All Because of a Sofa...

It all started with a s0fa...In fact the very purple sofa in the title area up above and shown more clearly below. I had already been a Design magazine junkie for years. I had to take a break from the subscriptions when I lived in Tokyo and Hong Kong but still managed to amass a collection of Chinese and Japanese Design magazines instead. When I came back to the states over a year ago, it somehow became a disease. I have spent more money than I can admit on design magazines, books, and publications. But the couch...that was my downfall. No one around me can understand my addiction to vintage chairs and sofas. It all started when I moved to San Francisco from Silicon Valley because of my job. My fiance and I found a suitable place and lucky for me, I had free reign with design and colors. Well...almost free reign. I had mutiny on my hands when I proposed black as a room color. In the end, I was able to paint the second bathroom black instead.

I'm not even sure how this all started myself. I started looking on Ebay and Craig's List for beautiful vintage pieces when I spotted what looked could be a fabulous couch if I had it redone. The sofa was 40-50 years old and had been sitting in this man's garage. It was virtually unusable - all the springs shot, dusty as heck, and it had the ugliest shade of green ever. Even the wood frame looked extremely shabby and extremely old-fashioned. I spent some time picking out the fabric and had the wood frame finished in ebony. I have something for tufted furniture. Definitely an understatement. Now this sofa is the star of my living room and I'm extremely proud of my first sofa that led me down the road of doom. Voila! My fab sofa in lilac and ebony finish. The problem was that I just couldn't stop. I continued to scour for more vintage pieces and re-did more of them. It is an addiction to say the least. The problem with pieces of furniture is that eventually, there isn't enough room to fit it all. Which eventually led to my conclusion that I really should pursue my dream of having a design store. Some day...