Statement chairs and why they are my favourite interior design piece
To be clear, I love a statement anything. For me it is the statement piece that usually decides how the rest of a room will evolve.
Some people design a room with a colour in mind, others with an overall look or feel. Often interior decor is decided on compromise, taking into account more than one person's taste and style - sometimes resulting in safe dullness, sadly suppressing exploration, or any curiosity and adventure with pattern, colour and texture.
I bought these two mid century cocktail chairs from eBay, stripped the wood and covered in blue Clarke and Clarke velvet and Kansai floral velvet by Romo Black Edition. The pair make a bold statement in my lounge and I love them!
I usually end of designing and styling a room around a stand out piece. It might be a chair, mirror, a bed or a curtain fabric that I am obsessed about, but I usually start with THE THING and it is that piece from which the mood of the room unfolds. As for compromise, we don’t really do that in our house (!). Fortunately the marvellous husband is cool to trust the process and go with whatever. He is happy for me to lead the way regarding home decor. If he had complete control though we would live in a white box with everything put away, no clutter and just sereneness. Not that there isn’t a place for whiteness but in a world of colour it seems such a shame.
In our first flat, said husband, then boyfriend, and I couldn’t afford to buy any furniture, so our tiny studio flat had cast-offs from parental homes so for soft comfy seating we had 2 large floor cushions - one each. I found some cotton fabric that my Mum had in her house and made a couple of functional covers. They were replaced with a small Habitat sofa somewhere along the line but once we moved into our first house, I became obsessed with statement seating. My soft interiors radar was wired for seating which was different, beautiful, mad and not always the most comfortable.
My favourite ever purchase was a sofa in a brown and cream woven zebra fabric which we spent too much money on back in the mid ‘90s. It was replaced many years later after it had been completely trashed by the claws of our two cats and general jumping feet of three small children.
The problem with a chair habit is that the unusual and fantastic is just so expensive. But an insanely stylish chair or sofa in a room draws the eye, screams style and elegance (and sometimes fun) as well as encouraging bottoms to be parked, feet raised and bodies relaxed. So in many cases for me the statement chair becomes the style leader in an interiors scheme, from which the room vibe is created.
About four years ago I found an upholstery class locally and continue to go once a week in term time for a fabulously creative afternoon. I have missed this so much this year with lockdown restrictions not allowing it. However, this new found creative outlet rather predictably fuelled my desire to create lots of pieces that I wouldn’t be able to buy in the shops. My spare time activities have pivoted to finding vintage furniture cheaply to do up. I have bought from garage sales, eBay, auction houses, Marketplace and Gumtree. My favourites are mid century pieces but I have upholstered a victorian nursing chair and have even made a couple of pieces from scratch.
It would be true to say that I am no expert. You would think that after transforming quite a number of pieces over the last few years that I would be able to do it by myself. But the thing is, it is a real skill. Something that you need to learn properly through an apprenticeship or a City and Guilds. I can to do simple things without help (dining chair seats and simple backs) but every chair is different, presents new shapes and new challenges that a hobbyist like me can’t really accomplish without help. So when you find a piece and you get a quote to have it reupholstered, you are being charged for the craft person’s time and skill as well as the fabric which is why it isn’t a cheap option. Or like me you take a class!
So the statement chair is the bomb. A pretty shaped chair in a bedroom in a gorgeous fabric can transform the space from boring and staid to glamorous, stylish, opulent and individual. All because it became THE THING, the focal point and the piece that makes it - not the room from the catalogue or the website or the showroom - but your individual room.
Be you and be brave you will never look back!
