As the dust settles a bit from our very hard-work-filled past few weeks of the Manhattan Vintage Show, I want to write a little personal entry but know that there is so much to come all about the show with photos, our experience, and a big thank you to all of you who came out to see us!

It has not happened quite yet and we have for months been debating when to move our own hand-built Little Mod Sidecar into little D's room now that he is approaching 12 months old (wow!) and could probably use the crib next to the bed (opened up) as a better sleeping arrangement. The other day we caught him crawling into it over and over again laughing wildly to himself in his little avocado-riddled pajamas and then last night, I found him half in it (atop plush pillows) and half on the bed as I opened one eye to see if he was still sleeping after a couple hours of silence (woo hoo, 2 hours stretch of sleep!). I can't wait to transition it into another area of the house but I am having fun watching Little D amuse himself in it in the meantime!

As we approach his first birthday very swiftly, I am reminded that time with the little ones really goes by in a flash. This sleeper/sidecar will always serve as such a reminder of these wonderful first months of his life and my life with him in it.

Also in the world of co sleeping and sidecars, we recently we crafted our first 100% custom walnut version of the Little Mod by special request and it came out so beautiful when Dave was all finished with it. Walnut was an exciting wood to work with because we have always been admirers of it and it went to such an amazing family with such a strong little baby girl. Here is the listing for it, featuring the photos of the custom one before it went out -- http://oldnewhouse.com/collections/onh-furniture/products/little-mod-co-sleeping-made-to-order-walnut

We just love being able to build a custom piece of furniture for such a special reason --  for a baby's first months of life, keeping them nice and close to their mom!

And while we have lots of new vintage/antique arrivals hitting the site in the coming week (mainly - some awesome new rugs + art pieces), also be on the look out for some new originals on their way. We are working on some wall art pieces of our own as well as designing some other pieces of furniture with multi-funciton. Can't wait to share!

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!

As people who live and breath rug, you'd think we'd have it all figured out in our own home but truthfully finding just the right rug takes time and patience (unless of course you see it in our shop and you know that's the one!) Since moving into our new house in August, it has been a bit of a slow but fun process getting things situated. To me the biggest project still remains: the entryway. Ours is tight and a bit awkward which means of course it should be amazing when we are done figuring out what to do with it!

Dave has some big plans for make custom shelving (one of those to do's to add to the list of many home creations!) because it is a bit narrow for typical furniture. I am looking forward to seeing what he comes up with that is both unique, practical and baby-friendly (as our current reclaimed metal stand is not!) but first things first -- we must find a rug runner! Naturally we sometimes fall a bit in love with our own merchandise and are always a bit sad when we send them off, so even though we will likely source a brand new vintage piece for ourselves, I will have some fun showing off some runners of our own that might work well in the space --

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.

We have an amazing selection in our new arrivals collection, and a particularly interesting set of etchings and drawings.  Here are a few of our favorites in no particular order (except for awesome!).

Chestnut Jacona - Holding this etching in your hand and inspecting in person really is the only way to experience it.  The colors are extremely vivid in this 200+ years old bird. 

You can hardly get more animated than this cowboy:

You gotta love the classic winter scene with folk feel and appeal. This drawing in pencil reminds us of upstate New York / New England in December. Love it.

Wow - Old man and pipe - This work is particularly detailed and super cool.

Is it the original Lisa Simpson? Of course not. This is one of the most unique sketches / portraits we have seen. She looks so familiar yet so unforgettable. Beautiful!

~ Old New House

Bijar is a city and capital of Bijar County, Kurdistan Iran.  This and close surrounding areas of rug weaving are extremely well known for distinct technical characteristics and designs in Persian rugs.  Often, carpets from Bijar are informally addressed as: Bijar, Kurdish Bijar, and Halvaei Bijar.  These designations hint to the structural differences, and the variations which are often found to be characteristic of each.  Bijar carpets often feature traditional main colors with spectacular, vibrant saturation and contrast.

Bijar carpets are well known for the hard-wearing wool, extremely dense weave, sturdy construction, knot density and durability compounded by hard packing of each row of knots.  Often Bijar rugs made in the mid 1800's all the way through today are found to have a more substantial construction and tightly woven.  At times caution should be taken in folding and rolling a Bijar like other other rugs due to the rigidity.  Still, the traditional Bijar carpet is considered among the most enduring of Persian rugs: among the rug community many nickname Bijars "the iron rug" due to the reliable longevity.  Bijar carpets, like many Oriental rugs, often last for many generations; the difference being Bijars often are found to endure great traffic.  Many Pre-WWI Bijars are woven with wool pile and wool foundation.  Post 1920 Bijar rugs transition into the more common wool pile and cotton foundation.

Bijars noted as Kurdish Bijars often follow a style of weave more closely related to a village weave.  Comparatively, such carpets will be thinner, slightly looser in weave, and commonly the foundation is found to be wool for a longer period of time than most traditional Bijar rugs.

Halvaei Bijar is often a reference to a finer quality or grade Bijar with tighter knotting, higher level of expertise, and a more supple construction where weavers may opt for a wool weft as opposed to cotton.

Common designs: 

Gul Farang Bijar - A spiraling rose design often repeated across the field,

Herati Bijar - A repeating motif of the "mahi-mahi" design. At times, a contrasting field color is used to simulate diamond medallions in the background.

Gerrus Bijar - Reciprocating arabesques

Garden of Paradise Bijar - Four seasons design often featuring cypress trees),

Triclinium Bijar - A motif containing sectioned areas of singular carpet designs parallel, with one carpet design perpendicular atop, said to simulate the desired orientation of carpets in the home of Eastern décor.

We consistently carry Bijar carpets of what we consider to fit one or more of the following criteria  1. highly decorative 2. transitional pieces 3. Interesting or unusual examples with unique flavor 4. exceptional carpets in color or design. 

Here are a few current Bijar carpets in the Old New House shop, Enjoy!

Beautiful mid-century floral Persian Bijar.

Transitional Antique Persian Kurdish Bijar with unusual arabesque border.  Herati center field design.

Antique Kurdish Bijar circa late 19th century.  Simplified Gerrus field design.  SOLD

Antique Persian Bijar, fourth quarter 19th century.  Herati center field with Laleh Abassi minor border.

Antique Persian Bijar, second half, 19th century.  Allover Herati design with arabesque corner spandrels.  Fine, vivid colors.

Thanks!

Old New House