Bedrooms are sometimes the hardest to decorate because we so often get stuck in a rut with them. In and out of bed we go, over and over again. Day in and day out. Even though they truly should be the most relaxing spaces of the home for us to cozy up with and into at the end of a long day's work, they often become the place where simply put: bed is. All the attention goes to the living room because well, we live there. At least this is what I have heard from other people and I can completely relate as Dave and I still have a bedroom filled with artless walls and well, a bed. We have the furniture and we have a couple of pieces that we are attached to (like our antique blanket chest) and while the walls certainly bear a peaceful shade of minty blue that we adore + chose together, there is nothing else in there that really ties the space together. It is waiting for it and I know that one day when we are ready to tackle it, it will become the oasis that we need it to be. For now, here's to serving up some bedroom inspiration straight from Apartment Therapy with some Old New House sourcing! 

1. Large vintage rug with unique and neutral color tones. This rug in the photo, while it may not be vintage itself, immediately reminded of me of the vintage Josan Sarouk in our shop because the colors are so serene and lovely and rather unique. I feel like you wouldn't expect to see a rug of this color or size in a bedroom but wow, how inviting and spacious it makes the room feel. I just love it!  

2. Unique lamp! Even if you have recessed lighting like we do, a unique lamp is a must in any kind of space if you ask me. It is like an art piece that has function. My pick is more feminine than what they have but to each their own! 

3. Subdued, minimalistic, and small wall art. My pick is this amazing 1930s etching by the acclaimed artist Morris Henry Hobbs -- I just adore how tiny the work of art is and could so see it at the edge of a room leading into another space like in this room. 

4. Seating in corner for getting ready, decorating on, or putting clothes on top of. My ONH pick is of course our out of this world amazing antique leather pouf. I have never seen one quite like this and it would be a perfect piece next to the dresser or side table. 

5. Hanging botanical chart. Theirs is small which I quite like but if you have the space for a larger one like ours, I say go for it! Nothing like a large wall art piece that is minimalistic but bold at the same time. 

6. Color pop on a white bedspread. Whether you go with a lightweight blanket or a quilt like I've picked out, a little pop of color slung over the white bedspread can really stand out as a lovely visual piece of bedroom styling. 

1. Light colored botanical art. Okay, okay, you got me -- botanical art is a big favorite around here these days and I keep referencing it but I can't help myself! It can be such a natural and lovely piece of wall decor that blends serenity and curiosity and it is just so nice to bring the outside in. 

2. Wall art with birds. In the pictured home, the print or drawing is very small and I love that but no matter the size, wall art with birds compliments botanical wonderfully and can once again, nicely bring the outdoors inside. 

3. Colorful floral wall art. Flowers, more flowers please! Flowers are so vastly featured in art (rugs, wall, etc.) because they are beautiful in shape and color. Want to bring red, blue, and yellow into a subtly-colored room? Find an art-work with flowers in it! 

4. Unique landscape wall art. The one featured immediately reminded me of our industrial man + machine drawing with the lower third being land and the upper third being sky. The light minimal use of colors is also very similar and I feel like a one-of-a-kind wall art piece blended with the more commonly seen botanical is a really nice combination in a gallery wall like this one. 

5. Visual vintage dress hanging on wall. This is something you would not quickly think to do but boy, does it look neat. The gold dress shown hear becomes a part of the gallery wall and adds a streak of color to the blue backdrop without having to be permanent. You can switch out the dress every week, month or year and the idea is well, genius. As I have really become obsessed with vintage clothing and we have added a bunch to the shop, this seemed very fitting! I could totally see our 60s crochet dress hanging well next to all of the botanical art because it has a floral look to its design as well. 

That's all for today!

xoxo,

Melissa

Brand new to trade shows and expos of any kind, for those of you who don't know: we braved the sea of vintage this year at The Manhattan Vintage Show. It was quite the experience to say the least with our biggest expectations and hopes being to connect with a lot of new people outside of the world of the internet and to hopefully convert some of them to be ONH fans! We are a bit shy by nature so it was a big deal for us to go into the city, create a space from the ground up that represented our online shop, and to put ourselves out there: "here we are and hope you like it!". It was exciting and of course a bit scary but after the two days of working harder than we could have possibly imagined, we made it back to a rented apartment just in time to rock our baby to sleep and we thought to ourselves: wow, we did it, we actually pulled it off.

