Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Needlepoint Love

I love needlepoint.
Yes in deedy doooo!!!!!
At the foot of the bed in my Massachusetts guestroom is a bench I've had for a very long time.....
I used it in my office in Watertown,
 when I worked out of my house, 
to dump stuff on.
Benches are great for dumping stuff!!!!!!!
Only problem is.....
then you can't see the pretty top.....
I did not do the needlepoint on this, but found this beauty....
So, I placed it at the foot of the guestroom bed, so that visiting people had a place to set their suitcase.
That is.....
fictional visiting people, 
'cuz you all know how I feel about guests......
Check out the picture above.....
It's reversed 'cuz I shot it by looking into the armoire mirror!!!!!
It was the best way to get some distance....
So now I will reverse it, and pretend that I didn't do that.....
I am very clever, 
I love PicMonkey,
I am a computer whiz kid!!!!!
OK, back to the needlepoint.
Although I am going to do a PicMonkey tutorial about fixing pictures sometime in the near future.......
 like next week!!!!!
(maybe)
But not now.
Now I am talking about needlepoint.....
Soooooooooooooo...........
I had this bench in my office.....
and I was doing a decorator showhouse, and decided to use it in the room.....
But I wanted to make it more special, 
because it was going to be in a showhouse...
and all my showhouse rooms get published.....
because I'm really special!!!!!
sooooooo.......
I added a decorative trim around the whole thing by sewing it on by hand.
Only to have my buddies at my workroom, Drape It, tell me that I could have just hot glued it on........
This was in the days before I had time for all my DIYing.
I didn't even own a hot glue gun.....
Now I own three!!!!!
As I just noted, the bench sits at the foot of my guestroom bed....
I'm a sucker for a well shaped iron bed.
I can't seem to resist them.
Ones with interesting shapes and a decent height.....
After I write about some more of my jobs, I am going to do an iron bed retrospective.
A walk down a metal bed memory lane.....
I just counted, and I've owned 
7
in my long and tortured life!!!!!
I particularly like this one.
The woman I bought it from was missing a few cards in her deck, not quite up to the whole 52, 
and she smelled suspiciously like bourbon.....
but I will go to any lengths to get me a good metal bed.
I have made my sister-in-law buy one for one of her many daughters.....
(she has more than just Miriam).....
and my buddy and bidness partner Kris has just purchased two for her guest room.

On another note....
tons
of you have signed up for the apron give-a-way.
Which means that 
tons
of you are going to be disappointed, since only one person can win.
bwa ha ha ha ha!!!!!
so with that being said.....
Later, Gator
Photobucket

13 comments:

Lee said...

Love the needlepoint...love the bed. I have my Dad's old iron bed...not using it since it is for a full size (even though we sleep in a full size at the lake). It needs one work since his STEP grand kids bent the end copper pieces by doing flips on or off the bed. Need I say more about my wicked stepmother and her uncouth brood?! Luckily, I don't have to deal with them any more...but I wonder if I should just fix what I can and use the darn bed anyway. Of course, my husband doesn't want to use it

Pondside said...

Needlepoint and cross stitch (not the little-girl-in-a-bonnet sort though) get me every time. One day, when life is less peripatetic I'd like to needlepoint seats for the dining room chairs. In the meantime a small footstool seems the likeliest thing.

Vikki said...

Love almost everything in this bedroom. Love the bed, the bedding, the bench with the needlepoint seat, the painted and unpainted furniture, the fabulous armoire, the lamps, the wallpaper, the art on the walls, the salvaged rug...only thing I'm not nuts about is the oversized silk flower arrangement that looks like it is coming out of the wall under the dormer. You can see it in the "reverse mirror" shot. Did you really mean to have the flowers like that? No big deal they just seem out of place which is rare for you.

Betsy Speert said...

Those flowers are left over from something, and not really meant to be there.
After stuff has been in place for a decade, I don't notice it anymore.....

Nutbird said...

What's the little yellow thing on the bed? It looks like a piece of bread, but I guess it is a teeny tiny pillow. How about a post on where to send these beds to be stretched to queen size? I think there is a place in Westport CT that does it. Something like Charles Anthony. I'm glad you are bringing back chintz. I had my Coutan and Tout sofa recovered, but I saved my wall to wall curtains and valance. Ann

Cindy @ Dwellings-The Heart of Your Home said...

Me too! I LOVE, collect needlepoint. Beautiful room Betsy and I love how you added the fringe to the stool. AND yes, you are very CLEVER!!!

BTW, couldn't help notice your comment above...isn't it funny how "we" see things so often that we look right past them sometimes. Makes me want to walk around me house with "fresh" eyes to notice what others are "REALLY" seeing...yikes...hope I'm not embarrassed!

Again, LOVE your room!!!
Blessings,
Cindy

Brenda said...

I watch the British Antiques Roadshow and one of the experts said yesterday that nobody looks at their own objects (they never see the hallmarks or signatures...).

Love the needlepoint.

tracy said...

I love how nothing is gray in your room. I'm tired of all the gray in decorating nowdays....it's not warm to me at all. It reminds me of my parents basement, and that was not a 'decorated' area;-)

RKay said...

Love it all Betsy! and how dare someone say mean things about anything in someone else's house, we all have leftovers and thingy's sitting around in our HOMES, at least I do not live in a museum, hehehe. I love needlepoint and shamefully one of mine is stashed away in a dark place! Now I'm encouraged to get it out and put it on a bench at the foot of my guest bed. Which by the way is an antique - 1790's iron and brass bed. My hubster bought it near Woodbridge England while in the Air force in 1977. It was a rusty old thing in a barn. He says there were literally thousands to choose from. Dang, I wish he would've chosen a feminine one with birds and flowers, but he was a bachelor. Anyway, he had it redone and made into a queen. Cheers!

Lady Courtney said...

LOL...I probably won't win the apron, so I'll be mildly disappointed...I'll just have to make my own...anyway I also have a love affair with iron beds, I even rescued one from an abandoned old house for my daughter, she took it to college with her, and I miss her (it). It has been painted many different colors, even a grape purple (dark), which believe it or not was really pretty in her bedroom. I collect unfinished, finished needlepoint...I do not think a room is complete without needlepoint, maybe I got that from all the pictures of your rooms that I ripped out of magazines. I wonder. donna

Cynthia said...

Love the needle point, very beautiful. Lovely room. Have a great day.

Cynthia

Amy Chalmers said...

I love needlepoint too. I don't remember seeing that bench. Anyway if my name gets picked by random selector you better let me win this time!!

Charlotte Des Fleurs said...

OK, Betsy, THANKS A LOT for getting me re-hooked on needlepoint! Haven't done it for years. However, now that you have reminded me how pretty it is and how much interest it can add to a room, I have begun to haunt my local thrift shops and "antique" stores for likely candidates to re-do in the right colors for my rooms.

About 10 days ago I scored a fairly large piece (appropriate for a piano bench) for just $10. Since I travel A LOT for work, I was able to remove all the of the awful reddish-purple (the color of clotted blood) from the background in just a few days. Now I just need to decide what color to add back in. I am thinking about filling the center medallian with a soft yellow. Then, for the outside, a trellis pattern. Could look great or it could look ghastly. I will send you photos when it is done!

Smiles from My Slice of Provence, Charlotte Des Fleurs

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