Paper, Paper Everywhere....

Occasionally, I get sick and tired of the piles of design magazines that seem to grow of their own free will in my apartment. When this happens, I do what I'm doing at present: bust out the scissors and go to town on those glossy pages.

I have multiple sketchbooks that are not, in fact, devoted to sketching. Supposedly, as an architect, I'm supposed to sketch constantly. I, however, prefer to fill my sketchbooks with images that resonate with me, for some reason. The picture might be of a sofa, or a smudge of paint, or a dress or a tray full of baubles. Whatever it is, if it strikes my fancy, it's going in the sketchbook.

I typically annotate my sketchbooks in my barely legible scrawl, the bane of my existence at my last job where my sketches had to go to the client before I could start refining them on the computer. My boss finally forced me to type up the notes. I blamed my poor handwriting on the fact that the office was always cold, and I have an acute cold sensitivity which causes pain in my fingers and toes, as well as circulation loss. It is not a result of my despising the writing exercises we were forced to do in elementary school because they were so ridiculously boring. I promise.

In going through an edition of House Beautiful, I found a two page spread devoted entirely to sofas under $2000.

Hell, yes.

I'm keeping it for future shopping reference.

Speaking of shopping, I dragged myself and my migraine (Day 2) out of bed around noon, Saturday, and forced myself to go to consignment stores in the Design District. What did I find on good old Riverfront/Irving Blvd?

LHO Consignment: This relative newcomer had some great finds, but nothing that I really wanted. They do, however, have some things that could be amazing if reupholstered!

Lula B's West: Lula B's East is currently on Lower Greenville Avenue, but will soon be on Main Street, just east of Downtown Dallas. I now desperately want to visit Lula B's East to see if their stuff is as amazingly awesome as the stuff in the scruffier part of Dallas.

White Elephant: This old favorite is sometimes a bit too musty and full of junk. I did, however, find a blue and white ticking-striped sofa hand painted with red and navy blue flowers all over it. If not for the fact that I think the painting would have smeared off all over my pants, I would have bought it.

Moderne: The owner was friendly, after he finished his lunch, and they had some great pieces, but almost all of them required upholstering on top of their $600 price tags, so I ruled them "over priced" and fled.

Vinya: I think whoever named this one was going for the term "vignette" but didn't understand that just because it's French doesn't mean you drop the last letters entirely. Their furnishings were all in take-home-and-use condition, and were carefully edited. Not cheap, but their pieces were almost all pedigreed, or as good as pedigreed. Design Within Reach sofa, Heywood Wakefield buffets, and glossy lacquered white side tables abounded. Amazing stuff, and a good portion of it well beyond my price range. A couple of sofas were still $3000, because they were one year old Jan Showers designs, or were recovered Knoll sofas from the 1960s. It was essentially interior design porn, walking into that store. I managed not to drool on the furnishings, thankfully.

Turtlenecks are good for catching sofa-induced saliva.