Indecision

Something that doesn't happen often with me and fabric and color. But home decorating, that's a whole 'nuther nut to crack. I'm always better with someone else's decorating dilemmas! And mid century modern is a place I haven't visited until now. Before I die it's likely I will have lived with just about every style/period of furniture out there. And I like it that way. Living with the same kind of furniture forever, for me, would be like reading the same genre of books. And it's cheaper than moving because don't you know, I wouldn't mind living in different house styles (and places) too! :) My own form of wanderlust.

Last Thursday was the one day last week that had fine weather and off I tootled up north to Sutherlin OR to pick up 4 dining room chairs. The drive was spectacular. Going north brings you through some spectacular forests and hills. It is one of the prettiest sections of highway I have ever traveled. And there were not just any chairs either, but dog bone backed Heywood -Wakefield chairs.



 I use to live in Gardner MA, on the same road as the old Heywood Wakefield factory, (there are 3 pages to that link, click on "next" at the bottom), drove by the giant chair daily and in general took all that beautiful blonde mid century goodness for granted. I mean you could pick up cottage chests and dressers at tag sales every weekend for a song. Imagine my shock and awe when I looked at adding some more Hey-Wake to my decor now. OUCH! Anyway, these chairs were marked very inexpensively, affordable even by Gene's standards and that means a real steal. ;) They look so much better than the old ladder back chairs, which were a leftover from another dining room table, long covered in storage in the basement.

My indecision comes from picking new fabric for the chair seats, because what's on there now is just plain awful. Pity too because the original fabric was beautiful, but has seen better days.



 So, this is what we did yesterday morning.










Yep, I dragged out a ton from my stash to try, color, texture, scale etc. plus the yard I had bought for the project. Now I wasn't really in love with any of it, but DH Gene felt the love for the black and white weave, and I figured if someone loved it, it was good enough.



 BTW, that fabric was the one I had purchased for the project, not from stash. It reminds me of birch trees and because it blends well with the rest of the choices so far, it will also be used for new curtains. The old lace ones need to be retired. The table will always be what it is, not of this period or any other, but is the one piece in the house that never will change. It was made for us, literally. The fabric has a pretty loose weave. If you had kids and these would be seeing hard wear, it would be a poor choice. I have backed it with fusible interfacing to give it stability and body. The curtains will get an interfaced header and hem but I will leave them unlined as the beauty is in the seeing the lovely patterned, slubby weave. Modern lace so to speak!

Our weather has finally settled on winter. The last few days have been cold and snowy. The ground is getting that nice hard freeze. The road has been ice and snow covered and rather tricky. The horses eat in when it's snowing and out when it's not. The donkeys all bundled up in their blankets. The only drawback to the cold is the constant struggle with keeping water unfrozen for the animals, but it's manageable. The horses love this kind of weather. I spied Dandy chasing Cooper yesterday afternoon. Bucking almost the length of the paddock, head up, snorting and just acting like a 3 year old.  Cooper caught the spirit of the play and they had a fine time tearing up and down the hill and around the trees. Self exercising at its best and such beautiful animals to reflect upon. And this certainly has been a week for deep reflection.

Parting shot: Pax.