Not long ago I had a conversation with my twinny, Heather, on Facebook. She was about to pull the trigger on a leopard covered ottoman and asked my honest opinion on it. Heather loves leopard print.
“Meh, not in love with it“, I told her. And, as someone who values and appreciates my opinion with interior design, she bought it regardless.
To put it simply, Heather knows what she likes and ain’t nobody gonna change her mind.
Now, it’s not that I hate animal print.
I actually have a pair of fabulous leopard print loafers. 
Sexy, right? And, to further prove a point, I have an equally fabulous leopard print scarf (which is one of my favorites). And when I’m feeling crazy, I wear them both together. BOOM!
But – I do have had a slight problem with animal print on furniture. And when I say ‘problem’ I mean that it has never ‘spoken‘ to me. Animal printed furniture is deaf to my ears.
Now, I must confess, more recently I have been drawn to cowhide. You may remember this bench that I refinished a few months ago.
It was my guinea pig. It was the first attempt at using cowhide to recover a piece. (word of advice: start simple). I’ve yet to list it. I will, maybe in the New Year. Or whenever. I just want to look at it a little longer. But after upholstering the bench with cowhide…
I was smitten.
I’m also thinking about finishing the back of this chair with the same color cowhide. It’s hard not to love caramel colored cowhide. I have a Peacock Blue velvet for the front. Fun, right?
(Don’t hold your breath, it’s going to take me forever to do this chair).
Not to mention the vintage chair that I plan on using a white Mongolian fur pelt to recover it. I think it may turn out to be uber-glamorous.
So in all honesty, I have too many lots of things going on in this little head of mine. My creative thought process looks like this most of the time. Most of the time I play within the constraints of my ‘comfort zone’.
And I was going to get around to doing them all…right now…
Except…
I found this antique loveseat, crying out for help.
It’s a great little loveseat (made in Italy) with HUGE potential. In fact, the fabric at one time had been a beautiful pink velvet. Today it’s a faded and stained taupe color. I’m quite sure it had also been quite comfortable to sit on. In its hayday.
But those were days were a very distant memory.
It would be a crime to ask that webbing to support my bottom!
{Said the Actress to the Bishop}.
I played around with the idea of using the Tibetan fur on the loveseat, but (as you can see by the photos below) it was too short. And, as chance would have it, I stumbled upon another calfskin.
Except it was leopard print!!!
It could technically work, even though it had small areas of wear showing. The colors were so warm and luxurious and inviting and …and… hadn’t I just finished telling Heather that I was just ‘Meh’ on animal print?? Could I convince myself otherwise?
Surprisingly, yes I could.
Naturally, I had to rethink my vision for the piece. If I was going to use the leopard print, I couldn’t afford to have it look cheap and nasty. It needed to look fabulous. Like absolutely truly fabulous, darling. Instead of leaving the wood (which was actually in pretty good condition) stained or attempt to paint it with chalk paint, I ventured out and used Modern Masters Metallic Paint in Olympic Gold. To tone it down a little, I used a General Finishes glaze, and sealed it with a dead flat finish. The end result is a beautiful muted gold. Quite exquisite, if I say so myself.
It just works.
Complete timeless elegance.
It took me almost three hours to hammer in the 300 nail heads. #timewellspent
Beautiful curved wood. Hard not to love a good curve, right?
Even with the worn areas, it’s hard to detract from the beauty of this piece.
And so what can I/you learn from this piece?
(listen to Heather?)
Well, yes – but on a broader spectrum, maybe we should free ourselves to be more open during the creative process. Maybe we all need to venture out of our comfort zone (I know I need to) and start to reexamine fashions, tastes, trends etc that we’ve previously discounted because of the ‘Meh’ factor.
Because sometimes,
on the right piece with the right execution
the ‘Meh’ factor can turn to the ‘Wow’ factor before our very eyes.
{Insert catchy ending phrase here}
Diane aka The Paint Factory
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