Art, Lamps, Lizards and the Perfect New (to us) Chair

We have been busy bees, bumbling around Austin, but here's what's been happening around the house:

We finally put up some artwork in our bedroom! Under our bed, we've been "storing" Japanese wood block prints that my grandfather brought back from Kyoto many, many moons ago. This weekend we dug them out, dusted them off and hung them up! This was before the days of "Put a Bird on It," I'll have you know...

Small impression of impressionist painting by me, circa 2004

We re-wired my grandmother's fantastic milk glass lamp bases (above) so we could use them with dimmers (and so they wouldn't burn down our house) and picked up some cheap-o but much needed new shades for them at Target. I think a scalloped shade would work better with the bases, but the seven dollar price tag called my name. I can easily dress them up with some grosgrain ribbon to add pizzaz and personality. I love the built-in dish, which perfectly (and neatly!) fits my rings and watch!


We hung a piece of Oliver's art in the office/second bedroom:

Note awesome faux Adirondack chairs in the yard. Those things have made this spring unforgettable

The big score of the weekend, however, was an adorable tufted velvet chair! I was jogging in the nabe on Saturday morning, when I passed a garage sale. I had a swift inner dialogue debating the probability that Oliver and I would get back to it before it shut down (slim to none) so I turned around and wandered through a stranger's house in my running gear and sweaty body. The seller was a sweet older woman preparing for a retirement-motivated move to South Padre Island (not bad). I told her I was new in town and had some furnishing to do. As she showed me some pieces I wasn't interested in, I caught a glimpse of the chair. Just as I thought to myself, "I need that chair," she said, "Of course, the chair isn't for sale." In a moment of New York brashness, I announced, "Oh, the chair is what I want!" She was flabbergasted. Not so much at my (sort of) rudeness, but more at the fact that a young person would want her old chair. Apparently, most Austin residents aren't into furnishing with antiques, a trend I've also noted in my interior design work. Well, I am, so we started talking. She told me the chair belonged to her husband's mother and she would call him to see if he would change his mind about parting with the chair. I left my number and a trail of drips behind me as I made my way out the door and jogged home for brunch. During said brunch, we spied a little lizard changing colors on our deck:

The joys of living in a home! I'd never actually witnessed a lizard changing colors, so this was quite an experience! 

I soon got a call from the lady who told me her husband was willing to sell the chair for fifty bucks. Oliver and I sped over to her house, chatted with her for a bit (she is a real sweetheart) and loaded the newest addition to our family of furniture into the vast cavern that is the back of our minivan. We are now proud owners of the perfect tufted chair for our living room!

We will have to reupholster the chair soon-ish, but for now, it's great! We love the small scale, the deep tufted buttons, the cabriole legs and the glam-y nailhead trim!