Aug
30
2006
 10

Decorating the Erwin House


There is something terribly gratifying about the sconce on the stone wall.

My mom and I lived for a year with my grandparents when I was 4. I remember my grandfather’s basement-turned-den: he had a fully-stocked bar with a collection of miniature liquor bottles, a number of model trucks from his days as a transportation manager for Altorfer Bros., and lots of chrome. The Rejuvenation Aloha on the stone wall is straight out of his basement, the light I later used to do homework by when I sat at the ladies’ desk where my grandmother paid bills.
Next on the list: one of those spiky 60′s wall clocks.
In the meantime, we’re shopping for shams for the master bedroom. Since we didn’t paint the game room in the classic aqua blue, I’ve been trying to use aqua in the bedroom. I’m not going for the West Elm tan and cornsilk that everyone loves, rather I’m looking for that crazy greenish blue of the space age.


I love this pattern from PillowsandThrows.com, but you can’t buy the shams separately. We also liked some patterns from West Elm and Pier One, but finding just shams is going to be difficult. Wouldn’t it be cool if there were a Formica-flavored boomerang fabric? A girl can dream.

10 Comments for Decorating the Erwin House


erilyn
August 30, 2006, 3:05 pm

I don’t know if you like to sew, but shams aren’t too difficult and you can buy that exact fabric online… http://www.reprodepotfabrics.com/mxmndb.html


caro
August 30, 2006, 5:38 pm

Haha! that’s exactly what I was going to say! I love reprodepot.


Bruce
August 30, 2006, 7:56 pm

Here’s the current “official” version of the George nelson clock, now made by Vitra:
http://www.velocityartanddesign.com/gn1253r.html
My grandfather had one of the original walnut versions of that clock, bought when it was still manufactured by Howard Miller, a division of Herman Miller (George Nelson was the creative director of Herman Miller at one point). My father has the clock now, but to my horror my grandfather had removed the guts and power cord to convert the clock to battery power. He also painted the colored hands black at some point. Of course, he had no idea he had an original design icon by one of the leading Modernists. Oh well.


paul schuster
August 31, 2006, 7:53 am

we’ve used j and o fabrics several times. they have a good selection of atomic, mod and funky 60′s fabrics. prices are usually the best and shipping is fast.
http://jandofabrics.com/categories.asp?id=7


Amy
August 31, 2006, 9:51 pm

Ha – I was just going to show you that fabric at repro depot too — just hire ya a seamstress! Have fun decorating your fun house.


Julia
September 1, 2006, 9:19 pm

Sure you can buy the shams separate:
http://store.pillowsandthrows.com/nh1750shm.html


Christiane
September 2, 2006, 10:29 pm

Okay, what is cheaper–buying the fabric and hiring a seamstress, or buying the sham for (gulp!) $70??


WeezyN
September 3, 2006, 9:50 pm

For boomerang fabric, try http://www.melinamade.com.


Aunt Gayle
September 5, 2006, 10:37 pm

*waving* Send me the fabric, give me dimensions & I’ll make your shams.


Christiane
September 6, 2006, 9:39 am

Yippee skippeeee!! I am so going to the fabric store today!