I try not to post toooo many painfully expensive beautiful items on my blog for two reasons: I think living beautifully/creating personal style should be affordable and second, there are a lot of bloggers who post about gorgeous, expensive eye candy far far far better than I can hope to. That being said, I saw this golden twig table (cost: $675) in the Source Perrier catalog and felt it merited a post. I love how simple it is — and I love bringing nature inside. And wouldn’t it look lovely with our blue velvet couch? I’m almost tempted to create one myself — DIY project! But I sort of think that what makes it nice is that it is so luxe. Sadly, you can’t DIY everything.

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Loving this dining room from La Fleur Blanche, in the Loire valley. More photos here. Oh, and you can rent the entire house, too.

Back in September I blogged about our entry way, and that it was in dire need of some attention. Well, give a girl six months…. I love where we ended up:

What did we change? Not too much, but just enough. Recycling and a place to hang coats and put umbrellas were the most critical needs. The coat rack is from Urban Outfitters ($68), the umbrella stand is via ebay ($40) [similar one on ebay here] and the console is the old west elm desk from the original picture, but turned around. After looking at more recycling containers than I can image, I finally picked up two discarded wine crates from in front of the fancy wine store three blocks away. I love that they are a non-plastic “recycled” place to put the recycling. If I even get around to decoupaging anything, I may decoupage them with some of the Marta Stewart faux bois wrapping paper I bought at Micheal’s for $1 a roll in N.C over Christmas. You’ve got to give a girl her dreams.

I can’t take any credit for turning around the console, that was 100% Tim’s genius. I actually think it works, and doesn’t seem to “Design on a Dime.” The bamboo is a gift from all my former co-workers, and used to grace my office. I’m glad its found such a lovely home in my entry way. Let’s see, what else? The brass letter holder is intended for sale in my Etsy shop but it’s resting in our home for awhile (occupational hazard). The lovely shaker inspired tray was a wedding gift.

Our blue sofa has made the big time!…

I’ve written before about our lovely Hutton sofa from Room and Board (including our adventures getting it into our apartment). When we picked out a luscious blue velvet fabric for the sofa, the sales people were definitely a bit surprised. We weren’t going to let a few skeptics stand in the way and rightly so when we got it home, it was gorgeous. Blue velvet perfection.

Now, it seems everyone’s gone gaa-gaa for blue velvet. Maybe we’re trendsetters? Or at least early adopters! First, along came Nick Olsen with his great blue velvet sofa in his studio, which was featured in Domino a few months back.

And now, Traditional Home has some big-time blue velvet action in their pages. Here is a sample of their finds.

I’ve loved the shop window of Flessas Design from the first day we moved into the neighborhood. It turns out that the store has been in the family for a hundred years (most of that time as a florist). The owner always has just perfect objects in her window and last weekend, I fell in love with a little white leather bench that would be the perfect coffee table to the blue couch (!!). One of my core requirements of a coffee table is that it be padded so when my feet are up on it inevitably, there isn’t a harsh edge cutting into my leg. Which really eliminates 80% of coffee tables on the market so I’ve had my eye out for something lovely, small and padded.

Flessas is only open by appointment in the summer (love the lifestyle, sign me up!) so after an almost sleepless weekend full of anticipation I called first thing Monday morning to see if the bench was still for sale and if so, what the damage was. Daria, the owner, couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful. $1250 was definitely more than I wanted to spend on a bench, no matter how beautiful. However, she did tell me that the legs were vintage 1960s Danish modern but she’d had it recovered in white leather (sheer genius if you ask me and worth every penny… just to someone else). Never one to let money stop me for achieving style, I turned to my faithful foot solider Ebay and the hunt began.

And last night, the ebay delivered! After watching this for a painful week, we won an identical bench for (yes, I’m bragging) $103. Granted it’s not white leather (but we can get it re-upholstered…). Somewhereintime2 is a great seller — check our her stuff!

The Hutton couch arrived on Saturday at 8:49am via two very nice Room and Board delivery folks. First came the awesome blue seat cushion… the color looked as amazing as we thought it would. 9:04am the couch makes it through the front doors. 9:10am the couch won’t make it though the second doorway (1 inch of extra lovely frame). Horror. However, 9:20am a peppy Room and Board customer service person calls and offers to ship the couch to Dr. Sofa. We google him, note that one of the illustrative examples is OUR couch (relief, we’re not alone) and send it on its way.

Our weekend trip to Vermont yielded the armchair (my father dislikes it, so, I inherited it!) and check out the mod magazine rack from the Tampa flea market. I’m in love.

Top Left: Pillow Top Sette from Urban Outfitters, $550

Top Right: Dream Tent also from Urban Outfitters, $79

Bottom: Knoll Sette, Craigslist.org, $650

As we wait for our sofa to come (6 weeks to go, if all goes according to plan) we yearn for a small sette that could transition into the bedroom when the real couch comes…. PS How fantastic is the dream tent?

This Dillon Chair from Crate and Barrel in sapphire blue leather might not look like much, but boy it is perfect for my 5′2” little body. I could sit here for hours, days, weeks. I did some detective work and it turns out it is made by Mitchell Gold — the Perry Chair and cost some $300 dollars less from Mitchell Gold retailers.

Hours of searching on Craigslist uncovered this pair of chests: a reward of my Craigslist furniture obsession. Beautiful midcentury modern pieces with white mica tops. I’ve always associated “mid century modern” with the furniture in my grandparent’s lake house — dated, not very comfortable and not very cool. Funny that we now have a table and chests and I never would have anticipated how clean they look in our space. The other picture is of our Rico lamp in action with the orange tree bought in Chinatown. The apartment is starting to come together (although what the photos don’t show is the complete lack of organization everywhere else in the apartment (still no bookcases, filling cabinets, sofa, dinning chairs or place to hang/store our coats).

For the table? From Kurt Peterson.com $87.

I’m lusting after this desk from Room and Board. Overpriced, yes. Delicious walnut colored goodness, yes. Feels good against my skin (major desk peeve), yes. Almost makes me want to work? Yes. Note that it is pictured with the Hutton sofa. Great minds.

Room and Board – I’d heard the hype and I thought I’d be immune. Well, I’m now the proud co-owner of a blue velvet Room and Board Hutton couch. You decide who is immune and whose not.

First, get in the mood. Indigo. This color is mystical. This color has me hysterical. I want to only wear clothes this color, dye my hair this color, get those crazy colored contacts in this color.

I put bum to couch some 50 or so times to find this one. Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Pier One, West Elm, Martha/Bernhardt, Mitchell/Gold, BoConcept, Atlantic Avenue, Madison Avenue, auctions galore. I’d actually given up. And then it happened, in all its velvet, indigo tantalizingness.

It has rounded edges, it looks just like the tables I’ve been posting about… except… its HALF the price and has the added benefit of not being made in China. Thank god for Craigslist.

I mentioned earlier that I’m looking for a dining room table with rounded edges. T. found this one from Room and Board. Tomorrow we go to check it out as well as test some couches…