Mix It Up

Today I am mixin' it up with the place settings.  I can almost never find Limoges or any Shabby Chic style dishes in volume so sometimes you just have to mix it up.  

 Here is the first place setting.  China from Bavaria pattern is "Empire."

 

Here is the second place setting.  This plate has a maker's mark, but I am not sure what it is.  The pattern is "Shesia."

Do you like this table runner?  I made it.

If you want this table runner, you can purchase it.  I have took the leap; and it was a giant one for me, and I opened an Etsy Shop.  I will be doing a lot of sewing, trying new things, and blogging about it. 

I am not trying to hurry summer but, Shabby Chic just goes with shells, no matter what the season.

There is a simplicity about this with the bare wood and the bareness of just two place settings.  Yet, when I am setting a table with these dishes there is plenty to look at.  I love the Shabby Chic style floral china. 

I will link this to:

Tablescape Thursday  at Between Naps on the Porch
Fabric Fun Thursday  at Cheap Chic Home

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Feather Your Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

My Favorite Things at Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie
Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound

Go and visit these great blogs.

Before & After: Client's Neutral Living Room

{The one-day deer head...  I'll explain later}

My client Diem & her husband Joe (and their two adorable boys- Charley (3) and baby Harry) were looking to make a few changes in their living room.  They wanted something a bit more sophisticated & grown up, yet still comfortable and kid-friendly.   It's the living room and they have an informal family room off of the kitchen so they were looking for something a bit more formal than what they have in there.  Diem's love of neutrals inspired the design which is a mix of shades of gray and pale yellow-creams.  (Diem & Joe wanted to keep the wall color.)When I first visited, it looked like this:

We're still not completely finished yet, but here's how it looks now:

{That's Charley on the sofa!}

Here's a close-up of some of the fabrics on the velvet sofa:

Here's a close-up of the chairs & colorblocked linen pillows I had done by Paul David Designs:

When we were setting up the living room, Diem told Charley (3) that the figurines below were Indian.  He listened carefully and then proceeded to call them "Aliens" for the rest of the day.  I love 3-year olds.

And here's Mr.Charley himself sinking into one of the new chairs:

{i can't handle him...  he's such a good little guy!!}

We started the process of styling Diem's cabinet using her brother-in-law Derek Larsen's pottery:

{Diem's got a shopping list now for those 2 bottoms shelves!}

Derek will be busy ;)

Here's another view of the room before:

And here it is now:

I had a really tough time shooting because of the light, but you get the idea.  (Straight into the sun)

...And now let's talk about the deer...  the "one day" deer...

I just got word from Diem that Joe came home and hates the deer so he has to go.    He's calling him "RoboDeer" which is actually pretty hysterical. 

{At least we got RoboDeer's pic!}

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Miss Curity

I have been wanting to feature Miss Curity for awhile.  I finally had the inspiration to put it together.  I believe she is a little advertising piece for Curity band aids. (maybe circa 1950's)

In this vignette I have some old medicine bottles with a vintage nurse postcard.

I love this old bottle.  It is a Scott's Emulsion Cod Liver Oil bottle.  The man on the bottle is carrying a large cod over his shoulder.

I will link to:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Go and visit these two awesome blogs.

Baby's Room Rug

I love change.  Rooms in my own home can start to feel dead to me if I don't freshen things up, rearrange, and/or add items every once in a while.  Justin's carpeting in the nursery hasn't fared very well...

... so I was thrilled when we stopped at Ikea the other day and found this yellow & navy graphic rug for around $150:

It was just the thing to cover up the havoc we've wreaked on the cream carpet. 

{Good luck to you, New Rug!}

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Arcimboldo

{National Gallery of Art}

Last week, Dave & I got the chance to sneak away to the National Gallery of Art for an afternoon.  We don't seem to enjoy the city's museums nearly enough so when we have vacations at home, we try to get in to see one. 