To say that the show went off without a hitch would be an outright lie. Getting down to the city from our humble abode in Westchester with an eleven month old baby who just doesn't do car-rides as well as a cargo van chock full of our most prized inventory was no easy task and came with some challenges (who knew you couldn't take a van on the highway? maybe you did?). Then of course we had to navigate parking for two vehicles. One that contained the baby and all of the stuff that comes with the baby when you do a weekend trip. Crazy amounts of stuff is all I can say! Next we had to shlep all of our belongings all while carrying our son and then the next morning (the day of the show) start the shlepping process all over again, to bring our inventory into the booth. Then came set up, then came fixing up, then came second guessing ourselves, then came food somewhere in there, and of course then came figuring out who would be with the baby since the babysitter was having trouble with city parking (who doesn't??), and then at some point after a lot a lot of coffee, came the beginning of the show. After that point, everything was just plain awesome. Our expectations of meeting and connecting with new people was absolutely exceeded by a million because the people we chatted with for lengthy amounts of time were just so amazing, it felt like a shame that we hadn't met them sooner.

The Vintage Show was mainly all about clothing but it was also about textiles (in come our rugs). We feared that perhaps we wouldn't fit in because our clothing collection was small (and not yet out there in the world, merely a hobby curated collection) but we had the opposite experience. While people were indeed interested in our small clothing selection, so many of them were interested in our rugs and home decor as well just as we had hoped! Not only did we connect with people about the rugs they needed for their homes, but we learned a lot too -- about clothing and about what everyone out there is looking for which was absolutely invaluable for us.

While it was a tremendous amount of hard labor and pushing ourselves beyond the depths past our pre-existing (baby-related) exhaustion, the show was overall such a great success and we enjoyed every minute of the experience! Until we do another one of these or have our first real pop-up shop (which we are getting serious about planning!), this was the last time we would see our customers + new contacts in person for awhile, so we were so thankful to have it!

**Such a huge thank you to Natalie Conn for the beautiful photographs, & Hilary and Lina for the tremendous amount of help throughout the show!

We could not be more excited to be a part of our first ever vintage show experience in a couple of weeks! January 17th + 18th -- we will be at booth #44 with a small never before seen vintage clothing collection as well as lots of our ONH shop vintage textiles (rugs) + other lovelies - with the specific collection availabile for pre-viewing here (there will be some new items, mainly rugs, as well!)

If you come to see us at the show + simply mention the website, we will have a little gift for you, will give you an instant 20% off of anything in the booth AND we will even credit your admission towards a purchase -- so buy your tickets here +  come on down! Can't wait to meet you! And although the beautiful model below will not be there (we don't think) some majorly awesome vintage fashion will be -- including one of our favorite pieces that indeed has black sequins galore. 

 & Just one of our beautiful antique rugs we will be bringing:

Also, we are taking special requests if there is anything from our shop that you would like us to bring down so that you will have an opportunity to view it in person before purchasing. Just e-mail us at md at oldnewhouse.com and let us know when you plan on attending + the item of interest. 

See you there!

When I started to work on my "gallery wall" or putting art on the wall or whatever it shall be called, I became very obsessed with the right way to frame everything. I have used cheap flimsy frames all my life and I felt like that was the wrong route to go with art I care about. I knew that A.I. Friedman had some good ready-made gallery style frames but what about big pieces? We decided to hit up a couple of thrift stores looking for hand-me-down big-time frames and sure enough we found a couple of good ones. We also had this one piece that we had been holding onto a while that had broken glass -- the framer down the road from us quoted a pretty reasonable amount for glass replacement and when I asked him about custom framing for similar pieces, I was surprised to learn that the custom job from start to finish with the metal frames would be around $150. I am not sure if our budget is ready to soar that high just yet but I actually think that is pretty reasonable when all is said and done. Having the used frames is great but it takes work to fit them and I could not find a ready-made large format frame for the life of me. So first came our selection of the pieces which was the easy part! Next came framing them, then the visualizing process of them on the wall, and of course before we hung anything, Dave had to find the studs so that we could properly do the job (or at least know what portion of the wall we were dealing with). This process of his required a magnet and lots of post-its -- I even kind of liked how the walls looked with all of the post-its (+ we shared some laughs about how in it he was) and I highly recommend doing this so that the pieces can securely be hung.

