Big Beautiful Antique Prints

Since Connie's bedroom was LARGE,

and her ceilings were HIGH....

the artwork had to be scaled accordingly.

To give you a better idea of how large the framed prints in the picture above are.....

look at my drawing below.

That stick figure to the right is me, I always draw myself into a picture for scale, 'cuz I knows how highs I is.

5'-6"

(I've lost a little weight in the picture below....)

Below is a shot of the room before we started hanging any stuff on the walls.

Connie and I found these beautiful antique hand tinted prints in a local antique store.

The frames are antiqued mirror, adding some more sparkle to the room.

We girls do like our bits of glitz and glam!

The awkward wall was behind the TV.

I didn't want artwork stuck behind it, as it would be hidden.

What to do.....

what to do.....

Sooooo....

I hung one picture over the set, using the black hole of the TV to fill in the bottom. 

But the corner still looked bare, and unfinished.

So I said to Connie.....

"Connie!!!!! Lets do here, what I did in my very own bedroom!!!!!

(below is a picture of my very own bedroom!!!!!)

Let's stick a tall vase in the corner with flowers that bush out and fill in the gap!!!!

So, I hit eBay with a vengeance.....surfing the web as the two of us lounged around her bedroom in her lounging chairs!!!

And I found this beautiful sterling silver trumpet vase.

(My vase is just plate.)

(Connie is fancier than me.) 

So now the walls on both sides of the door looked balanced.

The scale of these prints is one of the reasons I wanted to go so large on the dressing table mirror.

I felt it needed to have more visual weight than the prints, as I was creating a delineated "area" in the room. 

THIS IS WHERE YOU SIT TO GET PRETTY!!!!!

Just in case I was being too subtle.

On that note,

Latah, Gatah

(I be back in Massachusetts)

Every Woman Needs a Pretty Vanity in Her Bedroom!!!!!!!

                     I know it's been ages since I wrote, but I am a very important person,

 and I have other things to do.......

Like reading 

watching TV

eating.

You know, the essential activities of a wonderful and talented and fabulous designer.

I met with Josh, my partner in crime.....

and we have gone over my fabric patterns, 

choosing ones that relate to each other, 

as he wants it to look like a collection rather than a bunch of random sh&t thrown together.

Since my look has always been a bunch of random sh&t thrown together, 

this was a new experience for me!!!!!

anyway.....

Today I am going to grace you guys with another pithy post.

or....

PP

as I like to call them.

Which is better than sh&t.

(in my opinion)

(which is the only one that matters, as this is my blog, and I am the queen in this universe.)

(so there.)

Let's continue with Connie's bedroom.

To the left of this vignette, we (Connie) had placed a mirrored table that I had originally thought  could work as her desk.

She didn't like it where it went on the floorplan, so she stuck it in the corner, thinking she may not use it at all.

It is mirrored and small scale, as I needed something narrow along the wall parallel to her bed.

I chose this from a picture in a catelog.

 Well, my philosophy in life is.....

if something looks skimpy,

JUST THROW MORE SH&T AROUND IT!!!!!

I told her I wanted to make a dressing table out of it by hanging a mirror over it.

Connie trusted me.

You'd think she'd have learned by now, but she does.

Soooooo.

I looked on the Restoration Hardware website and fond this mirror.

 

It's their 18th C. Venetian Glass Beveled Mirror.

I thought it was just the ticket.

It was 

very large!!!!!

Sooooo.

We placed the table against the wall where I wanted it to go and I had Connie find me some blue painters tape, and I taped the size of the mirror over the table.

IT LOOKED LIKE IT WOULD WORK!!!

So she ordered it, and here are the pictures.

It's actually a little wider than the table, but by the time I had added the accessories, it looked just hokey dorrie.

We need to find the appropriate accessories, but that will be for next year, or today, as we are going junking antiquing.

I love the circle details of this mirror, and it genuinely looks old.

 As you can so, it needed to be a narrow table, as it was the by the main access to the room.

It looks pretty from the doorway.

We have been adding mirrored and silver accents to the room, I want it all creamy and silvery and glittery.

I found these two clear perfume bottles on eBay.

Added a mercury glass vase with some daisies.....

The chair we had been using was from the living room.

I wanted a smaller scale so it was less apt to block entering the room.

We found a pair on 1st Dibs.

