Hi,

Goodness, it’s been a while.  I feel guilty, I really do.  But I am hoping to make it up to you with a big post on a room that you have only glimpsed in my house before, my master bedroom.  I am going to show you where I started, where I paused, and where I finished up.  The room really underwent a major transformation.  And the big take away for you will be all the budget friendly tricks I used to effect the changes.  For those of you who don’t hang on my every word, this could be a long post, so I have put in bold and italics all the fun bits about saving money.  Don’t worry, I’ll never know that you scrolled through super-fast….

First, let me tell you about my original vision for the master suite.  I wanted us to feel as though we were on vacation when we went to sleep at night and awoke in the morning.  When you have 4 children, that is a worthy fantasy!  We have never been to Africa, although we would dearly love to visit one day, and I am beguiled by the notion of going on safari.  John – not so much!  His direct quote, “You can get eaten to death.”  Hmm, and you have no farther to look as to why we still haven’t been on safari, or to Africa.  But the romance of safari definitely was the inspiration behind the bedroom design.  Here is the way it looked a few years ago.

Well, to be honest, this is the way it was styled for the photo shoot.  The throws on the bed and chair never really lived there, and the little tiger print stool was a temporary guest.  But the wallcovering, which is a Ralph Lauren woven raffia, the white linens, and the dark furniture all conveyed a British colonial African vibe to me.  Of course, the carved animal “trophies” which are so much fun, really punch the feeling, as do the antique animal prints on the wall.  I loved the feeling of serenity that this room provided.  Our previous bedrooms had always been drenched in color and this was a welcome respite with its warm neutrals and soft and fresh white linen.  But there were some things that I didn’t feel were quite right.  For one, the headboard fabric was not the right color.  It was the right texture – a sort of woven leather – but the color really read olive more than brown.  This is all my own fault.  As the construction was nearing its pitch, I got the cutting for approval and glanced at it and approved it without checking it against the sample.  That was a big mistake, as the dye lot was very different.  I am now fairly paranoid about cuttings for my clients.  Once bitten, twice shy.  Additionally, I had always intended to have a wonderful canopy of sheer linen made for the bed, but never got around to it.  When the house was being considered for publication in various magazines, the editors were fairly consistent in their thumbs down for the bedroom.  It was too safari like for their taste, too masculine, and without a pleasing hint of color.

While I really wasn’t bothered by the comments on the safari aspect of the room, the comments regarding the lack of color resonated with me.  The room was a bit too sere, too Kalahari-like.  And I was really struck by the thought that the room seemed masculine.  While I loved the flowing white linen of my drapes and chairs, and the beautiful embroidered linens on the bed, the rest of the room didn’t seem very feminine at all.  And I am nothing if not a girly girl.  And I had perhaps gone overboard with not wanting much color in the bedroom.  Now, here is where I will extol the virtues of neutral backdrops.  The grasscloth wallpaper, sisal like carpet, white bedlinens, and white linen on the chair and window treatments were put in place so that if I became bored or tired of the room, I could easily change the look of it without having to redecorate wholesale.  And, I don’t know about you, but my bedroom is the one room where I make the most frequent changes in my look and style. So my first budget friendly tip is to avoid prints and strong colors in the bedroom for the walls, carpet and draperies. These are the most expensive items to redecorate, although if your walls are painted, rather than wallpapered, then by all means paint them in whatever color appeals to you at the moment.  Paint is inexpensive and if you are willing to paint yourself, can be a huge transformation.

My bedroom began its metamorphisis when the regional editor of a very famous magazine came to the house, or more precisely, the metamorphisis began in a frenzy of activity before she came to the house.  And no, it is not getting published in this magazine, although the editor was extremely lovely and I do think liked the house very much.  And one day I will tell you all the story of that particular visit.  For now I will say that I enlisted the help of every family member to get the house looking just so, including our boys.

We use a feather mattress as our mattress topper and it was getting very lumpy.  What better way to smooth it out than a pair of rambunctious boys?  Do you spot another change, though?  It’s the canopy frame.  I had my wonderful metalworker make this frame out of steel rods.  Even with the curves and the brackets that he made to fit the finials, the price for this addition to the bed was less than $300.  Wait until you see how it turned out…

What a difference!  The sheer bedcurtains are made from Restoration Hardware sheer linen panels.  Since there was no way to hang them with a rod pocket or rings, due to the curves on the canopy frame, I had my workroom shorten them and use the extra fabric for ties to attach the panels.  I changed the bedside table on the left out with a really fun burlap piece from Mecox.  I think it retails for less than $400.  And it is really charming, with a nailhead detail.  I added some color with the greenery on the other bedside table.  I used the foliage from a persistent weed in my garden – I kid you not- with very expensive orchids.  I love the way it looks and even just the foliage, which was free(!) looked great.  So, if you want to change the way that your bed looks, consider adding a canopy, or if you have one, changing the hangings.  You can even attach the frame to your ceiling, using drapery rods, if you like.  If you don’t like the idea of a canopy, consider using a drapery rod and brackets and hang some wonderful linen or cotton panels on the wall behind your bed.  It could be just gorgeous.

Here I changed the chair that I had in the corner for a higher backed chair and a zebra print stool that I borrowed from Mecox ( David Lee of Dallas Mecox, is definitely going to heaven!)  I added a standing lamp with a pretty off-white pleated shade.  You can see the linen sheers of my drapes in this picture, too.  This is NOT a budget friendly tip, but it is a fun idea, nevertheless.  I love the look of sheers, but I don’t like using them alongside solid fabric panels – I feel it looks too “granny”.  But I also don’t like them used as the sole panels in window treatments either.  But something about the gossamer quality of them makes my heart just sing, and I had to find a way of using them in my bedroom.  So, I have a double rod in my bedroom.  The back panel on the rod is a solid white linen and the panel directly in front of the linen is the sheer. It’s like a ballerina skirt, to my eye.  I kept the arrangement of the room the same, as we really liked being able to look out of the window while we are in bed.

This is a closer view of the bedhangings and ties.  If I could sew, I know that I could have done this, but alas, I am no seamstress despite my grandmother’s best efforts.  The weed is in the foreground.

I had a console table that was outdated and worn, so I covered it in a burlap tablecloth that I had made for a Tablescapes table several years ago.  I arranged this vignette on it.  ( To see that table, you can click here. ) The chair has a little linen slipcover that I made with iron on hem tape.   I used some linen remnants from my drapes.  The other accessories I stole from elsewhere in the room and the rest of the house.  Another budget tip is to think about tablecloths, fabric remnants, etc. and see what you can do with them.  You might surprise yourself with how handy you can be with a sewing machine or even hem tape.  In the master bedroom especially, you can get away with a little imperfection, as only your family is likely to spend much time there.  Also, I love using a lot of fabric in the bedroom – it is soft and enveloping.

Well, this was a big change, and for the better.  I added more feminine touches, a bit more color, and had the chance to experiment with some different furniture choices.  But there was something about it that still didn’t feel right. And, the main editor of the national magazine that will not be named, did not like the bed on an angle.  Now, it’s true that the angled bed does not lend itself to great photos, but in the room it seemed to feel good.  But, I am game to try different things, so I decided to rearrange the furniture a bit.  Now, let me tell you that this bed is HEAVY, so I bought furniture “sliders” from Home Depot and put my family  – again- to work.

Now truly, this is a fantasy shot.  I put my bed where my dresser was and styled around it to see if I liked it.  I added color by stealing some pillows from my son Connor’s room  – free!- and borrowing a pair of Christopher Spitzmuller lamps from Mecox.  And since they cost in the four figures, borrow is the operative word there.  Also used a chair from my breakfast room near the window, moved my console table, and you can see that the safari prints are gone, replaced by some antique and reproduction botanicals.  This is a really big difference from where we started, isn’t it? !! I really liked it, but I wasn’t happy with the way the rest of the room looked.   The budget buster here is that all of the cables for our TV live on the other side of the room, and getting them fished to an entirely different side of the room would have been an expense.  (Our TV lives in the chest at the foot of our bed.  The piece at the foot of the bed in this photo is a linen ottoman ).  So, the bed was now in a different spot and we lived with it like this for a little while until the lack of TV drove us to swap it back to the corner.  But I really began to think that perhaps the corner wasn’t the right spot for the bed…..

