Amy Beth of ABCD Design is here today to share a glimpse into her home and a look at her favorite textile-based design piece with us. I'm confident that the vast majority of you already know Amy from her beautiful (and blissfully original) blog, ABCD Design Sketch Book, but if you aren't yet familiar with her allow me to introduce you. Amy is an artist, designer and stylist who splits her time between New York City and Litchfield County. In her free time she makes collages, knits, loves homemaking, and adores spending her time with her husband, Mr. D. Believe it or not, Amy’s initials really are ABCD!I've had the pleasure of meeting Amy in person while she was recently home visiting her mother in Michigan and feel so fortunate to now count her among the treasured few that I first met online but now count as offline friends as well. Amy is a confident and creative soul whose voice is as authentic as they come. Here's Amy's show & tell...
"This is my vintage Fortuny 'Dandolo' upholstered fireside chair. I would guess it's from the 1950's, but it could be older! The fabric is named after a prominent Venetian family, and is inspired by a 17th century design."
"I was convalescing after a major car accident in my early 20's and traveled to Northern Michigan with my mom. As I started to get more mobile, we spent the morning in Harbor Springs. I found the fireside chair at one of my favorite lifestyle stores, Huzza."
"The chair has been with me for all of my adult life. It's found a home in the bedroom of my single girl apartment on West 12th Street, our Loft in Soho, and now in our home in Northwestern Connecticut. The burnt orange and silvery-gold looks great with so many colors. In the lifetime that I have owned it, I have paired it with caramel, white, whisky brown, grey, green and now with bluish-black. Sadly, since I've had it, it's never functioned as a fireside chair. Who knows, maybe it will be situated next to the fireplace in our next home?"
Before posting this, I reached out to Amy to clarify a question that I had about this lovely fabric. After seeing pictures of it in a few settings I wondered if she had reupholstered it twice in different color ways of the same fabric because of how vastly different the colors looked to me. If you notice, the fabric looks very different here & here (in her single girl apartment) vs. the images above. When Amy clarified that it was, in fact, the same fabric (and in the same color way) it made me fall even more in love with it... it's almost chameleon-like! It looks dramatically different depending upon the lighting and the surrounding colors... and it's this very essence that makes it so versatile and beautiful. OK, so I have officially digressed into total textile-addict mode, but how cool is that? Did anyone else notice the same thing?