Thursday, 7 October 2010

The green lounge

We have bought a GREEN lounge! Yes you heard it right, a GREEN lounge, and I'm not talking about it's eco friendly credentials either. It was only after we left the store that I started thinking... I haven't seen many green lounges around. 
 
Why is that?
Have I made a mistake?
 
I started to worry that my Mad Men fuelled obsession with all things retro had compelled me to turn our Edwardian, classically styled lounge room into a 50's den. That would kind of be ok, I guess, but the lounge itself isn't really 50's shaped. It was purchased purely with the aim of providing us with somewhere comfortable, cosy, and warm to sit. Its a big lounge. I want depth. I'm not interested in shallow sofas. If your seat doesn't meet the backs of my knees, or even better, the backs of my calves, I'm not interested. I feel strongly about this. You would too if you have been sitting on a park bench covered in leather trying to masquerade as a lounge for the last 4 London winters. No, I really didn't care about the look of the thing, but I did care about the colour, a contradiction? Maybe, but that's the way it was. I think I felt if the lounge was the right colour, it didn't really matter what it looked like, it would 'go'. So it needed to 'go' with  -
  • A medium shade of brown leather - its nice and soft looking (very deceptive),
  • Dark wooden furniture (bookshelf, chest of drawers, side tables, coffee table, old-fashioned-oval-framed-mirror, etc),
  • And mid brown, wooden, parquet floor.
Basically, a lot of brown.
 
The naturalist in me, immediately thought of trees - GREEN! Green will go great. My husband agreed, coming up with grass and tree trunks - "Grass and tree's always look good don't they?" Yes, I agreed wholeheartedly, but at the same time wondered why he had thought of grass and not the leaves for the green component?
 
Green and brown... I started to wonder about green and brown. Weren't there a lot of brown and green kitchens in the 70s? You know the sort I mean? I keep getting flashes of the Brady Bunch. This could be bad. 

The colour wasn't the only decision, there was the grade of fabric, and the fabric type itself. Decisions my mum would take weeks over, with swatches all over the house, I was left to make in 20 minutes before rushing to my upholstery class (No, I'm not going to be upholstering myself a lounge anytime in the foreseeable future, I am still working on a bed frame, and the next project is a small armchair - baby steps, baby steps). And then there were the various shades of green, from zesty limes to dark, foresty shades. Ours is somewhere in the middle, closer to zest than forest.

I have another 24 hours to ruminate over this before my 'change-your-mind-period is up. If anyone reads this - tell me what you think. Reassurance will be most welcome!

5 comments:

  1. Hi hon - my mum has a green sofa and it's really nice. It really depends on the shade I reckon. I wasn't at all convinced when she bought hers but it totally works! I think you have a good eye for colour so your instincts will be fine! - Claire

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  2. Claire! I didnt know you had a blog! Consider yourself followed. Thanks for your words of support. I think i am going to stick with it! Eeek!

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  3. I've known 2 lovely green lounges in my life - one a genuine 60's thing, tweedy woolen fabric, with gorgeous wooden arms; and a huge, eat-you-up forest green cord one.
    I love green.
    Do it!
    x

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  4. Green lounge suites rock! My friend Li-Ann has a gorgeous settee (they have to call it that as her husband is Scottish) and it is huge, soft and comfortable. Took a lot of decision making to get the right shade of green though, although they didn't have any other colours to fit in with.

    Here's the photo album showing the settee and its dramatic arrival (they had to take an entire window out and get it up one storey. Hope the link works...

    http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32052&id=516402099

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  5. Thanks for all the reassurance guys! We have stuck with it, no turning back now. It will be gracing our flat with its presence in about 8 weeks time - very exciting. Will definitely post some photos when it arrives.
    MT - we had a guy come and measure up our doorway and general access in the flat so hopefully we don't need to winch it up through a window too! The link didn't work unfortunately, but i remember Li-Ann and thought she had good taste, so must be a good decision!

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