It can tuck right under the table.

It's what I call a ballroom chair.

Connie and I are looking for an old piece of something beat up to place in the corner where this table had been.

I have been looking for a small etagere that can be used to hold her mercury glass collection.

Some more silver sparkle!!!!!

I found an old beat up faux bamboo metal one that we will spray paint white.

It has glass shelves and is the right size for the space.

When I say 

"We will spray paint white."

I mean that the great guy that she has to help do handy stuff around her house will spray paint it white.

Or he will have someone else spray paint it white.

Or before I know it.....

next year, I will be painting it white.

WHAT I DO KNOW IS.....

CONNIE WON'T BE SPRAY PAINTIN' NOTHIN'!!!!!

On that note,

Later Gater

More on Connie's Bedroom.....

Before I get to today's post.....

let me just say.....

I AM SO SICK OF WHITE IN DECORATING I COULD JUST PUKE!!!!!

Wait.....

Let me clarify.....

I have done a white living room and sunroom for Connie.

Maybe that's why I'm over white.

Been there, 

Done that.

I have white slipcovers in my own living room.

THEY WILL BE CHANGED WHEN MY FABRIC LINE COMES OUT.

I need to figure out a pattern to work in that room.

NO PRESSURE.....

OY, I've just told the world.

WHAT IF I CAN'T DESIGN SOMETHING THAT LOOKS GOOD?????

Well.

now I have to.

Connie's white living room is lovely

(if I do say so myself).

She wanted serine, she wanted peaceful, she wanted white.

So that's what she got.

And it works.

BUT I AM DONE WITH WHITE.

Give me your huddled masses yearning for color.

That's where my heart is.

I should write a book on color......

wait, I ALREADY DID!!!!! look to the right, look to the right, look to the right....

OK, I'm just being goofy, but I gots some caffeine coursing through my veins and I am flying right now.....

anyway.....

on to today's post.

Let us return to Connie's bedroom.

At the foot of the bed are a pair of big comfy club chairs.

Connie and I have spent hours in those chairs, combing through our iPads, looking for things on eBay and First Dibs.

This is a shot of the room in transition.

The mirrored table moved.

The white table was temporary, 

and nothing was on the walls.

To decorate the room, we started with the colors in the rug.

It came with the house, and Connie loved the colors so that's what we worked with.

It's a woven loop pile called a Wilton.

According to Bloomsburg Carpets

1. Wilton carpets are pile carpets whereby the pile is formed by inserting wires in the pile warps of the carpet. After extraction of the wires the pile is looped (in case straight wires have been used) or cut (in case cutting wires are used).

The Wilton Weave construction is the most versatile & unique weave structure.

Wilton carpets are capable of 'all cut', 'all loop' or a combination of the two textures.

Because the yarn is buried on the back and only lifted when a specific color is needed, it gives the wilton product more body, resilience, and great quality.

So,

now you know as much as I do about Wilton carpets.

We lucked out and found fabrics that matched the rug perfectly.

Can you believe it?????

How great is that!!!!!

The solid green linen is what we used to outline the draperies.

I still need to get new pillows for the chairs.

The ones that are being used now are from Connie's old bedroom color scheme.

(I just saw that we need to steam the skirts on the chairs.....)

This was her old bedroom.

I designed and made the needlepoint. 

no

I won't make one for you, so don't ask.

The view out Connie's old bedroom was of the ocean.

I love the new view even more.

I find that looking out at lush green pretty things makes me feel all happy inside.

Soooooo.....

The saying 

"A Happy Wife is a Happy Life"

should be changed to.....

"A Happy Decorator is a Happy Connie"

'cuz her new house makes me feel all happy inside,

even if she does have a white living room.

On that note,

Later, Gator

A Touch of Glam for my Friend Connie

OK KLASS.....

Let's continue looking at the miracles I wrought in Connie's bedroom.

(I am so modest.....)

Connie's biggest goal in her new home is to create a feeling of peace and calm.

Her bedroom is all white and cream and soft bluey green.

We went for a Hollywood Glam feel because I am a star Connie is a star.

We chose an upholstered bed covered in a soft cream linen that has nickle nail head trim.

The soft white of the bed against the painted green walls is lovely.

We needed to find new lamps, as the ones in the picture below are from her old bedroom.

