Blog

Fun Furniture Fact #20: Barrel Chair Break Down

Posted on November 4, 2016 at 12:24 pm by Furnish Green / Fun Furniture Fact, Uncategorized

If you’re like us, chances are you love a good barrel chair! This classic accent chair is sure to offer some real charm and comfort. The true start of the barrel chair remains hazy, as various sources site its location of origin to be in places including the United Kingdom, the Virgin Islands, Italy, and France. One thing that remains certain is that the well-constructed design was in use around the world by the mid to late 19th century and enjoyed a great deal of popularity in the United States during the middle of the 20th century.

The barrel chair is a style of seating that is traditionally upholstered with arms and back forming a continuous line. If you haven’t guessed it yet, it is constructed to resemble the shape of, and is often repurposed from, an old-fashioned whiskey barrel! One side of the round construction is cut out to make room for the seat and back padding that forms a comfortable nook, surrounded with a high contoured back and a swiveling base. These chairs make an efficient use of space with their relatively small footprint that is contrasted by their big personality.

FAMILY ROOM FURNITURE that’s really designed for FAMILY FUN! With so many things going on outside the home these days, keeping the family together for work, and play, is harder than ever. You do need to give special attention to your home so see that it is really designed for family living. Formal and fussy furnishing are fine for company . . . but for the kids and dad to really relax . . . well, you need something like this family room suite from BROTHERS of Kentucky. Built for fun, built for comfort, built to last! Don’t wonder where the kids are … they’ll be having fun at home. – The Daily News from Port Angeles, Washington. Page 30. April 20, 1975.

barrelchair

In the showroom, we’ve got some unique barrel chairs of our own for sale. These ones, in particular, were manufactured in the 1970s by Brothers Furniture and Corp. and were constructed from Kentucky whiskey keg barrels! Fun and punchy, they feature colorful patchwork vinyl upholstery. Whether solo or as a set, they’ll add some rustic charm to any living space or bar.

In your home: Record Storage

Posted on October 21, 2016 at 3:45 pm by Furnish Green / A Record Blog, In Your Home, Inspirations

In small city apartments, we have to constantly think outside the box for ways to accommodate our belongings. And a record collection is no exception. It needs to be stored, orderly, compact, and on display. So we’ve come up with a few ideas for media consoles and record storage based on items we’ve currently got in stock. Get creative and get organized!

Record Sale 10/15-10/23!

Posted on October 14, 2016 at 5:01 pm by Furnish Green / A Record Blog, Epic Sale

Dates: Sat. 10/15 – Sun. 10/23

Details:

In order to make room for a ton of new inventory, we’re clearing out our current record stock.
All vinyl will be on sale: 10% off regular priced records, 10 ($5) records for $20, and buy an FG tote for $10 and fill it to the max with dollar-records!!
We’ll have the listening station set up for testing out any unfamiliar albums.
In-store only so see you in the showroom!

We’ve also got some great record storage/media console pieces in the showroom right now! Check ’em out here.

In your home: Fall Decor

Posted on October 13, 2016 at 4:31 pm by Furnish Green / In Your Home, Inspirations

Fall is upon us and it’s feelin’ good! So we thought, in honor of the season and the upcoming Halloween holiday, we’d throw some decorating inspiration your way.

You could go with a classic look, relying on the standard pumpkin, gourd, dried leaves combo, utilizing autumnal shades throughout. Or you could opt for a creepy vibe, getting playful and paying homage to the weird, supernatural nature of the month of October.

Either way, the FG showroom has your fall decorating needs, and since most of the items featured are not up on the site, you’ll have to stop by to peruse the selection.

img_7460-copy

img_7454-copy

img_7450-copy

img_7472-copy

img_7479-copy

img_7482-copy

img_7488-copy

Dwellings Issue XIV: Jackson Heights

Posted on August 25, 2016 at 4:47 pm by Furnish Green / Dwellings

P1020701

This installment of our Dwellings series takes us to the historic district of Jackson Heights, Queens.

