhere and it's probably a cliche' but so what, I wanted it like everyone else. Hubs loved it on sight (due to some Italian blood connection maybe?) and bought one at Design Within Reach, again an authorized dealer. Poor Hubs had to suck it up on the waiting/shipping time but to make up for it, and maybe because he raised a fuss, DWR paid the shipping fees.
Ain't it grand? It does freak Malcolm out if I tap the globe and make it sway but that's how I amuse myself while lying on the chaise lounge part of the sectional, icing my hip and groovin on Vicodan.
As I'm self-conscious and insecure because that's what American culture generates in its females, I had a crisis. This new and improved sleek stylin' living room! What does it all mean?
I let it all out on my Flickr photostream:
I think we crossed some sort of line.
"Dwell" magazine atop new Noguchi Table atop Persian silk rug atop hardwood floors adjacent to Morris Chair and new contemporary leather sectional.
Have we turned into some weird morph of geezer-hipster-eclectic-mid century-Arts and Crafts Dwell Magazine Readers?
I think we've crossed some sort of class
boundary. Perhaps we are now on periphery of
The Creative Class.
Maybe I should put some Billy Joel on, just
to flush the hipster out of me. A Billy Joel
enema. Eeeeuw.
I'm fortunate to be a contact with a very beautiful and stylish woman who goes by a quirky-fun online name of Rooey (hi Roo!). Rooey's own photostream is rich with images of her many endeavors - from foodie-drooling vegetarian entrees to drop dead gorgeous ensembles she pulls together from a wardrobe of excellence. Roo took charge of my crisis and responded to my existential angst by telling me, in the nicest possible way, to shut the fuck up and love it:
Rooey: Quit thinking ... just live in that beautiful
space you've created, and enjoy every bit of
it.
Good. I needed that. Crisis averted.
Dollin Readers, thanks for reading my blog. I'll try to show up more, okay? Okay.
Recent Comments