Now, when I tell you what happened next, you are going to think that a veritable parade of magazine editors pass through my home.  And nothing could be further from the truth.  But a local magazine editor wanted to do a walk through and I wanted to put my best foot forward.  So, out came the sliders, and my imagination went into overdrive.  I couldn’t borrow things from the rest of my house for my bedroom because she was actually going to SEE the rest of my house.  What to do?  I wanted to move things and have them stay for once and for all without spending a lot of money to do it.

The first two changes I had at the top of my list were one of my bedside tables and my headboard.  I didn’t have the luxury of time to order in a beautiful piece for my bedside table, nor did I have the time to reupholster my headboard mistake from a few years ago.  So, I had to get creative.  I have had this delicious hand-embroidered organza tablecloth for years.  If you can believe it, it was a hostess gift from an Indian friend of mine, and it was made in India.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a table that this lovely will cover.

You cannot see in the photograph, but this is very sheer.  I decided to use it to cover my headboard!  I had a couple of extra yards of my oh-so- reasonable white linen, so I draped a piece over my headboard, and then tucked the tablecloth around it.  I love how it looks and I really love the fact that I can enjoy one of my favorite things every day.

The other thing I really wanted was a new bedside table.  I went over to my favorite haunt, The White Elephant to see if anything there caught my eye.  I was happy to get creative with paint or fabric if I could find a treasure.  I really wanted to find a way of bringing more color into the room, and I was hoping that the table might give me an opening.  Hmmm..

I found an old vitrine table.  Vitrines are usually found in sort of granny type homes, because they are basically glass cases or shadowboxes on legs, and they are typically filled with little Limoges boxes or collections of small whatnots.  When I spotted this table, I immediately envisioned it full of mosses and succulents.  I had been evolving away from the sere, wheat colored feeling of my bedroom as it first was done and had been gradually introducing a lush green,  through my prints and greenery.  But this, this is a big whallop of green.  And, from a budget standpoint, very inexpensive.  Moss can be easily purchased at a craft store like JoAnn or Michael’s and the succulents are actually fake! I never have to worry about them dying – and don’t they look real?  The table was very inexpensive, and I am sure that garage and estate sales will have something similar, if you like the look.

Here is the view of my bed.  It’s a different wall, the one that used to house my plate rack.  But, it’s closer to the cable outlets, so we can easily move them so my John’s lullaby (aka cable news!) isn’t interrupted.  You can see that I have covered the headboard with the tablecloth and the bedside table is in the shot as well.  I added some Pottery Barn pillows with a fresh green fern embroidery.  I love how they blend with the zebra.  More about the rest of the pieces in a bit.

I really love how this wall looks, and although having the bed where the dresser is looked great in photographs, I still love seeing this wall when I come into my bedroom.  I added some of my favorite green in a Pottery Barn knit throw over the chair, and I have two palms that I got at Home Depot for $15.00.  They add so much character to the room.  Even if I kill them, I basically spent the equivalent of a grocery store bouquet. You can see that the safari prints made an exit a while ago, and this is a better view of their replacements.  I had the large canvas picture of a protea already, but I surrounded it with two vintage butterfly prints that originally lived in my antique bookcase in the hall, and a pair of reproduction glicees that I got from the same vendor.  Nostalgia Fine Art is a vendor at Roundtop, and I love working with them.  The do have very well-priced antique and vintage prints, but they also do stunning glicees and reproductions.  And I have both on this wall.

The central piece is a collage of reproduction “Phoenix” prints that Nostalgic did.  I love them because they super-imposed the image of a Hooker print – get your minds out of the gutter – Hooker was an artist! – over the  scientific name and description of each type of fern.  They each cost around $25, before framing.  The pieces flanking this one are John Derian plates.  They are not by any means inexpensive, but I don’t think that I spent more than $125 for each of them. I really love my new prints as they introduce a more botanical feeling to the room, without being fusty and traditional botanicals.  The flowing lines of the ferns, coral, and the butterflies are very feminine to my eye, without being cloyingly so.  ( The safari prints have found a home in John’s dressing area, and they look perfect in there!)

Here is another view, looking toward the windows.  You can see that I moved my little gothic chair underneath the prints, and how great the light looks flowing through the linen curtains.  Do you also notice that I changed the vignette on the dresser?  I have a wonderful vintage mirror that I found for around $50 at the White Elephant propped against the wall, and I replaced the sand in one apothecary jar with a pretty piece of wood and an airplant.  The other glass piece is handblown and filled with reindeer moss and a lovely piece of coral. The feeling in the room is much more of an homage to nature in general, whereas before it was so distinctly African.

Here is a better view of the curtain treatment I described before, with the sheers overlaying the solid linen.  I love how my shutters look when they are open and the wonderful pattern of shadow they cast across the floor.

This is looking toward the corner where the bed used to be and into the bathroom.  I have perched this little antique English chair underneath the plate rack.  It always bothered me that it didn’t have anything below it to anchor in the previous arrangement.  And now it does!

I have a wonderful crystal William Yeoward ice bucket that I filled with reindeer moss and a wonderful orchid.  It needed to be a bit higher, so I used two books that are covered in Kraft paper as a pedestal.  Books as a pedestal are a favorite trick of mine.  Another budget tip for you is that ice buckets can be found at garage sales, estate sales and flee markets, and they make the most charming and unexpected containers.

Speaking of using books, these vintage lovelies have been floating all over the house, appearing on my living room mantel for Christmas, spending some time soaking up the sun in my family room, but they have found a great perch here, haven’t they?  I love how the green back of the top book looks with the moss and succulents.

I kept my arrangement on the console table as it was – I really liked seeing this as I walked into the room as well.

This is my plate rack that now occupies part of the space that used to house my bed.  I revamped the styling on this.  I had some lovely etched crystal bottles in the family room that I pressed into use, more vintage books, a glass cloche, and mint julep cups, which I just adore.  I added natural elements with the turtle shells and more fake succulents.  Here is a styling tip.  Look at the middle shelf.  I could have simply done a row of turtle shells, interspersed with the julep cups with matching succulents.  But how boring that would have been!  I elevated the middle shell with some books and then added height to the julep cup on the left.  This still feels rhythmic, without feeling starchy.  You can do the same with shelf arrangements by using stacks of books to emphasize a central element, and when I add an element that is higher than the rest, I do it to the left of center.  I’ve written this before, but we read from left to right, so we scan from left to right, making it more natural for the highest element to go on the left.

I have wanted something small to hang over the bed for ages.  I tried many different things, but none of them felt right.  I was inspired to use a small piece when I saw a photo in Elle Decor with a small starburst mirror hanging on a vast expanse of white stucco over a fireplace.  It was unexpected, but delightful.  I found this little gem at a local antique store, Nick Brock antiques. Nick Brock has been my source for a lot of wonderful things over the years.  They have beautiful things, and they are reasonably priced.  I believe this mirror is probably Indian, so it is fun that is has found a home hanging over an Indian tablecloth.  Try as I might, I cannot get a good picture of just how yummy that embroidery looks on the headboard, but I love looking at it every day.

But I had another design dilemma to deal with.  The bed looked great in its new home, but the walls on either side of it were really bare.  I had only a few days to find or create something unique for those spaces.  I really liked the look and feeling of the other art in the room, so I wanted to place some things that were distinctive and unusual.  Ordinarily this would have entailed browsing and pondering for a few months until I found just the right thing, but I didn’t have the luxury of time.  What to do?

I found the other tiny mirror in this shot at Nick Brock, too.  I originally was going to choose one to go over the bed, but this one was too pretty to take back.  So, I decided to make it part of an arrangement on the wall.  I had an old oval mirror finished in gold that I bought for a staging project a year ago.  It think it was a whopping $50.  I painted it with bronze metallic paint and let some of the gold shine through so that it would relate to my little treasure. I especially love how simple the lines of the mirror are.  Between the busy-ness of the table below and the detail of the mirror above, this piece keeps the space from getting too cluttered looking.

