The Best Of: Lee Industries Chairs

This week's "Best Of" series features our best selling chairs from our beautiful upholstered furniture line, Lee Industries. For over 40 years, Lee Industries has had a mission to create expertly styled, high-quality home furnishings. All Lee pieces are handcrafted in Newton, NC by their team of craftsmen and women that are experts in their field and take pride in their spectacular workmanship.

During our April visit to the High Point market, our Store Manager, Jennifer and our Assistant Store Manager, Marguerite had the pleasure of spending an entire day at the Lee Industries factory. They were so energized when they came back and eager to share all that they had learned. They were amazed by the skill of the men and women who build the furniture, sew the covers and manage all of the intricacies of such a complex business. Here are some pictures from their visit as well as a highlight of a few of our best selling Lee chair frames and fabrics. Enjoy!

Here a craftsman is inserting the nails into the frame to begin the 8 way hand tying process.

Here one of the Lee craftsmen is working on the construction of a sofa and creating the 8 way hand tied suspension system. 8 way hand tied springs have a wide range of movement providing a very even and individual sit because they move up and down and from side to side.

A closer look at the 8 way hand tied suspension system.

And we thought we liked to be organized...this is pretty impressive. Pictured here are all of the COM fabrics (customer's own materials) that stores and designers have sent in from all around the country. Each bolt is labeled with information on which frame it belongs to and which order it is from.

Huge cutting machines measure and cut the fabric for upholstery.

All of the stitching is still done by hand by the very talented sewers.

We're grateful to Lee Industries for sharing such a fabulous behind the scenes tour of their factory. Now a look at the beautiful finished products and a highlight of our best selling chairs from Lee (stay tuned for a best of "sofas"):

1011-01 Available upholstered or slip covered and as an optional swivel. This is a wonderful chair for both men and women. It's superbly comfortable and the styling is very current with the high back and thin arms. It's a wonderfully versatile piece.

This 1011-01 just arrived in our store upholstered in one of our favorite fabrics, Luna Smoke.

1935-01 Available upholstered or slip covered and also as an optional swivel.
It's a terrific scale for tight spaces but still sits like a larger armchair.

We're crazy about our new 1935-01 arrival in Patton Spice. Such a vibrant and gorgeous color!

3794-01 Available upholstered or slip covered and as an optional swivel, glider or swivel glider. A great every day chair that works well in a family room, nursery or a more casual living room.

 

3477-01 This chair just makes you want to sit back and relax. It's big enough to curl up in for reading or movie watching yet so tailored that it works for more formal entertaining as well.

Our 3477-01 (shown on the right) in Bennett Linen is a wonderful pairing of frame and fabric.

L1367-01 A new take on the classic leather club chair, this frame has a rounded back that just hugs you in and begs you to sit and stay awhile. 

We hope you enjoyed our "tour" of both the inside of Lee Industries as well as the final pieces once they arrive to us and then into our customers' homes! Come by soon to try them all out in person.

The Cobbler's Living Room: Before & After

Have you heard the old adage "the cobbler's children have no shoes"? I googled the phrase just to make sure I had it right and Wikipedia gave such a perfect definition of what I was going to try to explain that I might as well use theirs:

"The essence of this phrase is used to describe the phenomenon where certain 'professionals' in any given area are so busy with work for their clients and their teams that they neglect using their professional skills to help themselves or those closest to them. For example - the painter &/or decorator who never decorates his own house, the web designer that hasn't finished their website, or the accountant who is late in submitting his own tax return!"

That pretty much sums it up for me! Since opening The Nest Egg 8 years ago, I've lost track of how many times customers have said "Oh, your house must be beautiful!" I would graciously accept the comment as a compliment to the store but very honestly, and sheepishly of course, reply that it wasn't. It was a beautiful house in many respects, but the decor was not it's strong suite. 

We moved into our current house 5 1/2 years ago. At that time we had a 1 year old and 1 store. We soon opened a second store and had another baby boy. We then closed the second store and expanded our original store so needless to say time was precious, funds were precious and our own house wasn't our first (or second or third) priority. Between running the store and having two young boys, there truly wasn't enough time, or energy, in the day to think about our own house.

This year, with one in kindergarten, the other in preschool and a continued great team at our store, it's the first time in many years that we have found some breathing room and have been able to spend a little free time thinking about and working on our house. Because two boys under the age of 6 and a big dog are not very forgiving on a house, I chose to start with our living room as this is the one place that doesn't sustain the extreme wear and tear on a daily basis.

