Paris Chic meets Dark Espresso

Anyone who has seen my apartment (and not many people have, since it is still in the final stages of renovation.) will note that most of my furniture is dark espresso and fairly contemporary. Bedroom set? dark espresso with black leather insets in the headboard. Dining room chairs? dark espresso with beige ultra suede. Book shelves? You guessed it, dark espresso with pictures in dark espresso or silver frames. Even my crown molding and baseboards are now painted in Behr # 790B-7 Bitter Chocolate Espresso. And I don’t even like coffee.

So I find it a bit interesting that recently I have become drawn to French style occasional furniture. Perhaps it is a reflection back to my
stay in Paris in my oh-la-la bed & breakfast.

I like the chipped and peeling antique look of this gorgeous hand carved Louis XIV style dresser from the 1930’s (left). It would look lovely in the same room as this carved mirror (left, with top scroll detail depicted at the beginning of this post). Both are available from Karina Gentinetta.

So imagine my surprise (and delight) when I found myself enamored with this coffee and end table set at a local antique store. Even more surprising was that I bought them, even though I vowed I didn't want a coffee table because I felt it would chop up the traffic flow of my living space; not to mention that they are pretty much the opposite of the rest of my furniture.

But wait! there's more . . . the idea is to make these two tables into extra storage for magazines and such.

The tops of these tables are screwed in place. I will remove the tops, add piano style hinges to give them "lifting lids", and add bottoms to them with braces just under the skirting. This will give me about four inches deep of storage. Lots of room to hide all those remote controls out of sight for when company is over.

A little bit of functional French je ne sais quoi in the middle of my living room.

. . . how à propos !