These pieces sit on the other side of the bed.  I found linen backed shadowboxes at Aaron Brothers here in Dallas and brought home these two sizes.  I have two of these wonderful leaves that I found at Avant Garden – an amazing local florist – and I haven’t had the right place to show them off.  This shadowbox is perfect for the leaf, isn’t it?  I also had a great little porcelain turtle shell that I stole from my dining room china cabinet and placed it in the smaller box.  Both boxes together must have cost $75 at the most.  I remember that my leaf was $18 and my shell was maybe $9.  All in all, a bargain for the pow of them. I love how the white relates to all the white linen, while at the same time harmonizing with all the natural elements in the room.  I am so pleased with how little I spent to create artwork on my walls, and how well it blends with the rest of the art in the room.  So, I went from this:

To this:

And then this:

And now this:

And this:

Who knows what’s next?  But to recap, here are some thoughts on updating your master bedroom.  First, it’s a lot easier if you have a neutral backdrop.

1.  Work with tablecloths, pieces of fabric, and vintage linens that you may have.  You’ll be surprised at how they can be put to use.

2.  You can really transform the look of your bed with drapery hardware and pre-sewn drapery panels.  Instant romanticism!

3.  If you like having fresh flowers in your bedroom but groan at the cost, consider using greenery from your backyard.  Too really punch things up, buy some inexpensive houseplants from Home Depot or Loews.  The cost will be comparable to a bouquet and the freshness of the plants is soothing and pleasing to the eye.

4.  If you aren’t sure that something is going to work in your bedroom, ask to take it out on approval.  Most stores will allow you to do so, and it saves a lot of heartbreak and money.

5.  Think about repurposing things you find at antique malls, vintage stores, flea markets and garage sales.  Ice buckets can become containers and “granny” vitrine tables can be reincarnated as a succulent terrarium.

6.  I obviously love using moss.  I adore the color and texture of it.  It is a wonderful filler and it brings the feel of the outdoors in.  There are lots of kinds, but I really like sheet moss, reindeer moss, and bun moss.  A simple bowl or container can look wonderful filled with moss and a single shell.

7.  Books can be used to vary the height of accessories.  If you don’t have pretty looking books, use what you have and cover them in decorative paper or even brown Kraft paper.

8.  Great prints can be had for very little money, especially if you are open to using reproductions or glicees.  Nostalgic Art has some of the best.

9.  For throws and pillows, look at places like Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and even Target.  They have inexpensive and colorful things that have great impact.  And when you tire of them, there’s not much guilt in putting them aside.

10.  Create your own art.  Not really, but you can really transform a mirror frame or picture frame with paint and a small amount of time.  Ready-made shadowboxes can hold wonderful finds.  Shop for interesting finds in your own attic, or dresser drawers.  I would be willing to bet you will find something kind of wonderful.

I hope that I sparked some ideas for you.  It’s spring and time for refreshing, reimagining, and renewing.  What are you waiting for??? Go to it!

Kristin

PS.  How many blogs will you read today that mention Home Depot and Christopher Spitzmuller in the same space?  I am all about the mix, that is for sure!

Hi,

One of my resolutions for this year is to show you more of my projects.  I am such a perfectionist that I don’t like to show you things before they are finished, styled and looking just so.  However, I am going to get past it and start showing projects in progress instead of just finished.  For one thing, I think it’s just being real.  No project is done instantly – not even on TV! And if you are in the middle of a decorating project in your home, it’s good to see photos from other projects in process because it will encourage and hearten you to see that others are in the same boat.

That being said, this project is actually finished.  This was a staging project that I did for a client here in Dallas.  The house was completely empty when I viewed it for the first time.  We rented furniture and I added a lot of accessories and voila, it was done, and in a matter of a few days!  But that’s the world of staging, not decorating, and there’s a big difference.  With staging your client needs you to be in and out and on your way as quickly as possible.

This is the entryway.  The living room is to the right, although you can’t see the opening in this picture, and the family room is through the opening also on the right.  This is a ranch house that the current owners renovated and decorated extensively.  A few years ago, this might have been what we call in Dallas a “scraper”, meaning that it would be demolished and the debris scraped off of the lot.  Which always seemed a shame to me – this is a great house in a wonderful neighborhood.  Anyway, now with the economy and the housing market in trouble, my guess is that the new owners of this house will want to live in it rather than tear it down.

This is the entry after staging.  A sisal rug would have been perfect here, but the owner used this oriental rug in this space when they were living here, so we re-used it.  I wanted to bring the black from the recessed dome into the room, and I found a trio of handpainted trays that fit the bill perfectly.  A pair of vintage rice measures filled with pebbles and a rustic basket holding a painted lantern and beautiful sea  sponges finish the tableau.

This is the living room looking into the red dining room beyond.  A great blank canvas – no?

This is the view toward the front yard.  I really felt that this house called for a more clean lined look in order to appeal to as many buyers as possible.  Not too contemporary, but not terribly traditional either.  So, here is what I came up with.

This is the same view as above, only furnished now.  The sofa is very clean in style and lines, as are the ottoman and armoire.  I softened up those lines with the scroll arm chairs and the accessories.  The dining room looked so much better once I hung an oil painting that I had on the wall.

Here is an element of softness that I added to the room.  We used a round table and covered it with a billowing burlap tablecloth and topped it with an ostrich leather lamp and a glass bowl full of shells.

I popped open a wonderful picture book on India that I found at half-price books.  I really like to leave coffee table type books open, as the pictures are usually so wonderful and it lends an air of informality to a room.  I also like to literally throw a throw over the corner of a sofa or chair.  It’s an ongoing tug of war with my cleaning lady – it offends her sense of order!

This dining room is not all that different or unique, but I did want to show you the branches.  These are a pair of hurricanes that belonged to the owner of the house – I think that they were fairly moderately priced- that I filled with tiny pebbles and plopped branches into them that I got from a Whole Foods.  This was super inexpensive, but very dramatic, and a great trick to add some drama to a console table or buffet.

The family room is situated open plan style next to the kitchen.  The doorway on the left leads to the entry hall and the opening and door on the right look into the wine room.  Cherry cabinetry flanks the fireplace and is installed in the kitchen.

This gives you a better sense of the layout of the area.  This is taken from the breakfast area.  The kitchen even looked bare!

One of the things I did to warm up the kitchen was to fill decorative clear glass bottles with olive oil and fresh herbs.  This is so easy and inexpensive to do – and the oil tastes wonderful, too!

This is the same view looking from the breakfast room after I finished with it.  I really, really love those dusty greige wing chairs.  I stole them from the owner’s new house.  The looked wonderful.

This view is taken toward the breakfast room.  The rest of the furniture in the room was rented, but I had the accessories.  The wire footlocker basket nestles more of those lovely sea sponges, there is a stack of vintage Southern Accents down below, and a tea caddy that I found at World Market holds potpourri to give the room a fresh scent.

Looking toward the fireplace, you can see that I styled the bookcase in all whites and creams to pull in the creamy color of the painted brick.  I turned paperback books pages side out and added some great vintage pieces and shells and finger sponges ( in the hurricane ) to give it some depth, texture and interest.  On the mantel is a pair of old metal candlesticks in the form of delphiniums.  So charming were they that I left the candles out.  And while a larger mirror would have been better, this is the one that I owned, so in it went!

I have to say that this is really not my favorite wall color for a master bedroom.  Or pretty much any room, if I am being honest.  I know that there are those who love a toasty brown wall color like this,  but I am not one of them.

This is the view into the really lovely bathroom and the hallway leading to the master bedroom.  I tried to lighten up the room as much as possible and tie it into the bathroom beyond.

I angled the bed into the wall and used one of the homeowner’s benches.  I would have much preferred a great big basket at the foot of the bed, but we didn’t have one, so we went with what we had.

Again, trying to work with what was on hand or could be rented – and isn’t that the case for most of us? I had this fun lamp from my previous living room and it found a perch on the dresser.  I leaned the mirror against the wall for two reasons.  One, I didn’t want to put a new hole in the wall and two, because I think it’s unexpected and adds some interest.  Imagine how much prettier this room would be painted a creamy ivory…

I didn’t take before pictures of this room as I didn’t think I was going to furnish it until the last minute.  Here is a charming little bedroom….

