Chalet Furniture

by Michael

Pine Lounge Furniture

Hi,

We have a rental vacation property which is part of a condo hotel program.

This simply means that the resort rents it out on our behalf.

The accommodation should have a resort look and feel, and the stipulation is that the case goods (wood furniture) should match.

All of the existing furniture is matched in colour and design, as it was made by House of Brougham, in honey pine, somewhat rustic. The feel is that of an elegant, but rustic chalet.

House of Brougham is no longer in business as a furniture manufacturer.

We are trying to select a new entertainment armoire with closing pocket doors to be placed in a central area in the main living room.

The difficulty is that the honey pine look is no longer popular. If we could get one that is close in finish, it would still not be the same and might look awkward.

The solution is probably to get an "accent" piece which won't look mismatched. But with all the rest of the furniture honey pine, I am in a quandary.

I don't know whether to go darker, lighter, different style, similar style or what. The contrast may be too stark to go with country distressed black, although this was suggested. What do you think of this idea? One designer said pick a contrasting finish, and re-accessorize to bring it in.

I am thinking about a painted finish, white, cream, whitewash, distressed black, but I am also concerned about the design. How can it be complementary without looking mismatched?

Frustrated and spent lots of time.

Thanks for your help,

Michael

Andrea's Response:

Hi Michael - this is a tricky one...

I would have thought that it would be easy to buy furniture with a honey pine finish in an area of ski chalets as that is such a traditional look.

If it were my chalet I would want to exhaust all possibility of getting the matching furniture and with that in mind I would speak to the condo management and other chalet owners in the building to see what they had.

If I had no joy there, I would look on sites where owners advertise for rental privately and would contact a number of owners through the site if I could see from the pictures that they had similar furniture.

If I still drew a blank I would do as you have suggested yourself and go with a painted finish. It depends on the decor of your chalet but cream would probably be a good colour. Even better, get a paint as near to honey pine as you can and use that as the underneath colour for a distressed finish with cream on top.

I think in terms of style, you need to get something as similar to your existing furniture as possible - as you say, anything else could look out of place.

Kind regards,

Andrea