I gave you a brief preview of the living room / cocktail lounge area a few days ago just before our annual pre-Christmas party. You might have caught a look at this sofa / love seat then or you might have seen it back in February just after I picked it up from a strange "estate sale".
When I bought this, I will admit, flipping it was the first thing on my mind. I thought I'd make a nice bit
of change on it...but then I kinda fell for it. I seem to be maintaining a ratio of about 12 to 1 of finding
good stuff to finding the truly high end item. I'm finding it kinda hard to part with the Herman Miller,
Paul McCobb, Eric Buck, Adrian Pearsall, Knoll stuff!
I gave this a pretty thorough cleaning when I got it home since it had an...aroma...about it. Probably
30 years of cigarette smoke. Got that out but I still need to de-fuzz the surface...someday. C'mon,
it's 30 plus years old! It's gonna have some fuzz. Of course, this being higher end office furniture, the
cushions and upholstery are as good as new. Actually, the cushions are so firm that some might find
them uncomfortable. I like it. I think it feels exactly like it looks.
What do you think about the throw pillows? I love the colors and subject matter on them with the sofa,
but I'm not sure if the sofa needs or even can stand them. They do soften the sitting in the sofa though.
Makes the Chiclet a little less institutional and a bit more inviting. Beyond it's strange and cool styling I
will say this about the Ray Wilkes Chiclet...it's got to be the strongest, most durable piece of furniture I'll
ever have owned! I was hoping to be able to place this in such a was as to show off the back but that
would involve moving the orange fireplace...and that sucker's heavy, really heavy. It's not just steel but
also has about two inches of concrete in the base. They're both staying put for now!
I was just thinking how much I like the throw pillows. But I'm no purist. Even though the sofa is a classic, it's still brown. I love that the throw pillows add a bit of color.
ReplyDeleteI love the sofa! But I don't think it's that sturdy, it's sort of looks like it's going to break easily, but with all those aside I think it looks great in the living room. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteYes, I really like the pillows.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had the ideal space for this really nice piece! I know what you mean about the keep or sell dilemma. I would love to keep my recently acquired Plycraft Cherner pretzel chairs as they are so rare and I likely will never see another set this nice. I'm not sure I can even expect to get fair market out of them in the store as we tend to be pretty moderately priced. They are likely going up on Ebay soon to attract a larger audience...
ReplyDeleteI've also picked up a Percival Lafer designed Brazillian brutalist coffee table in teak, Brazillian rosewood and mahogany that may go the same route!
I like the pillow fabric a ton, but not the shape. They're too big for the couch, and they look like they could stand to be re-stuffed. I'm not a purist in the least, so if I were going to re-imagine your sofa set-up, I think I'd go for two short, long lumbar pillows along the back edge of the sofa in the same cool fabric. A really soft minty green or pale aqua would look really killer on that wall too... especially with the artwork above the sofa and your orange fireplace!
ReplyDeleteDitch the pillows. That style of couch just isn't going to work with pillows.
ReplyDelete