This is furnished entirely from my former guest room in Short Hills.

It was fun to take some old friends out of their boxes.  Little bunnies and botanicals are nowhere to be found in my current home, which is sad.  But the boys CERTAINLY are not interested, and Darcy’s room is much more grown-up.  And Cameron’s room is my guest room now that he is in college.  So, while I adore a pretty, pretty bedroom I don’t have one just now.

So, that’s my project.  Finished and vanished.  Yep, vanished.  The homeowners were spending a decent sum every month to rent the furnishings and ultimately decided to stop staging the house.  So, how long to you think it took to take this all apart?  Two hours.  That’s it.  And that’s not including the rooms I didn’t show you!  I am not sure which room or picture caught your eye, but my favorite is this one.

or maybe this one.

I didn’t show you this before, but this is a closeup of the bookcase.  This is so easy to put together once you have the same color accessories, or similar shades.  You could do this, you know.  Really.

I hope that you got some good ideas from this post that are inexpensive, easy to do, and pack a great punch.  Let me know what your favorite room or idea was, won’t you?

Kristin

Hi,

You have no idea how many things I want to write about these days – I just need the time to do it all!  I am thinking that I need to lock myself in a closet with my computer and just write like crazy for several days.  Since that’s just not going to happen, I am hopping in and out as I can.  I do have a big, big announcement to make and I will do it in my next post.  It involves a) something new for Covetable b) something new for my readers and their friends and c) my biggest giveaway yet.  So stay tuned!

All of these photos are from Christmases past.  I found a great tabletop wreath stand and made it the centerpiece of this dining room display.  You can barely see it here, but there is a red organza bow on each side – I used two wreaths.  The runner is burlap and two mooses ( meese?) wear a coat of antiqued silver glitter.  I arranged two groupings of candles, cloches, crystal, mercury glass and fresh greens on either side.

Here is a closeup – and a flash shot for sure!- of one of the arrangements.  I also tucked some berry sprigs, faux antlers and a feathered red cardinal into the mix.

I have a wonderful time decorating my hallway for Christmas – the neutral palette makes everything feel warm and wonderful. Here is my beloved one-eared Roundtop deer.  He is all dressed up with a grosgrain bow and sitting on a bed of evergreens and my Aidan Gray spires are home to charming mercury glass birds.  The silver “threads” that you see on the live wreath are actually wire garland that I found a few years ago.  I loved using it and only wish I could find more – it is very airy and magical in person.

This is another deer that I found at a local shop.  He is sitting on top of some vintage books and flanked by these wonderful trees made with some sort of sea sponge.  This year I have simplified this grouping and I like it even better!

Again, this is over-exposed because of the flash!  This French bookcase is where I typically display my own Cabinet of Natural Curiousities.  There is a vignette on each shelf, and I tried to introduce little pops of red here and there.  I used more faux antlers, a combination of fresh and fake greens, lots of pinecones and mercury glass.  The sparkly branches are pretty wonderful in person, not so fantastic on a computer screen!  My favorite element of this whole display is the topper of garland, embroidered silk ribbon, and icicles and German glass acorns that hang from pale green organza ribbons.  It is literally over-the-top!!  It’s obvious that at Christmas time I tend to throw out any notion of editing and negative space and just go for it!

This is a close-up of the topper garland.  You can see some swags of that wonderful gossamer silver wire garland.

And here is the stairway decked in a lush live garland.  The ribbon is embroidered with silver thread and tiny mirrors in the shape of snowflakes.  I added silver leaves, nests, thistle “eggs”, and birds.  This is the most dramatic thing that I do each Christmas, so I have lots of photos.  I’ll share a few more with you.

Here is a closeup of the garland draping the newel posts.  I forgot to note the silver feathers that I use as part of this arrangement.  This particular year, the garland was amazingly lush.  It really makes everything look so much better.

This isn’t the best picture, but I thought you might like to see the staircase all the way up.  The open door on the left is to John’s study.

This is probably the best overall image.  I decorated each post cap and top of each swag with a smaller version of the festoon that I did for the newel posts.  Sometimes those thistle “eggs” will bounce their way down the stairs.  In the background here, you can barely see a gilded mirror.  It’s an antique over-mantel that we bought many, many years ago.  It’s been everywhere in our houses.  Now it serves as a lovely ledge for some sea fans, shells, and a starfish.

Last shot for now.  This is our back porch.  I used some red cushions, throws, and a wooden bowl filled with vintage jingle bells to give this area a nice holiday feel.  My favorite touch out here is the gorgeous collar on our stag.  It’s a remnant of the garland that we used on the stairs and so it is incredibly full and lush.

OK, so I am making my BIG announcement in the next post, and I really hope that you stop by.  It will be the biggest giveaway I have ever done by far!  I can’t wait!  I also will show you my living room and  family room bedecked for Christmas.  After that, I should have some shots for you of Maison Mullen as it currently looks.  Come on back!

Kristin

More blog sprucing!  You can now subscribe to the blog.  Just click on the link and you can receive the blog via e-mail.  Also, I have put up a Covetable Facebook site.  Look for me there, too.

On to Mullen house sprucing…

Our house and yard have been a beehive of activity.  I have been buzzing around taking care of lots of projects around the house and garden and making some changes to my bedroom, family room and porch area.  It has been a lot of work, but the end product has been so worth it.  And the most fun is that I get to show some of it to you…

Today I am going to show you the improved and updated laundry room.  The last time you saw it, it looked like this:

Laundry room & home office

Remember this?  I posted it to show you that my house really is LIVED in.  It certainly needed some clearing out, especially the desk area.  I have had an idea about what I wanted to do here for a long time, but I just never was motivated to actually carry it out as I had bigger fish to fry elsewhere in my house.  But when I was haunting one of my favorite spots I came across this:

And I knew that I had to get my act in gear.  This is a compilation of Popular Science articles, full of interesting pictures and obviously missing its cover.  It cost a whopping $8!  The fact that is was already in pieces was a huge attraction for me, as I had a plan for those pages.  When I did my Tablescapes table last fall, I used photocopies of a vintage book on the back of my breakfast room chair to hide the feedsack stamp.  This became the inspiration for what I wanted to do with the bulletin board.

Aren’t the photographs interesting?  One of them, on the right, is fun for me as it’s a photo of one of the structures they used to build the London Underground.  Anyway, I used spray mount on the back of the pages to stick them to the corkboard.  I just layered them in in a pretty random pattern.  Next, I decided to use my glue gun “wax” seals on the back of flat thumbtacks to create interesting and decorative tacks.

I first made several seals, putting them on aluminium foil and using a bit of oil between each impression to keep the hot seal from sticking too much in each seal.  Then we – my son Walker helped me- used scrapbooking glue dots to stick the seals to thumbtacks.

Here is one look at the finished product.  See that bin on my desk, full of magazines and clippings?  That’s my “To Scan for My Blog” bin.  Lots of fun photos to share, huh?  Here is the inspiration for the bulletin board.

The back of the chair is the inspiration, obviously NOT the rest of the photo!  Here is another, closer look at the bulletin board:

I like keeping my kids’ artwork near me when I work, so “The Thinker” overlooks me while I toil away.  Here is one last and fuller view of the vastly improved, de-cluttered and much cleaner room.

aahhhh!! I can breathe when I walk in there now and I can actually work in here, too!  Now I just have to stop using it as the dumping spot for things I don’t feel like dealing with…..

More on the new and improved Chez Mullen soon.  I have garden pictures galore!!

Kristin

I thought it would be fun to give you a behind the scenes look at one of my design projects. Many of you have seen some of the photos of this project at Cote De Texas, but I think that this post – a very long one, I’m afraid – would give you a much better flavor for the hows, wheres, and whys of the project.  One of my friends, the lovely and sophisticated Mrs. H., asked me to work for her professionally a few years ago.  She was my first real client.  We redecorated her dining room, and I am happy to say that she really liked the result.  Enough so that when she and Mr. H. bought a new and much larger house, my opinion was sought after and my services retained.

