Anyone else sick of midcentury modern furniture?

 Damn, I want to ditch everything in my TV/family room. At first I loved the groovy look of so many midcentury pieces and a few Chinoiserie pieces along with some funky details.

 

 First of all, I hate my citrine curtains and they were mega expensive.

The problem is that I don't dislike individual pieces. My pricey vintage Brno chairs, and the Saarinen table are dearly loved as well as the console but if they go away I won't cry.

Below is the curved console that holds our TV.

 

The problem is that in my next house ( which BTW is going to take longer than I thought) I want a more traditional, cozy feel but light and airy too.

I am imagining something like this Brooke Wagner Design.

I like the light sofas and blue and white pillows. I might add my Saarinen table and a glass coffee table but I think my taste has changed.

Am I nuts? Do your tastes vary?

I'll gladly sell every piece. Any takers???

New house dreaming

I have been doing more "new house dreaming" than one person should. "New house dreaming" is when you decorate the rooms of houses that you do not own but actually have plans to move. I have no idea what our new house will involve at this point, so I just fantasize.

I am a big fan of mixing traditional pieces with modern pieces and I hope to take my decor a bit more to the traditional side this time. 

I chose a Chesterfield sofa with a burled walnut chest and some blue and white pieces from the Pink Pagoda for the traditional part of this living room. I threw in a Dana Gibson pillow, lamp from Wisteria and the White cocktail table from Aerin.com to add some zing.

I also used my painting "Smolder" which is being offered by Gregg Irby Fine Art in Atlanta to make the whole thing a bit edgier.

Do you decorate houses that you don't own just for fun?

My blue and white Thanksgiving

Today I am linking up to Jennifer's Blue and White Bash over on The Pink Pagoda

Each holiday I like to arrange fresh flowers or fruit or both as a centerpiece in my formal dining room. This year I chose three small ginger jars in my collection.

I bought red and peach colored roses and trimmed some boxwood from my yard.

The blue and white was so cheerful and the small ginger jars left plenty of room for things like gravy and cranberry sauce.

Hope you had a lovely holiday!

How to banish a case of the browns

I was chatting with a neighbor last week who mentioned having lots of wood in different tones and not being able to pull together all of that brown. Its easy I told her. I should mention that I have nothing against brown and its not a poor choice. It's just all too easy to end up with nothing but brown.

First, why do so many people end up with so much brown and beige in their homes when Americans, according to House Beautiful, choose blue as their favorite color? When deciding on furniture and wall color many people think, "I love blue (or another color) but I don't want a blue room" and they choose the neutral because "it goes with everything". Brown leather furniture is popular for its durability for people with kids and pets and, well, why not buy leather...it's a classic. Pretty soon they end up with a bowl of raisin bran colored everything and wonder how it got that way when they made safe, classic, standard choices.

I will show you two ways to banish a total case of the browns. The first, admittedly has a lot of blue, but it is a bit more budget friendly and other colors can be substituted. Both looks can be done incrementally.

I left the curtains, sofa, and wall color the same in this view because those are often the most expensive or time consuming to change. I think buying large pricey furniture in neutrals is a good idea and color should be used on mostly less expensive items so that changes in decor are easier to incorporate without redoing everything.

In this first view the imaginary person who loves blue bought the blue chair she wanted. The look is lightened with various metals and glass and the blue is repeated in pillows, poufs, and prints.

The blue chair is very affordable from Lampsplus.com

The mirror, poufs and sideboard are from Wisteria.com

The coffee table and side table are from Target.com

The prints are from The Pink Pagoda.

I took the idea a little farther and added a few more expensive items in the second version.

I kept the sofa, curtains and that new blue chair but changed the wall color to a pale, cool gray.

I added a petite antique dresser. Yes, its more brown but its a rich, aged brown and a classic style.

The white swivel chairs are from HDbuttercup.com and are high quality neutral pieces that lighten the overall look. I used more metallic finishes with the silver garden seats from Wisteria.com and the upholstered bench is from Deringhall.com.

The artwork is available on Etsy.com and is by Elena Petrova. I am crushing on her paintings and they are very affordable.

The bottom line is that adding bling with metals and some glass or light, airy items helps with the heavy, browns. It is also important to understand that using a large item in a non-neutral does not mean that you have to commit to a an entire color scheme based on that color. Both of these looks could easily have incorporated greens, pinks, or lighter blues.

Witty willow

Sea monster plate

An old friend posted a link to the Kickstarter video for this product on FB last week and I was intrigued.

You can read about the entire process this illustrator uses for creating Calamityware here. The artist uses the traditional "Blue Willow" pattern and adds an element to create the "calamity". Look closely at the hilarious detail of these plates.

Scary flying monkeys

Giant robot

So far there are just three plates in production but the announcement of the fourth design was made public on Friday.

These cheeky things are just my kind of thing. I wonder how long it would take guests to notice the impending doom on their plates?

Another way to see blue and white porcelain

What is it about blue and white porcelain filled with flowers that is so appealing?

I often look for excuses to buy flowers for my collection of blue and white. Sometimes Saturday seems excuse enough.

