European Country Antiques

Let's take a tour of European Country Antiques in the Huron Village

area on Cambridge's west side.

The store is at 146 Huron Avenue near the corner of Concord Avenue.

Huron Village is primarily a residential area but within a few blocks of this

intersection are some of Cambridge's finest independently owned shops.

But once you step through the door, you're in a different place and time...

a place that embraces you with its warm honey-toned woods, beautiful

painted antiques just waiting to tell you their personal stories.

The shop's website says the shop captures the authenticity of

true European countryside shops, the ones stacked to the limit with

furniture, where every time you move one piece you discover another.

Many of the antiques are in their original form.  Oh, how I wish I

had a place for this large cabinet!

Other pieces, such as this kitchen island, have been built from

reclaimed antique furniture pieces into modern forms.  There is storage

on one side, room to tuck a few bar stools on the other, all capped

off with a butcher block top with tons of patina.

There a lots of great lamps, these made from old balusters...

...urns and other architectural fragments...

...lots of great vintage and antique accessories...

...wonderful rustic tables....

...and unique case pieces to display your finest wares...

...all with incredible details.

This is another favorite piece.

A great Scottish chest of drawers.

And a nice selection of mirrors.

This trestle table is from one  of the store's custom lines.

Their tables come in two different woods, three different leg styles

and in a variety of finishes.

If you've been searching for that one special piece to finish of a room and you

don't find it here, talk to store manager Angela, or owner Ed Stuart, about the

possibility of making a custom piece designed just for you.

European Country Antiques is about a mile from Harvard Square.  On a nice day,

I would walk down Brattle Street to see all the old mansions, particularly the Longfellow

House where George Washington lived for a short time during the Revolutionary war.

Take a right on Sparks Street and walk to the end which is Huron Avenue.  ECA is on the

right just past Concord Avenue.

But I would drive so you can visit all the great shops along Huron Avenue.  There were

several that were now to me so I can't wait to get over there and explore again.

Be sure to tell them I sent you!

European Country Antiques

146 Huron Avenue

Cambridge, MA  02138

www.ecountryantiques.com

A Perfect Gray Floor

Just a quick note to let you know I haven't forgotten about you.

I've just been really, really busy.

 

  I did get a few coats of paint on the bedroom floor and I'm really happy with

how it turned out. I used Allflor paint tinted to Benjamin Moore's Gray Owl.

I had wanted to use oil paint to get a really

high-gloss finish but I didn't want to deal with the smell, the mess

or the few days' drying time so I went with latex.

I have to admit, I love the duller finish.

It's like the patina is built in.

 

You may also notice a new chest. I've always wanted a

Gustavian piece and when I saw one at Darby Road,

I knew it was coming home with me.

 

I have to thank Google for this piece.

I've been saving up my Adsense checks to use for splurges

and this is my first one.  Since I've added this Gustavian piece you

might anticipate which direction the room is going in but I hope you're wrong.

 

I hope to shake it up a little bit by mixing in some modern and some industrial pieces. 

Trompe L'oeil Bamboo Chest

It was love at first sight but it's taken several weeks to get everything cleaned out

for the yard sale and this new gem moved in to place.

I love September.  Gone are the air conditioners and fans in the windows.

September provides cool nights and fresh, dry afternoon breezes that let us

open the windows to get a little wind in our sails.

It's the perfect time to clean out, freshen up and make a few changes

around the house before we're stuck inside for a long, cold winter.

This circa 1880s English chest from Darby Road has found a new home

in the guest bedroom which is where I've kicked off my shoes

each night since I started work on the master bedroom.  

This narrower chest allows me to fully open the door

which makes the room feel much larger.

Transforming a simple chest with a painted bamboo design like this would be

a great DIY project so I thought I'd show some of the details close up

so you can copy them.  Should we have a contest?

The design uses three shades of gray and black.

Painting the straight lines would be a biggest challenge.

I've chosen a few sea-inspired items to go on the chest.

The antique Chinese bowl is the perfect place for a watch and few coins to

keep them from the paws of bad kitties entertained by pushing things

over the edge in the middle of the night.

A pulls are wooden and painted with the same treatment.  Their surface

is "polished" by years of use almost making them look porcelain.

Detail of the ogee edge and the simple gray line on the side.

Let me know if you undertake this faux bamboo technique.

I love to see and share it.

TV Stand

I might loose a few people on this one.  From what I've seen on the many blogs I've visited, women seem to like the TV hidden, men seem to want its presence celebrated.  I reveal my solution with the understanding that no one will love this idea.  But let me back up.

About 10 years ago, I had a loft apartment in downtown Boston.  All of my furniture was modern was very large.  When I bought my first condo in another Greek Revival house in Cambridge, I slowly replaced all of my modern furniture with smaller scale, traditional and contemporary pieces.  The TV stand was one of the last surviving pieces because I just didn't have a good solution for the TV.

I thought I would end up with something like this console table.  This is actually the end of an antique table that's been cut off and attached to the wall.  It's a little too shabby for my taste but I thought if it were repainted in a dark gray it could work.  I just couldn't figure out how to add a shelf for the DVR and DVD player below it.  Another consideration is the cold air return to furnace is right where the TV sits, so I needed something that was open.