My design brief was very straightforward.  The Hs wanted a cleaner, less cluttered look than they had in their previous home.  Edited, modern, and clean lined were words I heard often during those first conversations.   So far, so good.  But there was a kicker – isn’t there always?- and that was that we needed to reuse pretty much every piece of furniture that they owned, along with a very diverse art collection.  How difficult can that be, you might ask yourself?  Well, Victorian antiques are not your go-to antique when you are thinking of clean lines and a modern vibe.  And those antiques are family heirlooms, so getting too funky with them was NOT an option.  Oh, and one more thing. Mrs. H does not like the look of an 8 ft ceiling.  She was raised in London, where they know better about such things and most ceilings are a good bit higher.  And now for the punch line, badadadada, the new house had 8 ft. ceilings pretty much everywhere.  That we needed to make look taller. So.

Without further ado, here are some shots of furniture that we needed to re-imagine and repurpose: ( sorry for the quality, these were taken with my iphone)

One of FOUR similar tables

Here’s another

One more…

And the last one.  These pictures were all taken in Mrs. H’s previous home.

Nice lines, no?

Again, some great lines.  Not really seeing the lean, edited thing, though, are we?

Vintage chesterfield sofa.  Truly, as in stuffed with horsehair vintage.  Look, he has a friend…

I loved the idea of re-purposing these, but they needed major help.  When you sat down in them, you pretty much sank right down to the springs – hand-tied, as my upholsterer assured us.

So, this is a small sampling of the furniture we needed to re-use.  When I take pictures of the other rooms in Mrs. H’s new home, I’ll show you those other pieces.  So, my task was to re-imagine and re-purpose these pieces to work with a more modern aesthetic.  You can see some of Mrs. H’s art in the photos above and those pieces really drove the design decisions that we made – color, form, and texture.  Here are some before shots of the house, before paint and modification:

The stairs in the entry way.

So sorry for the terrible shot, but you can see the floors and stairwell, with the kitchen in the distance.

This is a shot of the former living room, now the family room.

A close up of the hardboard valances we found. Not doing the clean-lined thing for us, were they?

The sun room.  Very colorful and charming in its own way, but not exactly a haven of tranquility.

This is what I nicknamed the Martini room.  There was so much olive green that you felt like the pimento in the middle!  This photo gives you no idea how dark it was in this room.

So we set to work renovating and redecorating the house as well as re-purposing all that furniture. One of the first things that we did in the family room was to take down the valances and pull down the dowdy crown moulding.  We still needed a moulding as the ceilings in this older house are too uneven to pull off a clean-no moulding look, and we also weren’t ready to get that contemporary.  We designed and had milled a new, substantial moulding that came off of the ceiling by a mere two inches with the bulk of it resting on the ceiling.  It made a very big difference in the feeling of the height of the ceiling.  It wasn’t the ten foot ceiling that Mrs H. really covets, but it was still a real transformation.  Next, we got rid of the hulking black mantel and replaced it with a clean lined ( that phrase again!) wood mantelface and stunning pewter limestone tiles from Ann Sacks, and painted all the mouldings and trim a warm white.  Last, the oak floors here and throughout the house were stained a bitter chocolate brown.

We had a really difficult time deciding on the color scheme for the family room and the other rooms leading off of it.  Mrs. H was in love with the soft sea glass greens, blues and greiges that were just beginning to peak in popularity at the time.  We found beautiful and dreamy fabrics in this scheme, but, the fact of the matter is that we were trying to build the room around this:

I just could not see those soft ethereal colors working with this piece of very dramatic, very strong, and very valuable art.  I argued strongly for a neutral palette.  I’ll leave you to look at the “after” photos to see who prevailed…

On the soft furnishings front, we wallpapered the family room in a Phillip Jeffries  grasscloth, put in simple Euro-pleat draw draperies in Kelly Wearstler Imperial Trellis, and ordered a faux sisal rug custom cut for the room.  Yes, it is a faux sisal.  The H’s have two male dogs and they had already tried very hard to “mark” the sisal from their previous dining room.  So, we decided to go with a polyester fiber that looks so much like sisal, but is much softer underfoot and easier to clean by leaps and bounds.  Let’s talk furniture, shall we?  I was inspired by a French canape ( loveseat ) that Suzanne Kasler had upholstered in two different fabrics.  I took that idea and applied it to the vintage Chesterfield loveseats – newly remade by my genius upholsterer.  Remember those tables?  Stained the darkest brown we could come up with, they make a great statement in the room.  Especially with the Restoration Hardware mirrors hanging over them. Ditto for the wood-framed vintage chairs shown above.  These get upholstered in white linen. with a raffia look-alike fabric on the backs.  We ordered a beautiful low slung Baker sofa and upholstered it in a wonderful wool.  In order to pull the seating area closer to the fireplace, where the TV will hang, we placed a custom made iron bookshelf behind the sofa.  The hewn planks that serve as shelves are salvaged from scaffolding and were sanded lightly and waxed to give them depth.

Ok, I am going to show you after photos and after after photos.  What?!! Here is the story.  I took some scouting photos of the room after we had done all the furnishing and renovation.  Those are the afters, and they were taken with my little point and shoot camera.  After looking at them, I decided that I really needed to style the rooms in order to take shots for my portfolio, in much the same way that magazine shots are styled.  My wonderful friend Mrs. H was all for the adventure and so one rainy day we unloaded my Expedition full of goodies and got to work.  As it happens, she ended up keeping many of the pieces that you’ll see in the photos.  I’ll leave it to you to guess which ones, just let me know what you think, ok? The after after photos are after I styled the rooms and after I purchased my wonderful camera.  So, you’ll see some differences, both in the level of detail and style in the room, as well as the quality of the images themselves.  Here we go:

Remember these vintage Chesterfields?  Don’t they look happier and more sprightly now?  Mrs. H really wanted a zebra rug – and I do love a zebra rug – and it anchors the seating area.  Obviously, I prevailed on the color palette, but the H’s are very, very happy with the way this feels.  Ok, so are you ready to see the after after?

The shelves looks so much more full and interesting, to my eye.  We added Indian woodcut panels, woodcut textile blocks, books, carvings and wonderful turquoise suede boxes. There is a detail below. The throw pillows are vintage embroideries and the silk ikat on the arm is vintage, too.  The camera is amazing, no?  Here is another angle:

Here you see two of those Victorian tables, stained the deepest brown, the new mantel and the new mouldings.  Beyond the loveseats, you can see into the Martini room.  That room is still unfinished, but when it’s done, you’ll be the first to see.  You can also see the sides of those two fun chairs that we reupholstered.  What a transformation.  Below is the after after.

I love how the pop of the Bells of Ireland flowers in the vintage wooden Indian containers reads in this photo.  It really draws your eye to the painting as well as the throw pillows. Great carved circles sit on the hearth to give it some interest for the photo.

A close up of the bookcase and sofa.  The painting is really amazing, isn’t it?  I love it hanging on the face of the bookshelf.  It really gives it such great presence.  You’ll recognize Mrs. H’s turquoise Fu dogs from previous photos, too.  While this is certainly “edited” it perhaps is a bit too bare, don’t you think?

More dramatic lighting – courtesy of the rare rainy day in Dallas-but also just a very different look for the bookcase, sofa, and endtables.  There are glass fishing floats, turtle shells, Indian temple carvings, and moss covered balls all living in harmony here.   I tried very hard to make sure that the new pieces on display were complimentary to the artwork and allowed it to have center stage.   I love how the pillows relate to the artwork  – a design marriage, for sure.

This is an after after, as I didn’t have this shot in my scout photos.  But notice how fun the chairs turned out to look and how the kente cloth pillows really make them pop.  These were so reasonably priced at $75 each that we overlooked the fact that they are darned scratchy!  This artwork was part of Mrs. H’s collection, too.  It was framed in bleached oak.  We spray painted the frames! Yes, we did.  My framer is now keeling over in agony, I know.  But the proportions were good, the frames relatively new, the color was the only issue.  We saved a LOT of money doing this.  I love that!  You are also getting a peek at the entryway.  Here is one last closeup of a chair.

