Leather furniture Archives - Letters from EuroLux

Antique Saddle Leather Settee

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After we sold a newly crafted leather settee to Susan R. in Rocky River, OH, I was delighted when she sent a photo of the sofa in her home. The antique saddle leather settee is one of the most popular pieces in our large selection of new leather settees and sofas, and it always looks wonderful whenever we see client photos of it. It blends with many different styles of decor and its graceful lines bring a lovely sense of elegance into any room.

Here’s the antique saddle leather settee. With its handsome looks and high-quality craftsmanship. It’s perfect for an entryway or as seating in your dining room or living room. The settee is sturdily crafted with a solid birch wood frame finished with a rich dark walnut stain that is applied by hand. The settee is upholstered with antiqued saddle brown split grain leather which works beautifully with the walnut finish. A hand-applied nailhead trim highlights the refined lines.

Here is the settee in Susan’s home. Susan asked me to hold shipping as she was about to take off on a European adventure for two months. I was happy to oblige and made sure the settee arrived just after the world-traveler returned home. I love the artwork surrounding the settee – what a cozy spot to read a few letters or chat on the phone!

Thank you for sending the photo of the leather settee, Susan. We hope it gives you many years of comfort!

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her husband and best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 8 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Find us on Facebook or connect with EuroLux on Google+. Or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.

Weston Gray Leather Counter Stools

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Steven in Ontario, Canada, bought three handsome Weston gray leather counter stools from us. They look terrific in his kitchen!

This is the Weston leather stool, nicely crafted with a solid birch wood frame that has a hand-applied dark walnut finish. The color of the split grain gray leather upholstery on the seat and back is called London Fog. The misty gray shade is superbly elegant and it is accented by a hand-applied nailhead trim.

The counter stool is timeless enough to work in many different kinds of decor, including Transitional and Contemporary as well as Traditional.

Here are the three Weston counter stools in Steven’s kitchen.

They look awesome with the gorgeous Carrera marble counter! The streamlined shape and sleek gray leather create a very chic effect.

Here’s the view from the other side of the counter. We are delighted that after a long journey across the US from California to North Carolina and then north across the border to Steven in Canada, these stools have found a fantastic home.

Steven was happy too. He wrote: “The stools were delivered today…They fit perfectly in our home! Thanks for making this selection go smoothly for us.”

Any time Steven! We hope that the Weston stools continue to please you for many years!

Top 12 Antiques and Home Decor Blog Posts 2016: Part 1

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As we step into 2017, it’s time to remember our most popular antiques and home decor blog posts from 2016! We’ve had a lot of good news this year, and we’ve loved hearing from our customers too. Not only do many customers return to us time and again to buy antique, vintage, and new furniture and home decor accents, but they also send us photographs for our client spotlights so we can see how their purchases look in their home!

We’ll start with the first of our favorite 12 antiques and home decor blog posts of 2016.

1. Antique Chairs & Aztec Calendar Stone Table

Our customer Bernard really caught our attention when he told us a story featuring antique French Renaissance chairs, the famous Aztec calendar stone and the singer Axl Rose, of the band Guns N’ Roses!

Bernard lives in Hawaii, so his house happens to enjoy fantastic views too. See more photos and read the whole story here.

2. Antique French Hunting Bed Converted in Size

When our customer Erin was moving from Arkansas to Colorado, she has us ship an antique French Hunting bed to her new home. She also needed the bed size converted from full size to queen size. We were happy to oblige!
The lavishly carved antique bed looks wonderful in Erin’s new bedroom, as you can see in the full Antique French Hunting Bed story here.

3. Antique Furniture in the Kitchen

Most people don’t think about the kitchen when they are looking for antique furniture, but there are many ways to enjoy antiques as part of your kitchen furniture. When I was writing about the renovation of our 1920s vintage bungalow kitchen, I was inspired to write about using antique furniture in the room that is for many the heart of a house.
The resulting Antique Furniture in the Kitchen blog post shows how some of our customers have done just that!

4. Leather Furniture Care and Top-Grain vs. Split-Grain Leather

Leather sofas, chairs, stools and benches are among our top sellers in our new furniture collections. People love the high-quality, traditional look and the durability of leather in everyday use. One of the leather furniture makers we work with is a small family business, and they gave me some great info for my blog post about different types of leather and leather care.
We got lots of good feedback on this post!

