One Room Challenge – Week 4 – How To Select Furniture

It’s Week 4 of House Beautiful and Calling It Home‘s One Room Challenge and we’re talking about upholstery!

If you’re just joining us, let me quickly recap. I’m Lori Evans, a designer with 6 weeks to design and install a room. I’ll be documenting the whole process with you, along with 200+ designers all over the country. You can find updates every Thursday here on my blog. Thank you to House Beautiful for the sponsorship and Calling it Home for creating this amazing event.  The room we’re working on is a client’s former Sunroom. We are planning to revamp it completely and give them a place to relax, read or just hang out. Here is the overall plan and inspiration.

So, back to the matter at hand. Ordering furniture, particularly upholstery, can be downright scary. It’s expensive, big and can go wrong in a heartbeat. There are just too many options, to be honest. This fabric, that fabric…this trim, that trim. Ahh! Well, I have a plan to help!

My rule of thumb is this: THE BIGGER THE INVESTMENT, THE MORE CLASSIC THE SELECTION. What does this mean? The more you spend on something, the more timeless it should be. You can add more interest with accessories, pillows, etc that don’t require major bucks.

For this small Sunroom, the main focus will be an oversized chaise lounge. It will serve as a place to relax, read and unwind. Sticking to my rule of thumb, it will be upholstered in a neutral fabric. We will then go back and add some interest with pillows and a throw.

The piece we are planning to use is the Baldwin Chaise by Ballard Design. It’s big and comfy and will work just perfectly in the room.

Baldwin Chaise by Ballard, starting at $1299

The question is, what fabric? Ballard has a handy dandy tool on their site that allows you to “see” the piece of furniture in each of their fabrics. Of course, it will look different in real life, but this gives you a great overall feel of the pattern and look. Let’s take a look at a few options:

Sunbrella Gray Canvas
Everyday Linen
Trilby Basketweave Gray

Of the 3 contenders, I like the last, Trilby Basketweave Gray. Here is the digital image versus an actual image of the fabric. I like them both!

Trilby Basketweave Gray (digital)
Trilby Basketweave Gray (actual)

On top of the chaise I plan to use a cowhide pillow in a zebra pattern. I think it will look amazing.

William Sonoma Home – $129

As a reminder, the paint color is Bunker Hill Green, inspired by these rooms.

Bunker Hill Green
Inspiration via Mary McDonald
Sneak peak of our green walls in the One Room Challenge

There will, of course, be more pieces in the room, but this is the main focus. What do you think?

Next week, we’ll focus on the remaining items and placement.

In the mean time, here’s a handy dandy image for your Pinterest boards for reference!

Are you following along with the One Room Challenge designers posting on Wednesdays? And the other 200+ designers posting in Thursdays?  Check them out, then come back here next week for another update.

You can keep up with our progress in the One Room Challenge in these posts:

Sunroom to Greenroom, One Room Challenge, Week 1

Sunroom to Greenroom, One Room Challenge, Week 2

Sunroom to Greenroom, One Room Challenge, Week 3

Hello there! I’m Lori Evans, Interior Designer and co-owner of Evans Construction & Design. Welcome to my world! I created this blog to share all the projects, tips, ideas and inspiration that I have. My goal is to help you make your rooms look even better than your Pinterest boards!

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