I read in my House Beautiful’s Big Advice issue that “one pair of pillows always looks skimpy. Use two pairs, in contrasting patterns, colors and textures.” My sofa was guilty of  said skimpyness, so I tried beefing it up. I really like these graphic orange patterned pillows I found at Neilson’s in Oxford. They were a good price and I love the color. But I’m worried the pattern on the pillows is too busy to go with the busy pattern on the sofa. I’m still deciding…what do you think?

ps: I’m going with larger photos from now on. The little ones made the details hard to see!

Ever since Domino magazine folded (a sad, sad day), I’ve been searching for something to replace it. Domino had the best ideas/inspiration of any shelter magazine I’ve read. And not oh-that’s-lovely-but-I-don’t-have-a-million-dollars ideas (do you hear me Architectural Digest?), but sweet!-I-think-I-could-totally-swing-that ideas. The only thing that comes close is Lonny, a new online magazine that (I believe) has a few old Domino editors on staff. Lonny is strictly online right now, which is sort of annoying if you’re the kind of person who likes to rip pages out of magazines for your idea file. But the cool thing about Lonny being an online only mag is that everything in it is linked – so if you see something you like, you can click right on it. Even the ad pages are linked to websites. That’s how I found Chairloom, which has lots of fun upholstery ideas, fabric brands and before and after photos.

I posted a few weeks ago about my friend J who was on a sofa search for her new apartment. She looked and looked, and looked some more, and ended up buying my suggestion – the Crate & Barrel’s Petrie Apartment Sofa! The Petrie was her dark horse; she originally had her heart set on a beautiful grey, velvety number. But when she went to the store for a test-sit, it wasn’t comfortable. She says she loves the depth of the Petrie, which makes it super comfy. She’s planning on using grey as an accent color – she’s thinking pillows and maybe a rug.  Doesn’t it look cute in her apartment?

The chair below was a major score from our recent trip to New Orleans. J found it, and two other just like it, and fell in love with them. They were a super good deal, and she had them shipped to her new place in NYC. I think they’ll look cool with the Petrie – I love the look of mixed and matched eras. It makes a home feel like yours, rather than it feeling like you ordered your whole place off the Ikea showroom floor.

Sorry for the down time, I’ve only just recovered from turning 30. Things kicked off in New Orleans, and then all my ladies and my brother came to Oxford and my oh-so-sweet husband threw a great dinner party at, where else? – the City Grocery. So far, I like 30.

I posted about Lee Industries because I thought it was cool that they were down with the eco-friendly thing, but I’d never actually sat on their furniture.  Now that I have sat, I believe. In fact, I want to do their freaking commercials. I want to melt into this couch. It belongs in the living room of a woman (my husband’s cousin, actually) who I want to be when I grow up. She’s adorable, she cooks, she bakes beautiful cakes, she decorated her whole new house herself to look like something out of Architectural Digest, but livable and cozy. When I plopped down on this sofa, I told her I might never get up. Turns out it’s a Lee Industries piece. She’d always wanted an all-white living room, she said, but has dogs and a kid. She was attracted to the company because of its slip-covered options. She doesn’t sweat it when coffee is spilled or dogs shed or her husband forgets to take off his shoes, because she can strip the entire cover and send it to the cleaners. The sofa itself is low and deep – perfect for lounging and napping; it’s soooo comfortable.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! A friend told me about Lee Industries, and although I’ve not seen their furniture in person, it looks comfy and functional. They have a large selection of sofas, chairs, upholstery fabric and even outdoor furniture. I especially like their green approach. Their website says they use recycled filling for pillows, water based stains, and offer many organic and natural fabrics. They also say they reuse or recycle approximately 95% of all the materials that enter their production stream. Sounds better than green beer, doesn’t it?

This daybed also belongs to my mother, and she found this one through the want ads, too. It’s nice and petite and sits in her sewing room. I think the size is great – it could live pretty much anywhere. It’s made of walnut and collapses into three parts so it’s easy to move. It came from St. Mary’s Hospital in Jefferson City, Mo.  Supposedly, pregnant women rested on it before they were admitted.

This Amish-country style beauty is my Mom’s, and she’s had it forever and ever. So long in fact, that it’s been recovered three times. It has a lovely pine back and rolled arms. She bought it for $200 sometime in the 70s from Terrace Hill, the Governor’s mansion in Des Moines, Iowa. She found the sofa through an ad in the paper (back then, Terrace Hill was a private home). When she and her first husband went to pick it up, they learned that the caretaker, who was selling the sofa, was recently widowed and moving out the mansion. They scored not only the sofa, but also the newly available caretaker job, and got to live in the mansion’s basement, which must have been cool  for two twenty-somethings. When she married my dad, he encouraged her to write a book about the mansion, and she did, along with his help. So there you go – a sofa that led to a mansion-apartment and a book deal. Nice!

This isn’t about sofas, but I had to share this photo my Mom sent from Art In Bloom, a exhibit in my hometown of Columbia, Mo., where florists create arrangements based on art that inspires them. Isn’t is wonderful? This hydrangea arrangement looks just like the painting. And wouldn’t you love to have it sitting by your sofa? I would!

One of my favorite blogs – Design*Sponge – has a great before and after sofa today. The before was a whole lotta cheetah print (An aside: my friend B made a pact with her husband before they married that she would never, ever bring a piece of animal print furniture into their home. She broke the rules once – because she firmly believes in the power of a well-placed animal print – with a fabulous leopard chair, and her mans said no way. She later had it recovered in a quieter fabric that made them both happy. Remember with animal prints, a little can go a very long way, but done right, they can look great). But the after, a soft gray with crisp white cording, is charming and sophisticated.