5. EuroLux In the News

EuroLux Home got quite a lot of media coverage in 2016. This included two articles in the Newberry Observer about how Greg and I fell in love – and at the same time fell in love with antique furniture! – and then how we started our antique furniture business.

We also appeared on TWC News when “Around Carolina” filmed in our antiques gallery in Newberry, SC, to highlight us as one of the places to visit in our historic town. My blog post about EuroLux in the News and Newberry Attractions including Newberry Oktoberfest gives links to the video and the articles.

6. Charming Victorian Inns

Our blog readers and customers love antiques and beautiful interior design, but they also love to travel! Greg and I love to travel too, so I often write about places to stay that have a historical aspect or inns and hotels that are furnished with antiques. My blog post about Charming Victorian Inns for a Cozy Getaway was a favorite this year. Even if you can’t visit these destinations, you can take inspiration from the photos!

Happy new year to everyone! If you enjoyed this, see the rest of our picks for the year! Here’s the link for the Part 2 final six of our top 12 decor and antiques blog posts of 2016.

Top-Grain vs. Split-Grain Leather and Leather Furniture Care

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In my recent customer spotlight about interior designer Charity and the new antiqued leather settee she bought from us, I mentioned that leather sofas, chairs, stools and benches are among our top sellers.

One of the leather furniture makers that we work with is a small family business, and they gave me some great info about the different types of leather and the care of leather.

My first lesson was about the difference between top-grain and split-grain leather. Full-grain leather is the natural whole hide, but that whole hide is usually split into layers for making furniture upholstery. (Think of it like peeling two slices of bread apart!)
Both cuts of leather are true 100% leather and each one is wonderful for different purposes, looks, type of furniture and price points.

The top-grain is the cut from the hair side of the leather. It is the most common type of leather used in high-end leather products as it is smooth and pliable.
The traditional top-grain leather look is shiny and smooth and soft to the touch, with natural color and texture variations. Many of our sofas and chairs are top-grain leather.

The split-grain is from the flesh side. It is a tougher and thicker cut of leather and it is usually at a slightly lower price point. After the split is made, this layer of leather has a fuzzy suede look on both sides and it is light in color. Then it is finished to give it the look and feel of top-grain leather. Usually this includes applying color and a clear protective top coat.

Leather Furniture Care

Leather is porous and it’s made up of around 12-14% water which keeps it so luxuriously supple. But even though it is such a sturdy and timeless upholstery material, you do need to avoid things that will dry the leather out. For example, it’s best to keep it away from a heater or from direct sun right beneath a window.

To clean leather furniture, only use a water based leather cleaner. Before my leather lesson from the furniture makers, I didn’t know how bad the leather conditioners are that you can buy in supermarkets and chain stores. I never thought about it for leather, but it is just like all of those furniture sprays that are also bad for your furniture and create a waxy build-up.

My leather expert said never to use regular household products to clean and care for leather. This includes products containing oils, waxes or silicones, as they dry out the leather big time! Most “conditioners” contain waxes or oils while furniture polish contains silicones. These all ruin the leather finish. Car cleaners with oils or waxes can leave residue that acts like a magnet to dirt, creating a build-up and finally cracking of the leather. Chemicals in many leather wipes also destroy the finish and dry out the hide so it peels.

Baby wipes are terrible for leather too as is dishwashing liquid as it has a high salt content and will ruin your finish. What about Saddle Soap? That should be OK, right? Wrong! The finish on beautiful leather furniture is not the same as saddle leather, so keep the saddle soap in the stable!

After cleaning with a water based leather cleaner and nothing else, treat the leather furniture with a good water based leather protector. This creates a protective barrier, preventing dirt and stains from soaking into the leather.

Regularly wiping the leather with a damp cloth helps to clean dirt and body oils from the furniture in addition to helping rehydrate the leather – it’s nature’s own moisturizer! Take care of your top-grain or split-grain leather furniture and it will be look handsome and feel great for years!

