Salvaged Chic Of The Week: Kilim Chair

This week's SCOTW is an amazing custom client project Johnelle recently completed. Our client wanted to reupholster a standard chair and make it into a piece of art, something that no one else would exactly have.  The client had a Kilim rug (of which we are huge, huge fans!) that wasn't in perfect condition, which means it's an excellent piece for upholstery!

Kilim rugs, or remnants...perfect for upholstery, are so special!!  The fact that they began as one of the oldest styles of rugs is amazing and because of their lack of pile there aren't many today that are older than a few centuries...which isn't half bad! They're produced from the Balkans to Pakistan.  Newer weavers are now incorporating brighter colors (like purples and turquoise) over the more traditional colors of red, pink, ivory, blue and green.  Unlike other Persian rugs, Kilims were deemed "inferior" in the past because of their low pile, and were under foreign market pressures that have changed their designs. Now that they've become so popular, many are designed to be exported.

The effect is a piece rich with history that fits wonderfully into an eclectic home.  Whether this chair will be in a room with layered rugs, or surrounded by pieces and trinkets that have been collected around the world, it is sure to create a rich style.

Or, if you have a clean and modern space that you wanted to add piece of distinction to, that would break apart the white, this chair would be perfect. It's a chair that can change the entire look of a room. Not to mention pique the interest of inquiring friends who will want to know the story of how you came to have such an amazing piece!

Not only is this chair now a piece of art, but those that look upon it are instantly given wanderlust imagining the places the Kilim could have seen!

I love that this is another one of our great upholstery transformations that so clearly shows you that anything that is special to you can be incorporated into the re-design of your piece! Email us at quotes@mignonnedecor.com for information on your project.

All Kilim Chair photos by Johnelle Mancha. Other images; One: potterybarn.com; Two: countryliving.com; Three: bo-laget.se; Four: nowfly.co.uk; Five: flickr.com; Six: beautifulplacestovisit.com; Seven: trekearth.com

Rebekah is a member of the Mignonne family and former Mignonne assistant. She now freelances and owns the company A & B Creative, read her blog.