Betsy's Bodacious Ballroom!!!!!

O-KAY CAMPERS!!!!!

Let's continue the story of the Back Bay Ball Room.....

Design Times Magazine/ Eric Roth Photography

For those of you joining the party late, the story begins here.....

SOOOOOO......

as I was saying.

I was able to go hog wild in my use of the Sanderson Fabric.

I could choose any fabric that made my little heart sing

 (as long as Sanderson approved it.....)

So.....

quelle surprise!!!!!

I CHOSE A CABBAGE ROSE!!!!!

I am truly a sucker for a tea stained look, and this pattern had the whole aged faded charm thing going for it.

One reader asked how I decided to do a red room.

Well, I don't decide on a color when designing a space.

I choose the fabric I like, and then work off its colors.

If I were to design around this fabric today, with today's styles and fashions, I would have chosen a cream color to match the rose fabric's background for the sofas and drapery trim.

But I did this room in 1997, and styles change.

One way I used to hold down the cost of a showhouse space, was to work with as much of the existing room as possible.

I was able to keep the color of the woodwork, from the painted window and door casings right up to the gaudy gold paint on the ceiling details and mirrors.

The great thing about the rose linen pattern, was the yellowy green leaves brought out the color of the crappy gold paint, and made it look like it was actually OK.

Normally in a room of this grandeur, the paint would have been a gold leaf, or a facsimile there of.

But this gold was like

 cheap radiator paint!!!!! 

Sooooooo.......

the mirrors were already on the wall.....

The chandeliers were already hung from the ceiling.......

So I did what any crazed decorator would do, and I had the walls covered in fabric.

LOTS AND LOTS OF FABRIC!!!!!!

I arranged the furniture to create a dancing area and a hanging out and eating area.

'Cuz that's what you does at a pahtay!!!!

In the dancing area I designed a dance floor that I had painted on MDF and placed in a cut out area in the middle of the wall to wall sisal carpeting.

(The floors of the room were really horrible, and I didn't want to have to refinish them. So I covered them with sisal.....)

Design Times Magazine/ Eric Roth Photography

The dance floor has a poem running around the perimeter that I wrote, 

myself!!!!!

I can't remember it......

It went something like....

"Kick up your heels and 

dance the night away,

Something, something, something,

Until the break of day."

OY, OY, OY,

my old mind can't remember......

I am such a hostage to detail, that I even went to a (cheap) shoe store to find a gold pair of heels.

Then I added the diamond clips!!!

I used to apply this kind of attention to things for my boyfriends....

They thought it meant I liked them.....

They didn't know that I am just project driven!!!!

At the end of the dance area was the dais for the musicians.

I had a semicircle made out of plywood and covered it in the sisal.

All around the ballroom were needle point pillows with 

pithy sayings!!!!!!

Designed by Moi!!!!!

Needle pointed by Moi!!!!!

For the musicians pillows I came up with four words that ended in "ate"

Coming up with those four words

 created much hilarity in the Speert Design Office.

There are lots of words that end in "ate".

Really good words.....

BUT I COULDN'T USE THEM!!!!

I am so grown up.....

So that's it for the dance area of this room.

I really need to go outside for my walk.

I had a check up this week and told the doctor that I walked at least every other day.

I am sort of a liar...

Latah, Gatah