Temporary Measures

I've had a spot in my living room that has sorely needed a table for a long, looong time.  Every time we have guests over, it drives me mad not having a better place to sit drinks.

I waited and waited for a charming and affordable antique table, but nothing has appeared.  Then I stopped at a yard sale last week (the sign said Furniture, which sounded promising to me) and found this little butterscotch table:

While I'd prefer a good antique, the little pedestal table is the perfect size and scale and is exactly what I envisioned (minus the pedigree and perfect colour) for this spot. It even has little brass feet.  I think it'll be even more perfect when I paint it off-white...

And I love having another spot to create pretty little vignettes!

Have a happy week and sorry for my spotty blog posts (I've been savouring the cool and sunny summer here and I'm planning a very big event I will share soon).

Miscellany

It seems that many people post night time Christmas tree photos, but it is nearly impossible to re-create the joyful mood inside your soft, glowing room when you have:

(a) finished all your chores for the day and finally sat your weary bones down

(b) a cat on your lap

 (c) a glass of (much needed) wine

(d) lovely music playing in the background 

(e) no intention of digging out the equipment from that nighttime photography course you bought and never used.

Oh well, here is the glowing living room:

Here's the rug whose colours I adore but want to replace with something neutral (and without a border)

I hope you like it.  It is much better in person (there is a lot of chocolate and baked goods around if I need to bribe you).

I forgot to mention that David and I spent last weekend in Banff and had a splendidly good time.

We stayed here:

Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel (photo by me from across the valley)

We rested and ate and walked and even went to the spa (me...a Christmas gift!).  I had a crushing headache all weekend, so it wasn't nearly as much fun as you might think.  My favorite part was the afternoon nap after a cold walk, and watching "Shawshank Redemption" on TV.  Nothing is better than a spontaneous nap and something good on TV and having nothing that needs doing.

I didn't take many photos this time.  I just felt like being there instead of documenting!

But here is one photo I took that I quite like:

This captures the essence of The Rockies:  cold and stunningly beautiful!

Have a wonderful Christmas weekend.  I am enjoying virtually visiting all your beautifully decorated homes. I wish I could visit you in person!

xo Terri

To edit or not to edit

You know when you positively love something, but it doesn't quite work in your home?

I recently found this darling little pillow at  Crate & Barrel (you can find it here).  

But the turquoise is clashing with my area rug (which has more slate blue gray in it).  The rug will eventually be replaced (with a neutral, less patterned one), so this pillow will eventually fit in.  

But my question is...do you redecorate an entire room around something new, or do you just take it back to the store?

(This is a rhetorical question, of course, as I already know the answer).

I am learning that in order to have an edited, clean decor you really have to reject a lot of "pretty" things you might otherwise love and stick with your game plan.  

Still...this is such a little gem!

I don't know how the great designers edit themselves.  It is a battle for me to stick with a coherent, uncluttered look for my home!

The View from Here

So I am stuck indoors today.  

Besides the ongoing headache saga, I have had a bout of labyrinthitis (fluid is not draining in my inner ear) for the past two weeks, which gives me episodes of dizziness and weakness, as well as a sense of fullness/pressure in my head.  On top of the headaches, this is a bit distressing at times.

So I decided to post a couple of photos from inside the house!

Here is a little wool felt (handmade) winter white pillow I bought in Paris.  I think it is quite darling:

It sits on our new reading chair (I don't always use the back cushion).  The mirror in the background is also from Paris:

I love the relationship of the golden mirror with the antique painting frame.



Outside, our front yard is also a study in white:

I am nesting today and almost tempted to put on the Christmas music (but not quite yet!).

Hope your weekend is filled with happiness...

A Green & (Blue &) White Party

The past month has been a flurry of activity.  I took 3 weeks off work with headaches as they have been debilitating lately.  Shortly after that, my dear Mom came for a visit.  I will share photos from our trip to Victoria soon.

After delivering my Mom to the airport for a 6 am flight on Saturday (really), we came home and prepared a birthday bash for David. I thought I would share some photos of our little party.  I had a crushing headache the entire day (sorry to sound like a broken record) but did take pleasure in taking some pretty photos for you after neglecting you for so long...!

