Readers Go Kooboo Crazy

                                                     

 After writing about these Kooboo wicker chairs a few times, an alert reader informed me that Cost Plus World Market sold them for just $149 (and sometimes they are on sale for even less!)  This price is hundreds of dollars less than the Kooboo chairs which are claimed to come from Belgium.   Maybe some do actually come from Belgium, but I don’t see why you have to pay so much more for something that basically looks the same.

 

An alert reader sent me the link to this chair – $149.99 – amazing!  HERE.

 

Even the magazine Country Living seemed to get it all wrong in this beautiful cover shot this month.

 

The credits say these two chairs are from Restoration Hardware, $595 each.   To me, they look like the Kooboo chairs that are sold wholesale by companies like Artesia.  BTW, isn’t that daybed cute?   A few more cute ones from the same company HERE, and HERE.

 

 

This is the closest Kooboo chair at Restoration Hardware that I could find – nothing at all like those shown in the Country Living magazine.  AND BTW, been to Restoration Hardware lately?  The one in my neighborhood was recently remodeled – all dark walls and moody, low lighting.  It’s absolutely gorgeous.  Gorgeous!  Go visit if you haven’t lately.

 

I’ve loved these chairs for years, after first seeing them in Cynthia Davis’ house in Country Home.   Gorgeous!

 

I recently noticed on Cynthia’s blog, Indulge Décor, that her dining room has changed quite a bit with a new faux bois table, crystal chandelier, and wonderful lamps.   Amazing this is in Houston, it’s so Belgium looking!   Just gorgeous – makes my mouth drool!!!!   This picture really illustrates how important texture is in a room – how much more interesting a room is with lots of different textures.  It shows how a crystal chandelier can dress up any spot and how versatile these chairs truly are.  Read Cynthia’s blog HERE.

 

After learning about the $149 chairs at Cost Plus, I wondered aloud on the blog what my breakfast room would like with the wicker chairs instead of these smaller French ones.

 

 

Two readers actually sent me photoshopped pictures of what my breakfast room would like  - here’s one view.

 

And another photoshopped view – amazing how accurate these pictures really are!   Based on these two drawings, I bit the bullet and bought the chairs.   Although I first purchased the more expensive and larger ones from Pottery Barn which ended up outside in the back yard.  

 

 

 

And here are the final Cost Plus Kooboo chairs in my breakfast room.

 

 

  And the Pottery Barn chairs outside.  To read an analysis of the two chairs, go HERE.  After I showed my new chairs, I got email from readers who had also bought them!   Here are their pictures, perhaps they will inspire you.

 

 

Karen sent me this picture of her cute breakfast room.   She bought a few Kooboo chairs to mix in, but is now saving for two more to put around her table. 

 

This reader, Robyn, sent in a picture of her dining room.  I was taken by how cute her table was!  She said she had it custom made, copied from a table at Mecox.  The reader said the table was very reasonable – much cheaper than the one at Mecox.   Think about having something custom made – a lot of times it IS cheaper than what is found in the design store.

 

This reader lives in a townhouse in Houston – she sent me this picture of her Kooboo chairs.

 

Another view – I love how she painted the back of her shelves the dark gray and added the sconces – makes the shelves so much more custom looking.   This reader has a vacation house in Santa Fe and she went to buy Kooboo chairs there, but the Cost Plus chairs were sold out until September – they must be really popular in New Mexico!

 

 

 

  This reader bought these chairs to put around her French dining room table.  She sent this picture last Christmas to show how they looked, along with her new seagrass rug, lamps and curtains.

 

  In each chair, she had lumbar pillows made of the Riad fabric from Windsor Smith for Kravet.

 

  I recently begged a friend to change out her French rush seat chairs for these!   She had just updated her kitchen with new black matte granite and white subway tiles.  She added two great looking polished nickel pendant lights from Restoration Hardware, but her breakfast room needed a little tweaking.   We removed a large pine bookshelf and replaced it with a British Colonial style console, new lamps and mirrors and the chairs.  It looks like a completely new room with the Kooboo chairs. 

