Cottage Style Preview and Giveaway Reminder

Since I'm helping promote the book, the wonderful people at Better Homes & Gardens have given me permission to do a little preview of the New Cottage Style book.  It's hard to be completely objective, but I've shown it to quite a few people and they all seem to love the book.

Here's my dining room looking better than in real life after being styled by

the amazing Stacy Kunstel and magically captured by Michael Partenio.

My friends reaction was "Wow, it's so clean!"  It's true.  It almost never looks like this.

I particularly enjoyed this modern take on cottage.   I love the mix of the rustic table, the Eames chairs and the modern light fixture, all in neutral tones.

The book also includes some spaces with unexpected dramatic color on walls and in draperies.

This French-inspired cottage has the most stunning lamps and

light fixtures all throughout the house.  

I also love how the framed herbarium almost becomes modern art.

And there's lots of airy spaces with the bright, fresh colors of summertime.

There's a little something for everyone in this book.  I've thumbed through it at least ten times and each time I find something new.  There's both tons of inspiration and/or lots of pretty rooms you could straight up copy.

More than 100 of you have already signed up so, as promised, I'll be giving away FOUR copies of the book.  I'll cut off comments at 8:00 Thursday evening and draw four winners randomly.

BE SURE TO SIGN UP ON THE PREVIOUS GIVEAWAY POST.

Lamps and Lights

On Sunday, I packed up some of the stuff I wanted to get rid of and headed up to Maine to see if any of the antique stores wanted to buy it or take it on consignment.  What a great idea!  I sold everything at the first store and did much better than I would have at a yard sale.

And, of course, I couldn't leave without a few things.  I've been looking for lamps so not only was I immediately attracted to the color of this pair of 1931 Pisgah Pottery jars (above), I think they could make awesome lamps.  I don't know anything about Pisgah Pottery other than it's from North Carolina but a pristine pair seemed really unusual so I couldn't resist.

I stopped by Old House Parts in Kennebunk to look at door knobs and left with this aqua door.  I'm not 100 percent sure what I'm going to do with it but I couldn't pass up that paint color.  It could be a table top or I thought it would be an interesting way to unite a few small pieces of artwork.  You might notice I've made a few changes to the guest room.  A friend is giving me a pair of chairs for the living room so I moved the living chair upstairs which is a nice, softer chair for the bedroom.

I also came home with this (perhaps) chain off some kind of conveyor belt.  I thought this could be used to make a chandelier, only a really butch version.  A mandelier!

I thought if I copied a very traditional form but used the chain as the material for a ring from which crystals hung, it could make a really interesting twist on a traditional light fixture.  

To get some ideas, I thought I would head out to the country for some inspiration to a place where local designer Katie Rosenfeld says all your lighting dreams can come true.  I packed up my car for the journey...a few bags of trail mix just in case I got lost and headed out to:

The Yankee Craftsman

357 Commonwealth Avenue

Wayland, Massachusetts 

Here, way out in the boonies, is the most charming red farmhouse with an old-fashioned workshop in the back.  Burly dudes in place at their anvils, hammering, creating and restoring the most beautiful selection of antique light fixtures I've ever seen in one place. 

If ever there was place that could make a mandelier, it's this place.

Out back in the barn, ponies whinney, and two large floors are packed with chandeliers, pendants, sconces, lamps, glass shades and hardware.  

It's hard to get the scale but these two fixture above were probably six feet tall.

This little gothic pendant caught my attention.  I've always been attracted to church lights, crosses, religious statues for some reason.  (Nun in another life?)  But I also have a similar fixture I bought a few years ago in Maine and just never knew where to put it.  This fixture was $1799!

I couldn't wait to get home and dig mine out.  I like mine better.

Glad it didn't make it to the donate bin!

Upstairs in the barn is...just...amazing.

Your presence is detected and...

...hello!  Everything lights up at once.

So beautiful.

These fixtures are handmade at Yankee Craftsman.  I think these would be perfect

flanking the doors on my back porch when those get rebuilt.  And the prices are reasonable.

I really loved this collection of bowl pendants.  I'd love to have a huge dining room that could accommodate maybe five of them hung at different heights.  I'm sure they're quite heavy but they just give off this buoyant feeling.  Like hot air ballons floating in space.

I have some ideas for my mandelier but I need to do some drawings and look for some more parts.  But I'll definitely be back here to have them execute my vision.

Wallpaper in your Closets

After moving in to my house I decided I wanted to use wallpaper to create the perfect mood in my guest room.  During my search, I came across several fantastic prints that I wished I could use "somewhere."  It was at that point I decided I might wallpaper the inside of every closet with a different pattern and then paint the floor in the closet to match.  What a pleasant surprise (or shock) it might be to a guest--or as someone commented, "a snooper"--who opens the closet to find a flowery, or bright or whimsical print inside.

  

Having wallpaper in your closets is like having a suit jacket that's lined with a loud or bright pattern.  No one can see your bright blue paisley lining but YOU know it's there and it puts a little spring in your step.  Makes you feel a little sassy, right?

So after the archeological dig through my closet wallpaper, I thought it would fun to match up some vintage wallpaper prints with some current rooms and see how the two paired.  Below are the results of my matchmaking.  These are mostly Ralph Lauren rooms and the wallpaper is 1940s and 1950s.  (Try to ignore the quarters in the wallpaper images.  They're there to show the scale of the wallpaper)

I think this is a perfect new pattern to add to the room.

I felt like this room needed something bold but feminine to center its masculine chi.

Three cheers for the red, white and blue.

Here I took inspiration from the linear coffee table and the botanical pressings.

Using the gold frames as color inspiration...

A combination inspired by the Chinese jar and the pink flowers.

A little hokey but fun.

This was a tough one.  The plaid is quintessential RL but the pattern in the maroon stripe echoes the zebra ottoman.

I love this combination.  I think I would wallpaper this whole room with this wallpaper.

Look how nicely this one goes with the aubusson carpet.

For the girly girl's closet.

I want that bed.

Just in case your potting shed has a closet...

And last but not least...

Isn't this one just perfect?  I LOVE this wallpaper!

But in case you prefer something a little more feminine,

here are two different options.

I had a lot of fun putting these together and I hope I've inspired you to replace a few skeletons in your closets with some exciting wallpaper.

Wallpaper Sources:  Hannah's Treasures, Rosie's Vintage Wallpapers and Second Hand Rose.