When I am not arranging my own flowers I am often in the mood to paint them and the Waterlogue app was a great inspiration for watercolors.

My need to abstract things seems to have won out.

"Blue vase" 24 x 24 oil on canvas by Kerry Steele

If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen a muted, neutral background as the start of this painting.

The first picture below is a detail of the neutrals.

 I used a large brush loaded with French blue and white to paint the vase and added layers upon layers of energetic color to depict the overflowing blooms.

Just like in life I wanted to capture what I love about a vase of flowers. Tiny bits of neutral in varying color peek around the edges, playing shadowed light. Hints of green and yellow like the folded leaf or wide, overripe blossom dot the pinkness.

 Sometimes abstractions seem like a kid making up their own language that only they understand. I know that only I see things through my lens I can only hope my abstract visions of pretty things translates to you too.

ORC-Whew! Its done!

As always, many thanks to Linda of Calling it Home for dreaming this baby up.

Are you all exhausted too?
If you need to catchup here are the previous weeks.
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
 Week 5

Let's take a look at my plan for my 17 year-old daughter's room and the results.

I had the bed, curtains and loveseat beforehand.
The girl likes chevron so I indulged.

I ordered a Lucite chair (from a company I won't recommend) and the blue and white chevron rug was a last minute Homegoods find.

The accessories in the room were the most fun for me. We both love elephants and the brass one was a thrifting score.

I found this vintage magazine rack at a local thrift and hit it with some gold spray paint to tie it in with some other accessories and hold all of my old her records.

I actually had the table in my basement. It was a side-of-the-road broken find that I repaired and lovingly refinished years ago. I took a deep breath and just started painting it white before I could reconsider.

I use my children's rooms as art hanging spots for my paintings until they sell so we can enjoy the paintings for a while.

That painting is from my new series and my daughter likes things to be color coordinated  and I think this works with her color scheme without totally matching.

The lamp on her nightstand was thrifted and I wrapped nearly all of the books in fun wrapping paper.

The pillows and throw on the loveseat make me want to steal them.

I found these blue and white porcelain balls at a discount store and I may have to buy some for myself.

 I hung her watercolors that are for sale in her Etsy shop with bulldog clips and they serve as inspiration as she works.

A print from The Pink Pagoda and a small abstract of mine work nicely together.

The rainbow was painted by her little sister and hangs with my favorite of all of her elephant paintings. I might just have to snap that up myself.

I learned a lot from this ORC. The main thing is that I never want to redo a a room with a resident slob. Every photo you have seen involved me moving clutter and clothes out of my way and putting things back to the way they were just a few hours earlier.
 We love the Parsons desk and ghost chair andI am really happy with the John Robshaw pillowcover I ordered and my recovered storage cubes.

Are going to spend the next few hours perusing all of the other fabulous ORC linker's rooms, like me?

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Blue and white bash-Scored!!

Today I am linking up with the Pink Pagoda's Blue and White Bash. Head on over to see loads of inspiration.

I love to score great goodies in thrift stores but my local pickings are slim. I browse, get discouraged, and quit for a while. Then I have some sort of mission, like the ORC, and I hop right back in the saddle.

I found the vase and shallow bowl above several weeks ago and bought them for my TV room.
A pair of beaker vases from The Pink Pagoda was on my mantel but their way back to the table by the front door.

 I needed some blue and white for the ORC and I am keeping the budget small because I never know when she will just stash everything in a closet. I went to every thrift and consignment store in my area at least twice a week.

Nuthin! I mean nuthin!

Just as I was about to throw in the towel when a bridge closure and detour took me past a consignment store that I had forgotten about.

They had oodles. Some was unmarked and I asked for a price. Mind you, I was trying to contain my excitement so as not hear an inflated price. Instead she cut the price in half on the marked ones and gave me the ginger jar for $10. I loved saying, "I'll take them all."

Some of these I am keeping for myself and some will be a part of the ORC for a certain budding watercolor artist.

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Pagoda mirrors

I love pagoda mirrors. I mean who doesn't right?

They are suited for mantles and entryways and dining rooms that need something over a console or buffet.

They are not for every house or budget. This one from Circa Who is $2800. Another was on eBay for $1500.

Circa Who

The thing I like best about pagoda mirrors is...

that there is now one in my house!!!

Imagine me screaming that and jumping up and down like the people one The Price is Right!

That is how excited I am, especially since the price was right. It amounted to about what the sales tax would be one one found in a retail store.

I have Kristen of Pursuing Vintage to thank for this. She emailed me about an estate sale nearby. At first I dismissed the idea entirely because my husband and I agreed on a spending fast where we buy nothing but food, gas and essentials.

Then I peeked at the offerings and saw the mirror. Despite my inner curmudgeon telling me it would be gone already, too expensive and that I dare not buy anything, I went.

Let's just say that Mr. Design du Monde was none too pleased about this but he was not mad enough not to style the whole thing. He hated the varying blues in my porcelain set up so I scurried about the house bringing pieces for his approval. He is insisting that the painting next to the mirror is wrong looking so I better fix that. He is a styling fiend!