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 Sofa Hello, readers of The Little Black Door.  I'm Camille of The Vintique Object and deli...

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