This trunk side table was a find from Pottery Barn!  You get a great detail view of the newly refurbished chair, and that great but scratchy pillow.

In the entry way, we created panels for the creamy linen inserts that are anchored with nickel nailheads.  We lacquered the stair rail a glossy black for drama and contrast.  I wanted to furnish the entry in a way that spoke to Mr. and Mrs. H’s visitors about who they are.  Consequently, family photos have been printed in black and white and nestled in simple black frames.  Immediately, you get a sense of family but in a presentation which is chic and artistic.  Mrs. H in her next life will wallpaper a room in Gracie wallpaper in a pattern of trees and leaves.  The forms of trees, trunks, and leaves really speaks to her and it is a common theme in many of the inspiration photos she has shown me over the years.  We decided to incorporate trees and branches in different – and less expensive!- ways throughout the house.  Notice the tree trunk side table above.  Now look below:

My old camera and a view which I did not shoot for my after after.  But you can see the branches supporting the table near the stairs and the gorgeous silver knotty branch of the sconce.  Here is another view of the table.

Mrs. H’s favorite photo – her wedding day and her grandmother.  I love it.

An after after.  The wonderful sculpture is by a local artist whose work I love,  Larry Whitely.  See how we kept the feeling of branches, nature, and black and white photos pulled together?  Here is an overall of the hallway.

This piece of art next to the front door is an abstract pen and ink with which we also used the spray paint trick.  The dining room is behind the stairs and not quite finished just yet. Here is one of the other Victorian tables that we refinished.  I love how it looks in this space.

Different lighting, different angle.  You will have seen the urns and finger sponges before.  I found the urns in a local consignment store and they were so reasonably priced- $75 for the pair! I filled them with finger sponges for a fun take on a floral arrangement.  You can see the photos of the H’s lining the walls.  Lovely family.

This was a wonderful challenge for me.  I hope that we did the art collection justice and I know that we reused EVERYTHING!  I also feel that by changing the colors and finishes on family heirlooms that we freshened and lightened them up enough to bring them into the 21st century.  Unfortunately, I do not have magical powers to raise 8 foot ceilings, but the design style that we used  – a sort of vintage modern – lent itself to the mid-century provenance of the house.  I am thrilled to have been part of this project as it stretched me creatively in so many ways.

If you have gotten this far in the post, I apologize for going on and on.  I obviously love what I do and I love to share how different design decisions get made.  I feel that if I can take you behind the scenes that it may spark new inspirations and creative ideas for you and for your home.  I look forward to taking more pictures of this unique and sophisticated home and sharing them with you.  It has been a treasured project for me and I hope that you’ve enjoyed a peek into this wonderful family’s home.

Kristin

Hello!

When we first decided to move to Dallas from London, I was walking on air.  When I left Texas to go to school in Chicago, I never dreamed that I would be leaving it for so long.  While I never wanted to live back in my hometown of Amarillo, during the years we lived in Tokyo and New York, especially the early years of our marriage, I longed to live in Texas.  I missed the people, the food, the “big sky”, the sun that never disappears for too long.  But over time, I gave up hopes of living back in Texas.  As my husband’s job has always been on Wall Street, it looked as though we would never live any place other than a financial center.  Living in New York, Tokyo and London has been truly amazing, don’t get me wrong.  But those places never felt like “home”.  I had missed small things, like freshly brewed iced tea in bottomless glasses, the occasional country music song on the radio,  and the smell of pinon wood burning in fireplaces. And I had missed big ones – like being close to my family.  When we decided to move to Dallas, I was so happy that I teared up constantly because I couldn’t believe my good fortune.  The winter and spring that I commuted several times between London and New York was full of joy and anticipation.  We were looking at schools for the children, finding a lot for our new home, and beginning to draw plans for our house.  Heady times, indeed.  I was here when the crepe myrtles burst into bloom, of which Dallas has so very, very many, and the smell was indescribable.  Every spring since then, when that scents wafts in the air, I am taken back to that time of great joy and happiness.

So, as this is a new beginning of sorts, the crepe myrtle scent seems appropriate for my first reader giveaway.  This has been such a full few weeks for Covetable!  First, the post by Cote De Texas, then all the new readers, then some new clients, and all the while behind the scenes we have been working on this new look for the blog.  It is not radically different, admittedly, but it does give you some new links and features, and a little bit more of my style comes through, hopefully.  Because this feels like the beginning of some great adventures, I decided that it is high time that I preview for you a little bit of what is to come, take a quick peek at what has come before and ask for your input on what you’ve enjoyed reading and looking at, and what things you hope I write about more often.  So, please leave a comment and I will be using number three and four sons to fight to the death over who draws the winning comment number.  And what will the giveaway be?  This beautiful Nouvelle Candle Company candle pictured above, scented with that fragrance so evocative for me – crepe myrtle.

Now for a walk down memory lane.  It’s a short one, so no need to grab your sneakers.

This is the photo that opened my first blog post.

This was my “hello” to the blogosphere and it is a photograph of the Tablescapes table that I did in 2007.  Frankly, the photos from that event were the only halfway decent ones I had at the time.  I was waiting on the professional photographs I had taken of the house to arrive, which they soon did, thankfully.  Then, I was able to invite  you into my house….

And I began the “Story of a House” series of posts, which is ongoing.  And I think probably will be for quite a while, since I am always updating and renewing.

I wrote about gorgeous flowers,

Yummy food,

Shopping,

Primping,

and partying.

Through it all, I have had a blast. And I hope that if you read some of these posts, that you did, too.

So, what’s ahead for Covetable?  I’d like to profile more designers.  I also want to show you more about Dallas architecture,

some client’s projects I am working on,

some gardens,

and some changes at Maison Mullen and the continuing “Story of a House”.

I am going to be starting a series about “The New Classics”, my very opinionated guide to what I believe is fresh and new, yet will stand the test of time.  Look for more “how to” posts on everything from hanging pictures to setting tables to updating photo collections.

So, here’s the deal.  You should let me know what you want to read more about, and I will be happy to oblige, if I can.  Leave me a comment about posts you liked in the past – and go back and read some if you like – and things you’d like for me to write about in the future.  Comments will close at midnight on Sunday, April 25th.  The boys will draw a number on Friday morning, and I will e-mail the lucky winner of this truly divine candle. ( if you are an anonymous commenter, I can’t e-mail you, so please let me know who you are…)  The candle is really a great shape and size – large enough to stand on its own on a table, pretty enough to put in any room, neutral enough that it will play well with others, and the scented in a subtle but unmistakeable way with a burn time of 160 hours.  Here it is again:

Kristin

P.S.  You can also let me know what you think of the “new” look.  I love input, even if it’s a critical comment.  Criticism makes us better, I think.

UPDATE:  You can see that the theme is changing almost before our eyes as my technological wizards are hard at work.  Thank you, Brent and Paula.  Which is VERY nice.  What is NOT so nice is that I have a person commenting persistently ( 33 comments and counting) with pornographic links that I cannot seem to block.  And I can’t stay by my computer all day to delete them as they come up.  So, I am going to have to turn on the comment moderation for this post.  All that means is that I will see your comment and need to approve it before you will see it.  No big deal.  But it will keep the offensive stuff from appearing even for a second.  So sorry!

Hi!

One of my greatest flaws is that I am a perfectionist.  And perfectionists are often procrastinators because we can see how something should be done and put off doing it until we can do it, well, perfectly.  Such has been the case with this post, although it certainly will not be perfect.  I have been unable to post about anything else because I have been mildly obsessed with finding just the right images to convey what I want to.  I wasn’t 100% successful, but today I decided that I needed to blog about this, post it, and add to it over time because otherwise I will not be able to move on!

So, I first became sensitized to the “new Asian” elements over the summer when I began working on a bedroom project for a client.  She has lived in different parts of the world, but spent  a good deal of her time in Asia.  We decided to make vintage kimono fabrics and everyday Asian objects the backbone of her master bedroom.  That isn’t very revolutionary, but I think that the way that we are using these pieces is new and fresh, with an edited approach that is we in the interior design world are coming to think of as Belgian, although as you’ll see, lots of Asian pieces can be interchangeable with “Belgian” pieces.  We are just finishing the project and I hope to show you photos soon.  Anyway, I was so inspired by working on this project that I put together my Tablescapes table with this design sensibility very much front of mind.  The picture is so blurry – aarrgghh.

