Classic Miid-century Furniture Reissues

Great news for fans of classic American furniture by designer and manufacturer Harvey Probber. Until now his furniture has been out of production since the 80s, the only way to find his modular sofa has been the occasional sighting on ebay or 1stdibs. This Fall, M2L, a New York distributor of authorized modern furnishings catering to the design trade, has been licensed to produce new editions, including the 1947 Sling Chair above and the iconic 1972 Deep Tuft sectional below. 

Prices for the Deep Tuft Sofa start at $15,000 in plush fabric for a 5 piece or $19,000 in leather. It may seem a lot but this furniture is so well made it will last a lifetime. 

Here at The Cool House we inherited a 1968 12-piece sectional sofa that's still as comfortable and sturdy as ever-although it was reupholstered four years ago. As Probber once said "the true test of great design is time".

Other pieces to be reintroduced include sleek, wood wrapped casegoods and seating from the Architectural Series that were originally produced inFalls River MA in the 1960s.

It's been 10 years since Probber's death when an retrospective of his work was held  at Baruch College in Manhattan. it's certainly time to give these gorgeous designs another, closer look.

Perfect Pillows Update

Six weeks or so ago the big blue sectional got a major dose of pretty when these gorgeous pillows arrived. They have been much admired but the Awesome Designer thought we could go the extra step and add some more gold tones for that unique touch.


So with one medium-sized remnant and some real magic (plus exact measurements and a great eye) she produced these four fabulous cushions. Absolutely inspired!

Big Blue Sectional Reveal

Ta-da! Drum roll please for the stunning reveal of the formerly pink super-sectional sofa


After: Original to the house 1968 Harvey Probber sectional re-upholstered with Kravetsmart in blue chenille by awesome designer Julie Napoleon Brown and her team.


New rug is Chinese Chippendale design by Windsor Smith, also through Kravet, a 9' x 9' square terracotta silk and wool blend with a gold design and border. It's amazing what an appropriately sized rug does for the scale of the room. The sectional floats on the rug just as if it were made to measure.


Before: The sectional in its original rose pink fabric, faded by 40 years of sun streaming through those huge windows (and a little pet-related wear and tear); the too-tiny 5' by 8' rug we'd placed in front of the sofa as a temporary solution five years before. The pillows were hiding a huge split in the seat cushion that had been there for longer than that, which we'd originally covered with reindeer hide! Just out of view is a pink throw covering another hole and more than a few cat claw marks


During the re-covering phase the rug became a patch of carpet cast adrift in a sea of parquet. At this point I knew I had to go rug shopping. I can't say enough good things about the whole rug shopping experience at Kravet - they also have a fun blog Inspired Talk that is, as the name suggests, full of designer tips, resources and drool-worthy photos.


My greatest thanks, however, go to designer Julie Napoleon Brown without whom the project would never have gotten started, let alone turned out so spectacularly. She spent time trying to make an off-center sofa fit more cohesively in a trapezoid room; here she is considering the configuration of the 12-piece sectional


and shown here pondering the choice of pillow fabrics.


She tolerated my control issues as I vetoed swatch after swatch and sample after sample, then had to repeat the process with The Guy, who doesn't respond well to imposed change (unless he is doing the imposing) but in the end, as you can see from the photo, is delighted with the redone great room.


As Julie says, it needs a punch of the orange on the pillows and a few well-chosen accessories, which will come eventually (I can generally sneak one thing past The Guy each quarter), but for the moment - and most importantly - it has been cat tested and fully approved.

More Great Room before and after photos here

Facelift*

A desire to get things moving on the decorating front, plus a free five minutes on a Saturday morning prevailed over the sensible solution of waiting for two strong guys to come along and move the blue sofa out of the great room and into my office. Lift and slide was the answer - and muscle power, baby!


It fits perfectly on the wall opposite my desk, perfectly that is for a random cat - in this case Hermes - to take a nap


or for me to lounge, and work my way through that stack of magazines I haven't gotten round to reading. Somewhere in that pile is the final edition of Metropolitan Home...

*Borrowing this title from a comment by Why S in yesterday's post

Quick swap

I edged the blue sofa out and replaced it with the crimson Steelcase chairs the Awesome Designer picked up for me. You would not believe how much it lightens up the room.


before


after


The blue sofa is currently taking a break in the empty great room on its way to my office, which will happen as soon as I have taken my Incredible Hulk pills and got some super-strength in my arms and back or when Vez comes for the Holidays, whichever happens first - that thing is dang heavy!

Darning the Sofa

The sofa. Gorgeous pink 1968 sectional. Let's get in a little closer, shall we


The damage. This isn't the worst, I couldn't bring myself to show the internets the worst bits that I had to darn to keep the batting in place.




The culprits. Junior cats Maya (top) and Hermes. Butter wouldn't melt, right?

They're selling my sofa on ebay

Well, not my sofa but it's the same make (Harvey Probber) and size as my sofa but it's in orange vinyl. Not as pretty as my pink beauty but still a great mid-century modular sofa. And it does have the advantage that you can just wipe off the animal fur and cat sick!