 

 

All in the family!   I had to laugh.  My daughter Elisabeth is moving into an apartment this year at school.   She’s working on floor plans (oy!) and shopping the internet.  Last night she came home all excited about the slipcover sofas at Ikea.  I kid you not!  “Mom!!  They are so cheap!!”    I know, I know!   She picked up a few baskets to get her decorating started (naturally she just had to buy something) – and here’s what she bought.  Four Kooboo wicker baskets.  The small ones were around $5 while the larger ones were $10.     I just smiled thinking about how I was writing this article about Kooboo, while she’s out buying these baskets.  I want her to buy the Kooboo chairs for her dining table. but she prefers the slipcovered ones from Ikea.  

Thanks to all the readers for sending in your pictures!   I’m accumulating a lot of kitchen redos which I will show soon – so if you have a great kitchen redo – send it to my email:  mrballbox329@aol.com

 

 

Decorating Updates at Cote de Texas

 

 

My client’s curtains that made me want some just like hers!

 

You know the old adage – don’t start redecorating unless you are ready to redo the whole place.   Updating one thing makes everything else look dated.   That’s exactly what happened when, on a whim, I decided to change out the tile countertops in my kitchen for white marble.  While the new gleaming marble looked great, everything else then looked … not so great.  At the time all my walls were painted a light, warm yellow with gray trim and my entire downstairs décor was designed around those yellowish walls.   Once the marble countertops arrived, everything else in the house was out of sync:  yellow paint and white marble doesn’t look all that great together.  It drove me crazy.   It’s been a slow process to rectify since I couldn’t afford to just redo everything all at once and truthfully, I wasn’t mentally ready to do that either.  I hadn’t a clue what I wanted or which direction to go, but, it was obvious the yellow paint had to go, immediately.   After testing about 15 gray samples, the downstairs and upstairs landing were painted a soft, taupe-ish gray (Pratt and Lambert Feathered Gray.)  Afterwards, the family room and kitchen looked a little better, but the living room and dining room with their yellow fabrics made no sense.   I’m still working on those front rooms, but I’ll show you what I’ve done to the back ones. 

 

 

 

The dog door:  for 17 years, the door was right next to the window, prohibiting any curtains which would have blocked it.

 

I finally had the brainstorm that in order to have curtains,  I would have to move the door to the breakfast room!   Took me 17 years to come to this conclusion. 

 

The new dog door:  Raul added the concrete stairs on which we carved out the dogs names.  Now, how do we keep possums and other critters out of the house?

Ever since I worked on my neighbor’s house last year and added curtains to her family room, I’ve been wanting to do the same to mine.  Our two rooms are similar with windows all along the back of our houses and seeing hers looking so good made me just a little jealous.     When we moved into our house about 17 years ago, I wasn’t as into curtains as I am now.  I installed them only in my bedroom upstairs and in the nursery.   For the rest of the house, we couldn’t afford wooden or even faux wooden shutters, which were so popular then, so we settled for the much cheaper faux wood blinds instead.   Truthfully, we couldn’t afford the faux blinds either and had to put the entire purchase on a credit card.    As time went by and I became a huge curtain fan, I added yellow silk ticking curtains to my dining room and living room.   Those curtains made a huge difference and even Ben liked them, which was shocking because he was so against getting them.    I eventually added more curtains upstairs and one by one, every single faux wooden blind was removed from the house.   I would have loved curtains along the family room’s back wall as well  , but there was the problem of the dog door.   The dog door was installed right next to the windows and any curtains placed there would have become filthy dirty with the two pups running in and out 24/7.   That misplaced dog door ruled my interior design!   While I was busy insisting all my clients get curtains, I made my own excuses not to get them because of that stupid dog door.   After lusting over my neighbor’s curtains, I finally admitted to myself that in order to move forward, I would have to find a new home for that dreaded dog door.  In the end, it was ridiculous how something that took just two days to rectify – had taken me years to act on!   In the breakfast room, my painter, Raul, expertly put a hole in our sheetrock through to the brick leading out to the back yard.  He even added two concrete steps for the dogs to be able to reach their new entry.   The pups quickly acclimated to their changed routine and, finally, after all this time, I was able to get curtains in my family and breakfast room.    Here’s how the room looked before  - with the yellow walls and no curtains:

 

 

Before:  yellow walls and no curtains.  The old dog door is hiding right behind the lamp table on the right side.