James, a theatre composer/lyricist and restaurant server, bought his Jackson Heights apartment last autumn (fun fact: he closed on it exactly one year prior to the day of our visit!). He discovered Furnish Green two years ago when he found himself in need of a sofa. A year later his acquisition of this lovely apartment created furniture needs anew. As a self-professed interior design noob, James found himself turning to the interwebs for ideas and inspiration. He was drawn to one style in particular; a co-worker informed him that this style was, in fact, Mid Century Modern. While blissfully mired in the world of online shopping James started to realize that a lot of the products he was drawn to were from the Furnish Green site… And our relationship was ignited.

Although James claims to have been completely unaware of the Mid-Century-Modern style craze and to not have had any prior knowledge of interior design, he has quite artfully curated his Queens abode.

P1020645

The apartment can be found tucked within a late 1930s building in the historic district. The fairly open apartment scheme is invitingly lit by a blend of natural and electric light. Upon first entering the space, we were immediately struck by the playful yet thoughtful use of color. The eye travels from floor to ceiling, captivated by the rich hues displayed in everything from his assortment of area rugs and artwork to his choice of wall color and decorative accents. P1020643

P1020652

The mix of colors is complemented by the mix of styles represented, and it seems fitting that James describes the design of the space as something resembling “Mid-Century Whimsical.” There’s a notable current of Mid-Century-Modern, but clearly something a bit more personal is going on here. What we have here is a mingling of styles intuitively arranged in a presentation that is so clash-free that the aesthetic borders on subtle. The overall effect on visitors is to feel intrigued by the individual pieces, while feeling welcomed by their arrangement.

The selection of pieces and styles in his home includes everything from Mid Century lighting and Art Deco side tables to Turn-of-the-Century bookcases, Victorian Eastlake dressers and French Nouveau cabinets. And then, of course, there’s the perfectly kitsch baby table lamp (a Furnish Green fave)!

P1020699

One noteworthy element of the decor’s whimsicality is an engaging motif of animals. Said motif welcomes you at the door (hello little metal puppy!) and charms you all the way through. In James’ home, our furry (and not so furry) friends come in all shapes and sizes and take all forms including small accent decor, a sheepskin area rug, a prancing gazelle table lamp, fantastical fox artwork, and an 18-inch tall paper mache penguin. Like all of the decor, these animal elements are casually blended into the milieu.

P1020700

P1020647

This Queens apartment is quirky and playful while still managing to feel clean and modern. We love how James has assembled lovely pieces comprising a myriad of classic styles while unifying these styles via his whimsical and welcoming personal inflection. James continues to keep an eye on the FG site for that gotta-have special item that comes about every now and again, and as you can see from the photos he’s got a knack for scoping them out. That baby table lamp was a true one-of-a-kind!

We love having the chance to head out to a new neighborhood and to discover the homes of our customers!

We hope you enjoyed this installment of our Dwellings series! Stay tuned for future posts, and email us at furnishgreen@gmail.com for a chance to have your space featured!

Fun Furniture Fact #19: Tobia Scarpa and the Coronado Armchair

Posted on August 10, 2016 at 5:20 pm by Furnish Green / Fun Furniture Fact

Tobia Scarpa

From their first collaborations as husband and wife in the middle 1950s until the present day, no other designers have spoken as completely and as articulately in single furniture offerings. Each piece, whether their Biagio table lamp for Flos, their Bastiano seating range for Knoll or their Centenary vases for L’eclaireur, simultaneously addresses history, industrial production, form, function, materials and contemporary cultures. – Matthew Sullivan of Core77

Tobia Scarpa, son of the influential Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, graduated from the Instituto Universitario di Architettura in Venice in the late 1950s, where he met his wife, Afra Blanchin. Together they collaborated on design projects and built a career working for nearly every major international design company including Flos, Cassina, Knoll and B&B.
Their design work ranged from full scale architectural projects such as factories, shops and offices created for Benetton to everyday household items including art, glass, clothing and furniture.

Tobia and Afra were innovators of their time because of their consciousness to produce functional pieces with a poetic, amalgamative and polished design. While they used modern materials and procedures to create their products, their designs were more classical than the ones being produced by their peers during that time. This influenced the way people furnished their homes as residents wanted furniture that stood in perfect harmony with modern and traditional interiors alike.

