guest post - the vintique object

<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>Ugly </i></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">is Contextual:  The Story of the Orange Sofa</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hello, readers of The Little Black Door.  I'm Camille of <a href="http://thevintiqueobject.blogspot.com/">The Vintique Object</a> and delighted to be here today to guest post for one of my favorite funny and talented bloggers. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;">So here's the story of the orange sofa. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> If you saw this baby, what would you think?</span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJrRbclv8RKCjqOTO8gm9lnU2fIs0f11M-_t7A1mj2-HjexHegQ7At08RGme4EjI95loTEocUS2EO5LUDgstUihF21plih0ZVxb58KaBm1azcM0d7jU-1uomTBN18NkCg1Y9QEYXtH0cU/s640/photo(10).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJrRbclv8RKCjqOTO8gm9lnU2fIs0f11M-_t7A1mj2-HjexHegQ7At08RGme4EjI95loTEocUS2EO5LUDgstUihF21plih0ZVxb58KaBm1azcM0d7jU-1uomTBN18NkCg1Y9QEYXtH0cU/s640/photo(10).JPG" width="478" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yeah, that's orange corduroy you see there.  </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Would you think it's ugly?  I did.  But my shopping partner-in-crime Lane, of <a href="http://www.urbanorchardinteriors.com/">Urban Orchard Interiors</a>, and I pride ourselves in being able to look past the ugly. We saw the above sofa with its nice lines and dreamed of transforming it into something like this:</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-ec4.pinterest.com/upload/153544668515780297_UQHcR8pM_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://media-cache-ec4.pinterest.com/upload/153544668515780297_UQHcR8pM_f.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></i><a href="http://www.wisteria.com/Linen-European-Furniture-Natural-Linen-Settee/productinfo/W2506/"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Wisteria's Natural Linen Settee </span></span></a><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i> </i>So, on a whim, we bought it, planning to reupholster the thing for our shared booth at the once-a-month Alameda Antiques Faire in the San Francisco Bay Area.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">But as luck would have it, not long after we purchased the sofa, one of my clients pinned this photo to our shared board on Pinterest:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-ec4.pinterest.com/upload/280138039291787490_3DBpjgIq_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://media-cache-ec4.pinterest.com/upload/280138039291787490_3DBpjgIq_f.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.jonathanadler.com/Templeton-Apt-Sofa/?cat=360&initial=">Jonathan Adler's Templeton Apartment Sofa</a></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;">And I thought, <i>Wow, our orange sofa could be that!  </i>So I went off in search of 'orange sofa' pictures on Pinterest and found some pretty amazing photos which you can see in a post <a href="http://thevintiqueobject.blogspot.com/2012/06/orange-sofa.html">here</a>.  </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Lane saw that post and we both knew we'd just need to clean it up and <i>try</i> to sell it as is.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.urbanorchardinteriors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Flea-Market-Wide-1-1024x575.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="http://www.urbanorchardinteriors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Flea-Market-Wide-1-1024x575.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">You can see her on the left there in all her orange glory at our booth at the antiques flea market.  (<a href="http://claremontfinderskeepers.blogspot.com/">Claremont Finders Keepers</a> is my other blog and business.)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">I tell you, I shook my head as we hoisted that thing into Uhaul the night before.  I was sure we'd be loading it back up at the end of the day.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">But you wouldn't believe how much interest our orange sofa got.  And about half way through the day it sold for a healthy profit.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Since the customer who bought it lived nearby, we agreed to deliver the sofa for a fee.  On the way over, I tried to imagine what her house would look like. It was really anybody's guess.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Well, here's what it looked like:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.urbanorchardinteriors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Sofa-in-house-2-1024x575.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="http://www.urbanorchardinteriors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Sofa-in-house-2-1024x575.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.urbanorchardinteriors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Orange-Sofa-House-3-575x1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.urbanorchardinteriors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Orange-Sofa-House-3-575x1024.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">I tell you, if I had tried, I wouldn't have been able to imagine a more perfect place for our ugly-duckling-sofa-turned-swan to live.  (Get a load of those gorgeous curtains!)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">If you are a reader of The Little Black Door, I'm betting you've got the thrifting/DIY gene somewhere in you.  Which is why I've told you this story.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">The more of The Orange Sofa story is this:  Sometimes we spend so much time looking for things to transform -- to make beautiful, that we fail to imagine them in a different context.   That was certainly the lesson I learned with our little ol' orange sofa.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">However...sometimes things are just ugly.  </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.allaboutprops.com/images/inventory/inventoryph-resid/Chair%20-%20Recliner%20Brown%20Plaid_md.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.allaboutprops.com/images/inventory/inventoryph-resid/Chair%20-%20Recliner%20Brown%20Plaid_md.jpg" width="258" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Elizabeth, hope you are having a restful and fun time while you are gone. Thanks for having me!</div>

guest post - the vintique object

Ugly is Contextual:  The Story of the Orange SofaHello, readers of The Little Black Door.  I'm Camille of The Vintique Object and delighted to be here today to guest post for one of my favorite funny and talented bloggers. So here's the story of the …

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