Checks and Toile and Tapestries, Oh My!!!!!

Continuing along in Connie's Vermont living room.....

Now let's look the other way!!!!!!

When I work off of a toile fabric, there are some tried and true ways to create a fabric scheme.

No one ever taught me this.....

I have just done what many before me did.....

studied magazine pictures of rooms I like!!!!!

When you see several rooms you like with similar schemes,

analyze what they have in common.

This is the best way to figure out what your look should be, and how to create it.

soooooooo.......

I choose a toile.

Then I look for checks, plaids, stripes and solids that match the colors of the toile.

THEN

I look for other fabrics that pull in the color, but have other colors too.

This keeps the room from looking too static.

In the picture above, notice the side chair against the wall.

Here's a blow up.

The coral color is in the pattern, so it still works with the room, but the predominant tones are brown and green.

I added some more color and pattern with toss pillows.

That center needlepoint pillow works because it looks like an American sampler, so it goes with the American antiques spread throughout the room.

Get a clear vision of the room you want, and then bounce around inside the perimeters of that idea.

Like the cow toy?????

Connie and I found that antiquing and fell IN LOVE  with it.

For the wall color, I matched the background tones of the toile fabric.

Connie went up to visit the job site when it was first painted.

This was when we had JUST STARTED working together.

She hadn't embraced her love of color yet.

She called me to tell me the walls were bright yellow.

well!!!!!.....!!!!!

That couldn't be right.

So I double checked with the painter that he had used the right hue.

When a room is empty,

and all you see is the color against the white woodwork trim,

the yellow can look much stronger that it really is.

sooooooo.....

The next time I went up to check the jobsite,

I brought the fabric and showed Connie that the walls matched the background PERFECTLY.....

And she's trusted me (sort of) ever since.

I am not a lover of white walls.

(unless they are wood, like beadboard or V-groove or paneling or .....)

I used a sisal rug for the floor, because nothing is better for style and casual chicness than sisal,

and it ain't expensive!!!!!

So that's it.

Another short post.

Some are long.....

Some are short.....

Some are good.....

And some are no so good.....

(I won't go so far as to admit that they are bad.....)

I am busy sewing my niece Miriam's draperies.

You think you can do it in one day.

or two.

Tops in three.

HA.....

She only has three windows in the living room.

But these are lined and going to be wonderful.

I keep offering to do this stuff.

(why?????)

(oh yeah, I like doing it)

Next I have to do her slip covers.

It's so lucky that I'm retired.

I am once again rambling.

How do I end this?????

on that note....

Latah, Gatah