The Ashbury - Apt2B’s Groovy New Tie Dye Sofa

Apt2B is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the famous Summer of Love with the introduction of the Ashbury Sofa, a game-changing take on tie dye that brings the tie dye style out of your uncle’s VW van and places it in the center of your contemporary home. And we’re kicking off the summer by taking the Ashbury on the road. The destination? Haight-Ashbury, the San Francisco intersection that inspired and cultivated hippie culture as we know it. So buckle up and take the trip with us as we take the Ashbury on its own Magical Mystery Tour to celebrate the origins of old-school tie dye while introducing tie dye for the 21st century.

The Ashbury Sofa Redefines Tie Dye’s Functionality

Tie dye has always seemed like an all-or-nothing affair. There’s historically been very little middle ground. You’re either all peace signs, peace pipes, and patchouli or you’ve never owned even a shred of tie dye in your whole life. But the Ashbury Sofa is helping to prove that tie dye can function as a more moderate and complementary style than people might expect. A tie dye sofa doesn’t have to feel like a radical living room revolution. It accents and enhances a variety of styles, especially modern, contemporary, and minimalist spaces. Place the Ashbury Sofa on a white rug and watch the magic happen. The Ashbury isn’t the sofa for your blacklight basement – it’s the tie dye sofa for your modern home.

The Ashbury isn’t the sofa for your blacklight basement – it’s the tie dye sofa for your modern home.

Haight-Ashbury: The Height of Hippie Culture

Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane to understand the origins of hippie culture and to better understand how far tie dye has come in the last 50 years. The city: San Francisco. The year: 1965. The spot: the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. This is the birthplace of hippie culture as we know it. American writer Hunter S. Thompson lovingly referred to it as “hashbury”. That’s because it was the epicenter of counter-culture. The first “head shop”, Ron and Jay Thelin’s Psychedelic Shop, opened its doors in The Haight in 1966 to offer the community the essentials (like weed and LSD). Haight-Ashbury was also the staging ground for a leftist group called The Diggers who wanted to remove money from society in an effort to give people the chance to explore their true, artistic passions (like street theater and recreational drug use). But The Haight is perhaps best known for the psychedelic rock music that was born in its streets.

The Summer Of Love

The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin were all residents and neighbors of the Haight district. With the help of Scott McKenzie’s hit single “San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)”, The Haight transitioned from counter-culture capitol to mainstream mecca. This popularity resulted in the now-famous Summer of Love in 1967. The neighborhood saw a massive influx of college kids, transients, hippies, and even off-duty military personnel who drove in from nearby bases. The Haight was an absolute hotbed for creativity, imagination, and probably resulted in a whole lot of babies named Jerry and Janis. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. The Summer of Love was the peak of the Haight-Ashbury hippie scene, but it wasn’t sustainable. The Diggers held a mock funeral in October, 1967 to mark the end of an era.

The Haight was an absolute hotbed for creativity, imagination, and probably resulted in a whole lot of babies named Jerry and Janis.

The Ashbury Sofa Hits The Road

The end of The Haight wasn’t the end of hippie culture. Hippies are nomadic by nature. And so they set off to spread their message of peace and love and to follow their favorite psychedelic bands around the country. VW vans, hitchhiking, and a lack of property ownership became core features of the hippie community. And that’s why Apt2B is taking the Ashbury up the California coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco! It’s an homage to tie dye’s hippie origins, but it’s a celebration of tie dye’s future. We’ll be stopping along the way so that the Ashbury can spread its own message to the world: peace, love, and comfort. In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love, the Ashbury will make its final stop at the intersection of Haight and Ashbury. Be sure to take the trip with us by following @apt2b on social media!

The tour starts tomorrow, Wednesday in Venice at the famous Blue Star Donuts on Abbot Kinney where we’ll being giving away free donuts 12pm-2pm to kick off summer! Stop by, sit on our sofa and have a donut on us!

Blue Star Donuts | 1142 Abbot Kinney Blvd | Venice, CA 90291

Feelin’ the love? Then check out our Ashbury Sofa and follow the tour with us @apt2b !