Hello,

This has been a long time coming.   If you ‘ve been reading the blog for awhile, you’ll know that Joni has been my fairy godmother - only more like godsister, since she and I are close to the same age, I think.  Anyway, my kitchen and master bedroom were in a photoshoot in September for Beautiful Kitchens and Beautiful Baths and it all came about because of Joni.  I, like many of you, read Joni’s blog all the time.  As a matter of fact, a TON of you come read my blog after you’ve visited Joni - yet another reason to thank her.  I love her sense of style, her depth of interest, but mostly I love her wit.  Anyway, I was reading her blog one day and she posted about getting into a magazine and that she knew someone who scouted for magazines.  She wrote that she would be happy to look at photos of readers’ houses and send them on to the scout.  Well, I took some photos of the house - in retrospect I am sure that they were pretty awful- and sent them on to Joni.  Mind you, I had never e-mailed Joni about anything before.  The next thing I knew, a perfectly lovely and oh-so-supportive e-mail came back from Joni telling me that she had sent the pics on to Bonnie Broten - the magazine “scout”/editor.  The rest is history.  ( More about Bonnie in a later post, I hope ) 

Anyway, I searched everywhere for the right thank you gift for Joni.  I couldn’t do flowers - that was too easy.  Nor a book - she has sooo many - have you SEEN her bookshelves?!  I searched and searched until I finally found a little something that I thought  looked like Joni.  Are you sensing a little bit of perfectionism here?  Yeah, me too.  It’s the bane of my life.  Where was I - oh yes, I found Joni’s gift.  And I won’t tell you yet what it is because if Joni is reading this  it would spoil the surprise.  So my next hurdle was getting Joni’s mailing address.  I asked her several times for it, before she finally and reluctantly gave it to me.  I had to promise that I was not a stalker, that the gift was a little something and I told her that if she didn’t let me send it to her soon that I would steal it for myself. 

Next issue - wrapping the gift.  Now that may seem like a piffle, a nothing, a small detail.  And it would be if we were talking about anyone other than yours truly.  See I had an idea that I wanted to use a photocopy of my antique French household ledger pages as my wrapping paper.  Which meant that I had to remember to put it in the car the next time I was at Staples. 

And then I had to remember to buy the absolutely perfect ribbon and strapping from JoAnn.  And then… well, you get the idea.  Nothing other than the French ledger paper, the upholstery strapping, and duck egg blue ribbon were going to make the cut to wrap the gift that Joni gets.  I am this way about wrapping gifts - it’s a sickness and I can’t help myself…The photo above shows the French ledger paper remnant, sealing wax and two seals, and a manila tag.  I used the seal to join the tissue paper inside the box, and I used my monkey seal that I love so. 

The paper isn’t long enough to wrap the entire box, so I decided to make an obi -like wrap with it on top of Kraft paper and use the strapping and ribbon together.  The color of the ribbon picks up the color of the background of the page.   And the red seal on the inside echoes the red lines in the paper.  ( OK, so I don’t think even Joni would care about the level of detail on this, but when you are sending a gift that is MONTHS overdue, you do what you can to make it look good).

This is how the ribbon and strapping looked together.  You can also see by my handwriting that I clearly did not take calligraphic instruction.  But isn’t the handwriting in the ledger stunning?

Ready to get shipped out - finally!  Oh, and there is one other thing that Joni has helped me with - my camera choice.  She did a wonderful post on her camera adventures and it ended happily with Joni in possession of a Nikon D90.  I tried several different models out, but in the end took Joni’s advice and bought the D90. And I love it. 

Well, I shipped out Joni’s gift today and it should arrive on her doorstep tomorrow.  It’s only 6 months late. 

Thank goodness I am on a deadline at Chrismas!

Kristin

Hello!

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the Dallas Art Fair.  It is the second year that galleries from all over the country have come to the Big D to exhibit artwork from hundreds of artists.  Now I must confess that I am not an art connoisseur - far from it.  I am one of those people who looks at popsicle sticks and splotches of paint on cardboard and says - my sons could do that!  Meanwhile, said piece is selling for $52,000!  So I obviously have no eye for value or for deeper meaning or whatever it is that I am supposed to be seeing in those popsicle sticks.  However,  there is much about art that is being made now for me to love and admire and, well, covet!

This artist is Hung Liu and she is a well established artist, with many works on display at the show.  All of them were incredibly lovely in person.  A photograph cannot possibly do the work justice,  as many are mixed media pieces and combine wood, canvas, oils and photographic effects.  The work is very compelling and accessible.

This is Dornith Doherty and this work is part of her Archiving Eden II exhibit at the Holly Johnson Gallery, right here in Dallas.    And the artist also lives in Dallas.  You can easily see that her background was in photography, can’t you?  This piece drew me right into the exhibition space and held me there for a while.  It was hanging atop this piece:

Both are lovely.  These are pigment on paper and there is something both calming and engaging about these pieces.  As a designer, I would love to build a room around this work.

This is also from the Holly Johnson gallery and is an oil painting by Janaki Lennie.  It is one of a series of canvases aptly entitled Breathing Space.  I will be honest this and its partner below I coveted for myself, for my living room.  The serenity and yes, breathing space, of these pieces appealed to me on many levels. 

This was my favorite of the two, but the artist has produced many more.  I love the colors, the foliage and evocative star and structures.  I could disappear into this for a while…

This piece by Marilla Palmer was featured at the Kathryn Markel gallery.  It is simply ethereal.  The photo does not pick up on the mirrored surfaces that embellish this painting.  This and the other piece displayed by this artist are near the top of my list of work that I would love to own. 

