A Country Living Room in the Vermont Mountains

Well Campers!!!

We've perused Connie's entry hall and her dining room, so now it's time to 

explore the living room!!!!!

Take a deep breathe.... we're going in.....

Traditional Home Magazine 2004
Some of you may remember this room.....
Some of you won't.....
Some of you don't care.....
and some of you wonder what the @#$ I'm going on about....
anyway....
This was the room that Connie first hired me to decorate.We started with the wonderful toile from Brunschwig & Fils.
This is when I found out that Connie's favorite color was coral.
Of course at that time, I didn't realize that this was the color that would haunt follow us down to Florida.....
But the girt just loves this hue.
She's blonde, so it looks really good with her coloring.
She tends to wear it too.
She's got sweaters......
She's got shirts....
That's as far as I'm going......

As I mentioned when showing off her dining room,
I unified the some of the rooms on the first floor by using the same fabrics throughout the spaces.
The check on the club chair is the same one I used for the dining room draperies and host and hostess chair

The ottoman fabric was used on the dining room side chairs.

Now some folks could accuse me of being lazy.

And they might be right.

But using the same fabrics in several rooms, in different applications, is a good way to unify areas of a house that are open to each other.

I designed the bookcase/fireplace wall and had it installed to everyone's delight!!!!!

If I do say so myself.....it transformed the room.

Now....

before I get hurt, patting myself on the back.....

I must admit that adding it was Les Brown's (the architect's) idea.

BUT I DID THE DRAWINGS.....

'cuz, as I've repeatedly told you.....I am a rock star when it comes to interior architectural details.......

I chose a mantle that was very close to the style I had in my Watertown home.

Here's a shot of my old living room with the fireplace....

House Beautiful
Sooooo.....
now you know.....
I just copy what I like.
I don't have an original idea in my skull.
I am a big fat fraud.

Well.....
how's that for no filter?????
On that note.
Latah, Gatah

Betsy Answers a Couple of Questions.......

Even though.....

I am no longer doing a Q&A.....

Folks still ask me questions!!!!!

Every now and then,

 the questions are broad enough 

that the answers could help more than just the writer, 

who is asking for free advice.

SOOOOOO.....

Today, I will answer two that I think the class could benefit from.

(from which the class could benefit?????)

(is it snooty to not end in a preposition?????) 

(grammar rules keep changing.....)

anywho.....

If you don't find anything useful in these answers.....

I DON'T CARE!!!!!

(well, that's not entirely true....)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First Question!!!!!

Hi Betsy,

From your blog I see that you are a dog lover.  So, hope you can help

me with my doggie / decorating dilemma.

I have a collection of Staffordshire dogs.  My favorite has been an

only for very long so I finally went hunting for his mate.  After

months of searching far and wide, wouldn't you know it, a woman who

lives about 40 miles away from me has what I needed!  Now I want to

display them on the wall on either side of a very ornate French

mirror.  My problem is what size and what type of wall bracket should

I use?

The dogs are 10" tall, 7.5" wide and project from the wall about 5 ".

I have attached a photo of my one dog (his friend is still in the

mail).  I have also attached a photo of the wall where I want to

display them.  ("Hang" sounds too cruel.)  There is lots of wall space

to cover.  The walls are 10 feet high and 17 feet long.  The mirror is

48" high.

I found the following brackets:

Bellacor: Palm Leaf  11" wide x 12' high x 6" ext

Bellacor: Acanthus Bronze  15.5" wide x 10 3/4 high x 5.75" ext

Bellacor: Capital Shelf  16" wide x 13" high x 7" ext

IBG Stores: Leaf Scroll Bracket 11.5" wide x 9" tall x 5.5" ext

I have even thought of buying the large bracket from Suzanne Kasler on

Ballard Designs and adding a larger shelf.

Any advice on proper proportion of statue to bracket?  Any other suggestions?

Thanks,  Charlotte Des Fleurs

Welllll.....

a good example is what I did for my friend Kris.

Below is her living room

First I hung the brackets over the prints.

Then we added more pictures to the wall, and I lowered them to under the prints....

Sooooo

there are many ways that your brackets could be hung.

