apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I'm looking for a reasonably priced NYC area supplier of vintage modern-style chenille, tweed or boucle upholstery fabric. I looked in the basement of ABC, which is full of great fabrics, but those prices... good lawd!

I need to clean out the inside of our fireplace (no doors or anything) and paint it -- we own, and due to flu damage we can't use it any longer. Any suggestions on how to clean and what paint to use? There are no ashes or anything--but it is black as night inside.

taracakes, I saw on HGTV the other night someone dealing with a similar issue. Apparently the secret to cleaning sooty masonry is to use Scrubbing Bubbles or some other type of foamy bathroom spray cleaner. Perhaps oven cleaner would work too? Then they used a wire brush (and probably lots of water) to rinse it off. It looked really good afterwards!

the thread count has reached 600 -- enough to make luxurious bed linen....