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Remodel & decorate in Mid Century Style

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Carlo midcentury modern design sofa and chair from West Elm — nice

Pam Kueber - September 7, 2018, Updated: November 6, 2020

Story #4 about planning weebit’s apartment. She has a West Elm nearby, so we went and looked several times. I had not been in one of these for years and years. What a fun store — chock full of midcentury modern-inspired furniture. I was particularly impressed by the lines and scale of West Elm’s Carlo sofa and Carlo chair. Weebit had zero interest in either piece: “That’s your style,” she said. But: Maybe you, dear readers, will be interested in taking a look! 

Costs are not “too” high — $1399 for the sofa and, as I write this story, there’s a 30% off sale. They have a 2-4 week lead time for the chair, 8-12 week lead time for the sofa in two color, longer made-to-order times for other colors. 

I quite like some of their colors — “dark cardamom” by any other name is: Burnt Orange, my favorite color of all time, yum yum.

You can also get Rust, my second-favorite color of all time.

And Olive, aka dreamy rich avocado dream, also a fantabulous color. I call these midcentury modern *inspired* in particular because of those thin narrow legs. Those would not have been seen back in the day, I think. Maybe West Elm will give you walnut legs instead, since these are made to order?

Velvets were not common either, although I tend to categorize styles by lines, not finishes. The overall lines of this sofa and chair, though: Yes, I see midcentury modern antecedents. I am not an expert on the midcentury furniture designers, but my first come-to-mind is Adrian Pearsall.

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6 comments

Comments

  1. Tarquin says

    I learned something from the first photograph. The last thing I would think of putting in that charming old world room would be mid-century modern. Much to my astonishment it works well.

  2. Joel says

    Imported made to order? Not interested. My mom bought a new living room set that was made to order in North Carolina. The quality and value are both very high. She bought it on Wayfair. They had some mid-century-ish designs.

    • Pam Kueber says

      Hi Joel, your comment made me check what I had written. The 2-4 week lead time colors are not made-to-order, but the other are.

  4. Rick S says

    When I first saw the opening photo I thought “weebit’s apartment is looking quite LUXE”. It is nice to see the lines and colors that echo the MCM style.