In my den in Massachusetts, I hung them with a print leaning on them with the dogs in front....

So, there are lots of options.

As to the size of the bracket.

They should just be a little wider that what ever you are placing on them, unless it is a picture, and then you can have the picture wider than the bracket.

It's all about scale.

The bigger the item, the more room you should have around it, otherwise it will look top heavy.

In your case, since the dogs are 7.5" wide, I would want the brackets to be around 9" or wider. But not too wide.

Jeesh.

I really love the brackets from Ballard Designs, 

But the style of the palm leaves may be more in keeping with your room.

If the finish is crappy,

just paint them!!!!!

Hope that was helpful.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next question!!!!!

Hi Betsy,

I found your blog yesterday and have spent the last 24 hours lost in all your posts. I love it!  I remember seeing your Sunapee cottage years ago in a magazine and am so happy to have found your blog and see a bit of what you have been up to decorating wise.
I have a question which I have been struggling with since we bought our house 5 years ago and I would love your opinion.  We have a large pretty master bedroom with 7 windows. The windows all have half shutters that are really pretty and also functional as they provide just enough privacy.  My issue is that the room just is not cozy and I am wondering if it needs window treatments or the issue is something else. I am afraid of the cost of window treatments as we all know custom treatments no matter what are a lot.  I am sending along photos of what I have done so far in the room and would appreciate your thoughts on the window issue and how to make the room cozier.  The room is long, maybe 18 feet and has a small attached room and the the closet and master bath. Any thoughts you have would be great!
Thank you.
Jennifer

Then she added some more furniture, which helped.

OK.....

First I have a question for all you guys out there who buy big houses, and then don't want to spend the money decorating them.....

HUNH?????

If you have a house with a lot of windows.....

YOU HAVE TO SPEND SOME MOOLAH!!!!!

This is a lovely room.

But you're right....

draperies will make it much cozier.

If you don't want to spend a lot of money,

why not get simple sheers and sew them together for a fuller look.

One panel looks too skimpy, but two together are nice.

If you can't sew, just hang them together on a rod, and that would probably work too.

This is what I did for my friend Lissette, 

(however, I sewed them together.)

We got the sheers form Pottery Barn.

Then we got the poles and rings from Lowes.

Then I sewed the pinch pleats at the top and sewed the rings on.

If you do some of the work, you can save buckets of money.

To see the whole project....look here.

I think you would be amazed at what adding draperies would do to this room.

I can't feel at home in a place until all the windows have some fabric on them.

I still need to do a valance in my sewing/project room.

But my needs come after my niece Miriam's, and I'm sewing her draperies for her at present.

Was this helpful?????

I hope so.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, campers...

That's it for today,

I pulled my back this morning just pulling up a crummy little weed.

I just turned the wrong way.

So, I can't sit any longer at this blasted computer.

Sooooo

on that note,

Latah, Gatah

Styling a Dining Room

Remember when I told you guys about how I had to fix Connie's Florida dining table, so folks could actually sit at the end?????

This was the table I'm talkin' about......

There were stretchers at the ends (strips of wood) between the legs, so no one could pull a chair up.....no place to put your tootsies.....ya get me???

So,

I had them cut out, so it would actually function like a real dining table.

Sooooooo.....

The reason I could have stretchers between the legs of Connie's Vermont table is.....

The top overhangs enough to let a chair pull up so's you can eat.

See how it overhangs?????

If you look at the two dining areas, you can see that I have certain details that I like to use...

 (over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.....etc.)

I like the host and hostess chair to be different from the side chairs.

Sometimes I do them in the same fabric....

Sometime's I do them in different fabric.

In my niece Miriam's dining room, I plan on making slipcovers for the chairs at the table's ends out of the same fabric as the rest of the room......

I plan on doing this just as soon as I finish sewing her living room draperies.

Her living room is really coming along, and I will be sharing that with you guys in the near future!!!!!

(actually.....maybe the seat of the slipcovers will be the toile, and the skirts will be the blue of the back pillows......hmmmmmm.....)

In Kris's house, I used the paisley that I had the walls covered in for the host and hostess chairs,

and then covered the seats of the side chairs in a plain fabric.

