Style At Home: Mary Graf Of Le Cart SF | theglitterguide.com

Tell us about Le Cart SF. What inspired you to start it?
Le Cart is an online store that sells one-of-a-kind, refurbished vintage or antique accessories and accent furniture for your home. We also host shows throughout the Bay area where our customers can view our pieces in vignettes which really do well. What is better than drinking wine and getting inspired to spruce up your house? My mom is somewhat of an antique collector so I had always recreated some of the pieces she passed down and Jenny obviously has a great eye with all of her design experience.

For years, we went together to the Alameda Point Antique Faire and had found so many great treasures that we started thinking we could fix them up and sell them. Originally we talked about opening a store because at least in our neighborhood in San Francisco there really isn?t a place to buy great, affordable statement pieces for your home. We are both too busy with our growing children to man a store for now so we keep it small on the website and plan to grow as we have more time.

?I love these windows in our downstairs living room. It?s a very sunny spot to relax. One of these days I want to get custom cushions made for the seats and fabulous curtains to really make the windows pop. The large watermelon pillows are from West Elm, I had the french ticking ones made, and the pillow in the Louis XV chair is from John Robshaw. My sequin front sweater is a score from H&M, the necklace is from The Copper Penny in Charleston, SC, and the booties are Loeffler Randall from Foot Candy, an amazing shoe store in Sonoma and St. Helena.?

?This is the back part of our ?playful? playroom. The front of this massive room is full of toys but we keep this TV area toy free. That huge window overlooks the San Francisco Bay so a seat in one of those club chairs from Palecek is sacred. I love white sofas but there is no way to have nice ones until my girls are grown up. These are from?Pottery Barn and Ikea. ?The pillows are from a variety of sources: some custom, others from Roberta Roller Rabbit, Fabricada and Etsy. The storage zebra ottoman is from Ballard, and holds so many of our old photo albums. It?s such a great coffee table when you have children.?

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You have a love for refurbished and vintage pieces. How do you decorate your own home with them??
I think these pieces really make a home. If everything is new, where is the story? You have to buy pieces that you love and that speak to you and your taste in some way. Next to my fireplace, I have an old wire milk crate that I found at this fabulous store in Sonoma holding my firewood and then on the other side I have an occasional table that is a giant tassel. My husband?s grandparents had a milk farm and my mom always had our keys in the house on giant silk tassels so these two pieces are so nostalgic and personal but still look great.

Any favorite pieces in your home??
I love so many but I think my favorite is a set of four mirrors I found at Alameda. They are perfectly distressed, the shape is amazing, and they are delicately painted gold and emerald green and hang on the four opposite walls of my living room. I originally had them all four lined up in my dining room but my mom came up with the idea to separate them on each wall and it totally completes the room.

?I adore these Chloe chairs from Bungalow 5. Paired with a farm table from Harvest Home they make such a fun statement. I love the blue and white jars but sadly they are for sale on our Le Cart website, but I am happy to keep them if they don?t sell. My built in China cabinet is original to the house and is filled with everything from fine Limoges China to Chinese pottery and everything in between. I could collect China and glassware, I just don?t have the room.??

Favorite room in your house??
Definitely my downstairs living room. It is more like a ?salon? or a sitting room. Since we have a TV/playroom upstairs, this is our adult room with absolutely no sign of toys. We don?t have any sofas, just a mix of French chairs, wicker, rattan, a huge club chair and a large round ottoman that rolls around depending on where we want to prop our feet. It has a great fireplace and this is my husband?s and my favorite spot to have a glass of wine once the girls are in bed, a cup of coffee on the weekends while reading the Times before they are awake, and a great place for a dance party after dinner as it is connected by fabulous pocket doors to the dining room.

?This is one of my many vintage pieces from my mother?s wardrobe. She had fabulous clothes. This is an Anne Klein from her original line in the late 60?s before her death. I have worn this gold dress to so many events and I love that my mom did too at my same age. That is the beauty of classic, well made clothes.??

?This is one of my favorite photos from our wedding night. My sisters and I have all ?gone away? in the same Vintage Rolls. And it is a special night if my husband is drinking his favorite Glenlivet scotch from these crystal tumblers from Waterford. My mom gave me this set of hilarious linen cocktail napkins. The top one is obviously funny for us but others say things like ?Guests of Guests may not Invite Guests? and ?Who invited all these Tacky People?. ?Pretty funny.?

How would you describe your decorating style?
Since I am not a designer by trait, really only self-proclaimed by passion, my style is all over the place. I would say traditional but playful. I love a lot of white, neutral, classic furniture but I will always have unexpected color and patterns as the pop. I realize when I go home to Nashville and see my friend?s homes that I am definitely more in the California casual bucket. I will always be a Southern girl at heart and have an ode to that in my decorating, but I love that living in California gives you more free reign to be bold in your style.

Does living in San Francisco influence your home decor??
When I first drove Jenny past my new house, she immediately said it looks like a cottage in Seaside, FL. I was thrilled because I am a beach girl and actually love the bright white and fun colors of beach interiors. It is the top two units of a three story house and it is bright blue with white trim and has an amazing front ?porch? which is very rare in San Francisco. Even though San Francisco is chilly and not known as a beach town, I am only 5 blocks from the water and my girls are always playing on the beach. We have great views of the Bay so I went with it and incorporated some casual beach elements in my decor. A few painted wicker pieces, bright white bamboo dining chairs, and some great blues in my pillows.

?Jenny and I found a pair of these amazing inlaid bamboo tables at the Alameda Antiques Faire from a guy selling toy trains of all things. He had no idea how incredible these were. You would cry if you knew how much we paid for them. One of our best finds ever. She has the other one in her living room. I just purchased this set of china from an antique store in Healdsburg, it is so chic. And low cut flowers in mint julep cups are a must all over my house.?

Favorite places to shop for your home??
Obviously any flea market or antique shop, especially the ones in San Anselmo and Healdsburg. And I always bring my credit card on my Saturday morning runs because our neighborhood always has great estate sales. Summerhouse in Mill Valley is wonderful as is Ruby Living. And you never leave Sue Fisher King on Sacramento without the perfect hostess or birthday gift.

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Any tips for people who want to score vintage items for their home? How can they make them look modern and cool??
Again, buy what you love and something that is nostalgic to your childhood or family. It will always make you smile. And if it is interesting to you, then I promise it will look great in your home, as it will make your house more homey and original. When searching for treasures, look for classic pieces that would be easy to paint or not too expensive to recover.?Our inventory that is painted in a pop color always sells fast. You can always add nail heads to a chair or bench to make them look more current and any vintage Lucite pieces look cool and modern.

How do you sparkle??
There are a lot of sequins and shimmer in my closet, tons of gold and silver shoes, and if you could see my house decorated for Christmas right now, you may be blinded by the sparkle. But the true sparkle comes from the love for my husband of ten years this year, my amazing little girls, and the friendships of my three sisters, parents and all my best friends throughout my life. You can?t shine without them!

?It took me a long time to decide on my bedroom scheme, and it is still a work in progress. I wanted soothing colors and a real retreat for my husband and I. Scheuer Linens here in San Francisco patiently helped me with this custom color for my Matouk Linens and I had the knot euros made from a Kravet linen from the San Francisco Design Center. The sunburst and orange throw were finds from One Kings Lane and the antique lamps are from once again, the Alameda Antique Faire. I used a chunky linen from Pindler & Pindler fabrics for the Ballard Stevenson headboard. I absolutely love my bed and wish I could spend more time in it.?

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Source: http://theglitterguide.com/2012/12/11/style-at-home-mary-graf-of-le-cart-sf/

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