The Story of a Sofa

And then their is this sofa.... It needs upholstery too (like the armchair and the 7 dining chairs). 

I do not really know what to say about that sofa. I do not even know exactly how we ended up with it. 

Some might say, what is wrong with this sofa? Why it needs a new fabric? It looks very elegant. - Yes, it does. And it fitted very nicely in the entrance of my mother-in-law's house in the Veneto, Northern Italy. The leopard print is absolutely her style and that's how she upholstered the sofa after having found it at her favorite antique dealer in Marghera some years ago. 

But one day, this sofa was in my house (well, also her son's house) thousands of miles further South in Calabria. 

My Italian in-laws are super generous. Whenever you say, you like something, the next day it is on your doorstep (if possible). So, you have to be careful what you say. But in case of the sofa,  no one said it would look nice in our entrance in Pizzo - not even did anyone say we like it. 

I think, what happened was that my mother-in-law just had found another sofa at her favorite antique dealer which suited her place better - and she wanted to rearrange the furniture in her house. I don't think that Angelo was transporting half of the household on the roof of his car all the way down to the South of Italy (11 hours drive from Venice), since there were some other pieces of furniture and household items that ended up in Calabria. Some were for my in-laws place down here. And some were for our house. Some don't match our taste at all. And some came in very handy actually. The rest we gradually return... The sofa just stayed.

It was clear from the beginning, that it does not fit in the living room. We placed it in the entrance, where people could sit down to put shoes on, or to pose their belongings while visiting. And if you look at it, its quiet cute, (seating space is 130cm / 52 inch). And if you look closer, it has two shells in-carved in the wooden frame. Beach Style! But the leopard print is definitely NOT going to stay! 

A new fabric needs to give the sofa a more modern look

A purple velvet would look elegant. But it is a summer house, and CC, my husband, did not want a warm fabric. 

Bold stripes, beach style? I was looking around at our local fabric outlet store. But I could not find any suitable stripes.

The entrance, where the sofa now is standing, we call "the Venetian Room", since Angelo had decided to paint the walls in Venetian red. And we have two Venetian paintings - guess where from? - From my mother-in-laws favorite antique shop in Marghera. Further, this room has not only red walls, it has a turquoise ceiling and a light blue walk through... complicated to explain, but it's a color folly.

In my earlier post, I told, how CC came fabric shopping with me. Just before the shop was closing, he passed by a grey fabric, that was displayed as a curtain. He stopped, and asked: "How about that?" - Yes, yes! I totally was with him. What a great idea. It neutralize and modernize the whole thing! It brings out the wooden frame, it reflects only colours we already have enough of - what a perfect solution. The fabric we have chosen, is not very thick, but it is a easy to handle polyester and therefor we get it at a super price too. It looks grey from far, but indeed it is a grey with a BLUE thread. Perfect!

I have photoshoped the sofa to visualize the greige upholstery.

The fabric is only 54 inches wide (137cm) and the sofa is 130cm long. 3 meter might be enough, but I am going to get 4 meter to be able to use it the other direction in case the material is too short.

Invitation to visit the attic with me

Come along with me upstairs to the attic, visit la mansarda...

Wait, what is new here :

We have installed a sliding door to be able to close the attic, in case we have a party or maybe guests staying up there. As the entrance before was so much smaler and even the stairs up here were so narrow, that Angelo had this stairs enlarged and this door intalled.

This lamp you have seen in my last post already: it is a simple round shaped wall (or ceiling) lamp of Murano glass. Above the lamp are wooden panels. (We might need to paint them white). They are here because we needed a path, a way to walk between the right and left part of the attic (as on the other side, the roof comes down very steep).

Ah, see, Angelo has already unpacked some of our furniture... well, these Shanghai style rocking deck chairs do not belong here (one floor down would be correct), but never mind. Have a seat.

Oh, look, an old chest from my husbands single household... not sure if it will remain here. But so far no other suggestion (as no other room his ready, ha ha !!!)

A new door ! Where is is leading to ?

To a bathroom ! Tonino is still at work.

Look, the bathroom is already finished !!!

The renovation process is so fast nowadays that I cannot keep pace with them on my blog.

I love these white rectangular tiles! And the turquoise colour that goes with them.

And here by tonight, there will be a tiny extra accent with a bit of Bisazza mosaic. I am even more curious than you, to see how my husband's idea will look (because we have to pay for that extra!!!)

And here ends the tour for today.

Preserving the entrance luster

The entrance luster - Part I

The only "interior" that came with the purchase of the house is a small old luster. As you can see in the pictures above and below it consists of a simple yellowish glass sphere and a wrought iron fitting. Nothing precious. Probably not even 'antique'. But special to me.

The small old luster is hanging in the entrance of our house. Althoug the house is called 'palazzo' in Italian, the entrance of the house is not an 'entrance hall' - it is a fair small entrance and this small luster fits perfectly here.

During the renovation work in the house last year, someone took the luster down. And as you can see it did not become prettier over the past three years. It became more rusty, got some paint on it and a lot of dust.

During our summer holidays we never really can go ahead with remodelling or renovation work, not even with much planning or choosing material as everything closes down in the South of Italy in the month of August.

But this rusty luster was in the storage room where we stayed. And one day I decided to not go to the beach and instead to do a tiny tiny restoration project : "preserving the entrance luster".

I cleaned the glass sphere and the wrought iron fitting and bought paint suitable for iron. The name of the paint was 'ferro battuto' (wrought iron) and looked almost black. However, it turned out a bit too grey. But I decided to leave it this way for now and to put it away, back into storage.

 

The entrance luster - Part II

This winter in Venice, my parents-in-law had a surprise for us: A luster !  Antique for sure and nicely elaborated. A flea market find from an antique market in the Veneto region. For the palazzo in Pizzo.

"But not for the entrance" I heard myself, the ungrateful daughter-in-law, saying.

"Molto bello, grazie , maybe for the dining area" I tried.

They were quiet disappointed. I gave up - with a smile - knowing my father-in-law, who probably will install this luster before our arrival in summer ...

flea market find -  to hang in our house, somewhere

Luster no. 2  is about 3 x bigger than luster no. 1. - Probably it would suit the entrance of a palazzo better than the small luster (although the entrance is small). But still I am attached to the first, the original one. It was the only interior object we got with the purchase of the house. And as we do a lot of remodelling I thought to at least preserve the entrance luster at its original spot, in the entrance. - What do you think ? Should I give the second luster a try ? And find another place for the 'original' luster ? Or vice versa ?

My husband loves antique shopping

A while ago, when we still lived in China, my husband was on a business trip to Europe. Over the weekend he went to see his parents in Venice, Italy. One of their favorite activities is "antique shopping". Sometimes they just stop by their friend's restoration warehouse in the industrial zone of Mestre to say hello and check the "new" arrivals and lately restored furniture. And sometimes they would drive to one of the monthly antique markets in the area.

Anyway, while I was not around, my husband found antique chairs and beds for the "palazzo". He bought four chairs which his father wants to refurbish himself. The "beds" were only header and footer for one or two beds.

Well, not a bad habit, isn't it ?!