the green chair

The irony. The irony of a 50s era piece of furniture. It formerly belonged to my grandparents on my dad's side [such strange people, but that's a different blog]. It was a formerly ugly, horse-hair padded chair. The back hits my 5' 8" frame around my lower sholder blades, and the butt-cushion fits easily behind my knees. The arms are wide and long. They've held many a cup of coffee or sweet tea along with a book or two and a journal. It's like having to side tables attached to the chair, only they're the same color as the rest of the chair!



But back to the color... It used to be a kelly green cotton with a light brown vine that crawled all over. Along the vine were tiny yellow and red flowers, characteristic of the fifties. Years of sitting had made it soft and a bit slouchy, however, it was the kind of slouchy and made-to-fit type of worn that made it... amazing. It was like sitting in someone's lap, someone you love. It's not the orthodox choice for a chair but it's a place you CHOOSE to sit. And then, despite your lovers knobby knees or bony thighs, it's the place you WANT to sit. The place you belong. This chair was that, only, you can't be in love with a chair like that, or at least... you shouldn't be.



The plush chair took some changes when it changed hands. My parents recieved it as a wedding gift from my grandparents. Yes, a used set of furniture from a house that smells like moth balls! But I suppose that when you're in need of furniture... you take what is given to you! Since being with my parents, the Green Chair has had two covers, one of which was a French blue with two large bows. At one point, my mother took on the admirable task of recovering it! Although it was a great job, the fabric was a hideous thick and scratchy large blue gingham. Not the chairs most beautiful look...



But today, today I sit upon a work of art. The matching couch that also resides in my room is a deep brown canvas, which goes amazing with the beige walls and green accents all around the room. The green in my room... O, the green... Green is a fickle color. It can be classy and bright, or it can be late 90s Victorian-inspired Home Interiors or it can be bright, annoying, and loud lime green [as was the color of the walls of my 70s flower child inspired room of my early teens... don't judge! We all went through that period...]. But alas, the green in my room is the happy medium. It is a spring shade or sage that is bright, but dusty, flamboyant but subdued. It's what I would call... Martha Stewart Green. And now you all know exactly what it looks like. The green is everywhere: on the handles on the Rubbermaid boxes that hold my sports equipment, the trunk my mom took to Mizzou with her, the antique lamp I bought at a garage sale, the accent pictures hanging above my bed, and even the 3-ring notebooks from last semester that are sitting on the arm of the couch. It's everwhere! But the Martha Stewart Green, which immediately makes me want to make useless greeting cards from scratch, "grows" from the bedspread. Green vines grow from the foot of the bed and on the pillow shams. It's everywhere. But mostly, I sit upon the coolest green thing in the room.



The deep, orangey Martha green has a checkerboard batter of leaves. Within the squares that are outlined by these leaves are mini green flowers. Within those flowers are either golden yellow or peachy-orange dots of color. It has this vintage feel, even though I know for a fact that the fabric is new but the chair is old. This chair, o, this chair... it's perfect for sitting up straight in. You feel really tall and almost like you're a movie star from the olden days. Like you're... Grace Kelly, Betty Davis, Doris Day, or my personal favorite: Audrey Hepburn. The had incredible posture and poise. Such grace... But not only is this chair "formal" it is totally and definitely casual as well. Slouching, lounging, legs indian-style, feet up in the chair, half laying in it half sitting in it... anything goes. It's larger than most chairs which makes it almost in its own category!

At the end of this you may be saying "Uh, it's a chair. Just a chair." But it's not. It's something so much more. It's generations of relaxation and contemplation, it's a statement of vintage decor within my room, it's a station of comfort and creativity for this lone college student blogger. What it inspires in me is the exploitation of outlook on every day life. There are random things in life that we overlook, things like watching a movie with your best friends and having an epiphany about relationships, or packing your new backpack with books for class, or cleaning your room and discovering that spider ring you got from your first boy-girl dance party in the 8th grade... There are stories we overlook. Stories that make life... LIFE. And some of these stories, well they need to be written down from the comfort of an Old Green Chair.