{tourists in our own city}

We didn't have much time - only a couple of hours- so we made sure to hit up the Guiseppe Arcimboldo exhibit - visiting from the Louvre- which leaves this January.  I'd never heard of him and was thrilled with what we saw:

{Bowl of vegetables at first glance}

...When viewed with a mirror under the painting - which is how they had it set up- you can spy the funny face made entirely out of veggies of "the cook:"

There were a few of these & I loved seeing them, many of them fairly grotesque (which for some reason I really love... remember my old men on the Da Vinci wall?) with things like plucked chickens for a noze or cheek.  yuck.

Arcimboldo was born in 1527 and eventually became the court portraitist and festival planner for Emporer Maximilian II (r. 1564- 1576) and his young son Rudolf II(r.1576-1612).   He was known for the incredible imagery and costumes he created at parties and performances.  I imagine crazy bright beautiful shows and tables overflowing with food & drinks & flowers... 

Arcimboldo was not the tradittional court portraitist in that he began creating people's likenesses out of objects such as fruit, flowers, books and plants.  He would often create a person out of objects having to do with his profession, such as this librarian out of books:

The best-known of his work is the Four Seasons, presented to Maximiliam as a gift on New Year's Day 1569: 

Each "season" is created out of things from that season, for example, Autum is full of apples, grapes, and leaves.  It's hard to see on my computer screen, but some of my favorite parts of the paintings were the tight bits of foliage and flowers.  I think they'd make beautiful textiles.  (Especially Spring's chest, top right.)

Below is "Vertumnus, a portrait of Rudolf II re-imagined as the Roman god of metamorphoses in nature and life, with Rudolf’s face composed of fruit and flowers, symbolising the perfect balance and harmony with nature that his reign represented," (jack.rusher.com)

I loved Arcimboldo's cheeky take on people.  His art is not beautiful in the traditional sense but it makes me smile and they are definitely conversation pieces.  I also just love nature and seeing people made out of bits of it is a fun surprise. 

My absolute favorite part of the exhibit, however, were the volumes of botanicals and animal books (there must be a better word, but I can't think of it right now ;) they had under glass around the exhibit.  They were incredibly beautiful.  Seriously I was going crazy.  I want ever single one of those books.  I never really realized how many botanical books must really be out there.  We tend to see the same ones reproduced over & over but there so many more out there.  I wrote every single one of them down and plan to do some research and wee which, if any, have been reproduced.  They were so old (1500s-1600s) yet still so vibrant, many of them done with watercolor & gouache. 

I could see how people want to collect them.  (Ok, I want to collect them ;) 

Anyway, I'm off to start the day.  We had such a realxing vacation & I pretty much finished up plans for my DC Design House proposal.  Now I just need to do the design board.  I also put together a portfolio of my work(using blurb.com) because they want to see a porfolio for any new designers.  I really liked working with the blurb program and am pretty happy with the results, but the photos came out a little yellowy  (All of my funky greens look a little too yellow and are a bit off.) and so if I'd had more time, I'd try to figure out from blurb what was up with that.

Have a great day and happy new year!!!

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Makeover with a Wall Mural

Today I wanted to show you a wall mural.  This is not my home but a relative's home I visit at Christmas.  This image above is the before.  What you are looking at is a dining room and the top of the wall was a suede color and the bottom was faux painted a cordovan color to look like leather.   They have recently repainted the walls and had an artist paint a mural all around the dining room.

The bottom has been given texture by being rag rolled and the dry brushed with the caramel color over the turquoise.  Above the chair rail the caramel has been brushed on the turquoise heavier to cover more of that color and to depict a forest.  Then above the tree mural the turquoise is allowed to show through to portray the sky.  The entire mural was pressed with cheesecloth when the painting was finished to give it the texture of a tapestry.

They artist has taken into account the furniture and painted around the placement of it.  Also, they painted right into the air intake vent, not to disturb the tree's form.

Careful consideration is given to the placement of the art that is hanging so that the art on the wall mural will compliment it.

Isn't this tree in the corner cute.   I love the colors chosen for this mural they flow perfectly with the furniture and the other art in the room.

I will link this to:

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Before and After Party  at Thrifty Decor Chick 

Masterpiece Monday at Boogieboard Cottage 
Re-Party  at First a Dream
Amaze Me Monday at Dittle Dattle
Boring to Better Party at Savvy Southern Style
Go and visit these ladies and view the wonderful things going on.