DEMYSTIFYING DESIGN

Here's our dining room in Brooklyn. John and I were inspired by the famous Gritti Palace hotel in Venice to craft something of an indoor garden with lots of Venetian references and whimsy in the space, and I think the results are wonderful. But the dining room chairs needed some work so that they wouldn't scratch the painted floor...

Gang:

Happy Monday! Um, er. Well, anyhow, the week is off and running…

I am just crazy about our dining room. There’s a fabulous mix of patterns and colors, and the whole space is very soothing and cool and offers a sanctuary from the urban scene just outside the front door. I am especially partial to our vintage Venetian-style dining chairs that we purchased from our dear pal Frannie in California a few years back.

However, the dining chairs had me flummoxed.

Here’s the deal: Our dining room is floor is painted with Farrow & Ball paint, and I didn’t want to scratch the floor when we used the dining chairs. Hence, I hightailed it to Lowe’s for chair pads, the kind that have stickers and attach to the bottom of furniture. But after trying several different types of pads, none would stay put on the bottom of the chairs so I was constantly replacing them. How droll!

My solution? I found a company that creates clear plastic sleeve floor protectors. The small plastic “cap” slips over the leg of each chair and hugs the chair leg, and the felt pad at the bottom of the “cap” stays put as a result. It’s a little like a condom for a chair, albeit with a felt pad at the end.

And I am smitten! Our dining chairs now have felt pads that stay perfectly in place, and the floor has nary a scratch.

John thinks the sleeve floor protectors are sort of ghetto and remind him of slipcovering furniture with plastic, but I disagree.

Thoughts?

The clear plastic sleeve protector slips up over the chair leg and hugs the leg thereby keeping the felt pad at the bottom of the sleeve in place. Genius! Before you order a sleeve protector, double-check the measurement of your chair leg to make sure you purchase the correct size as the plastic doesn't have much "give."

Here's a dining chair with the clear plastic sleeve protector attached. I barely notice the plastic "cap" that wraps each chair leg. The cushion of felt on the bottom of the sleeve protector slides wonderfully across the painted floor and has solved my woes. John disapproves, but I made an executive decision and the sleeve protectors are staying put.

Tags: Brooklyn, dining room, Dining room chairs, DIY, Gritti Palace Hotel, Jason Oliver Nixon, John Loecke, Madcap Cottage, Sleeve protector, Venice

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2012 at 10:40 am and is filed under Antiques, Before and After, Color, Demystifying Design, Design, Design Guru, Design Lessons, DIY, Entertaining, Fabrics, Flooring, Furniture Recovering, Hotel design, Interior Design, Kid-friendly design, Mirror, New York Interior Designer, Paint, Paint the floor, Tastemaker, Weekend warrior. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.