Article and Video: Nancy's home tour

Amy Hadley of Hey Now, Whoa Now, spent a morning with designer Nancy Mims and put together this fun video of Nancy giving a tour of her Mod Green Pod filled home and discussing her design inspirations. Enjoy this and other great webisodes on Amy's great blog!

Inspiration: plum blossoms

Oh, SPRING.  **sigh**

Sunday

MGP on d*s

Check out today's design*sponge to see my sofa makeover on the "Before & After" feature!

Thanks, Grace!

Nancy's chair: I. LOVE. IT.

I love it so much that I've had a hard time getting out of it.   But I finally removed myself from it long enough to take some more photos:

And now I'm back in my favorite chair.

Nancy's chair: sneak preview

Nancy's chair: Fun at the laundromat

I was happy when Lizzie and Amanda said that I could save the old feather cushion for my chair.  I was even happier when they told me I could wash and dry the whole thing, and can do so periodically to keep it clean.  So I zipped off to the laundromat to use the oversized machines.

I also learned a nice trick for drying and fluffing the feathers in the dryer:  a few tennis balls!  (Yes, I got some strange looks.)

Nancy's chair: update!

My chair is almost ready to come home!  

After a long but fruitful search for organic cotton batting, Lizzie and Amanda hand-tied the original springs, returned some of the original materials to their place, then added luxuriously soft organic cotton batting and muslin, then began attaching the fabric.  Last is the piping and the cushion. 

If you are an upholsterer or you are working with an upholsterer and wish to make your project as organic and green as possible, please email us at info@modgreenpod.com or call us at 512.524.5196 and we can help you source some US grown and garnetted organic cotton batting to pair with your Mod Green Pod fabric!  We had a very difficult time sourcing it and are happy to help you order some.  It's incredibly soft and plush.

Nancy's chair: The Chair Stripped Down by her Upholsterers, Even

(sorry, Marcel)

Nancy's chair: "Mid-strip at high noon"

"Mid-strip at high noon on Wednesday" was what Kallie at Spruce told me I should check out if I wanted photos of my chair being disassembled by Amanda and Lizzie. Luckily, it was a gorgeous day, so I found them in the lovely space behind their studio, in the early stages of the process.

I was amazed by how many layers were under the fabric: cotton batting, cotton muslin, horsehair tied to burlap, more batting and individual metal coils tied together with twine.

Here are Lizzie and Amanda pulling the horsehair from the burlap, careful to save the horsehair in a sheet for reuse:












I loved seeing the coils tied together and wondered who had tied these together many, many years ago:


















































After seeing this process, I have newfound respect for well-made furniture and upholsterers!

Nancy's chair: Decisions to make about the chair innards

When Lizzie and Amanda peeked inside my chair, they found the sturdy original stuffing, coils, horsehair and down, all in great shape.  They told me that the down cushion can be washed at a laundromat and tossed into a dryer with a few tennis balls to fluff it up again.  The coils look great and they give the piece good structure.  But the decision to keep or toss the horsehair was left to me, so I dove into a research project on the pros and cons of horsehair and here are the highlights.

While some people are allergic to horsehair, others say the allergies are either to horse dander on actual horses or contact allergies where skin makes contact with the hair.  Many mattress makers promote horsehair as the finest material anyone can have in a mattress or piece of furniture.  The hairs are stiff and hollow and provide unparalleled firmness while acting as insulators and keep the stuffing dry.  And apparently, Angelina Jolie sleeps on a $65,000 mattress made of horsehair.  Okay, that last bit of info just proves that Google can lead us to too much information on any topic.

So in the name of historical integrity, the awesome weirdness of having furniture containing horsehair, the green bonus of not disposing of the old stuffing, and totally buying into a claim that horsehairs act as "little air conditioners," I'm going to stick with the original innards.  Next, I'll post pics of said innards as we begin to take the chair apart.  Fun!

  

Nancy's chair: I found it!

I found the most amazing chair this weekend: 

After I bought it (at an amazing price of $59 at Corner Collector's Market in Austin) I realized why it seemed so perfect when I saw it: it's almost identical to one of the chairs in our Room Creator.  Weird coincidence?

The shape is great, the details in the wood are similar to some of the scrolling motifs in some of my designs, and it's incredibly comfy.  The fabric is worn but overall, the chair is in good condition.  

It will be perfect in the raspberry colorway of Wee Jubilee, don't you think?

 

Nancy's chair: update!

Just thought I'd post an update on my chair reupholstery project.  

For the past few weeks, I have been to several of my favorite vintage shops in town and found a few possible candidates, including a sleek Danish modern piece and a fussy, tufted Victorian number from the late 1800s.  Both were almost perfect, but I'll take another pass through the same shops this week, knowing that they are constantly restocking with their latest finds, to see if THE chair has arrived yet.

Once I have a chair, I'll be turning it over to the pros at Spruce for the reupholstery job.  I've been in their gorgeous shop and seen their work in person and I'm really impressed.  Lizzie and Amanda have agreed to let me document the process for the blog and I can't wait to begin working with them.  Together, we hope to demystify the process of working with an upholsterer. 

In recent years, I've had a few other things reupholstered by Under Cover Upholstery (phone: 512.371.7815) in Austin and am SUPER impressed by their work and can definitely recommend them, as well.  Co-owner Sabrina Stewart did a fantastic job on this chair using Mod Green Pod's Atticus print:

This actually brings up an interesting question that we occasionally hear from our customers:  How do I find an upholsterer?  Mod Green Pod plans to add a listing of upholsterers, by region, on our website at some point, but until then, my best advice is to ask around for suggestions in your area.  Start with friends who have reupholstered pieces that you admire, or inquire on a neighborhood listserve.  Call a local home textile shop and ask if they have any recommendations.  If you have some names and are not quite sure about that shop's reputation, see if you can drop by and have a look at the upholsterer's work.  

If you have any questions about how to work with an upholsterer or you are an upholsterer who is interested in working with Mod Green Pod, please email me at info@modgreenpod.com.

Re-imagine 2009

I can’t believe that we are already one week into the new year. What are those resolutions again? This year, to give my resolutions a theme (and to help remember them) I added new “re” words to the old green mantra, “reduce, reuse, recycle.”

reinvent
rejuvenate
re-imagine
revive
reinvigorate
reorganize
REDECORATE
REFURBISH
REUPHOLSTER

Each new year, after I pack away the holiday decorations, my house always feels awkward and lacking, so I enthusiastically throw myself into a redecoration project. Sometimes it’s just a matter of reorganizing furniture or artwork, finding a prominent spot and therefore reviving an old knick knack, or refurbishing my ever-changing assortment of brightly colored throw pillows.

This year, after accomplishing all of the above, something still seemed missing. Looking around at our furniture, my husband pointed out that we lack a great reading chair. That’s it!

Reinvigorated, my 2009 redecoration project will become a quest for the prefect vintage chair (back to the mantra: reuse and recycle) then I will reupholster it in my favorite Mod Green Pod fabric. I will be posting before and after photos as soon as I chose my chair. Join me by sending us photos of your Mod Green Pod projects, too!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Nancy