Is This Chair Fab or Frightening?

I wrote about something called Pottery Barn Catalog Syndrome on Vitamin G a while back. Here’s how I described it (quoting myself, which seems really quite weird): “When I’m flipping through these catalogs–looking at all the gorgeous and perfectly clean and tidy spaces–I start to feel bad about my own house. First it’s the little things like “man, I can’t believe how awful my coffee table looks.” Then I start thinking about how bad my living room rug looks and before long I’m thinking: “NEW HOUSE! Definitely need a new house.”

Anyway, I’m having Crate and Barrel Catalog Syndrome these days–especially after seeing an ad for their summer sale, where a certain chair caught my eye. But here’s the deal: I can’t tell if this Jardin Chair is cute or horrible. On one hand, I can see it in my office or in the corner of my bedroom looking kind of fabulous. But wait, is it way too loud? Bold? Take-me-away-to-the-Caribbean? Sometimes I worry that I don’t have decor-dar (you know, decor radar). I need a interior designer BFF and fast.

What do you think of the chair?

P.S. I hate cribs. We had to buy crib #3 (today) in less than three years due to a second major crib recall. Do you know how obnoxiously time consuming it is to install a crib?