For the "gallery wall" we created, we wanted to leave space to add to it because we are wall art fanatics and need the room to grow our collection. We used 4 vintage lithographs (a couple which we have extras of in the shop), one antique etching of Mozart, a mid century circus poster, and original artwork from Etsy artisans.

I started questioning if the eclectic mix of art would work but in the end Dave and I both couldn't be happier with how it turned out! Naturally we love the mix of old and new and it feels vibrant, unique, and totally us.

Your guide to purchasing an Oriental Rug

In no specific order - the 4C's and a Q of rugs: Country of origin, Colors, Condition, Collector appeal and Cuality...  oops...  Quality.

Evaluation of rugs taking in account the above factors means you are on the road to finding a fine, genuine &  authentic Oriental rug.  That's fantastic! 

Part of the beauty of our shop is we have done the legwork of finding only awesome carpets for you:  As opposed to the traditional rug shop that may take the good with the bad, we have scouted and sift through thousands of carpets to hand select the ones we love.  Yes, here's that shameless plug of our awesome Oriental Rugs for sale.  We don't feel too bad about it since we take great pride our rugs, especially our vintage rugs and antique rugs.

As a brief introduction for the consumer, we're going to indulge in a few acceptable generalizations for an overview.  It will be important to bear in mind the following:  The market for fine hand knotted Oriental rugs is becoming more like fine art.  An antique rug made 100+ years ago is not easily replaced since it cannot be remade again.  Furthermore, new carpets today are becoming increasingly more costly to produce.  Still, in our opinion, Oriental rugs are among the most depreciated markets right now.  The sale of museum worthy carpets continues to hit record prices, however, Oriental rugs that are not top-tier museum carpets remain among the most affordable of all decorative items in the context of a home. 

That's not to say everyone should run and buy an Oriental rug immediately or as an investment.  However, it is relevant for buyers to know and understand where the value is and the clear relative affordability even for a seemingly higher priced item.  The process of making an Oriental rug is an intimate task. One could easily take the position the value in an Oriental rug is disproportionately greater than many home furnishings: the typical weaving time of an 8' x 10' Oriental carpet may take two weavers six months time.

While some aspects of evaluation are discussed in what to look for and what is myth, the point remains that any Oriental rug by intrinsic character/definition has been created via a laborious process from materials to loom to room.  

So, lets get down to buying a rug and demystifying some of the mystique.  What to look for, what is true and what is myth and how to purchase that fantastic, authentic Oriental rug:

Country of origin

  A.  General rule of thumb: If you are searching for super authenticity, you may want to consider if the design is indigenous to the country of origin and perhaps even region of production.  E.G.  A Turkish Hereke rug design made in China is not as authentic as a Peking design Chinese rug made in China.  There certainly are exceptions although for such items it will likely be clear how those items are differentiated with reliable or substantive proof as to how. 

  B.  Simply because a rug or carpet is of Persian origin does not make it superior item than that of any other rug weaving country. E.G. Compare apples to apples.

Color

  A.  There is a misconception that natural dyes are better than synthetic.  This is not necessarily true.  There are, however, collector purists who only specialize in carpets of a certain age, generally prior to the advent of synthetic dyes.  However, this caliber carpet realistically does not apply to carpets serving day in and day out utility and decorative dividends.  Apart from having a laboratory or being certain of a rugs age as pre-1860's, it is practically impossible to differentiate natural vs. synthetic.  Consider the example of indigo - the chemical structure of synthetic and natural indigo are identical. Many carpets with advertised natural dyes are typically a fraction natural.

  B.  Purchase the colors you like.  If a very high investment, you may want to consider something less era-specific and more timeless.  Tone-on-tone or contrasting colors often endure well long-term.  On the other side, carpets given harsh washes to create strong overtones or draw on the appearance of a faux, aged patina are not in the spirit of how the original carpet was woven, and are therefore considered more decorative subject to the volatility of fads.  While such carpets may be created with the same techniques as any other carpet, their popularity may drastically vary up and down every few decades as opposed to consistently holding value and only experiencing mild ups and downs of the market.