I really didn't want to mount it on the wall because my walls have almost no studs and adding the structure necessary to support the TV would have required another construction project.  I also tend to like to move things around and hanging it on the wall was little too permanent.

I thought I was going to have something custom made until I walked into Smith-Zukas Antiques in Maine and there it was.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I introduce the Entertainment Easel.

This old artist's easel seemed to satisfy most of my requirements.  It fits the space, is shallow enough not to block the door, is open on the bottom to not restrict air flow to the furnace and it's just the quirky, one-of-a-kind thing I love.

The shelf on which the TV sits is covered in old oil paint.

I love this surface.

I had the easel slightly modified to add a place for the sound bar just below the screen, and another shelf for the cablebox/DVR and the DVD player.

The new work was stained to look like it was always there.  Just needs a few paint splashes.

So there you have it.  My own unique solution for the TV.  It may not be for everyone but I love it and I love that it's genuine.

Shortly after I bought it was waiting for it be modified, I was on the Anthropologie site and found they're selling a paint splattered easel.

In my opinion, the spattering of paint isn't something you can really fake.  It will just have a quality that just doesn't ring true.  It's just not quite right.

It's also $2100.  Yikes!

Love it or hate it?  Sound off!

Louis XVI Chairs: Strip Search

Today was a snow day.  I don't want to talk about it.   Every time I do, people leave me comments about how it's 70 degrees here, 85 degrees there or that they're sitting on the beach; they're picking their first crop of snowdrops or planting their sweet peas.  So I'm just going to sit here in my igloo and be happy.

I wanted a diversion from shoveling and painting windows so I decided to strip the Louis XVI chairs I bought on ebay and search for some inspiration for their makeover.  The welting must have been glued on with gorilla glue and there must have been a thousand staples  in the upholstery.  It took me a few hours with a screwdriver and pliers to get the job done.

And here he is stripped down.  Isn't it a huge improvement?  They remind me...

...of the Louis XVI chair from Wisteria found here.

I tend to want to change paint colors, drapes, duvet covers, pillows, etc., every few years so I'd like to keep them fairly neutral.

via houzz.com

I'm thinking that a medium gray with a neutral linen would look great with the new wood and zinc pedestal table.  But I'd love to put some pattern on that opening on the back.

via houzz.com 

I've been thinking that I'd like to use a light with a more contemporary drum shade over the table.  Except for the table, I really love this room.  I love the light, the bookcases, the window seat and I even find the lucite chairs with grain sack cushions an interesting juxtaposition.  I really don't dislike the table, but it might be nicer for my imaginary summer home in Spruce Head, Maine.

via houzz.com

The metallic finish is interesting and I love the combination of gray and brown (in the floor).

The boys love them too!  

I think I'll go get some paint this weekend if I can get out of my igloo.  A few light glazes might be all they need.

Any suggestions?

(To Mommy of 3:  Thank you for all your great comments!  You don't have an e-mail address attached to your profile so I have no way to respond to you.  If you'll leave me a comment with your e-mail, or send me an e-mail to urbancottageblog@gmail.com I'll be happy to get back to you.)

A Tale of Two Settees

Okay, I know they're chairs but how could I pass up such a good pun?  

Actually, they're not even chairs; they're allegedly fauteuils in the Louis XVI style.  Who knew?  And, actually, the Dickens' story is a pretty good reference to use for these two pairs of very differently priced chairs.  

The ones above were ones that caught my attention when I was publicly brainstorming new ideas for my living room.  (And thank you all for being so kind!)

As I kept looking, I found a lot of variations of the style but I particularly like the one with the oval back. I found another pair that's very similar but the price is VERY different.

Let's take a look.

The former pair is stripped of their paint and have muslin on the seats making them ready to upholster.  This pair is painted and has an ivory damask that seems really outdated to me.  Or at least a little too Petit Trianon for my taste.

Let's take a closer look at the two side by side to compare apples to apples.

Pretty close, huh?  The form of each seems almost identical.  The wood version has a carved ribbon detail at the top of the oval back.  The shapes in the arms seem to be the same.  The one on the left might have a little more padding but it could just be the lighting (and that's fixable).  The front of the seat on the painted version might have a little more of a curve to it.

Again, they look pretty similar from the back.  The oval back of the painted version may not be as graceful.  And the piece that connects the back to the seat is crafted a little differently.

The shape of the arm is the same but it's clear the one on the left has more detail carved into it.  The painted version has that spattered effect that I guess is supposed to give the finish more depth.  This one must be a newer reproduction.

The carving on the top of the leg on the left version seems nicer but the shape of the design is pretty similar.  The shape of the leg is pretty close too except the little bulb at the bottom of the leg.  I think I like the shape of the painted leg better.

Maybe to the trained eye the differences stand out a little more but to my eye, they look remarkably similar.  One is an antique (alledgedly turn of the century) and the other I would guess is '50s?  '60s?  My feeling is I'm not trying to create a museum, I'm trying to create a look.  From my experience, I like to change things up every few years so a reproduction that I'm not afraid of painting, might make more sense.

So are you ready for the price difference?

This version is $2300 cheaper!  

They'll be on a Greyhound bus making their way from Newport Beach, CA to Boston sometime soon.  Obviously this set will take a little more work to fit my vision but the price was great!

And I think it'll be a fun makeover.