Antiqued Leather Settee

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Our interior designer customer Charity bought a new antiqued leather settee from us. As it’s one of our most popular leather settees, we wanted to show you how great it looks in its new home: A Chicago high-rise office. Old meets new with wonderful results!This handsome new leather settee is one of our top sellers. The tufted button back is typical of traditional Chesterfield sofas and it is created with lots of hand-crafted elements by a family-owned company. (It’s item AT-4 on our website.) The upholstery is a beautiful antiqued saddle leather that looks just like an old football or an old horse saddle. You can see how the broken-in leather is accented by the hand-applied nailhead trim and the rich luster of the hand-stained wood legs. For a modern safety touch, the settee is made with high density fire-retardant foam,

As Charity is an interior designer, she obviously saw the style, quality and superb attention to detail in the antiqued leather settee. She ordered it for her client in the Financial Services industry. Here it is in her client’s high rise office building in Chicago. The building had very stringent requirements for delivery, but our white glove carrier, Sun Delivery, made it happen!

I have to show off a couple of other pieces made by the same small family-owned company. These are also very popular with our customers. The first is this comfy new leather club chair, which would pair very nicely with the leather settee. Sturdily crafted with a solid wood frame, the Madison accent chair also boasts a luxurious hand-applied nailhead trim to highlight the curved shape.

As an alternative to the more relaxed Chesterfield style settee, this elegant Manchester Antique Saddle Leather settee has been wowing our customers! In addition to our satisfied customers who have bought it, an incredible 271 people so far have saved it to their Houzz Ideabook.

Everyone loves it, probably because of the graceful lines and high-quality craftsmanship. It’s perfect for an entryway or as seating in your dining room or living room.

Thank you Charity for sending us the photo of the settee in your client’s office. We hope that they love the blend of styles as much as we do. An antiqued leather settee in a modern office will always make a great impression!

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her husband and best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 9 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Find us on Facebook or connect with EuroLux on Google+. Or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.

Creating A Beautiful Home Office

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Spring is the time of year when everyone organizes their home office, tidying up files and throwing out clutter! But the best home offices are as beautiful as they are functional. Your office should be a place where you can express your personality as well as work, manage paperwork and finances, and receive clients!

This stunning home office featuring antique-inspired furniture by Jonathan Charles is packed with personality! We love the Jonathan Charles furniture and home accents we carry because each piece is crafted to look authentic and last a lifetime, often using the same techniques that furniture makers used hundreds of years ago. The deep blue walls and colorful artwork in this office create an eclectic effect paired with the traditional office furniture. The white upholstery and carpet are a little unexpected, adding another bright and sophisticated touch.

This home office, again decorated with a Jonathan Charles desk and other furniture is notable for its gorgeous light and a clean uncluttered look. (I bet someone has been reading
Marie Kondo’s best-selling book: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up!) The modern and airy look of the room is grounded by the substantial wood furniture and bold metal hardware. It shows how traditional furniture can be given a completely unique spin by a homeowner who is willing to mix up their styles a bit and combine pieces they love. A large plant in the corner also makes an office so much more welcoming and we love the faux zebra rug for a dash of exotic character!

Traditional Home Office by Chicago Home Builders Southampton Builders

If you want to get truly arty, then how about this amazing traditional home office in Chicago? The domed ceiling boasts a custom-painted mural of the Mediterranean – once you spot Italy on the right of the ceiling fan you can figure out how the map falls into place. This is a splendidly designed room with wood paneling, wood plank floor, and huge windows too, but even if you don’t have such a fabulous space to work in, you can take a few tips. Choose a couple of comfortable and very handsome leather sofas for relaxed business conversations, Add a colorful tapestry or rug and plenty of book on the shelves and you’re set!

Traditional Home Office by Bethesda General Contractors Meridian Homes Inc.

This traditional home office in Washington D.C. is actually quite streamlined and simple when you look closely, but it creates a strong impression because of the club style leather chairs and the impressive antique-inspired desk. The high vaulted ceiling helps to add architectural interest, but the main thing that creates decorative appeal at ceiling level is the large chandelier lighting. A chandelier always makes a statement and sets the tone for a room.

I hope that these beautiful home offices have given you some ideas on how to jazz up your own office this spring! In my next post, I’ll share some of my favorite antique and antique-inspired desks and other home office furniture and decor accents to make your office beautiful and beautifully organized too!

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her husband and best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 9 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Find us on Facebook or connect with EuroLux on Google+. Or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.

Houzz Furniture and Home Decor Favorites

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We have been selling on Houzz.com for less than two years but we’ve already found an enthusiastic following of home decor lovers who are quick to snap up our antiques imported from France, as well as our high-quality and hand-crafted antique-inspired furniture. We already won several home decor honors from Houzz including a Best of Houzz award for our customer satisfaction and service.

