Pillow love

Sofa ordered. Now for some pillow talk.

some black and white @ West Elm

or a little more colourful @ CB2

or completely whimsical

via Etsy Shop

via Etsy Shop

or this one

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10 weeks to upholster the sofa means 10 weeks for pillow pondering ... oh I hope not ... luckily I'm pretty happy with these finds.

Turkish carpets

The Grand Bazaar, Over-Dyed carpets.

Over-dyed carpets were recently added to Anthropologie's rug collection and have long been around at ABC Carpet. As a huge investment. I had to go in and find out Turkey's take on this trend. Once we relocated the store on our second trip to the Grand Bazaar, Recip from Güney Carpet recognized us and was happy talk carpets. (post edit: I have now read up more on over dyed carpets and discovered that Istanbul was one of the first to do this, reclaiming stained carpets)

He had informed us that he sends many over-dyed carpets to Scandinavia countries right now. Since I am in love with Scandinavian design, this bit of information thrilled me.

Recip explained the process as:
1) shave the carpet.
2) sun dye the carpet.
3) apply and over dye the carpet.

They use vintage / old carpets for the process. The dye is not as dark as I saw on carpets @ Anthropologie, but that could merely be the lighting / photo. I am not sure. And although this is a beautiful carpet and I like that I can see the original design through the dye, I might like the colour to be even darker.

I also loved the colours and thin stripes of this carpet:

And the design and colours of this carpet:

But I was drawn mostly to the patch carpets, over-dyed pieces patched together. Gray, dark purple and yellow have been my colour motif for a year+.  I especially like the pink block with black design in this carpet pictured below. This carpet had it all.

A very old, unique patch carpet. This one was special for its smaller antique pieces and different piled patches.

Over-dyed gray, turquoise, yellow and pink.

Over-dyed large blue gray patch carpet. Very interesting!

The shop, Güney Carpet, beautiful woven art. Recip has three locations in the Grand Bazaar. The one shown below, another one that we had walked by and declined a sales persons' offer to look at their carpets. Remember, I wasn't there to buy? I just wanted to learn about the over-dyed carpets. So we had to find this one particular store. Carpet sales people LOVE to show off their inventory, it is after all, woven art. I do not like to bother people, but felt obliged to let him unroll a couple ... Can you see the layers of carpets on the floor ... hand selected for us to admire, de-shelved and spread out for our viewing.

And the third larger store, with even more inventory. At first Recip's assistant hauled a couple carpets from here to us, but then they decided it was better for us to go there. Recip told us that he had been in San Diego for a carpet convention. He was then contracted to mend a few carpets, which is his forte. He told us he could not believe that people let their dogs sit on the carpets...he had lots of mending to do. I didn't tell him I had a dog and three cats. I didn't even want to remind myself of that.

Oh look, what is this? What is in that package?

A world of white

One thousand whites to choose from, one cannot actually pick by colour alone.

I was using House Beautiful Paint Guide magazine for inspiration. The descriptions of each colour are helpful. Paint chip names are amusing, if not useful.  The categories, paint swabs and room pictures bring it all together.

The write-ups - "if you have a wall with a bow in it or a floor that has settled, this will make an old room feel graceful rather the brand new....." ~STRONG WHITE by Farrow & Ball.  Based on the write up, this was the one for my home. If I were choosing based on the name, Pocket Watch White would have been my pick, although what part of a pocket watch is white; I just think silver or gold.

A few months of flipping through this magazine, a half hour in the paint store w/ a handful of paint chips fanned out in front of me and a mind on the brink of bogglement, I declared I am no decorator I do not need to deconstruct and demystify each white in order to choose one. I made a quick gut decision, picked one that was not even written up in the magazine and headed to the counter.

This white had all the right traits. An old feel name that conjured depth and gracefulness. Not as bright as Brilliant White yet clearly superior to Super White. Not as reflective and glaring as Snow White, on a sunny, -40 degree day.  And cleaner then Calcium Carbonate White*. A french name and the right pigment to use both in my bathroom and for the white portion of my grey and white stripped wall in the living room.  And a back up paint chip in case I changed my mind on the way to the counter, Cotton Ball White.  Lucy was with me and she had already eaten the corner of a few paint papers. It was time to move on.

My pick, Chantily Lace by Benjamin Moore. Going with my gut, it was perfect. Until I got home and painted a wall.  A 180. It's no good. It won't work. Another project stopped before completed.  It's white alright. And it's beautiful. The problem, it outshines my clean, fresh and pure white tiles, a consideration that never occurred to me.

I have a bunch of interior doors that need a fresh coat of white paint. And my wall in my living room, the white stripe portion. So I can start a few new projects. And hire someone to finish them all off. I will have to pick another color for my bathroom. A darker wheat colour will work, that will allow my tiles to be the brightest in the bathroom.

* Calcium Carbonate White has never been used as a paint chip name as far as I know. But it's the WHITE that is in my profile picture, the white cliffs and travertines in Pamukkale, Turkey.  Maybe I should forget decorating and start naming paint chips, for the ironic sort.