Teal Velvet

My lifelong dream to own a teal velvet chair has been realized--strange lifelong dream to have I realize, but you must understand how I feel about teal and it's family of colors (aqua, robin's egg blue, cerulean of course) to know how truly momentous this is. I found the original arm chair from Salvation Army for 7, yes 7 dollars after overlooking it for two straight weeks and then giving in when it got marked down once again. I had already eyed the dream fabric at Mill End locally here in Portland and quickly snapped it up once the chair found its way to our porch. I found an excellent matching broadcloth for the non-showing details and for the first time purchased upholstery cording for the trim. I only ended up using it on the cushion itself because it proved so swear-worthy and I couldn't get the sewing machine close enough to the edge to make it tight. But the over-all end result worked pretty well, if you don't look closely and you don't look at the back, and you don't go fishing for loose change in the cushions only to find a bent nail holding the fabric in place. So you know, mostly a success. My upholstery skills have improved since the Christopher Lowell, duct tape and staple gun era, that's for dang sure.

By increments, the chair moved throughout the house. From the front porch to the foyer (where I pryed off the arm-rests one of which broke free, flung through the air and whacked me square between the eyes) to the basement to be covered and back up the stairs on my back in the middle of the night clunking against walls and railings and casements to be plopped on the couch and then wrangled into the corner where the large dirty recliner had been. So you see I've had a very personal, physical relationship with this chair and it has only been here three short days.

But it's a vast improvement on the living room--what with the recliner gone to the basement and the bright pop of color in the otherwise very neutral room. And even those cursed arm rests sort of match the other darker wood throughout the room. The chair is decidedly more modern than anything else I have, which we needed, to grow up and have real furniture that someone might actually buy from a real store for real money--not pick up off the side of the road. So we are on our way. One modern dream chair down.