Good Bones, Great Pieces

Suzanne McGrath, Lauren McGrath

• Publisher: Stewart, Tabori & Chang
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781613124758
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Product Design

"An excellent and useful book for both beginners and more experienced home decorators... Encourages us all to be both carefree and careful" ( Martha Stewart). Making a home is a lifelong pursuit and it starts with your very first place. Suzanne and Lauren McGrath, a mother-daughter team, operate the popular blog Good Bones, Great Pieces. At the core of their philosophy is the belief that every home should have seven essential pieces that can live in almost any room and will always be stylish. The authors explain how to place iconic items of furniture like the love seat and the dresser and rotate them throughout the home as the style or need changes. Illustrated with photographs of homes and apartments that the McGraths have designed, as well as apartments by some iconic designers, this book is a wonderful resource, whether you are starting out with your first apartment or rethinking the design of your home. "A must-read for first-timers and seasoned home decorators alike." — Traditional Home

There’s no other sofa capable of taking on quite as many roles as the love seat, and that’s why we love it.

ot to pick favorites, but the love seat is probably our most beloved—no pun intended—multifunctional piece. We are both continuously attracted to its lovely proportions and its ability to “fit in” in almost any room. It’s a classic rotatable piece that can be bought for a first apartment as the main seating option, be moved to your next home and paired with a bigger sofa in a larger living room, and it can sit at the foot of your bed once you get that spacious master bedroom you’ve been waiting for. Love seats are also fantastic when you’re working with a large or oddly shaped living room where it’s appropriate to create two or more separate seating areas. There’s no other sofa capable of taking on quite as many roles as the love seat, and that’s why we love it.

The very first love seats were made in the late seventeenth century—one of the first was known as the Knole settee, named after its first home, Knole, in Kent, England. In fact, modern reproductions of this piece are still being made today.

There is no right or wrong love seat for any room—because of its smaller dimensions, it is difficult to make a mistake. In fact, the love seat can be a great opportunity to bring in a daring shape or color that you might not want to commit to in a regular-size sofa. But a sofa of any size is always a big investment for your home, so it’s important to choose one that is well made. Like any type of seating, you should try out the piece you’re considering purchasing. Reupholstering can be expensive, so definitely take time to examine the piece closely to be sure that the basic construction is good. Are the seat cushions the perfect combination of soft down feathers and polyester Dacron? We like 50 percent polyester Dacron, 50 percent down, but this is a matter of personal taste (kind of like choosing the pillows you lay your head on at night). Is the seat cushion deep enough from front to back for you to sink into? Is the seat back pitched slightly backward to allow you to sit comfortably? Well-made love seats can range in price from $1,000 to $5,000 and up. Keep your eye out for sales—if you’re going to buy a sofa at a retail store, you should never pay full price. Remember: Furniture goes on sale just like clothing.

A pair of vintage mini Swedish cocktail tables are elegant and unobtrusive in Lauren’s small living area. The mustard yellow gourd lamp was a flea-market find.

“I’ve always been partial to love seats as opposed to big hulking sofas. I love how delicate and inherently romantic they are.”

—Lauren

n a first apartment, especially in New York City where space is at a premium, there’s often only space for a love seat, a coffee table, and a small chair or bench. But just because your space is small doesn’t mean you can’t create the perfect living area. We see lots of spaces where oversize sofas are crammed into a tiny room, making the space appear even smaller than it is. In the wise words of legendary decorator Dorothy Draper: “A technical knowledge of architecture is not necessary to know that a huge stuffed leather chair in a tiny gold and cream room is … as much out of proportion as the proverbial bull in the china shop” (Decorating Is Fun!, 1939). For pint-size apartments, less furniture is more, but it’s all about scale. Before you go shopping for a love seat, measure the wall in front of which your sofa will be placed. Choose a wall that allows for two side tables at least twenty-two inches wide (each) on either side of the sofa. Including these pieces will ultimately make your love seat more functional. Remember: You don’t have to buy a huge sofa just because it’s your very first purchase for your very first space. Find a piece that suits the dimensions you’re living in now. There will always be a place for the love seat in your future.

The most expensive thing we bought for Lauren’s first apartment after she graduated from Bowdoin was the love seat (even though it was on sale). We went for the pretty gray ticking stripe because of its neutrality—yes, stripes and patterns can be neutral. What’s more, the exposed wood legs have casters on them, making it easy to move the piece around a room. We’re big fans of exposed legs on sofas for two reasons: They’re easier to clean under than sofas with skirts, and they eliminate the possibility of the dreaded shoe-polish stains from men’s and women’s boots.

When you’re young and constantly moving, love seats make getting up narrow hallways and around tight corners much easier than if you are hauling the average-size sofa. While decorating Lauren’s first apartment, we made the mistake of not measuring width of the extremely narrow staircase to her new apartment before buying the love seat. On move-in day, after much pushing and pulling, we finally came to terms with the fact that the sofa was not going to make it up to the second floor—not by the stairs, that is. In a stroke of sheer genius—and with the help of her very friendly neighbors—we were able to bring the piece up through the adjacent brownstone and hoist it over the back terrace onto Lauren’s. So, word to the wise: Make sure you not only measure the wall your piece will be going against, but also measure the width and height of every door and hallway it has to pass through to get to your apartment.

Some kind of window treatment was a must to disguise the industrial window guards in this New York City rental. From IKEA, this curtain fabric reminded us of a favorite Victoria Hagan textile.

Lauren’s apartment is under five hundred square feet so every inch of the space must serve a specific purpose.

A vintage mannequin hand is a fun way to display your everyday jewelry. Lauren’s shoe “library” takes over a bookcase.

A bright green color reform rug from Stark Carpet brings the outdoors in.

“The more you educate yourself about classic forms and historically relevant pieces, the easier it will be to pick out a great ‘inspired-by’ piece that fits your budget.”

—Suzanne

hen decorating first apartments, we’re almost always on a tight budget, so we usually spend the most money on the love seat or sofa to ensure that it will endure lots of wear and tear. In the living room of a friend’s small apartment in the East Village, we chose an elegant Louis XVI–style love seat with uniquely small dimensions (fifty-one inches in width). This piece is a nice combination of materials with its plush seat cushions and elegant wood frame. Choosing a love seat with such classic lines allowed us to be more daring with some of the other choices we made in the room. One of the first pieces we found, a Lucite-framed reproduction ...