Who would take a French Provincial chair, reupholster it with a zipper down its middle, then coat the whole thing in off-white rubber?
Carter Averbeck would. Did, in fact.
"I took it to a place that dips tools in rubber," he explained. The chair, now sitting in the living room of his North Loop loft, manages to be both elegant and edgy at the same time, Old World Parisian with a hint of attitude. "It's a favorite piece of mine — because I made it."
Averbeck has made — or creatively remade — a lot of the pieces in his home. There's the bed he designed for himself, a platform of Madagascar ebony topped with an upholstered mohair headboard made from men's suiting. The classic Milo Baughman dining set, whose chairs he recovered in a graphic black-and-white print. And the old rusted filing cabinet Averbeck transformed into a rooftop planter, by laying it on its back and filling it with dirt, dark-red foliage plants and ornamental grasses.
Transforming old stuff is both a business and a way of life for Averbeck, founder/owner of Omforme (Norwegian for "to transform") Design (www.omformedesigncom.ipage.com). In addition to interior design, he rescues castoff furniture, salvaged and surplus materials, and repurposes them into "something gorgeous" that will find a home in someone's home, rather than in a landfill or incinerator, where tons of furniture end up every year in the United States, according to Averbeck. "I find a lot of beauty in imperfection."
But if that suggests a shabby chic aesthetic, all distressed finishes and faded floral fabrics, think again. "There's nothing shabby chic about it — it's all spot-on trend," Averbeck said of his creations. He follows trends as religiously as the fashion industry does, trying to stay abreast of what finishes and colors will put a fresh contemporary spin on a timeworn settee or club chair.
"What's flying out the door [at his south Minneapolis shop] are all blues, greens and turquoise," he noted. "All the cool tones. People are using those as a way of introducing color into neutral spaces." Minnesotans love their muted interiors, he's observed. "We live through long winters, and there's a weird comfort to it," he theorized.
But distinctive color is important to Averbeck, a tool he uses to individualize every space he works on. "I pay attention to what the architecture tells me, then infuse the personality of the client," he said. "Don't you love a home where you love walking in the door?" (His store's slogan is "Go Bold or Go Home … Hopefully With Our Stuff!")