The Cultivated Home

Summer is coming to an end and soon the beautiful colors from the flowers surrounding us will be replaced with the fading colors of the fall. Why not preserve the flora all year long though a new rug or lounge chair!

We are in love with Anthropologie’s new Arcadian Garden and Chatting Garden tufted rugs.  Filled with whimsical floral patterns and reasonably priced from $88.00-$998.00, you can easily add color and pattern to any room in your home.

If a new lounge chair is more your style the Lulu Chair from Urban Outfitter’s is a perfect fit. Available in 4 great color patterns this Mid-Century inspired chair makes it easy for you to update a room and keep the flowers of summer alive all year round.

Today we’re looking back to appreciate the fabulously chic
David Hicks (1929-98), an interior design superstar of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s whose work is still very much in vogue today. Hicks introduced bold color and pattern into the home, steering away from the stuffy design norms of mid-century England. Hicks mixed the classical with the modern in a clean and elegant manner (think Louis chair upholstered with a geometric design).

He combined different styles and arranged furniture and decorative objects in such a way that made them statements of their own. Think about bending the rules in your own home, and you’ll see that the possibilities are endless! Besides designing for the privileged and royal, Hicks created furniture, textiles, carpets and wallpaper.

His son, Ashley Hicks, has carried on his father’s style with a line of furniture and hardware, along with these fabulous Stone Floor featuring nine original patterns by the iconic designer.

Let’s get down to business! We collected a few items we love from affordable companies which focus on masculine mid-century modern. We’ll start with the iron wire storage from West Elm to store your sharpened pencils or the larger size to store your Economist mags. Ranging from $10 – 49. And why not place that great wire basket next to the Scan Lounge Chair from CB2 dressed in a warm gray flannel for $499, it feels just like a gentleman’s suit.

Complete the look and light your living space while working away on your accounting ledger with the new Enzo Lamp from Anthropologie for $398.

Chairs Worth Getting Up For

With an extra hour of glorious daylight and the first signs of spring popping up all around us, we finally feel ready to leave our stubborn apartment perches and put an end to the hibernation.  But if the slowly rising temperatures weren’t enough, City Foundry located in the now established Downtown Brooklyn design district is enough motivation to finally shake the dust off and venture *gasp* off island.

City Foundry boasts an extensive but well-edited collection described in Renovation Style as one “where mid-century meets industrial meets French meets science.” While worth exploring in its entirety, we think the company’s true gem is its eye poppingly innovative collection of vintage metal chairs. Some entirely industrial, others softly aged; some resembling doctors’ chairs while others look as though they’ve been plucked from a Parisian piazza . A varied collection, but each chair is stunningly unique, beautifully crafted, and delightfully detailed.  They’ll mature, excite and illuminate your space in an instant.  For these seats, we’ll get off our bums.

Fact, not fiction: if Brooklyn was its own city, it would be the 4th most populated city in the US. And with that, they should have their own incredible resource for midcentury furniture, and luckily they do!  Baxter & Liebchen is located in Dumbo and specializes in a full range from  all of which are artfully displayed in their showroom. These pieces, which could be exact matches to the ones shown in ABC on Broadway, have prices far below, and truly has one of the best inventories we have seen. So hop in the cab or subway, Brooklyn is really NOT that far away!!!!