Habitable Greenhouse

"Why hello. Here I am. Yes, that's right, you are seeing correctly. I am the formidable Eames chair. The North Star of this house and everything - including you - will bow to my glory."

That's what this chair says. It's bold and confident, but not incorrect. It is indeed iconic. The pinnacle of mid-century furniture design. Can anyone argue otherwise? It took me a while to submit to buying this chair (several therapy sessions, actually). Could I really justify bringing such a fine piece of furniture into my house? Something that has been on display at the MOMA? How dare I! But here is the thing... how could I not? The room needed it. It demanded the gravitas of the black leather, curved wood and steel base to balance all that white and light bouncing around the room. And it is, after all, a mid-century modern house. It belongs here.

When the architect designed the houses in the neighborhood, he gave them all this same room. One wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. Plant paradise. You can see them all over there thriving in the background. Friends and family keep donating their plants to my living room knowing that it's really in the best interest of the plant to live here instead. We've had a few causalities, but otherwise everyone is alive and growing fast.

Eames chair, plants and that beautiful Victorian dining room table. Those were the main ingredients I was working with when designing the room. Everything else that I brought in had to complement those elements. For the dining room, the low-profile modern chairs provide the juxtaposition to complement the table and the metal base recedes visually as to not compete with those amazing curvy legs on the table. That's what I fell in love with when I saw the table at a consignment store in 2007. Those legs. So hot.

Another key element of the room is the rug. I was hesitant to go with a cream Moroccan wool rug for three reasons: #1. It's a cream. Won't that show stains? #2. It's Moroccan. These shag rugs were trending in a big way and that made me wary. #3. It's wool. Won't that be high-maintenance and difficult to clean?

I started with a knock-off synthetic Moroccan rug for a couple years. This showed me that I really did indeed like the style in the room and I wasn't just being taken in by a trend that wasn't right for the space. I found that the shag texture hid dirt, so I decided to go all in with the real thing. I researched authentic Beni Ourain rugs and found a lady who deals vintage rugs from Marrakesh. I had to make 100% sure I was getting the right rug since it was shipping from another continent with no return policy. Scary.

I worked with the rug vendor to narrow down my options to three rugs that had the right dimensions and then I created mock-up visuals to help me make my choice. Here they are below:

The goal of this room was to feel maximum serenity, so I went with the third options which offers the least amount of drama. I love the lush texture of the wool and there are pops of gold throughout that look amazing with the blue/green/grey sofa. Here is another photo below that shows off the rug a bit more.

Not pictured in this blog post is the other side of the room. There is a gorgeous carved Balinese daybed, wall shelves and... more plants. What is missing are two chairs that I have selected, but not yet purchased. The issue is that they are cream-colored and I have kids ages 4 and 7 that spend half their time wrist-deep in Nutella. I want to feel relaxed. Not stressed out. So the cream chairs will have to wait until they are tamed. And when that happens, I will come back with another blog post to reveal the rest of the room. Don't hold your breath.