How to Modernize Victorian Furniture

I received an email from Design Hole reader, Tara, who is wondering how to update some Victorian furniture for a client. She writes, “My client¬†likes neutral florals in a tradition pattern but I would like to update them with a more modern fabric. Are they too ornate to take a modern fabric, or maybe just a linen look in a neutral colour?

Go for Bold

There are two ways to go with Victorian furniture – historic and contemporary. If your mission is to recreate the Victorian era throughout the room, then opt for a reproduction of a Victorian era fabric. For upholstery, that would mean a solid velvet or silk stripe, like the chairs in the photos above.

I prefer to go with the contemporary option. There’s no rule that says you can’t go wild just because the chair has carving. Embrace that carving and go bold! Think about painting the wood in a bright, glossy color and covering the chair with a bold pattern. If your client is a little shy, a smaller but still contemporary look would also be great.

These fabrics are all from Clarence House. Why not paint the chair red, black or brown and cover it with one of the two velvets on top? The bolder the print, the better. The cut velvet in the lower left is more staid, but will still look fresh. The paisley print lives half in the Victorian era and half in the modern world. The colors are bright and cheerful and will give the chair a modern look.

Say no to neutral

I would stay away from a neutral, like ivory. Neutrals do nothing to show off the color of the wood or its carving. If paint isn’t an option, recondition the chair so that wood tone shines. Then choose a fabric that will make the often red-toned wood pop. Jewel tones are a great way to go. Strong colors, such as red-orange, blue-violets and emerald green would look smashing.

To tuft or not to tuft

I’m on the fence about the tufting. It’s coming back into style on more linear, contemporary sofas. I think tufting looks better with a printed fabric when it’s on a Victorian chair.

I’m hoping everyone will help me out here. Tufting or now tufting – what do you think?

Collecting: Folkart and Vintage Toys

The Hollands have spent many a year collecting their ecclectic mix of folkart, fine art as well as vintage and not so vintage toys. They were kind enough to send me some photos of just a few rooms of their Baltimore apartment where the collection resides. Let’s take a peek.

An antique medicine cabinet has become the home of a wide variety of Star Wars figurines, and other toys from decades gone by.

Here’s a close-up looks at just some of the residents. I like Pebbles and Felix.

Here’s a view (without the window) of one wall in a little study. Not such a great photo, but you get the idea of how well a mix of folkart can be displayed. It looks higgeldy piggeldy, but somehow it works.

I love this rather artistic shot. The mirror reflects the art on the opposite wall. Not an inch to spare.

Should I say it again? Somehow it works. I would rearrange a bit, but once you get started, you just can’t stop. That Hot Tamale Train is passing through.

Finally, the Hollands (Annie is the big collector of the two) say “thank you” with a little star below yet another shelf of miniature collectibles.

Do you have a collection to show the world? Send your photos my way via the “contact” link. What do you think of this collection? I don’t want to think about dusting it. But it’s a lot of fun to look at.

Chair of the Day: SMF Bodafors

Today I’m featuring this set of mid-century modern chairs from Sweden. These vintage beauties are in good shape.

You can find them at Vintage and Modern. The price is set at $1,450. Did someone say, “haggle?”

Vintage Medical Furnishings Hit The Hot Zone

I think we’re at the tail end of the “industrial, stripped down” trend. Curiously, medical cabinets, which I would have thought belonged in that category, have become a hot ticket.

Take this vintage beauty for example.

It’s from Urban Archaeology and weighs in at a whopping $19,500. Yikes. That price is a little pre-recessionista, dontcha think? But the piece sure is fantastic.

Anyway, after my blood pressure returned to normal, I thought I’d take a little tour around the online hospital furniture wards to see if this trend is going as viral and my need to write bad double entendres. Let’s see what the Internet coughed up.

I love this cabinet from Furniture Love. It’s made by a Belgian medical furniture company. You can see more photos of it on their site. As with most of the things I found, this has been sold. But you might Google the furniture company’s name to find more.

These cabinets come from the 1940′s via Past Present Future. This company will sell you the piece “as-is”, or refinished. The price for this cabinet is $1,025 restored.

Twenty Gauge, a vintage metal furniture company from California is holding their winter sale. with 30-50% off their entire stock. They will also operate on your vintage parts so they look shiny new. But sometimes a  little patina can be a good thing.

Here’s another 1940′s cabinet from Grant Hospital, in Chicago. It retails for only $675. I found it at Urban Remains, one of the best Medical Furniture Wards on the Internet (in my humble opinion). Here’s more.

Hey, this early 1900′s cabinet (left), from Urban Remains, would make a nice lower-priced substitute for the cabinet at the top of this post. Price? A healthy $1,085. The one the left is typical of many of their stock, which is enormous.

These vintage medical pieces would look lively in a bathroom, a contemporary living room, hallway, and home office. Truly, the imagination is your only limit. So there is none.

Collections: Spoons at Pigtown Design

While we’re on the subject of gifts, adding to a friend’s collection is a nifty idea. Or why not take your friend’s interest in, say, antique spoons and start one for her?

Scoot on over to Pigtown Design to read this nice post about her French ivory flatware collection.

To start your own collection, try Go Antiques. I used to collect snowball ornaments from around the world. Now I’m into little boxes. I also collect stones from places I visit. They’re purely sentimental, but actually look rather nice.

What do you collect?