CasaSugar -- Home sweet home.

Guess What This Handle Is Hiding?

casasugar — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:00:21 -0800

A modern, electrified staple found in every home hides behind this rustic iron handle. Can you tell me what's behind it?

How Would You . . .

casasugar — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 08:30:04 -0700

This set of four, brass-studded, Leather Bound Trunks ($15,000) likely once served as travel storage for a sophisticated lady on a worldly voyage like Angelina Jolie in Changeling. But, as these How Would Yous tend to go, I'm not interested in offering up suitcases to you. I want to know how you'd use these elegant antique suitcases in your home as décor. Would you use one as a coffee table? Stack them beside a reading chair as a side table? Turn them into planters? Hang them on the wall? Turn them into pet beds? Paint them? Fill them with old love letters? I know you can come up with a creative use for these ancient beauties. Tell me by commenting below!

What You're Wanting: A Room For This Vase

casasugar — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:00:49 -0700

I am absolutely in love with this Charles Catteau Deer Vase ($3,900). Created in 1925 in Belgium, its brilliant colors and crackled surface are decorated with four deer. Its unusual appearance is just begging for a room to be decorated around it, don't you think?
For this week's What You're Wanting, I want to know how you'd decorate a room to complement this vase. Would you use blues? What room would you choose? What type of textiles and furniture would work with this unique vase? Add all the finds to your ShopStyle Living stylebook, and create a look tagged with the phrase deer vase. Private message me if you have any questions. Oh, and as extra incentive, I'll give some Sugar schwag away to my favorite look!
Source

Crave Worthy: Antique Ebonized and Turquoise Silk Chairs

casasugar — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:00:01 -0700

I love a good plush seat, but sometimes I can't help but sacrifice comfort for good looks. And, that time is now. The Antique Ebonized and Turquoise Silk Chairs ($1,300 for pair) from Paris Hotel Boutique don't look one bit comfortable, but they're just so ravishing. I think it's the juxtaposition of the contemporary turquoise Dupioni silk with the 1900s ebonized and gilt design. I imagine the chairs were originally upholstered in a fussy floral, but the lack of pattern here really lets the chairs' beautiful shape shine. I'd set them at the heads of a dining table, paired with some basic black Louis XV chairs, or station one in a quiet hallway to provide a pop of color.

How Would You . . .

casasugar — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 08:30:00 -0700

This Wrought Iron Gate ($650) from Italy in the 1900s has clearly seen better days, and might detract from your home's curb appeal if you set it in front of your lawn. But despite its wear and tear, its slightly bent out of shape fleur-de-lys spires, missing pieces, and rusted exterior give it a visually interesting and much-loved architectural quality. So, for this challenge, I'd like you to tell me how you'd use it in (or outside of) your home, other than as a gate. Would you hang it up as wall décor? Would you lean it against a wall as a sculpture? Would you turn it into a dining table, using an iron base and a glass top? Would you paint it? Would you use it as a headboard? Hang lights from it as a chandelier? Tell me by commenting below!

How Would You . . .

casasugar — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 08:30:34 -0700

This Swedish Pier Mirror ($3,900) would bring a touch of shabby chic to any interior. Decorated with a frieze of molded swags of fruit and foliage, this mirror might look lovely in your entry in its current condition.

But let's not be boring, shall we? For this challenge, I'd like you to tell me how you'd liven up this piece. What would you use? Paint? Wallpaper? Mosaic tiles? Gold leaf? What type of objects or art would complement it? In which room do you imagine it hanging? Tell me by commenting below!

Crave Worthy: Jayson Vintage Chair and Ottoman

casasugar — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:00:00 -0700

I've never met a French furnishing I didn't like. The French are relentless purveyors of style, and they win me over again and again, be it with a Chanel frock or a Philippe Starck chair. The Jayson Home & Garden Vintage Chair and Ottoman ($2,995), seating from mid-20th century France reupholstered in dark gray linen, is no exception either. I love how this glamorous gilded Louis XV is juxtaposed with the masculine tone of the fabric. No, it's probably not the most comfortable chair and ottoman
on the block, but it would look darn good in my living room.

How Would You . . .

casasugar — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:09:35 -0700

This Silver Leaf Decorative Object (contact dealer for price) is eye-catching even in this photo, with its drab gray background. Made in the 1950s, it stands three feet tall and two feet wide, so it's bigger than you might expect.
So for this challenge, I'd like you to tell me how you'd use this unique sculptural object. Would you use it as art? Hang anything from it? What room do you imagine it taking center stage in? Tell me by commenting below!

How Would You . . .

casasugar — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 05:30:45 -0700

This folky, colorful game board — for God-knows-what game — was originally used in 19th century America and will cost you a whopping $2,250. If I wanted to play a board game, I'd go for a round of Scrabble, honestly. But obviously, the appeal of this piece for many is its antiquity. The colors are beautiful, though, and it seems to be in great condition.
So, for this challenge, I'd like you to tell me how you'd use this antique game board in your home. Would you turn it into a table? Use it as a tray? A shelf? Simply use it as décor? Turn it into a headboard? A cabinet door? Have its pattern printed onto tiles? Tell me by commenting below! Bonus points for anyone who can figure out what game the board is for.

In the News: Unwanted Heirlooms

casasugar — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:15:24 -0700

In the New York Times story "The Tyranny of the Heirloom," writer Joyce Wadler explores the idea of the unwanted family inheritance. Melodie Bryant, a New York composer whom Wadler interviews, for example, inherited a portrait of her Great-Great-Great-Uncle Ivins, even though she had no desire to hang the painting in her tiny Chelsea apartment. Add to this a moving accident, which ripped the canvas and cost Bryant $3,000 in repair costs, and you can understand why this portrait became a wall hanging you'd avert your eyes from.

In the article, Wadler writes,

Ambivalence and guilt, it seems, are central elements of furniture inheritance, the anchoring pieces around which everything is organized, like the sofa in a living room. Barry Lubetkin, a psychologist and the director of the Institute for Behavior Therapy in Manhattan, has observed this in a number of patients living with inherited furniture they hate. It’s an unhealthy setup, in which people become “slaves to inanimate objects,” he says. “Once you’re defining it as something you can’t get rid of, you’re not in control of your life or your home."

Of course, you probably know that my philosophy for decorating and design goes something along the lines of "less is more." That doesn't mean that I'm not living with some inherited pieces, but luckily, thus far, all of the pieces are ones that I love.

Have you been saddled with any unwanted heirlooms? Tell me about it in the comments below.

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times