Depression Chic

By Ken Silverstein

The rich really are different.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Coffee tables made from barrels. Lamps crafted from brooms. Chairs swathed in burlap and sackcloth. Look at the some of the newest furniture on the market, and the recession appears to have really hit home. But irony alert: This new brand of shabby chic doesn’t come cheap.

At the Dan Marty showroom in the Pacific Design Center, the heart of West Hollywood’s design scene and the place where top decorators shop for their wealthy clients, light fixtures made from old French apple baskets carry $1,600 price tags and canopy chairs upholstered in burlap sell for $3,600 a pair.