So I thought that for today’s blog post I’d share with you three of the most popular items we’ve been selling recently on Houzz. It’s a good way to take the temperature of the kind of things that Houzz folk are interested in right now in terms of home decor.

Traditional Living Room Chairs by EuroLuxHome

Leather Sofas and settees and leather chairs are very popular with the style-wise Houzzers, probably because leather upholstery looks good with any style of decor and stands up to tough punishment in daily wear. For example, this elegant but comfortable new Madison leather accent chair, superbly crafted with a solid wood frame featuring hand-applied nailhead trim. The weathered brown leather gives a classic aged effect. All you need is a good book or the remote control and a glass of wine and you are settled in for the evening!

Our new Aubusson hand-crafted throw pillows are also being snapped up left and right. We have many different designs in our wide selection of Aubusson throw pillows but they all of exceptionally high quality and craftsmanship. This 20″ x 20″ hand-embroidered throw pillow in traditional Aubusson style is a good example. The large embroidered flowers are perfect for a French Country living room or bedroom, and the pretty design is set off by a luxurious frame of green and bronze tassels. A zippered velvet fabric and a down and feather insert add to the comfort! A set of handsome throw pillows always adds a wonderful decorative touch to a room and the design of the pillows can really help pull together a color scheme.

Design savvy Houzz fans are also buying a lot of console tables from us. A console table is so versatile and it can be used in many different ways in every room of the house. It can be a convenient storage table in a narrow hallway, a beautiful display table placed against the wall in a living room, or it can be placed as a visual divider between different areas of a room. One of our most popular console tables is this gorgeous solid wood Woodbridge Marseille console table with a hand-waxed cherry veneer.

I think that a good leather chair or sofa, attractive throw pillows and an eye-catching console table are all practical and beautiful investments in any home. Apparently the Houzz community agrees! What do you think?

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her husband and best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 9 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Find us on Facebook or connect with EuroLux on Google+. Or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.

Vintage French Games Table in Chateau

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At the beginning of December we made a delivery of a vintage French games table to a gorgeous house in Georgia that has the look of a French chateau.

This is the vintage French games table that Nita and her husband Walter purchased.

The Regency style table set with four chairs was made in France in about 1960 and you can see that the round table has drawers to store your cards and dice. The gold design on the green leather top and the handsome matching tufted chairs make the set look especially debonair, as if it came from a chic casino in Paris or Cannes.

We made the delivery to Nita and Walter in their beautiful home in Augusta, GA. There are so many lovely details to the house, it really resembles a French chateau from the outside.

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the gorgeous courtyard that one encounters after entering the wrought iron gate:

The fountain that runs from the lion’s mouth on the brick wall had been turned off as we were starting to have evening temperatures that dropped below freezing. What a lovely spot to enjoy coffee and croissants, or a bottle of wine at the end of the day!

We delivered the vintage French games table to a large living area at the rear of the home, off the large kitchen. The floor-to-ceiling fireplace crafted in natural stone is absolutely stunning in person. The vintage games table in mahogany has a beautiful green leather playing surface that pairs superbly with the four green leather upholstered chairs with a Mid-Century Modern look. The green leather is the perfect complement to the olive green in the large Oriental rug.

The ceilings were so high that I couldn’t quite catch them in the room view, but they are hand-planed wooden planks, framed by massive wooden support beams. The natural light pouring through the windows floods this cozy nook.

I don’t know how to play bridge, but this looks like an ideal spot for fun times spent with family and friends near a warm fire this winter season! Thank you Nita and Walter for letting us see inside your lovely home. We hope that the vintage French games table brings you many years of good fun and good luck!

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her husband and best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 9 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Find us on Facebook or connect with EuroLux on Google+. Or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.

French Antique Chairs in Sandoval Restaurant

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A couple of years ago we sold a set of antique Renaissance chairs to Bart D., the director of Business Development for Richard Sandoval Restaurants. He was in charge of opening a new location of La Biblioteca, a tequila bar that offers more than 350 tequilas in Denver, CO.

I’m delighted to hear that La Biblioteca has been a great success, and I’m even more delighted to think that our antique chairs feature as part of the décor in the bar and restaurant!

This is one chair from the set of six antique French Renaissance dining chairs.

They date to 1900 and each sturdy walnut chair boasts the original embossed dark brown leather on the seat and back, accented by a chunky nailhead trim.