In my own dining room, I have three pairs of chairs covered in two different fabrics.

The slipcovers on the square back French chairs used to be on the chairs that are in Miriam's dining room.

They sort of fit my new(ish) French chairs.....

I gave Miriam her host and hostess chairs, as I no longer had room for them.

They originally belonged to my grandparents and were used in their New York apartment.

When I inherited them, they had beautiful needlepoint seats.

However.....

I used these chairs for over 20 years and the needlepoint bit the dust.

It's in shreds.

It was really fine and pretty.

Don't give me nothin' 'cuz I am the destroyer!!!!!

Once again I've gone off on a tangent.....

On that note...

Latah, Gatah

Architectural Dining Room Details

Although the architect I work with is brilliant at reworking floorplans and roof lines.....

I am the expert, brilliant, fabulous one when it comes to interior architectural detailing!!!!!!!

 (if I do say so myself)

(and I do)

When Connie and Chris bought their Vermont home, the house lacked charm.

It was situated on a wonderful piece of land, and sited beautifully, but architecturally, it was underwhelming. 

One of the first things Les Brown (the architect, not the band leader) and I suggested (forcefully) was changing the windows.

The window sills were too high, so the rooms felt closed in.

This is a typical mistake of builders and folks who think they can design houses without having any training.......

They make the windowsills too friggin' high.

(Betsy's disclaimer.......

lot's of people with training don't agree about this.....)

(but then, I think they be wrong, wrong, wrong.....)

So.....

wonderful new windows were installed that had the proper proportions!!!!

I like me a window sill that be 30" AFF (above the finished floor).

HOWEVER!!!!!

Because of the way I was laying out the furniture, we had the window sills made even lower.

This did wonders for adding an airiness to the rooms.

Then I got to work on the paneled wainscoting.....

When I was hired to do this job, I put together a dream team of architect, builder and me, me, me.....

I had worked with G.R. Porter and Sons Construction  on a previous project in New Hampshire and had been bowled over by their attention to detail and that they didn't give me a hard time on a construction site!!!!

I first started working with them around 1984 or 5, and back then, women on construction sites could be patronized and altogether ignored.

Ha!

Just try to ignore me!!!!!

Anyway.....

I found that anything I could draw, they could build!!!!!

I was used to getting a bunch of resistance from cabinet makers telling me that what I had designed couldn't be built.

They didn't like it when I would explain to them how to build it.

NOT THIS TIME!!!!!

Sooooo.....

Since I had had such a wonderful experience with them, I got Connie and Chris to hire them.

Where was I???????

Oh, yeah.

Architectural Detailing.

Wainscoting.

Dining Room.....

So, I added the paneled wainscoting to the walls and had wallpaper applied above. 

Then Connie and I found these wonderful butterfly prints that we had framed.

I hung them all the way around the room.

(On two walls anyway. There wasn't room on the other two walls....)

I found this other photo.....

shows a little part of one.....

I know I keep saying this.....

but I really need to get back up there and take some decent detail shots.

IT'S SOOOO FAR THOUGH.......

MY HIPS HURT JUST TO THINK ABOUT IT!!!!!

Where was I?????

Oh, yeah,

architectural interior details.

I also changed all the window and door casings, baseboards and crown moldings.

But other than that the house was just the same as when they bought it.... other than moving walls around.....

If you beef up your window and door casings, don't forget to increase the size of your baseboard.

I like baseboards to be at least 5.5" h (that's a 1x6).

If the ceiling's over 8 feet high, then the baseboard should be even taller.

Just another arbitrary Betsy rule.

I'm starting to ramble.....

(why should this day be different from any other?????)

Sooooo.....

On that note...

Latah, Gatah

Mixing Patterns in a Room

OK Kampers.....

Let's get back to Connie's Vermont dining room.

To refresh your weakening memories.....

here's an overall shot of the room.

Traditional Home Magazine 2004

If you've been following this blog....

 (and shame on you if you haven't), 

she loves the color coral, as shown in her Florida home.

Here's a shot of her Flerida beach house living room with tons of coral accents.

Sooooo.....

We used coral as the main colorway in her mountain dining room.

