CasaSugar -- Home sweet home.

Home Library: Found Style

casasugar — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:30:10 -0700

Sometimes I like to revisit books that may be oldies but are definitely goodies, like Amy and David Butler's Found Style, published back in 2003. Since it's also prime season for antiquing and garage sales, it seemed only appropriate to introduce you all to a book that offers sensible, inspired advice on integrating "found" objects into your home. Amy Butler, whose fabric designs I love, brilliantly combines garage sale $1 finds with midcentury furniture, Pottery Barn accessories, and practical, Ikea pieces in this book.

Using simple guidelines, such as buying pieces that serve a purpose, taking your time to integrate your new finds, and focusing your design on your personality and needs for your home, Butler, along with her husband, document rooms in various houses (and gardens) that are both elegant and practical. With full-color photographs by Colin McGuire, the book is absolute eye candy for design junkies, and with the Butlers' sensible advice woven throughout the text, rather guilt-free candy at that.

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Guess Who's Been Looking to Acquire Antiques?

casasugar — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:30:26 -0700

A certain rocker/blogger's female companion was spotted shopping at Naga Antiques in New York, which specializes in Japanese screens, bronzes, ceramics, porcelains, lacquer, sculpture, and furniture, presumably for her home. Do you know who it is?

This Just In: Jayson Home & Garden European Flea Market Launches Online

casasugar — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:00:00 -0700

Today marks the launch of the Jayson Home & Garden European Flea Market online. Thanks to the keen eyes over at Jayson, these rare finds — a mix of timeless European furniture and lighting, antique prints and oil paintings, gilded mirrors, hotel silverware, and more —have made their way from Europe and beyond to Chicago’s Lincoln Park. The market has been running locally there since April 18^th, but that's no fun for non-Illinois folk, so I’m ecstatic to see it all just a click away in my browser. Abbe over at Jayson Home & Garden was nice enough to share photos of the market, which you can get a peek at below.

To see the rare finds I’m craving the most,

Casa Query: What Antiques Do You Own?

casasugar — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:00:06 -0700

While integrating Ikea products into your home may be easy and affordable, they're not the most durable products you can buy, in terms of both style and quality. If you're lucky, you have a mix of high-quality new pieces as well as antiques to balance out and give a more grown-up look to your less expensive pieces. Although some antiques, especially if you've inherited them, may not be the pieces you swoon over while flipping through your favorite shelter magazine, they're often classics and quite resilient, since they've held up for so long already.

Antiques can be some of the most unique furnishings you own as well. As much as I love me a West Elm coffee table, I know all of my friends have seen it in the monthly mail-order catalog that shows up at their homes like clockwork. So tell me, what antiques do you own?
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Need Antique Hardware?

casasugar — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:00:57 -0800

If you live in an older home, you know that matching period-appropriate door knobs, drawer handles, and other important hardware is often a challenge.

Enter the Charleston Hardware Company , which for the past eight years has specialized in antique hardware sales and restoration. Since their customers requested large numbers of matching pieces, they began collecting original antique patterns and in 2003 even began reproducing them, utilizing the same techniques from over 100 years ago.

The company, which is located in Charleston, South Carolina, features four foundries, a lock maker, a glass maker, and a ceramics maker and plater. The company offers antique hardware restoration including stripping paint, cleaning, polishing, replating, repairing, and rekeying locks. They also stock spindles, set screws, and all the parts and pieces needed to restore an old house.

For some of their beautiful hardware, just check the gallery below.

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How Would You . . .

casasugar — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 08:00:34 -0800

This circa-1775 Irish silver cake ring ($7500) was crafted by John Craig, and is obviously more money than most people would ever spend on a cake ring (or most household accessories). However, we're not interested in using this item as a cake ring. If you'll remember, the last few How Would You posts, that's not how this Casa post works. Instead, I'm asking you to think outside the home-decorating box and find alternate uses for traditional home accents and furniture pieces.

How would you rework this antique cake server so it serves a different decorating or practical function in your home? Leave a comment below and let me know where you'd put this ornate piece.

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Trend Alert: Suzani

casasugar — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 07:00:24 -0800

In its most general sense, the Uzbek word "suzani" means needlework. However, most suzani lovers associate the word with the intricate, beautiful, and colorful embroidery work made by women in the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan.

To hear more about the history (and future) of suzani textiles, as well as to see some great suzani products, just

Shabby Chic Double-Wide

casasugar — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:45:46 -0700

I just stumbled upon the Kentucky double-wide mobile home of Theresa and Craig Smith, that was featured in Country Living, and I am utterly in awe of it. The Smiths run an antiques business and travel most of the year, selling at shows around the country, and have decorated their home with what they've found along the way. Their 2,016-square-foot home is chock full of salvaged materials and antiques, and is, to say the least, very inspiring.

It's the epitome of shabby chic, and certainly challenges the negative stereotypes associated with mobile homes. I'm still baffled somehow at why this couple is living in a double-wide; I guess it makes sense for a couple that travels most of the year, though. The beautiful images speak for themselves, so click below to get the full tour.

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This Just In: Paris Antique Dealer Closing, Sotheby's NY to Hold Huge Auction

casasugar — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 05:06:45 -0700

According to the New York Times,
one of the most prominent antiques dealers in Paris, Ariane Dandois, is going out of business after 34 years and Sotheby's New York is holding the blow-out sale of her inventory. The sale of Dandois's sleekly modern three-floor Right Bank gallery and her warehouse on the Left Bank will take place on October 25 and 26.

The stock of over 1500 pieces consists primarily of furniture and other decor from France, Italy, Russia, Scandinavia, Spain, Germany, and England, particularly the neo-classical period of the late 18th and early 19th century. She also maintains a large selection of Asian and Indian Art, and Japanese screens.

To learn more about the auction and to see a handful of magnificent antiques,

Definition: Retro

casasugar — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 11:28:00 -0700

An adjective used to describe either home furniture and accessories that were made in the past or new products that evoke past styles. Though no distinct time period is associated with "retro," the term is typically applied to designs from the 1940s to 1970s, as opposed to much older antiques.

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