We wanted more "glammy" lamps.

Flanking the bed are two contemporary night stands in white lacquer.

They could fit right into a 1940's movie set.

To find a pair of lamps, 

Connie and I went to a very high end retailer that is renowned for its classy offerings.

HOME GOODS.....

We found ONE lamp.

We needed TWO.

Soooooo

the nice lady at the checkout line called around to neighboring stores and found another to match the one we had snagged.

Connie went racing up the state of Flerida to buy the second one and still get back home in time to go out for dinner.

The scheduling down heah in Flerida is very tight, 

what between shopping and going out to lunch and dinner.

It's exhausting.

The lamp is made of solid crystal pieces stacked up in a column on a nickel base.

They are beautiful.

Unfortunately, they are clear, and don't show up well in the photographs.

As we all know.....

it's not about how things look in real life.....

but about how they look in the pictures!!!!!

However, 

Connie doesn't care about the pictures, she loves the lamps and won't exchange them.

The bed has some really pretty detailing.

The nickle nail heads set the tone that made me want to use lots of mirror and glass.

As I showed you in my last post, 

I brought this detail up onto the valances of the draperies.

Some of you had voiced concern when I mentioned that we would be going for a more modern look.

Have no fear, my rooms always end up having tons of old stuff.

(No, that's not in reference to Connie and Chris.....)

I got up and started writing this before I even made my morning cuppa tea,

So I will end here and go bang around in my kitchen.

Have a good day....

Later Gator

Connie's New Bedroom!!!!

OK you guys.....

I am sitting at my computer and ready to write my next post.

So pour yourself a cuppa joe

 (or tea) (or glass of wine)

 and sit down for a good (in my opinion) read.

Last year in the early spring, I had started writing about helping my buddy Connie with her new Flerida home.

If you want to catch up on those posts.....

click here

and here

and here

and here

and here

and here

and here

OK, now that your memory is all refreshed.....

which room should I start with?????

Let's go with the Master Bedroom.

When we first saw this room, it looked like this with the previous owners furniture and window treatments.

They had installed screens and blackout shades that rolled down with the use of a remote control.

They are VERY convenient, but the big boxes over the windows and door were eyesores.

Some of you had suggested a solution that I had already thought up, so when you see how I treated this problem.....

I THOUGHT IT UP ALL BY MYSELF.

You just happen to be as brilliant as I am.

I tend to think with a pencil and paper.

So I got the dimensions from one of Connie's helpers,

 (since I was back up in Massachusetts)

and I drew up a design for my workroom in Florida to follow.

If you're wondering what that squiggly stick figure is to the right, in the drawings.....

THAT'S MEEEEEE!!!!!

I always draw myself into my elevations, so I get a sense of scale.

As you can see, I've lost some weight. 

Since I wasn't in Florida, 

there was some confusion about the draperies.

I mean.....

I only drew a picture and wrote out in mind numbingly picky detail how they should be made.

But this is Florida, 

so's you gots to roll with the punches.

HOWEVER.....

the workroom made everything right in the end, and that's all that matters.

I originally wanted the buttons to be nickel, to match the nailhead trim on the bed, but the workroom didn't think that they could find any.

So,

I changed the buttons to be a contrast fabric, like the cuff on the edge of the valance, 

and then....

LOW AND BEHOLD.....

they showed up as nickle.

I wanted a scalloped edge on the tiebacks.

And a contrast lower edge.

And a mophead welting cord on the top edge.

Two outa three ain't bad in Flerida.

For those of you confused out there in blogland.....

a mophead cord is a thin welting cord, 

like you would see in a mophead.

(I wonder why they call it mophead cord??????)

 I felt the best way to handle the bay window was unifying it with a large valance outside the bay.

This was the way the previous owners had done it, and I approve!!!!

Sooooo....

lets's do a comparison of the way it was before Connie bought the house, 

and the way it is now.

That wooden box holding the mechanics of the roll down shade and screen is completely hidden.

YOU'D NEVER KNOW IT WAS THERE!!!!!!

However, 

the roll down screen is really wonderful.

Check it out, here it is down.

You have to be careful not to walk through it, because it is almost invisible, so Connie puts an ottoman in front of it as a reminder.

She is sooooo smaht!!!!!

I'm in Florida right now, sooooo

on that note,

Later, Gator