Condition

  A.  Today, perhaps more so than in the past, an older carpet exhibiting wear is more acceptable.  This is especially the case for non-formal carpets, and perhaps is propelled in part by decorative markets, although there are some other points to consider as well:  1.  You cannot make another antique rug!  The amount made is fixed: quantity is diminishing and demand is increasing.  Fewer carpets in exceptional condition are surfacing on the market.  2.  Many believe a rug should look its age.  A carpet exhibiting some wear or tattered area tells a story.  You can also enjoy it without the concerns one may have with the use of a mint condition antique.  

Collector / Decorative Appeal

If you are searching as a collector - the advice we have is buy what you love, buy cautiously, look for timeless colors or tone-on-tone, look for the best-of-type, look for unusual, the rare, the hard-to-find, manageable sizes of typical dimensions, look for transitional connector designs and motifs, look for condition, look for age, look for authenticity.  Notice how quality is not included in this...  Carpets purchased by collectors are rarely purchased on any single merit of quality and quality alone.

Quality

Quality typically encompasses the following three factors, no one is necessarily more important than the other.  However, know as a first time buyer this one costly misconception:  Higher knot count is not a function of higher quality.  Period.

  A. Quality of material input (mainly pile) for type:  a fine workshop type carpet such as a Persian Kashan will have fine, soft, long stapled wool.  A commercial grade Pakistani Lahore carpet should have a commercial grade wool.  If the Persian Kashan had a commercial grade wool, it would be considered lower in the realm of material quality relative to type. 

  B. Knot Density for type:  e.g. the typical Persian Sarouk from 1920-1950 ranges from 100 knots per inch to 180 knots per inch.  If a Sarouk of 180 knots is being compared the range of other Sarouk rugs of similar age and type, it would be considered relatively fine. 

  C. Execution of weave/design.  A high quality carpet will exhibit 1. fully optimized the design with knot density to exhibit details and curves.  A poor quality carpet will often show a pixelated appearance, or, in some cases, have used too many knots per inch to convey a design which could have been done in a lower quality!

Quality really encompasses the overall carpet inclusive of material input quality, knot density, and design execution all rolled together.  A high quality carpet will embody all these characteristics in a high level when compared to others of their type, age, and origin.

In closing, I want to share with you how I would evaluate a sweet carpet we have in our shop, a Persian Rug:

This carpet is one of our personal favorites for several reasons.  Going through the 4C's and Q, we're going to get to the bottom of why this piece, as many in our shop, stands out as an awesome carpet on many levels.

Country of origin - It is a Persian rug from Sarouk, specifically of the Sarouk Farahan variety.  The design would be considered indigenous to the area woven, as opposed to a far distant adaptation or interpretation of another design.  Passing grade!

Colors - Outstanding tone-on-tone in the center medallion and borders.  Lovely terra cotta, golds, super soft powder blue, light olive, soft bronze...  The colors are all distinguishable yet almost have a hint of analogous shades.  The deep blue corner spandrels serve as phenomenal contrast to the whole piece with excellent clarity, character and harmony.  This carpet does have some augmentation to the field color, likely done many years after weaving.  This "sign of the time" change does not necessarily detract from the value, and in many ways, adds to the story of the piece.  Passing grade!

Condition - The condition shows use, wear and age.  However, carpets such as this were meant to be used, and often were subjected to more harsh wear than room size carpet.  Fewer small pieces seem to survive unless intended as saddle bags, throws or pillow covers.  Relatively speaking, the condition concerns are minimal, and the carpet has had no significant restorations so it is all original.  Passing grade!

Collector Appeal - Great manageable size, excellent individual character, good age.  Condition could be better, but relatively speaking, it is certainly a desirable carpet.  Passing grade!

Quality - Outstanding, long staple wool.  Super soft and supple.  Knot density is in the top of its type and age.  The design execution is awesome - stunning, beautiful, classic and timeless with wonderful detail in the minor borders all the way though to the field with delicate, single knot tendrils lacing the ground.  All-in-all, a really nice surviving example!   Passing grade!

Old New House