Brooklyn Limestone

Furniture and a fortunate free find.

We spent all day Saturday visiting various furniture showrooms.

God, there is some really ugly furniture out there. I'd like to pose some questions to the industry: How many ugly brown sofas do people really buy? I'm pretty sure Ive seen enough slightly different versions for every man, woman and child on earth. And to the sofa salesman: What part of "less than 80 inches wide" is confusing you? Yes, I realize 85 inches is just 5 inches more than 80. Thanks for that amazing math lesson. They really should make a movie about your genius. Do you realize that you are getting on my nerves?

Despite one close call with an order (mostly out of sheer disgust rather than genuine interest in owning said item), we ended the day empty handed.

We got up this morning with renewed vigor and headed in Soho to visit the couch I posted about below at Room&Board.

I sat on the Loring chair and sofa and determined the tight back didn't make it uncomfortable so that was a relief. And I really like the shape. Success! I spent a good bit of time looking at the various fabric samples and ultimately went with their "micro-velvet" in taupe. This is the only thing I'm not really in love with. Its not really velvet...its kind of like a mix of velvet and fleece. Super soft and comfy & easier to clean but its a little more casual looking than I would like. They did have a velvet fabric option but not in a color I wanted so I went with the color rather than the hand of the fabric. So I put in the order and I'm hoping to have some living room furniture by the fourth of July.

Since this would be the third time I signed a sales receipt for my couch, I'm hoping three times a charm. The service there was really excellent - very low pressure but there when we had questions and were ready to order. The salesperson, Kevin (opps) Steven, was a genuine gentleman so I'm hoping that's a good omen.

And while Im not 100% in love with this choice as I was with my original, this gets me to about 90% satsified. Considering the price was roughly HALF - thats not a bad tradeoff. I think I can put my time and efforts and money into other projects now this is taken care of.

Walking out of the store with the weight of that task lifted, we decided to spend some time in the area enjoying the suddenly gorgeous nice weather (I could have sworn the forecast called for rain and chilly breezes). Not more than a couple of blocks from the store, we passed a gallery that had a pile of empty frames leaning against the building. I spotted this paper sign underneath the bulk of them.

Oh yea, thats right! Lovely black and gold frames just calling out my name! Mr.L took too of the large ones and I took a matching pair in a medium size and we marched back to the car to throw these in the back. They were absolutely coming home with us!

This totally made my day. One because I have a strange love of beautiful frames and two, I was just thinking I'd like to do one of those photo arrangements where you use a large frame on the wall and a grouping of smaller photos inside. I don't quite know what I'll do with the others but I know I can put them to good use. So major score of the day.

Im never one of those lucky people to just find treasures in the trash so this was highly unusual. My father, who was quite the master at finding some pretty amazing things at the curb on garbage day, would be very proud. haha

After that little find, we headed over to a street fair that was taking place a few blocks away. After enjoying the obligatory street gyro and roasted corn, I bought these posters.

Not sure what I'll do with them just yet but for a few dollars each, they might come in handy.

And before we left, Mrs. Limestone picked this tin sign up for his basement bathroom.


So it was a very productive Sunday for us. I'm nearly afraid to say that I have the couch search wrapped but Im going to be optimistic and declare mission accomplished prematurely. :)

ps: Excuse the quality of the photos - I was using my camera phone. I think is the second time I've used it but it came in kinda handy.

And here are the frames once I got them home. A large gold one, a large black one and a set of matching gilded wood ones.