Tuesday, December 20, 2011

More of a Plaid Christmas (or how I nearly lost my mind)

Wow, I must admit I'm amazed and happy, that some of you guys still like the stuff I did EONS ago. If that is truly the case, then I will share a little more about what went in to June and me working on this house.

Let me start with the hall...................
It's only because we were (O.K..... still are) such good friends that we didn't come to blows hanging all the @#$& pictures on the walls.

 Let me just note at this juncture, that we hung them as part of our service with no extra charge. These kind of perks were part of what was covered in the mark up of all the crap, (oops, I mean high end items) we sold. Jim, our enterprising client, had a book of prints of Scottish men in kilts. Sooooo.....he went off on his merry way and had them framed and then delivered them into my lap and said "HANG THESE SUCKERS UP!!!!!" Actually, he didn't call them suckers, that's just my  own little embellishment to this story. IT TOOK US TWO DAYS!!!!!!!!! I think..... it was a long time ago, it may have just been one..... but I think it was two. LOOK AT HOW MANY THERE ARE!!!!!!!!!!!

And this is just the upstairs hall!!!!!! They had to ALL LINE UP!!!!!!! Vertically, horizontally, emotionally....
He had them matted in three different colors, the man was on a role, I tell ya. So we had to make sure that gold wasn't next to gold, and red wasn't next to red, and green.....you get where I'm goin'???

Here's the downstairs (I shared this with you just two days ago)





























You were probably so busy imagining having to vacuum up the needles from the knocked over tree (TWICE) that you didn't notice all the prints on the wall to the right. AND THEY WENT UP THE STAIRS TOO........
By the time June and I had finished hanging these Scottish men from Hell, we were being really polite to each other. It was either that or start throwing punches. I don't know what her problem was, why couldn't she anticipate my every need??????? When I needed her to hand me the hammer, couldn't she just know?????? I mean, we had been working together SINCE THE STONE AGE!!!!!!!

I used to love tassels, the more the better, I stuck them on everything. Now I temper some of my urges and don't use them so much, but I wanted a little flourish to this chair when I had it redone. I called it "Betsyizing"



Here's a nice little shot for you guys who celebrate Christmas.......



It's an easy way to add some holiday cheer with a simple ivy plant. Buy a cheap little ivy plant that has some long tendrils.......
plop it in a pretty pot or basket.........
jam a stick into the soil of the pot.......
wrap the ivy around the stick and tie it with a pretty Christmas ribbon. VOILA!!!
O.K..... I didn't do this, I think Gary McBournie did, either that or the guy we bought all the Christmas stuff from. He was a florist.



Here's a different shot of this room than the one I showed in my last post!!!!!





























We wanted the look of an olde Scottish library, so not only did I have the walls covered in plaid fabric, but I found a resource for lots of oil paintings that looked like they had been bouncing around for a while. They are actually new!!! (well new now, this was 1994, remember) The guy who sold them had a truck that was outfitted like a gallery storage unit and had the pictures on racks that we got to paw through and pick out what we wanted, haul them into the house, see what looked good and buy them right then.
As for the fabric, there is a wonderful store in Quechee Vermont called Scotland by the Yard (http://www.scotlandbytheyard.com/celtic-products/). Isn't it wonderful how everything has a website now???!!!
I wanted authentic tartan plaids, and boy!!! They gots them all!!!
We did the dining room up to the rafters in holiday stuff!!
Here's a picture!!!!!.....

I stuck more tassels on the back of the host and hostess chairs. I thought I was very clever.
We covered the walls in more old "master" paintings. Some of them were really good. I don't care how old or authentic something is, I just care if it looks good and the person whose home it goes into likes it.

Here's a different shot of the kitchen, we were very excited about the tartan patterned towel!!





























The kitchen floor became one of my trademarks (in my little delusional mind). I take a cleanly sanded floor, add a wood stain of my choice (here it is golden oak), then apply one coat of polyurethane. Then I had it stenciled with a dark green glaze in a diamond pattern. I would draw out the floor to scale to work out the layout of the diamonds. Yes I am a control freak. Then I would have two more coats of poly applied. No, I didn't do the labor myself!!!! I was a high faloutin' designer!!!! (besides, I didn't have the time, 'cuz I was working all the time for my clients!!!)
The other end of the kitchen had a breakfast area, here's a picture!!!!





























I came back later with my own photographer to take this shot and the next one. The photographer is Sam Gray, he does beautiful work.
Look at all the plates over the windows!!!!!
June and I really did get a little testy hanging these babies.
Why can't she tell WHEN I WANT THE #$% HAMMER????
O.K. Last shot is of a close up of the table, and then I'm done. If you look closely you can see how I used my little dogs as napkin rings.
It's beautiful here in FLORIDA and I'm going for a walk.



























Linking to:
April's Linky Party 4/1 - 4th

12 comments:

Amy Chalmers said...

Love this!! I love how it looks, it really is fabulous. I did the same thing to a kitchen floor I had and I must have seen YOU do it in a magazine, and I must have copied the idea. My dad, an engineer, drew out the diamonds so they fit perfectly cuz I couldn't in a million years figure it out, but I wanted it perfect. And so it was!! So fun reading all about this layout from the inside scoop.

Anonymous said...

Yay! I love being after Amy <3 Love the additional photos and the dogs as napkin rings ! Happy 1st day of Hanukkah Betsy.

Mir said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mir said...

June, testy? You guys must have been pretty strung out! Hi June :-)

Anonymous said...

I was so happy to find your blog. I've followed you for years in magazines (probably every magazine shoot you ever had). Am really enjoying your posts!

Jacki
jacki_ste@msn.com

Sarah said...

Great! I love seeing more photos. Thanks for sharing and linking to the Tartan Parade. ~ Sarah

Babs said...

Betsy, This is one of my all time favorite room(s) designs. I still have the pages I ripped from that Traditional Home issue. Thanks so much for sharing this post again, and for the new photo with the dogs as napkin rings. Love that idea!
Babs

Alison @ The Polohouse said...

Dear Betsey!

I am beyond thrilled to hear all the details and the little tips and tricks that you have shared with us.

Your sense of humor cracks me up... loving every hilarious comment! You must be one fun lady to work with. Lots of laughs I can tell.

Thanks so much for sharing the second half of this Christmas tartan-clad home with us!

It is over the moon to me!

Alycia Nichols said...

YOWZA!!!!! I could definitely live with this look!!!!!! I really like the "Betsyizing" on the chair arm and all those pictures of men in kilts is SO cool!!! I understand that it was a total pain in the patoozie to do, but the end result is really wonderful!

Marlis said...

So fun to read all the behind scenes issues.. makes life more real! Your designs are gorgeous.. loving the rooms.. xo marlis

xinex said...

I love this, looks so classic and beautiful....Christine

Susan (Between Naps On The Porch.net) said...

Hey Betsy, If you know anyone at Scotland By The Yard, you may want to shoot them an email and tell them there is something bad wrong with their site. When I clicked on the link in your post, Malwarebytes, a program I have installed on my computer, wouldn't let me visit...said that the site contained harmful malware. Malwarebytes is a very good program a lot of IT folks recommend but I thought it was being overly sensitive. So I went to Google and googled Scotland By The Yard. When I tried to click on it, Google wouldn't let me visit saying the site was infected with malware and such. I clicked on the report that you can read...the report Google will show you about the site and it said that malware has been detected and other bad things on the site several times over the last 30 days, etc... It was a very detailed report of the issues with the site. I wonder if the folks at Scotland By The Yard are aware?
Anyway, just wanted to mention it in case you know someone there and have an email for them.
Love all your posts!

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