This is also gorgeous, isn’t it?  This artist’s work is available in the low 4 figures, so it’s not completely out of reach for some of my clients.  One of my friends said that her most favored purchases were pieces of art that she took a deep breath and wrote the check.  She said that she ended up waiting to buy other things as a result, but that she never regretted her buying her art.

The Carrie Secrist Gallery had an arresting exhibit counterpointing the work of this artist, Megan Greene, with the sculptures from Carolyne Ottmers.   It looks as though Megan Greene painted her images atop antique botanical prints.  I love the effect of this.  As a matter of fact, one of the prints that I purchased at Roundtop was a Hooker fern print printed atop a vintage botanical text.  Anyway, this is far more lovely than the pieces that I purchased.  Here is another of her works, with the sculptures that I mentioned in the photo too.

This is really stunning in person.  Carolyne Ottmers sculptures are incredibly lifelike and hang from hand forged hooks from the ceiling.  An installation of several of them would be amazing.  Here are a few, juxtaposed against another painting.

I am sure that some designer somewhere would try to turn these into light fixtures!  Yikes - no, no, no, no!  These are so lifelike and sinuous.  I can’t imagine a place in my home for them, but I would love to build a project around them.

There is definitely a theme to the work that I am attracted to.  All of it happens to be made by women.  As such, there is very much a feminine feeling to most, if not all, of it.  The forms are delicate and often found in nature.  The funny thing is that I pulled these images together based upon the pieces that most captured my attention at the show.  I had no idea that these pieces were all produced by women until I began to look at the biographies of the artists.  There is also a meditative and serene quality to much of the work, something that I am attracted to in interiors in general. 

Anyway, do take a moment to visit the websites of these galleries.  There are so many beautiful pieces of art on display.  Here are the links:  Carrie Secrist Gallery;  Holly Johnson Gallery; and Kathryn Markel.  And yes, these galleries are all owned by women - not intentional I do assure you!

Hello!

One of the things about winter is that it throws in clear relief the architectural lines of houses and buildings.  Without the softness of leaves and greenery, it’s easier to see and appreciate great architectural details, such as a wonderful front door.  Here in Dallas, there are a lot of homes that have been inspired by the architectural style of various regions in France.  Yet I often see a mismatch in the door and the rest of the home - often the door is made of glass and wrought iron rather than wood.   Wooden doors are ubiquitous in France, and they are wonderful and quirky.  Some are painted, some are stained, some carved, some simple, but all seem to have an intrinsic charm about them.

I visited a website for antique and vintage doors from France called Portes Anciennes.  It’s a wonderful website, full of images of great charm.  I wish I had stumbled upon it when I was deciding on the front doors for my house.  I love the design that we came up with, but it would still have been so much fun to use some of these doors below for inspiration.  If you are building a new home - lucky you!- it might be worth considering buying a vintage door.  Not that you would necessarily get one from France, which could be pricey, but perhaps you might look at an architectural salvage yard.  Old doors are much more substantial than doors that can easily be ordered “off the rack.” They are likely to be less expensive as well, and with a great patina, even if you choose to repaint or refinish.

Here are some more of their wonderful doors:

I love the moulding details on this door.  The stone surround is lovely, too.

 This is such a charming entry, isn’t it?  I really like the transom windows at the top of the door to allow sunlight to come in.  I don’t imagine that any of us will keep our firewood over our front doors, but hey, to each their own.

This is a fantastic courtyard door.  It lends a sense of mystery and surprise to the entry.  This would also be a great inspiration for a garage door, wouldn’t it?

What an unusual door, no?  I don’t think I have seen many tri-fold entry doors.  But this one is lovely and simple.  You can see that it opens between the panels.  The lanterns look just like the ones I got from Pottery Barn!

Ok, I LOVE this door.  Perhaps it’s the lighting, the gorgeous stone color, or the yummy color of the door itself.  I am not sure, but I am smitten. 

This would be such a charming garden gate, or courtyard entry.  It would look fantastic in either a contemporary or traditional setting.  This would be very easily copied, and the patina would come quickly once it was left in the elements…

This is a showstopping door.  The carving on the bottom panel is wonderful, and so are the diamond panels.  This is actually walnut, if you can believe it.  We often think of walnut as being a dark wood, but that is not always the case.  What a wonderful and rich patina.

This is another walnut door.  Isn’t the detail at the top unusual? The horizontal carved detail really sets off the diamonds.  I really like the finish on this door.

This door has such elegance and simplicity.  It would look wonderful on a Georgian style home, I think .  Once again, this is walnut.  Who would have thought?

The finish and detail on this is so appealing.  I would consider using a door like this as a piece of art.  I love the look of vintage shutters leaning against a wall in place of art.  Why not a wonderful door, such as this?  You could even hang a great mirror or piece of art on the top panel.  Hmmm, let’s take that idea a bit farther.

This is another stunning door.  Just leaning against a wall, perhaps between a pair of windows, this would command the room. 

Another thought might be to have a door like this retrofitted as a refrigerator panel or pantry door.  Isn’t this just so charming?  Or it could be installed on a wall, with a great but small piece of art hanging on the top panel.  Maybe one of Things That Inspire’s beautiful  intaglios…..

You don’t need to be building a house or remodeling to use a great vintage or antique door.  Simply replacing your front door with something with more character will transform the facade of your home.  If you can’t find something locally, a good carpenter should be able to copy these doors for you.  You can use reclaimed wood and vintage hardware to achieve the feel and patina of some of these doors.

Hope I gave you some food for thought.

Kristin