In 1966 Scarpa designed the “Coronado” series of armchairs for B&B Italia which became one of the best selling pieces of its time and to this day is considered one of the couple’s most notable works. The Coronado chair was one of the first padded pieces of furniture to use the new cold-molded foaming process in which a metal structure could be sunk within the polyurethane padding. It offers great comfort thanks to a spring system made of steel music wire strips incorporated into the backrest. With its fine traditional design, Coronado is a “classic” armchair that embodies the very nature of relaxation.

From the couple’s first collaborations as husband and wife in the mid-1950s to the present day, their pieces have incorporated new technologies, while still maintaining a sense of history, form and function. Their work can be found in museums across the United States and Europe, including collections in MoMA and the Lourve Museum.

To own your very own piece of history in fine design, check out Furnish Green’s very own Tobia Scarpa Coronado Chair!

Furniture Fact #18: Crotch Walnut

Posted on July 28, 2016 at 5:22 pm by Furnish Green / Fun Furniture Fact

Crotch Walnut

Here at Furnish Green, we come by many beautiful pieces of furniture crafted from a wide variety of wood species. Many factors make a piece special (aside from the fact that it has already stood the test of time), including design style or time period of origin, but the wood grain detail is often a distinctive feature. Therefore, I would like to introduce you to crotch walnut wood grain!

Crotch walnut comes about at the point where a branch intersects with a tree’s trunk and/or when there is a double trunk. In this region there is limited space for the tree to grow. With each year of growth, another annual ring of thickness is added; as wood pushes against wood, the grain starts to buckle in different directions. Wood fibers weave together to strengthen the limbs or branches, forming the crotch and feather appearance.This beautiful distortion rewards us with a grain that shimmers in the light and looks like waves of liquid.

A wonderful Furnish Green example can be seen in our recently sold ~~1930s Crotch Walnut Chifferobe~~ (featured in the image above). This piece displays fine carved wood detail accompanying mother nature’s art of the crotch walnut wood grain along the doors.

Check out another example of some FG crotch walnut in coffee table form here!

To read more about the process of the crotch walnut check out these articles:

Wood Magazine | A Woodworker’s Musings

Product Spotlight: Typewriter Tables

Posted on July 21, 2016 at 4:37 pm by Furnish Green / Product Spotlight

Typewriter tables are awesome little pieces that offer a multitude of functionality. Keep the drop leaves down and it’s a compact little side table, but pop them up and the possibilities for use are endless.

Table 1

This typewriter table is functioning as a charming entryway table. Its laminate surface won’t show much wear so you can toss your keys and not worry too much. The space below is great for kicking off your shoes, and the drop leaves can be opened up for those times when you haven’t had the time to tidy up the area.

Table 2

Have you been wanting a desk but simply don’t have the room? This all-metal typewriter table will serve as a quirky little office space! It rolls with ease and features large extendable drop leaves.

Table 3

We’re all familiar with the qualms of small Manhattan apartments and their all-too-often nonexistent dining spaces. This rustic industrial typewriter table will make for the perfect kitchenette table. Pair it with a couple of wooden folding chairs and you’ve got yourself a completely portable and storable dining setup.

Typewriter tables are where it’s at.

Apartment Staging: The Mid-Century-Modern Way

Posted on July 20, 2016 at 5:38 pm by Furnish Green / Designer Spotlight, Inspirations

Credit: edgemcm.com

We sat down with Rich Fostek of Edge Mid-Century Designs to discuss his luxury apartment staging business in Manhattan. He shared some great insights into the art of staging as well as some personal wisdom on the topics of vintage furniture and interior design!

First of all, you are an authority on mid century furniture and design as well as one of Manhattan’s premiere apartment stagers, how did the two meet?