 

 

The new gray paint and the new curtains!  I used a Pindlar and Pindlar linen in white with a thin gray pinstripe.  The woven shades are pulled up to the molding to visually elongate the line.

 

We made one long rod from left to right by connecting five smaller ones.  The discounted brown shades were ordered and installed by Monica who does all my curtains, bedding and installations for clients.  For details on the shades, email her at custcrea@sbcglobal.net

 

 

And a view of the entire room.  It’s so much quieter now with the curtains.  It’s like all the sound is muffled.

 

So, did you notice I haven’t shown the breakfast room yet?    Well…remember my obsession with Koobo wicker chairs? 

 

 

I’ve been debating back and forth whether I wanted to get the Koobo chairs for my breakfast room.   While I love the French chairs I got from Tara Shaw, I just really wanted to try the wicker ones.  I thought that if they didn’t work out, I needed some for my backyard anyway….so….

 

I ended up getting the Koobo chairs and loving them.  But, it’s a long story from there to here, and maybe you can learn from my HUGE mistakes.

 

Originally, I couldn’t decide between the Koobo chairs from Pottery Barn or from Cost Plus World Market.   My thinking was that I should order the Pottery Barn chairs since they were a little bit bigger than the Cost Plus World Market chairs, plus PB delivers and I didn’t want to schlep the chairs back to my house.  So many things were wrong with my thinking.  First, the PB chairs are three times more expensive at $349. versus Cost Plus at $129.00 (on sale.)  Second, yes the PB chairs are bigger, but I needed smaller ones for my space!  I have no idea what I was thinking!!!!  Comparing the two chairs – the PB chair does have a nicer, thicker woven trim than the Cost Plus chair, BUT their seats are unfinished!  You have to use cushions with the PB chairs, while with the Cost Plus you either can or not use the cushions, your decision.   Plus, I waited over four weeks to get my PB chairs – while I could have had the Cost Plus chairs that same day.  

 

This is what the PB chair looks like under the cushion.  I know – shocking!  At three times the price, too!!!!  Why did they leave the seat unfinished?   It’s ridiculous.

 

 

These are the Pottery Barn chairs.  You can see the trim is somewhat nicer and thicker, but this is the only visible difference.  They are a tad bit bigger than the Cost Plus, but it’s not that noticeable at all.  And, of course their bottoms are not finished out.  Plus they are three times the price of the Cost Plus chairs.   IMO, there is absolutely NO reason to buy these chairs over the Cost Plus chairs.   I just wish I knew all this, then.

 

 

In the end, I lived the too big PB chairs for a week and then went to Cost Plus to check out their chairs.  I  ended up schlepping the four chairs home, something I had tried to avoid in the beginning.  These chairs fit around the table much better than the PB ones.  Two of the extra PB chairs went outside where I needed them, and the other two went into my guest room and office.  

 

 

 

 

Here’s a view of the curtains from the breakfast room looking towards the family room.  I can’t tell you how much better the back of the house looks now with the curtains.  They add so much warmth and coziness, it’s a huge difference.  Even Ben was stunned when he came home.   I probably should have never told him of the change before hand because he was so negative about me adding the curtains.   It would have saved me a lot of grief to just surprise him!!!

 

 

Here’s a close up of the P&P linen – you can see the pinstripe here.  Looking at the fabric from afar, the stripe is really too subtle to make out.   It took me months to decide on this fabric.  I couldn’t make up my mind if I wanted a pattern or a solid.   I was hooked on an ikat and then a damask for awhile.  I even considered a toile.   But, I kept coming back to this fabric, so I decided I must really like it.    We used a black out lining to keep the sun from shining through the fabric and fading out the stripe.   We also used two widths per panel for fullness.  There are no ironed in pleats and the drape is  puddled just an inch or two on the floor.