A lot of “Belgian” inpiration is here – the burlap tablecloth, the upholstery strapping on the vase, the vintage book pages on the back of the chair, the aged wood finish on the chairs and bench.  That finish ties to the Thai spirit house, which really became the focal point of the table.  But notice the Asian elements – the garden stools, the root stool, the vintage lanterns, bamboo library ladder, and the rustic red bowl filled with orchids.  The new Asian look to me is all about incorporating every day objects from China and Japan mainly into our Western interiors.

You can argue, and correctly,  that we have been doing that for centuries, and we have.  However, the objects that we used were made exclusively for export and have a far more elaborate and sophisticated form and finish.  This bathroom by Kandis Wrigley has the elements that we think of when we think Asian – the chinoiserie inspired walls, the persimmon silk.  Lovely, but definitely something we’ve seen a lot of.

Chinoiserie and Chinese porcelains graced many very formal Western interiors, but these pieces were never used in a Japanese or Chinese home.  As an example,  compare the patterns of blue and white export porcelain to the simplicity of every day pottery used in China and Japan.  They could not be more different, as the Asian culture lived and continues to live in their homes very differently than we do.  The Belgian movement has taught us to appreciate the beauty in every day and workmanlike objects.  I think that we will extend our eyes to the Asian world for more inspiration.  Why?  Well, for one thing, these objects are much more reasonably priced than most objects we find from Europe and they are readily available.  When we lived in Japan, my friends’ homes were full of objects similar to what I will show you below.  We picked them up at flea markets and antiques dealers for a song.  At the time, clutter was all the rage, and these objects didn’t quite blend with the Western objects and furniture that my friends had.  It was an uneasy marriage.  But I think that is because these pieces need some breathing room, and that is what our current design ethos is all about.

Kay Douglas is the owner of South of Market, a trio of shops that seem to be very much on the cutting edge of design.  She started featuring Chinese butcher’s tables, in a stripped and worn finish.  They look wonderful mixed in with more Western furnishings.  Isn’t this beautiful?

I can’t tell whether this piece, also from South of Market, is new or old.  If it is old, it has definitely been stripped of its original lacquer or stain to allow the beauty of the wood to shine through.  I could see this piece in a very contemporary setting, a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired room, or happily rubbing elbows with a table and chairs from Bobo.  Its versatility is its beauty.

One of the more popular elements of the Belgian style has been vintage apothecary bottles and jars.  Occasionally we will see an apothecary chest.  This is a Chinese version.  Isn’t it great?  I love the red medallion details on the drawers and I am guessing that at one time the characters on them read clearly the contents of the drawer.  Once again, this is a non-fussy piece that would be happily at home in a casual settting, but would also be a dramatic counterpoint to a more sleek and modern interior.

Another element in design that we have seen a lot of recently has been the inclusion of more contemporary art in very traditional settings.  It creates a great tension in a room, in a good way.  On the Pagoda Red website, I found an artist who uses vintage papers and prints to create wonderful contemporary pieces that he calls “kites”.  Michael Thompson is the name of this artist, and I am only showing you two of his pieces, but there are so many others to see on the website.

The other thing that draws me to these pieces is that I love the written word in all its forms.  Calligraphy and typewriter fonts are springing up everywhere – on fabrics, wallcoverings, artwork.  This is the Asian version of such a trend, and I find it very appealing.

I found a designer who seems to use a lot of humble Asian pieces in her work.  Her name is Suzanne Lovell and she is from Chicago.  I only have four images of hers, but do go to her website to see more.  You will be blown away.  These photographs are from Architectural Digest.

This room at first glance has no discernible Asian vibe to it.  But look more closely.  The side tables are both Chinese, the red laquer bowl with the Ostrich eggs is surely Asian, and so are the medallions on the andirons.  The most Asian element to me is the fireplace – the oxblood color and sheen of the surround and the applied rectangular shoji-like framework above the fireplace are very evocative.

Thank heavens I got this done!  Yeah!  Now I am off to get some pieces for styling another clients home for photography.  I expect to show you some of those pictures soon.  In the meantime, I hope that you found the post thought provoking, if nothing else.  Do keep your eyes peeled and you will see more and more of these great pieces appearing in magazines and shops.  When it hits Target, you’ll know I was on to something!

Kristin

PS  Except where noted, all of the furniture and accessories are available through 1st Dibs.

Hello All,

I had great hopes of posting more Christmas decoration photos, but it was not meant to be.  Mrs. Claus was frightfully behind in her Christmas duties, so she had to tend to her Christmas list, instead of her blogging.

I hope that all of you had a blessed and peaceful Christmas.  Our family had a lovely day – a white Christmas in Dallas- who would have thought it? My own Santa was very, very good to me.  I am now the proud owner of a Nikon D90 camera and 3 different lenses.  Wow, does this camera take amazing photos.  Like this one:

This was taken by my 13 year old son with the zoom lens in natural light.  Pretty, isn’t it?  I am so excited about the camera and the photos I am going to be able to take and share with you.  My thanks go to Joni, who wrote about her camera saga.  I took her advice in selecting the D90 model and so far I am blown away.

But I am digressing.  The title of my post is back to business, and I do mean it.  So, in the last post I showed you a photo of a Christmas centerpiece that I create every year.  I described what I used and how I used it, but my best advice to you is this:  take pictures.  That is, take photos of your Christmas decorations while they are up and out.  It will help you remember where you put what, and if you were struck by inspiration and did something different this year that you want to replicate, the photo will remind you of exactly what you did. Then, go and buy some clear plastic tubs, if you don’t have any.

This way you can see what is inside before you drag it from wherever you store your decorations.  But the most important thing to do is this:

Tape the photo that you took onto the box.  That way, not only will you know what is inside (in case you couldn’t tell from looking), but you will also have a cheatsheet for how to recreate your arrangement.  It’s almost like paint by numbers!  Now, to some of you this may seem like cheating, but it is a huge time saver.  And if you are feeling creative, you can change where or how you put things out.  I am so busy at the holidays that, while I adore the creative process of vignettes and arrangements, I don’t have the inspiration and energy on demand to come up with something new and different every year.  So, for me, this tip is a lifesaver.  I can’t take credit for this idea, although I don’t remember where I read about it or saw it.  I just know that is has dramatically reduced the time it takes me to transform my house at Christmas.

And last, but not least, shamelessly copy displays that you really love, or at least draw inspiration from them.  I take photos of store displays with my Iphone.  Obviously, I can’t recreate things exactly from the displays I photograph, but I can come close.  Also, it’s great to see how display artists and stylists technically do things.  They are wizards with fishing line, wire and, who knows, maybe chewing gum!  They are the originial MacGyvers.  I hope this helps you all – you’ll be thanking me next year…..

Happy New Year!

Kristin

Last post on Roundtop, I promise!  As Brooke of Velvet and Linen and Joni of Cote De Texas announced, Love Train Antiques took out 20 spaces at the Big Red Barn.  Love Train Antiques is owned by Mark Sage who co-founded  BoBo Intriguing Objects which is now currently featuring some wonderful pieces for Restoration Hardware’s new Belgian Look.  Mark was not there, but Doug and Carina Jenkins were and they did the most amazing job styling the space.  Each room or vignette was more alluring than the next.  Booths were stung with banners made of vintage prints and twine.  Wonderful old containers were “planted” with bare branches, while tiny limes served as ground cover.  It was literally breathtaking and I wanted to acquire just about everything that they had.   I took a few photos on the first day, but I wish I had taken more on the second day when we returned to make  purchases.  However, we did get a great treat in that Doug and Carina spent some time talking with us about Love Train, BoBo, Belgian Style, and Restoration Hardware while they shared some wine with us.  It was a great way to cap off our Roundtop trip, and I’ll report their insights and thoughts after the photos.