So here it is . . .the first peek into the cobbler's home. First, the before of our living room:  

We live in a traditional home in Reston, Virginia that was built in 1971. The previous owners had lovingly decorated the house in a very traditional Williamsburg style. Most rooms were painted Williamsburg blue, many have blue tiles and everything used was as true to the Williamsburg colors and materials as possible

Another shot of the living room before we moved in.

This is the living room, more or less, as we've lived with it for the past 5+ years. Over time we did paint the room and the trim, removed the previous window treatments, added recessed lighting and replaced the sconces. I was also just trying to pretend that I could make the blue fireplace tiles work (I couldn't).

We had an "eclectic" (also known as odd) mix of old furniture and some new furniture that was purchased quickly just to fill the house. From this I've learned to always give the advice of living in your house for a while before you buy anything because your needs change. This room originally started as an office with a huge desk and has been various forms of a living room over the years.

I loved our new brown walls (Clinton Brown by Benjamin Moore) but the room felt so dark and dated. The furniture wasn't comfortable and nothing ever worked with the blue fireplace. It's also a difficult layout because the room has two entrances so furniture placement was a challenge and we were continually trying out new arrangements. 

My goal for the room makeover was to brighten it up while keeping the brown walls I really loved, to highlight the beautiful moulding that was an original part of the home and to create a space that was comfortable, inviting (you see the room right as you walk in the front door), calming and of course, kid friendly where possible.  

I was able to sell the leather chairs, the rug and the curtains on Craigslist. I moved the settee into our bedroom and let the kids fully take over the coffee table in their play space for art projects, lego building and Hot Wheels car shows. I also reused the end table, sconces, drapery hardware and many of the accessories that were in there. Here is the new room:

 Replacing the blue tile wasn't really in our budget so we painted over the fireplace tile using a ceramic primer and the same semi gloss paint that we had originally used on the moulding. We also painted the red brick hearth and repainted the black interior of the fireplace. (Currently the fireplace isn't usable as the interior has cracks so until the day comes when we can fix that, it's purely decorative).

Here is the most kid friendly factor in the room. . . The sofa is the Salon sofa from the Joe Ruggiero collection for Miles Talbott and the fabric is SUNBRELLA! Stain and fade resistant! This fabric is called Dazzle Wren. The sofa and the fabric are truly gorgeous (and designed by the very talented and always gracious Joe Ruggiero). The first thing everyone does when I tell them it's Sunbrella is touch the sofa and they can't believe how soft it is. My son was thrilled when I let him jump on it for the pictures!

The rug is the Bermuda Jute rug in Parchment from Surya. I wanted something thinner than a tufted rug but with more texture and interest than a solid sisal or seagrass. This rug has flecks of brown and gold throughout which mix nicely with the walls and the drapes. The buffet in the corner was from our first dining set. We no longer have the dining table but this is so neutral and great for storage so we moved it into the living room.

The side chairs are from Lee Industries (there are 2 chairs but on the day I took the pictures we had brought one into the store for a customer to "test drive"). They chair style is the 1011-01 in Thatcher Natural. I've coveted this chair style from the moment I saw it in the Lee showroom. It's incredibly comfortable and a really wonderful chair size for both men and women. The throw pillow is from Lacefield Designs. They offer gorgeous pillows, all made in the US!

The wall sconces are from Currey & Company. I purchased them a few years ago and then bought new shades to go with the new room.

The Sid Dickens Zodiac memory blocks were able to stay in the same place and they represent the four zodiac symbols for our family. I chose the Astaire curtain panels from Eastern Accents even before I had chosen the chair and sofa fabrics. They are beautifully made (also in the US) and the fabric has wonderful flecks of gold in the print.

The ottoman is from Miles Talbott Furniture and is part of their Ottomans Options Program where you can choose your ottoman size, shape, skirt or castors, as well as a tufted, smooth or mitered top. The fabric is called Tana Camel. All of the upholstery in the room is also made in the US (can you sense a pattern here?).

I love my buddhas. It's a bit of a joke around the store but they make me happy! I also love the quote associated with the Sid Dickens Hourglass Memory Block (T253) in the background: "Live presently. Discover the eternity of this moment." I finally have a room where I can sit and ponder that though (momentarily)!

So 5 years later, this is one of the rooms in the cobbler's house and we are really enjoying it. It still needs a few things including another piece of art on one of the walls opposite the couch and also a few more personal touches (something on the hearth) but we're really happy with how it turned out and I'm inspired to find some time to work on some other rooms. We recently did a mini renovation on our kitchen so will share that soon!