 

The cushions that come with the Cost Plus chairs are adequate, but one day I will need to make covers for them so that I can keep them clean looking.

 

 

Looking at the row of windows towards the breakfast room.

 

 

I’m really happy with the results and there are just a few things on my wish list that will probably never happene.  I would love to add doors to my shelves just like Jill Brinson’s HERE.    And one day, I would love to get a stone mantel.  I still need to refinish my wood floors, or paint them, something I am dreading and keep putting off.    As for the living room and dining room, those changes are coming along and hopefully I’ll show their modest updates in the next few months.

 

Coming soon – three really great giveaways – so be sure and watch for them!!

 

 

 

My Virtual Beach House

All this talk about beach houses and Galveston and hurricanes and linen slipcovers has really got me thinking. How would I, an interior designer, (or interior decorator if ASID is listening!) design my own beach house? The problem is, as I've told you before, I love two different styles of designs - cluttered and sparse. While, the cluttered look has won out at home, would I be able to decorate a beach house with a clean, spare vibe? Even playing around with a virtual beach house design, I can't seem to commit to one or the other style. So, I've put together two looks for a beach house that if I was buying one, this is how it might look. Vote in the comment section for the look you like best.

Look #1 - The Cluttered Beach House:

For House #1 - I would use a blue and white striped dhurri as the starting off point. The floors would be dark hardwoods, the walls a light grayish white.

The sofa would be clean lined, slipcovered in white linen, of course!

The two side chairs will be these English inspired, ikat covered ones from Suzanne Rheinstein.

This red chinoiserie table is the coffee table.

Across from the sofa would be these two bobbin chairs.

In between the two chairs will be this antique wine cooler table - perfect to cool down a bottle after a summer day.

The curtains would be made of this Bennison Fabric as would the pillows on the sofa.

And more pillows by Bennison.

This bench would go under the windows, covered in the Rheinstein Ikat.

The open bar: this Spanish table would be piled high with liquor bottles and glasses, silver trays and ice buckets.

This delightful set of 4 watercolors from the Chinoiserie series are the work of the wonderful artist Harrison Howard. These would go above the bar/Spanish console. To see more of Mr. Howard's work, please be sure to visit his web site!!

This lantern from 1st Dibs would hang over the living room.

A gateleg table for cards.

Surrounded by these wicker chairs.

This huge bookcase would be filled with books and globes and blue and white porcelains.

Tons of blue and white everywhere!

And a collection of old globes.

And books.

An antique clock for the wall.

Tortoise shells and boxes everywhere - on the walls and on tabletops.

This collection of boats would go on top of the bookcase.

The dining table would be this large antique French wine tasting table.

With chairs slipcovered like this all the way around it, in the ikat fabric.

A round bullseye mirror next to the table.

Another lantern for the over the dining room table.

Look #2 - The Uncluttered Beach house

The aqua and white dhurri will be the starting point here - walls light aqua, floors painted white.

This large Bobby McAlpine sofa - slipcovered in white linen.

Over the sofa - a starburst mirror.

Flanking the sofa, these two Swedish chests.

Two Chelsea Editions chairs and ottoman across from the sofa.

Between the two chairs -19th c. Painted Refraichissoir

Under the window- a Swedish day bed in check fabric.

These four prints from Harrison Howard, two on each side of the armoire below. See his web site for more of his fabulous work!

Holding the TV - Swedish armoire.

Shells, everywhere.

Big Checks for the pillows, upholstery.

Small Checks: curtains, pillows, slipcovers.

Chest to double as the bar.

Old cartoon - over the chest above.

Antique bird cage.

A painted chest over chest in the living area.

A Mora clock, of course!

The game table, white washed table with wicker chairs.

Sconces - gorgeous, from 1st Dibs.

In the dining room, a Swedish cabinet filled with white ironstone.

For the dining room cabinet - white ironstone or creamware - depending on the budget!

Mix white books with ironstone.

Steel dining room table.

Swedish Chairs, in check, Chelsea Editions.

Which look do you prefer, the English influenced cluttered look recapped below:

Or the spare, Swedish inspired, clean, white and aqua look?