This corner cabinet was in the most lovely shade of pale blue/green.  It’s partially obscured by one of the prints gaily hanging from twine.

Ever since Joni posted about the clock secretaries at Tara Shaw, I have been charmed by the notion.  This was the first time that I saw a piece with a clock embedded in it in person.  It was so beautifully presented with the crusty cobalt bottles providing great contrast with the greige finish.

And here is a beautiful marriage between Mora clock and desk.  The finish was sumptuous and again – I know I am perseverating here – the styling superb.

I have always loved old clockfaces and these were especially great.  Fun elephant print – Kristin and I couldn’t believe how reasonable it was.  The crate was holding vintage beer bottles with some grasses randomly tucked in – hey, this is decorating my husband could tackle.   To be fair, my guy is more of a wine drinker, but I think my college aged son could take on this project.

Vintage soda bottles with funny little canvas childsize dummies.  They look a bit weird in this photo, but were charming in person.  But our favorite in this shot were the fantastic baskets – we came back hoping to get the one on the right, but alas, it was gone.  The great thing about Love Train is that they have items in every price point and the prices are reasonable by comparison to other dealers.

So, after we tallied up my purchases, we talked with Doug and Carina about Love Train, BoBo, Restoration Hardware and the Belgian Style.  They were both very excited to be setting up for the show at High Point in several days.  Love Train and BoBo have their own showroom there and Doug said that they really pull out all of the stops for the High Point Show – so go if you can!  Doug and Carina asked us if we thought that they should relocate to Marburger, as it has the reputation for being more high end.  We told them to please stay at the Big Red Barn, as they can’t get the kind of space at Marburger that they can at the BRB and part of the joy of shopping Love Train was the discovery of wonderful vignette after wonderful vignette.  At that point, Doug grabbed a tiny lime from the display, cut it into a wedge and squeezed it into his Corona, while offering us some wine.

Over wine and beer we talked about BoBo and the Jenkins’ perspective on the items on offer with Restoration Hardware.  We all decided that it was a great thing for Restoration Hardware, and if it means that Belgian Style becomes a mass design movement that Mark Sage will be clever enough to be riding the wave of the next big design movement.  Last but not least, Doug and Carina are launching a website soon,  so look for Eneby Antik when it hits the internet.  Here they are,  having graciously allowed their picture to be taken after working all day in the blazing heat.

Thank you again, Carina and Doug.

Kristin

I am happily ensconced with my family this week.  We are catching up on movies, old and new, visiting with friends and family, and just enjoying each other’s company.  I hope that you are doing the same.  It’s a time for looking back and forward, as well.  But in the spirit of looking back, I am posting one of my most popular posts, which is how to display art.  I hope that you find it inspiring…..

This looks like you, Tartanscot!

Last week, in my post Details, Details, I wrote about how the finishing touches in a room or space can add layers of interest and charm. I posted a lot of vignettes on tablescapes and mantels, but nothing on art and how grouping it can have a dynamic effect on a room. So, today I am posting what I believe to be fantastic examples of how to display art and accessories. Designers that I featured below have a great eye for display and, not surprisingly, are among the hottest designers right now. Darryl Carter, Charles Faudree, and Suzanne Kasler are all noted for their attention to detail. But I also found much to admire about the careful art placements and installations by Abigail Rizor, Jason Bell , Kathy Bennett, and Scott Sanders. And I adore the style of Mish Tworkowski, a jewelry designer of great talent with whom I had the opportunity to tour some of the great summer houses of the Hamptons many moons ago. Dear reader, this post will approach Cote de Texas proportions, so be prepared!

Like table vignettes, there are some principals that good art placement seems to embrace. First, the arrangement on the wall should have furniture or an architectural element situated underneath it and with which it shares mood, proportion, shape, or simply proximity. How many times have you seen a piece of art floating unanchored in a space and thought – something is wrong here? But look at the composition above, and unfortunately I clipped this without noting the designer, and see how well anchored it is by the great leather chairs, the amazing white plastered table and the vintage suitcases.  The white plaster of the table relates beautifully to the plaster relief plaques, and they look stunning against the rich green of the walls.

I apologize for the blurriness of this photo of Mish’s summer house on Long Island – and isn’t that torn out spot in the middle charming!? ( As I seem to always be apologizing, I never imagined that my inspiration files would end up on a blog, so my pages are not always in good shape.) At any rate, I really love the arrangment of the painted piece and stags’ heads over the window and bookcases.  The room would have lost a lot of charm and interest had Mish not placed those pieces there.  And it looks like he used a combination of real mounts and hand carved wooden ones.  And they relate so well to the antler stools on the right.  Really, it’s very attractive, just like Mish himself.  See the other side of the room, here, and notice the stag mount motif again, the stacked botanicals, and more mounts in the hallway.

Charles Faudree and Jason Bell both use a motif in the accessories, fabrics and furnishings which is reflected back in their choice of art. The placement of these pieces is also balanced and thoughtful.  Below, Faudree uses the bedposts and sconces as part of the vignette, which is detailed literally from top to bottom.

Again, you can see how he relates the art to the furniture, in this case a set of whimsical shell prints. He used the bottom up rule in the scale of the bottom diminishing as it rises, but the top print is larger than the middle one, which lends it interest.

See how Jason Bell layers his prints in the niches of the bookcases? I love the look of a picture leaning, rather than hung, against a wall. And the overlapping of artwork is another trick that I find very appealing, especially when the art in question is not a fine piece that deserves to be admired on its own. Of course, the artwork is perfectly situated within the shelves of sea related accessories and against a dramatic backdrop which enhances the array even more.

This photo, a design by Scott Sanders shows another array of sea inspired prints, dramatically framed in black lined up above a fantastic console table with hurricanes and shells artfully placed in a vintage dough bowl. The drama of the black frames marching along the table is wonderful. Of course, framing like prints in the same frame is a pretty hard and fast rule, but one worth repeating. It creates harmony and balance in a composition, and allows one to focus on the art itself.  Scott used to work for Ralph Lauren, like Tartanscot, and you can certainly see the influence in his work.  Just beautiful.

Here is another example of artwork arranged within a niche, which lends it instant impact. I really like the balance of shapes and proportions of this composition, as well as the neutral tones of the art itself. The three larger pieces anchor the arrangement, and notice how the books in the shelves are arranged so that their colors do not distract from the artwork. Putting together a composition like this can be a challenge, so I always lay out the artwork on the floor and fiddle with it until I get it to pull together properly. Next, I photograph it with my Iphone and measure distances between the pieces. Last, I hang the piece closest to the floor, and judge all others from that piece.

Here is Kathy Bennett’s home. She does a lovely job with the inset of this bookcase – just one important piece and anchors the artwork over her desk with a lovely lamp.

Here she uses a lamp again to tie in the artwork and also leans a small piece against the wall. Very pretty. On the left you can see two pieces stacked atop one another. I like the shapes juxtaposed, but I do think that they are too close together.

Here she uses an easel to highlight the small painting on the mantel and I really like how the mantel arrangement reaches out to include the print over the table. It all flows beautifully. And look at the mirrored panel on the right – lovely.

Here Abigail Rizor uses reclaimed scaffolding as a shelf above her bookcase. You can see how fantastic all her artwork looks leaning against the wall, and overlapping each other. The relate beautifully in color and the detail of the red toned prints and mattes against the vintage red hobby horse is wonderful. I also like the freshness of the print leaning against the window.

Darryl Carter bring up the finale to this post. Look at how fantastic this one big, bold, graphic piece of art looks placed on the floor and leaning against the wall. Amazing!

Again, he leans a piece against the wall, in this case a mirror. Look at the attention to how the two wall arrangements relate to one another. Also, the dark color of all the pieces is cohesive, allowing the shapes and details to take center stage. The vintage duffel below the two mounts keeps them from floating on the wall.

Unexpected, but charming, the mirror is hung against the windows. The unique black light fixture looks fantastic in this setting, and I suspect that the bench underneath the sink typically sits right in that corner.

If you want more inspiration for artful arrangements, look to your latest Pottery Barn catalog. Their stylists do an amazing job of arraying artwork in great style and with élan.