Guest Room: soft and subtle

Just off the kitchen and nestled in a nice corner of our home near the beach, is this pretty and shaded guest room

My inspiration for this room again came from the fabric choices.  I started with this older pattern from Ralph Lauren that has a coordinating stripe.  The colors are soft yellows, a touch of mint green and orange

I used the stripe on the horizontal for this simple headboard.  The monogrammed sheet is a vintage find from my friend and "textile queen" Wendy Lewis at Textile trunk.  I had my upholsterer drape the sheet over the headboard and secure the sides with ties.  The sheet and ties are actually secured to the back and only look draped.  We used up all different parts of the sheet for this project...no fabric was wasted!

Lots of pillows:  more vintage linen feed sack fabric and sweater weave

On either side of the bed are very small spool tables from Mitchell Gold.  The lamps are a dark brown wicker and I used the Ralph Lauren floral on the lamps shades as well.  An interesting note about fabric lampshades is that they diffuse light differently than traditional lampshade fabric.  Its alot more soft and warm feeling.

The Audrey Pendant is a wonderful ceiling fixture and the shade is a plain white linen.  Lots of vintage baskets and a teal chinoise screen pull the colors together.

The Ralph Lauren stripe was also used in the bedskirt and the corners pleated with left over linen from the vintage sheet used for the headboard

The bed linens are from L'erbe in silk and are really soft and scruptious.

The curtains came from Smith and Noble, which most everyone is familiar with.  I had the pin-tuck stripe sewn on the horizontal for some added interest and the rod is a big 3" inch chunky wood, stained dark to match the lamps.  The curtain rings are bamboo.

Opposite the bed is a really large cabinet.  I should probably put a TV in here but I'm not too crazy about too much technology in the bedroom  The cabinet is full of books and a fun collection of white matte glazed vintage pottery.  Nothing very expensive but when grouped together it makes a nice collection.

The wall covering is from Phillip Jeffries and is a natural grass cloth.  A great idea is to use wall paper on the back of a cabinet so it disappears into the wall.  That is what I have done here and you can always  peel it  off when you move the piece to a new location

Vintage seaside photos over the bed add a nice finish

All of my guests seem to really like this room because it is very calm and the light is really soft and cozy.

Just waiting for my next visitor!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to click on the photos if you want to see them full screen.

Have a great day

kelley

Master Bedroom Fabric Choices: Botanical Inspiration

I really enjoy using fabric both new and vintage in different ways and I strive not to be to "matchy-matchy" but not too busy either.

I have collected a pretty large number of hand tinted botanical prints and I used the colors in the florals as a starting point in choosing the fabric for this master retreat.

The chairs were purchased first.  They are from Quatrine and are a modern wing chair with a flanged welt.  The fabric in both the subtle neutral stripe and the tiny green paisley is  100% linen.  All of Quatrine's furniture is slipcovered and pre-washed and is very well made.  It's not real frilly or stuffy furniture so it goes with many different styles of interiors.

It compliments nicely with the vintage ticking pillows with a black woven stripe

Here is a shot of the four poster bed from Ralph Lauren.   The lamps are from Circa Lighting, I think they were called SoHo.  The shades that came with the lamps were paper but the lamps themselves are really great.  The bases also light up!  The side tables are reproduction chinoiserie in a soft yellow with green and orange detailing.

Here is what the lamps are like now with there new shades in the same small paisley from Quatrine.  I had the edges trimmed in a soft green grosgrain ribbon.

Adjacent to the bedroom is a lovely sitting area where I placed the wing chairs.  This is an octagonal space so I thought it would be fun to do grass cloth wall covering (Phillip Jeffries) in just this area of the space to set it apart from the rest of the bedroom.  It also has a nice little fire place with a natural grey limestone surround.

A little wet bar with a fridge (behind door) is a nice addition to any master.

Just off the bedroom is a small balcony with just enough room to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee.  It's usually really warm and sunny in that spot and my dog Millie likes it more than any one!

The pillows are done in more vintage fabric and rag rugs.  The bed linens are heavy Belgian linen from Liebeco and the woven window shades are from Conrad.

A nice space and not overly "matchy"& I think the botanicals were a great place to start!

 It hard to compete with the sunshine and a beautiful blue sky here today so I think I will head outside for the rest of the afternoon.  Have a wonderful and happy weekend.

best~*~kelley

Jug in a crate: lamps to love

I have a serious love of light fixtures.  Pretty weird....but I really find them such a great part of the design of a homes interior.  Ambient lighting is much more gentle and easy to live with that harsh lighting from the ceiling.  I found these great vintage demijohn bottles in old crates and thought they would make great lamps.

You can buy a similar item right now at Napa Style.  These look amazing and are taller and more narrow than the two that I found.  My bottles were around $150 each but you could probably find them for less.

I cut the tops of the crates down so the lamps look less top heavy and lightly sanded and stained the wood.

I had the bottles wired though the bottom and secured with a large washer to prevent the jugs from moving around.  A local lighting store does custom work and these cost around $80 dollars each to rewire.

The shades are a very modern white linen with no trim and clean lines.

I've used these in a hallway near the dining room table on a large red chinoise chest.

A very interesting mix of styles but I think they look really interesting and were fun to do.  More light fixture posts to follow.....next:  feed sack lampshades!

Have a great weekend

kelley

Kitchen design flaws: simple solutions

I have been working on this little facelift project in my kitchen. It started with a new Bertazzonni Range, which I really love by the way.  I would highly recommend it if you are considering a new freestanding oven. The light fixtures were a little dated as well and I wanted something really big and striking.  These are 16" wide at the base and put out alot of light.

The old center island had a raised wood counter which cut the center work surface in half and looked really funny.  We opted to use black Absoulte granite for the new island.  It would have been a major expense to pull out all of the stone so we left most of it as is.   The knobs were all  swapped out with bin pulls.

Out with the old....

The new center island went from bar height to counter height so I purchased these great stools from Restoration Hardware in weathered oak.

The new lights are Visual Comfort and can be found at Circa Lighting.  They are really oversized and are suspended by black electrical wire.

The faucet set was replaced with this great little industrial gadget.

A large portion of the cabinets are open and the walls are tiled in 3x6 subway tile.

I needed a little more cabinet storage so I found this great reworked cabinet made from old barn wood and trolly car doors!

Great old hardware too.

I stole the cutting board storage idea from Ina Garten's kitchen.  It is a really handy way to store big bulky  bread boards.

The vintage "Locksmiths" sign over the window is fun and  bold and ties the colors together.

Here is the before shot, not really that bad but a few design flaws that were easily reworked.  One final idea behind the doors....

A little dumbwaiter that stops on the second floor just off the Master bedroom and then finally up to the roof top deck!  Great for delivering laundry and dinner too.

Not a big project but it made such a nice improvement to the kitchen and fresh way to start off the New Year

best to all~*~kelley