The Cultivated Home

One of our favorite weekend activities is searching through Saturday morning yard sales to find those amazing hidden treasures.  Whether it is an amazing dining table, a piece of art, or a chair, there is something about rummaging through all the junk and finding something special from the past that brings us back to our grandparents’ attic.

Searching for a few sales to attend this weekend?  We found these two great sites that you must check out!  New England Auction Company and EstateSales.net are great for both the seller and the buyer.  They help you find a sale and give you tips for appraisal, internet bidding, and finding a live auction to attend yourself.

Check them out today and start your bargain hunting!

We love IKEA sofas—from the Ektop to the Klippan and their arm chair counter parts too!  However, with most IKEA furniture, each piece arrives dressed in a basic stock colored slipcover, with only a few additional options to choose from.  This is fine for the people who don’t like having choices or want their living room to look just like their neighbors, but the majority of us enjoy having options and want to make our space our own. Also, the idea of having a custom slipcover made that will end up costing as much as the couch itself seems pretty impractical.

Luckily, we have stumbled upon Bemz, a company based in Sweden, which sells slipcovers for all our favorite IKEA sofas and chairs!  With tons of different fabric options to choose from, you will find something that will fit perfectly in your design scheme. Even if you just want to explore their library of inspiration images they have on file, we suggest you check them out today!

Updating your living room has never been easier!

Bright colors are exciting and eye catching.  Whether it is in our wardrobes or our homes, we love to throw in a hint of color wherever we can.  In hopes for a bright and sunny weekend on this lovely Friday, here are some of our favorite vendors with color!  They have bright ideas for every home.

Gardenhouse – Bring the outdoors inside with any of the products from Gardenhouse, a Palm Beach based furniture store with a passion for color and re-appropriating old finds to make them bright and fabulous!  We love their Vintage Yellow Aluminum Loveseat!

CB2 – We love their Echo Chair in yellow or green.  Priced at $79.95 each, they are great for a spring update of a dining room or office.

Smeg Appliances – Bright and functional, these great 50’s inspired refrigerators, laundry machines, and dishwashers are just plain fabulous!

Berlin – Throw these pillows on a couch or a bed to brighten up any room.

We have fallen in love with a great, new concept shop tucked away amongst the brownstones near the Met and Guggenheim.  This unique modern furniture and vintage clothing store first perked our interest with their quirky name, but Fair Folks & a Goat won us over with their great concept and unique way of business.

Located in a studio apartment on East 88th Street that is owned and was once occupied by owner Anthony Mazzei, it has been transformed into a store that resembles a lived in apartment.  The main space is filled with a great selection of contemporary furniture but, unlike other furniture stores, they encourage their visitors to sit and enjoy the space and furniture.  Mazzei and his partner, Aurora Stokowki, have added a vintage clothing aspect to the store, which is supplied by Texas-based Archive Vintage.  Rather than being displayed on racks, all of the clothes are stored in the actual closets of this apartment, allowing you to almost feel like a child again searching through your mother’s amazing closet.

Access to Fair Folks & a Goat is though appointment only (thegoat@fairfolksandagoat.com), but that does not mean you are going to break the bank purchasing pieces there.  Furniture ranges from $120-$10,000, and clothing starts at as low as $30.

With plans to open a second location in a bed and breakfast in New Orleans, we have a feeling this intimate shopping experience will be a hit!  Check them out in this great Racked article, or e-mail them for your own appointment.  We know you will be as obsessed as we are!

Founded by John Tusher in 1999 Velocity Art and Design is a Seattle based company that has some great finds that we just can’t get enough of! VA&D believes that “ the positive influence of art and design extends beyond shelter and encapsulates an entire style of life.” They describe their style as “Organic Modernism”, but we see it as “earth friendly chic”. Each product and vendor they use believes in doing what is right for the earth and humanity from the beginning.

With a great selection of furniture and artwork that is innovative, exciting, earth friendly, and visually fabulous it was hard to choose just a few that we love, but here are some of our favorites. Check the rest of their inventory out today and be both green and chic!

Jasper + Black Notebooks: This Minneapolis-based importer and distributor of stationery has a great selection of notebooks in fabulous colors. Great to color code your own diaries or has a fun Valentines day present for a loved one or a friend.

Dwell Studio Bedding: We love their selections of Dwell Studio bedding. We can never get enough of Dwell.

Area Blocks Shower Curtains: These fabulous shower curtains by Area come in 3 great color ways  (sky, vanilla, and tangerine) that will fit in a wide range of bathroom color ways. And priced at only $25.00 you could not go wrong.