It was actually a serendipitous problem that launched the staging as a spin off venture from our mid-century modern design gallery. About 5 years ago my partner David left a long career in the fashion industry to pursue selling luxury real estate in NYC. His first exclusive listing was a huge apartment in a grand mid century building on Madison and 68th. It was a great space but lacked personality so the reception by potential buyers was indifferent. We noticed that other listings that were successfully selling in the area were staged or furnished with primarily mid century styled pieces like the ones we were selling in the gallery. We decided to bring in a truck full of MCM furnishings plus a little design savvy to give the place a fresh look. Once we did that, the apartment immediately went into a bidding war and sold over asking price. Impressed with this, some of the other brokers at his firm asked if we could help them by staging a few of their “problem” listings, and we were launched into the staging business.

Is apartment staging worthwhile? How does it make a difference in the sale of an apartment?

Apartment staging has become almost a necessity in most cases. The NYC luxury market has become very competitive in recent years and the internet has been a game changer in how properties are marketed. Most customers initial contact with the home is through listing photographs. If these photos don’t connect with the potential buyers in some way, they will generally click on to the next listing. On many occasions we have seen properties that were on the market for months suddenly sell quickly once staged; sometimes for record prices.

How does vintage furniture play a part in the staging business?

Very few stagers use vintage pieces in their designs because it is out of their comfort zone. But we love incorporating vintage pieces because they add a unique, eclectic feel to the finished product. We try to avoid the “corporate look” in our installations and instead utilize items like an early abstract painting, a beautiful vintage typewriter, or perhaps an antique Moroccan table or MCM Credenza. It’s personal touches such as these that give a potential buyer the feeling that this is the home of someone with taste and is a space with a true sense of history.

Our biggest compliment is when someone asks, “Is this place staged?”

Because the staging looks so livable and inviting that they can’t tell for certain whether or not what they’re looking at is a staging rather than the furniture and decor that has inhabited the property for years.

What types of vintage furniture do you find work best in staging?

There are few hard fast rules to this because every project is different. We really let the space dictate to us what makes it function and look its best. An un-restored pre-war apartment on Park Avenue usually calls for things that have light updated classic designs like the Hollywood regency style with some bold modern art thrown in for some contrast. Industrial Lofts on the other hand look best with more masculine primitive wood farmhouse furniture and upholstered pieces that are heavier like a Leather Chesterfield.

How is staging an apartment to sell different from decorating a space for someone to live in?

They’re quite a bit different actually.

I think the biggest difference is client interaction. In staging, you need to make the space appealing to the broadest pool of potential new owners. This quite often involves neutralizing strong design choices that the owner made in the past.

Design and decor are the opposite. The designer must work with the client’s needs and likes and funnel those into a finished space that melds their taste and vision with those of the client in order to create a space that specifically caters to that client.

What is your personal favorite style of furniture?

My taste is always changing and evolving. I love great examples of all 20th century modernism, Art Deco, Craftsman, and Art Nouveau and of course mid century. Right now I would say Edmund Spence, Dorothy Draper and Paul McCobb are my top 3 designers. The first piece of mid century furniture I acquired is actually still my favorite piece in our collection. It’s a modular bar unit designed by Merton Gershen for American of Martinsville.

What tips can you give for people using vintage furniture in decorating their homes?

Buy what you love even if you think it won’t match your other things. You may be pleasantly surprised with the new direction it inspires.

So follow your heart when designing your own space and follow Rich and David at Edge Mid-Century Designs to stay up to date on their latest stagings!

Photo Credit: edgemcm.com

Thanks Time Out New York!

Posted on May 24, 2016 at 1:40 pm by Furnish Green / Exciting News

IMG_1407 copy
Time Out New York has featured Furnish Green as one of NYC’s best furniture stores!

In the feature, Time Out says:

You can feel extra good about your next purchase at this environmentally friendly vintage shop. Every secondhand item goes through the store’s workshop to ensure it’s fully functioning and like new. You’ll find beautiful and unique pieces like a walnut art deco chifferobe with a drop-down secretary ($604) or a bold black vinyl armchair ($426).

And we hope you do feel good about each purchase you make with us! A big thanks to our customers who have supported us as we’ve grown over the years!

— The FG Team

← Older Posts

Newer Posts →

Latest Posts