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Adding new chairs for proper scale and comfort
My client's home has a spacious sunroom with a nook full of windows. She had placed two dining armchairs in the nook to fill the empty space and provide seating to enjoy the nice views. There was nothing wrong with that furniture arrangement, but it wasn't optimal. The chairs were too small in scale for the space and were not comfortable enough to invite people to settle in with a nice book or a glass of wine.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
 We replaced the dining chairs with comfortable lounge chairs from the Duralee showroom at the Boston Design Center. These lounge chairs are relaxing, with a seat width of 21" and seat depth of 21", yet not overwhelming in scale. Their rolled arms are comfortable, but small enough to not look dated. For the fabric, we picked a golden/white small-patterned fabric (Fabric #14500-6 from Duralee) and accented the seams with a coordinating petite piping (Piping #7245-06).
To make this seating area more inviting and add additional visual interest, my workroom created two custom throw pillows. The fabric we chose for the pillows is a beautiful embroidered Indian silk. Its colors go perfectly with the fabric of the chairs and the leaf motif brings the outdoors inside. This fabric is available exclusively to the trade through Kravet.
Getting the scale right in furniture selection makes a big difference in how a room feels. My client loves her new comfortable sunroom nook and gets lots of compliments from friends who visit. Most importantly, the family dog approves of the chairs as well...they have become one of his favorite lounging spots!
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Does your parking pole need a makeover?
Most of my articles focus on interior design. However, I am always interested in finding products that combine good form and function, whether it is for the interior or exterior of the house. I want to share with you my recent find: an on-line source for customizable padding for your parking area/garage.
Back to School often means back to chauffeuring the kids around. As most of you know, I live in Boston's Back Bay, where parking spaces are tight. Our parking spots are back in the alley, where the horse-drawn carriages used to deliver ice and coal to the brownstones in Back Bay. Nowadays, the brownstones have been carved up into smaller apartments and the alleys have been converted into private parking.
To protect power poles, the city has put up parking poles right next to them. While these serve an important function, they make getting in and out of our parking spots difficult and occasionally result in scratches on the car exteriors.
In addition, over time the poles start to rust and become quite ugly.
My neighbors have found "creative" ways to pad the poles to prevent scratches to the car. The example to the right shows one neighbor's creative use of foam rollers, which he wrapped around the poll. It might not have looked that bad when he initially created this, but over time weather has turned it into a terrible eyesore. Also, those foam rollers add a lot of width to the diameter of the parking pole, making the parking space even tighter than it was before.
MY SOLUTION:
A custom-made padded sleeve to fit over the parking pole.
Parking Padding Solutions is a small Chicago-based business offering a variety of products used in protection of indoor and outdoor parking areas. Their specialty is in creating customizable paddings.
Ordering our custom-sized padded bollard cover was simple: I measured the height and diameter of our pole, chose a color (we choose black), selected the option of a reflective silver stripe, and chose not to have any letters put on our pole cover. Within less than 4 weeks, we received our custom-sized cover which simply slips over the pole.
In addition to bollard pads, Parking Padding Solutions also sell corner guards as well as parking curbs for your garage. Might your garage benefit from some padding?
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