jeans, leopard and sparkles

I've been reading What I Wore for a while and I've always loved her effortless, chic style.  (Plus, her last name is Quirk!  How great is that?)

She recently posted a simple Friday night outfit that I was instantly drawn to.  I love the combination of the faded denim, the leopard heels and super sparkly gold clutch.

photo by Jessica Quirk, What I Wore

Being me, I instantly wondered how I could bring that feeling into a room.  What's the equivalent to a worn-in old pair of jeans?  A comfy couch!  Now you could be really literal in translating those jeans into furniture and end up with this:

Haha!  Just joking.  But... that overstuffed, curl up with book, oh-so-comfy shape of the couch is what I'm thinking of, as un-chic as it might seem.   At first I thought about a plain white couch, like this one from Crate and Barrel.  Simple, easy to find and pretty ubiquitous (like a pair of jeans...)

1. The Lounge Slipcovered Sofa from Crate and Barrel.

2. My favorite of the pillows (from the randomest of weird internet shopping places) is the Bouganvillea Sequin Pillow from Horchow.

3. Etsy was a great resource.  This snow leopard pillow is from MiCasaBella - her etsy shop is a great resource for graphic pillows in any color.

4. More gold sequins.  RaineStyleHome's etsy shop is full of cute pillows and bags.  Look at this flying pig makeup bag!

5.  More Etsy! This leopard pillow is from AriannaBelle's shop and I'm loving the colors of this Adras Ikat pillow cover.

Now I like this, but, it doesn't have enough character.  That's something you need to think about when you're trying to copy something for your own home.  You might find a chair that has the same characteristics as the one in your "dream living room" inspiration photo (cognac brown, turned wood legs, high back)... But does it have the same feeling? If the chair in the picture looks like someone found it in their grandfather's library and yours looks like you got it in a living room furniture set on sale at JC Penny's, then you might want to look for something else.  The perfect chair for you might be a lighter brown and have a tufted back with short rustic legs; but if it would look at home surrounded by giant bookshelves, it'll still work!

So.  Jeans (and shirt) in the top photo.  What are they like?  They're certainly not Old Navy Jeans and a brand new chambray shirt.  They're worn in, have some character (that word again!) but still have a chic and current shape.  Where does this leave me with my couch?

I'm thinking leather.

Leather couches are hard.  As Emily Henderson so brilliantly put it, you want the James Dean and Paul Newman of leather couches, not the New Jersey and bachelor pad ones.  (Click on that link and read the first few paragraphs of the post.  Awesome!)  You can, of course, imagine my favorite of her tips: "When in doubt, buy a chesterfield." Right!  So, I'm gonna go to the grandaddy of all fake vintage/so expensive/but gorgeous all the same furniture: Restoration Hardware.  I think that "worn" leather chesterfield will have the same feeling as an old pair of jeans and faded chambray shirt.

Same pillows, a couch with a lot more character.  Of course, now, it's a totally different color scheme than our picture.  Sometimes, that's totally fine; don't get caught up in having to exactly match your inspiration pictures.  

But... I have an inkling that there has to be an un-hideous denim couch out there.  (Actually that first Crate and Barrel couch came in a denim fabric that would have been cute if not for the bright yellow stitching...)  Since we're already going crazy expensive with the Restoration Hardware couch (the big one was on sale from $12k to $10k!), let's ignore how expensive this couch from 1st dibs is.  (The kind of expensive that doesn't have prices)

Here, you get denim with the clean, chic lines of the skinny jeans in our original outfit.  The couch is from the 60's, so it has some character to it.  (Crikeys, I need to find another word besides "character!"  It's just such a good word!)  Though I said that it didn't matter just a few paragraphs ago, it has the same colors and textures of Jessica's outfit.

I think this is kind of fun, turning an outfit into a room.  I might try this again.  I can pretend I'm Domino.

ETA: I didn't realized that last picture was so blurry.  Sorry!/Too lazy to fix it...