Crybaby's Coffee

A Place of Repose 

with Many a Rose

     Almost everything you see here was purchased in consignment shops.  The styles and time periods vary but they all blend well, and give the feeling of a room that has evolved over many years of living there.  The elements have a similar tonality of color, and each piece has an aged, worn but not worn-out look with lots of roses thrown about - creating a restful feeling in this bedroom of a home that is almost 115 years old.  
     My favorite piece here is the rocker - a Thonet bentwood rocker which was made by layering thin pieces of wood and gluing them which allowed for strength and flexibility of wood previously unknown.  The Thonet (pronounced To - nay) brothers perfected, and mass produced pieces of furniture in France and shipped them in pieces to be assembled upon arrival.  Genius.  Which is why the little bent wood cafe chair is ubiquitous in Europe and even in the U.S.  
     Although Michael Thonet began this revolutionary technique in the early part of the 19th century, the chairs remained popular throughout the Victorian period, the Arts and Crafts period, and even into the modern minimalist movement and some are still in production today.  I paid twenty-five dollars for mine in a secondhand store about 10 years ago but I would not hold out much hope of that happening again.  But you never know!
(Most of this information I have known for many years but I did check some facts with Florence DeDampierre in her wonderful book, Chairs: a History, which I recommend highly.)