Does this happen to anyone else? You're looking at upholstery samples or whatever online or in a shop, you've no idea what the prices are you just like plain simple things and whatever your choice it is always the most expensive option.Maybe its a bit like that thing with Lecorb and the plain cast iron boilers being the most expesnive becuase the decorative ones hid the casting flaws.Anyway Knoll velvet and felt costs a bomb, nice though.
Pretty sure they make it that way. I was asking my significant other to pick fabrics. From across the room he picked Knoll Cado at 150 a yard. I asked again and again...are you sure? Answer "Clearly it is that and no other". This is a person who codes for a living and could give an eff all about design and picked the most expensive thing I had in the lot.
It would be good skill if you wanted to go into burglary.
Seeing as were on upholstery does anyone know if this trend for using army blankets is as silly as it seems? I thought it would pill within a few weeks, on the other hand I can imagine thick old proper velvet drapes re used lasting for ages.
I call it the "luxury trap", Heath. Once you've crossed a certain threshold, is there any turning back?
I'm sure it's a question that most of us wrestle with regularly.
I mean, would one really reupholster a vintage Egg Chair in acrylic chenille from the remnant bin? Or wrap a tattered Womb Chair with gold-colored duct tape??
Yes, happens to me all the time. We have impeccable taste, Heath.
That said, Modern-Fabrics.com and Ebay are godsends, though Ebay sure isn't the treasure trove of bargains that it was 10 years ago! Sellers overall have a much better idea of what they're selling. Which...fine, they need to make money and there's plenty of stuff selling well below retail. So I'm not really complaining.
I have not seen army blanket upholstery yet. I AM sick to death of burlap, though. Burlap can burn in hell (except for utilitarian purposes, then it's my friend). And canvas dropcloths!! AGH! Cotton canvas certainly has its place but it's hard to clean and dropcloths have big, puckery flat fell seams down the middle. I mean, come on, people.
As for chenille---there are lots and lots of upholsterers who haven't a clue about appropriate mid-century modern fabrics and who have stacks and stacks of chenile swatches to show their clients. That's where that comes from. And it makes me want to weep.
Picking upholstery requires more than just looking at fabric samples, it needs to be looked at in context with everything that goes into that space (paint, wood colors, other materials/textures) that's what those sample boards are for. Also the most expensive fabrics are usually the most high maintenance (all upholstery fabrics have a designated abrasion number that detrmines it strength and maintenance requirements).
If only I know the e-designaddicts here personally, I will probably share my source for this. I just bought a few yards of Knoll Textiles plain alpaca wool upholstery for $7/yard.
I think the army blanket thing has been around for awhile. I remember seeing a post about it on Apartment Therapy when I still read that site, years ago. At the time I thought the Redeploy Rug by Rebekah Rauser was a neat idea, the way it was repurposed (who am I kidding, I still like it).
Its called martindale, but this is a special project and if its low on that score or high maintenance it doesnt matter, have found a good online retailer that sells something almost identical to divina 2, looks like a light felt,
It even happens with electronics, I don't want fancy functions on the amp I'll never use, don't need a remote, no pulse function on the blender, just a robust thing where everything about it is immediately ovious, less always seems to cost more.
Face it, Heath -- you have exquisite taste. Simple. Done.
I've told this one before, but as it's a family story I get to bore people with it ad infinitum:
My grandmother and a great aunt go into a good clothing store in Milwaukee. One of them notices that the nicest and plainest women's hats are the most expensive. "Why is that ?" she asks the assistant. "Madame," came the answer, "you pay for the restraint."
If it's a new TV and remote, you'll soon enough find the buttons you want almost without looking. My five-year-old Toshiba is now behaving badly -- or the remote is: Muting and channel-changing are delayed, as if the TV and the universe are trying to get me to listen to ads I want to ignore . . .
"the most expensive fabrics are usually the most high maintenance"
Not true. There are lots of cheap fabrics that cannot be properly cleaned once they get grimy or stained. A lot of the inexpensive chenilles start to get a sort of harsh feel after awhile. They lose their softness. And polyesters, which supposedly wear well and are definitely inexpensive, tend to hold onto oily stains.
Wool, on the other hand, tends to let go of dirty pretty readily. I once put a filthy wool flokati rug that had very thick, deep pile into a bathtub with some detergent (and water, of course). The dirt just floated right off it. It was kind of amazing. Of course, you can't put your wool-upholstered teak frame chair in a tub of soapy water but you can spot clean it with suds with good results for lots of stains.
There is a pizza place near me with chairs and booths upholstered in some icky polyester fabric and they are FILTHY. I mean, every single one of them is disgusting, and I'm not even a germaphobe. I have thought about what it would take to clean them and I just think nope, don't even try.
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