We started with the buffalo check, which I had used in the living room, and then found a wallpaper that worked with it.

When I want to do an open flowing color-scheme for part of a house, I use some of the same fabrics in each room.

I just use them differently in each space.

In the living room, I used the check on a club chair, 

so in the dining room, I used it on the draperies.

We really lucked out when I went to look for a floorcovering.

I found this wonderful Sarouk woven rug at Stark that matched the color scheme perfectly!!!!!

Then I found the chair fabric, and it all just fell together.

If you believe it was really that easy, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.....

Anyway.....

I wanted to edge the hanging lampshade with a detail that had the same feel as the room, and couldn't believe it when I found this tassel trim mounted on a plaid ribbon.

I mean.....

who would ever make a trim with a plaid ribbon and tassels?????

I obviously am just using the same picture and blowing it up for my detail shot.

That's why it's so blurry.....

I really need to get up to Vermont and take some decent pictures.

I love the look of  checked fabric made into draperies!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's sunny,

finally,

so I'm going to go sit on my terrace,

read a trashy book about witches,

and have a nice cool glass of water.

Soooooo.....

go outside and play,

and stop reading my stupid blog.....

On that note,

Latah, Gatah

Apple Blossom Orgasm!!!!

I know I've been revealing Connie and Chris's Vermont country house....

but today I just have to share my apple blossom orgasm!!!!!

This is right in front of my condo in Massachusetts!!!!!

I am normally in Florida when these babies bloom, so I miss this.

But this year, because of family stuff, I am up here for the show.

I am sooooo in love with them, that I took lots of pictures that I will now make you look at share with you guys!!!!

This was the view last evening from my front door, while it was drizzling.

The shot was even taken with the storm door closed!!!

Here's the view across my driveway to the little pond that is starting to scum over for the summer.

Notice how we are good little earthers, and have our recycling out!!!

This pond is slowly turning back into wetlands, so in the cooler months, it has clear water, but in the warmer months it has a solid sheet of scum.

I try to convince myself that it's a nice green expanse of lawn!!!

Looking back up towards my home.....

I feel so lucky to live here.

It took me a while to adjust to the idea that I no longer lived in a house, but a condo......but it's almost like a house.

My parents unit is right next door, just to the right.

I got them to buy it several years ago, in case they needed to live closer to our family.

And they did.

So now they do!!!!!

My mother tells me to be careful what I wish for......

because I wanted them to buy the unit.....

But they're not that old.....

My dad will only be 98 this month......

Now for some more apple blossoms!!!

Looking at then against the sky,,,

Looking at them close up.....

Some more....

Then.....

I went under them and took a picture looking out!!!!!

Because I was here in the early spring, I had a chance to do some decent spring pruning.

Sooooo....

I had to share a picture of my foundation flower bed, to show what a good girl I am.....

Those are Knock Out Roses between the hosta and the rhododendrons.

My brother, who is a wise guy, calls them Knocked Up Roses.

Here's a shot of the azalea next to my mom's front door.

She wants me to prune it when it's done blooming.

I need to read up on how to do that.

Don't you love google?????

The same day I took these shots.....

I was lazing on my back terrace.....

and I looked up at the extremely blue sky from under my new red umbrella....

and had to run and get my camera, because it was the same red as the Japanese maple against the blue of the sky.

Of course the camera couldn't catch the wonderfulness of this,

but I tried, anyway.

 Then I tried to take a lower view picture of my iron dog...

Those are decorative strawberry plants around it.

The chipmunks like the fruit.

It's really inedible for people.

The pink flowers are pretty!!!!!

That's why I planted them.

I don't need no stinkin' strawberries.

I was getting a little delirious by this point, so I took a shot of my feet.

The reason I did this.....

(Yes, there is a reason....)

is that changing from my fuzzy moccasin slippers to my rubber and plastic flip flops, is the real official start of the warmer weather!!!!! 

I've had these sandals for over 25 years.

I got them at a discount store.

They are old and dirty, but I love them.

THEY HAVE BOWS!!!!!

If you watch Dr. Who on TV, you know that bows are cool!!!!!

OK, I've obviously lost my mind,

so on that note.....

Latah, Gatah