The leather is embossed with a decorative design of flowers and ribbons in the Louis XVI style. The rail of entwined ovals carved in the seat back add another strikingly ornamental touch that works well in a contemporary dining room.

Here are the antique French chairs in La Biblioteca restaurant in Denver. It’s near the Millennium Bridge in Denver’s RiverFront Park neighborhood and it’s the brainchild of international restaurateur, television personality and cookbook author, Chef Richard Sandoval. The original La Biblioteca location is in New York City on 3rd Avenue in Manhatten.

Both venues are based on Chef Sandoval’s “Library of Tequila” concept, serving up a menu of Latin-Asian cuisine and a collection of Sandoval’s personal favorite tequila selections including some aged up to 25 years.

I guess in Tequila Land that counts as a mellow old antique, so it’s fitting that diners get to enjoy some mellow antique furniture too!

La Biblioteca has received some wonderful press coverage. For example, Food And Wine magazine included the restaurant in their list of 7 Places to Drink Really Good Tequila.

The magazine added, “Sandoval’s superior menu includes guacamole with smoked trout, and tacos stuffed with skirt steak, Wagyu and chorizo.”

Mmm. Is there any chance that some Denver customers want Greg and me to personally deliver some antique furniture soon? That way we can stop over and try the tastes of La Biblioteca for ourselves. If you are one of our Colorado readers and you’ve been to La Biblioteca, we’d love to hear about it!

Home Decor Trends: Nailhead Trim

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Nailhead trim is yet another traditional design detail that is getting a lot of attention in this year’s lists of decor trends! A Better Homes and Gardens magazine article called What We Want in Our Homes: 2014 highlighted nailhead trim. They said: “It’s an ideal trend to embrace for larger investment pieces, such as upholstered chairs and sofas, because it’s timeless.”

Even though nailhead trim is especially fashionable now it is never really out of fashion, so you don’t have to worry about it looking dated in a few years. Nailhead trim is a classic detail that goes back 400 years.

Nailheads were a practical way for European craftsmen to attach fabric or leather to the wooden furniture frame. For example, we’ve got this very rare set of antique French Hunting chairs from 1880 in the gallery. We have never seen embossed leather on a set of Hunting chairs before. But you can see that the beautifully embossed leather panels on the seat and back are attached to the ornately carved oak chair frames by attractive nailheads.

Let’s have a look at some of the other nailhead trim furniture in our gallery, whether traditional or more contemporary or transitional in design!

This new Chesterfield leather daybed is hand-made to order in the USA by an American company we work with. As you can see, the top grain leather upholstery is accented by a beautiful nailhead trim that gives it a traditional feel. Each brass nail is hand-driven on this nicely crafted piece. Like all the other custom-made in the USA leather sofas from that company, the daybed is available in many leather colors.

The decorative nails on these newly crafted Cloister style leather dining chairs are also applied by hand. The nailhead trim serves to accent the sleek lines of the wine red leather panels. These Cloister style chairs remind me of medieval castles and churches!

It’s a specialist craft to apply the nails because they have to be perfectly spaced and you have to get it right first time to avoid damaging the upholstery. The small, family-owned company that makes these chairs employs craftsmen who know how to drive the nails by hand, of course.

But if you are are trying to do a DIY project and you don’t have the carpentry or upholstery skills, then I know that you can buy faux nailhead trim by the yard. I would not recommend doing that to antique or high-quality furniture! Also, the faux nailhead doesn’t look as good as the real thing because you can see the strips joining the mock nails. But it might be a fun way to freshen up a cheaper piece of furniture.

This new leather stool certainly does NOT rely on faux nailhead by the yard! It is hand-crafted by Woodbridge Furniture Company and I wanted to show it to you because the nailhead trim is so integral to the design. The bold nails outline the sculptural oval back, almost acting as jewelry for the furniture.

If you need any more convincing that nailhead trim works across many styles of furniture, this fabulous Ambella Home sideboard from the Manhattan collection should do the trick. The angular demi-lune shaped sideboard boasts white leather-look upholstery on the doors, studded with nickel nailheads. Polished nickel ring door handles match the nailheads. The result is classic, high-end, and sophisticated, but with a little edge! The Ambella Home Manhattan collection also includes beds, dining chairs, and other furniture with this design, so ask us about it if you love the look as much as we do!

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 8 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Connect with Aimee on Google+ or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.