CHEAP TO CHIC: ACQUIRING AN EYE FOR IKAT!!

Madeline Weinrib – 19th Century French Ottoman in Brown Daphne – $4500 (Ottoman with turned wood legs uphostered in brown, white and black ikat fabric) (above)

Ikat is one of the “in” fabrics in home decor and design. Ikat refers to a process of dyeing fabric in which the thread or yarn is dyed in a tie-dye like fashion before the material is actually woven. (Sounds complicated…wonder if it wouldn’t just be easier to tie-dye?? Leave it to Coco to take the easy way out…)

Anyhoo…was hanging out with GH yesterday while working on this post. Asked if he thought any of the furniture or accessories I was thinking of posting were pretty…his initial response was “I see nothing on that page that could be defined as pretty.” After I asked him again (about 10 more times), he finally caved and said that the chair from Urban Outfitters “wasn’t bad”. A ringing endorsement it was not…but is does demonstrate perhaps that ikat may be an acquired taste!

I tell the story of GH only to say that I think a love for ikat fabrics grows on a person. Often the initial guttural response is iffy (as was for me)…then as you repeatedly glance at the patterns that are abstract and graphic, as you take in the forms with their blurry jagged edges, and as your eye adapts to the bold blots of color, you may start to like this ikat stuff more and more…(that’s what happened to me…)

So for you with the advance eye or for you novices take a look again and again and again at these ikat dyed items in today’s Cococozy CHEAP TO CHIC…let us know what you think!

Urban Outfitters –Ikat Slipper Chair in Indigo – $325 (Vintage-inspired armless slipper chair, with low-slung profile, covered in luxurious cotton fabric with allover indigo ikat print. Cushioned and curved high-density, foam-filled seat, tapered dark brown stained wooden legs recall mid-century style) (above)

West Elm – Upholstered Slipper Chair – on sale $349.99; regular $429 (Slipper accent chair in woven Ikat upholstery in light yellow or sand dune and ivory. White washed tapered oak legs) (above)

Madeline Weinrib – Ikat Pillows – $450 for 18″x18″ (70% silk/30% cotton ikat dyed fabric throw pillows. Clockwise from top left: Blu, Brown Stripe, Blue Luce, Celery (green) Daphne. Available in 18″x30″, 24″x24″, and in a 9″x28″ bolster) (above)

P.S. Was on J.Crew’s website and noticed that now in ikat is at work in fashion too this season…check out this cute yellow and white J. Crew ikat skirt…looks kind of like the cousin of the West Elm chair above.