I set a simple table, using leftover ribbon lengths to tie my (very old and soft) linen napkins:

The plates are Haviland Concorde:

The silverware is my favorite pattern, Danish Princess:

I brought some hydrangeas in from our garden (sideboard) and dismantled a grocery store bouquet to make two more arrangements, including a low one for the table.

I am going through a green and white phase:

I have been trying small arrangements for the table:

And using my pottery collection as containers:

The salad/dessert plates (a gift from my mother) are also Limoges and are very old.  They are quite fragile.   I love using them for dessert.

The next day, I moved the flowers to the living room, to sit next to the beautiful little blue and white Chinese bowl (*love*) my mother bought me in Victoria.  
The new chair, which arrived last week, sits in the background:  

Nothing beats a party as an excuse to buy some flowers and make your rooms look pretty (even if you are feeling supremely crappy): 

We are off to Paris on Wednesday for 10 days.  I hate flying (I get migraines and nausea..how wonderful!), so I am both dreading and highly excited for our trip.  I am not over-planning this time but have a few goals, like hitting all three flea markets I love (St-Ouen, Vanves and Place d'Aligre) and the Orangerie. 

Mostly we'll go where the wind blows us.

And I am reading restaurant reviews...

More soon.  Blessings, Terri 

A Reader's Room

After my post on the grounding influence of browns in light, airy rooms, a Windlost reader (Maryanne, who posts as Mimi) sent me these photos of her gorgeous living room.  The first photo was taken a year ago, while the second is earlier this month.

In the first photo she notes that her coffee table is topped with glass, whereas in the second, she's replaced the glass with brown barn wood as a topper.  I love the grounding effect on her room!  She also added a pillow with black details to her sofa, which picks up the dark wood perfectly!Besides the coffee table, Maryanne made lots of changes to this gorgeous room and it was fun to study the photos to find them all.  She now has a heavenly, delicate chandelier replacing the light fixture and has placed a gorgeous old-world mirror over her sofa.  I meant to ask her where the mirror is from, but forgot.  She also switched her candle sconces to a pretty old-fashioned pair.

I love all the touches in this room, including her unique lamps flanking the sofa (the same in each photo).  The coffee table is too-die-for!  I also adore her regal tufted sofa and the beautiful French bergere (armchair) you can see in the second photo.  I was surprised to learn that it came from Ethan Allen!

I also like the little flying cherub that sits to the left of the sofa in the first photo.  You can see him reflected in the mirror of the second photo - he now sits atop a table near the front entrance, greeting guests.

I admire Maryanne's living room because it's light and airy but has a balancing mix of dark elements.  And although there are many feminine, romantic lines, there are also some grounding masculine touches, like the dark barn wood topper, her darker end tables, and the square lines of the mirror.  I think she has found the perfect balance.  She also has beautiful things, so it's hard not to love them all!

Hope you've enjoyed your visit to Maryanne's home.  I know I have!  And I've asked her to send me more photos... 

And then came Windsor Smith

I’m always falling in love. No, not in real life (sadly) but in my magazine world! Every few months, I discover a new interior designer to love. My designer crushes make me swoon, but can be rather cruel too. It’s hard to find good gossip and you can’t always find examples of their work. Hey, a girl needs information (and photos!) to sustain a decent crush.

Like everyone, I’ve fallen for the big names. They’re easier to love, with more available photos of their work and more published information (like, say, an interview!), and if you’re lucky, your darling has published a book or two.


Over the past year or so, I’ve been smitten by Mariette Himes-Gomez and Victoria Hagan. And then I went a little wild and had a huge Vicente Wolf crush. Then, the dreamy (design-wise) Michael S. Smith smote me and I’ve been in love ever since. I often daydream of photos from his “Elements of Style” and wish I could plaster my body with them. Okay, now I digress…


I have mini-crushes too, like when I fell for Schuyler Samperton and stalked her worldly style on the internet for days.

Most recently I’ve fallen for (Her Royal Coolness) Windsor Smith. I was flipping through a neglected issue of Domino from last summer and WHAMMO, there she was in all her Windsor-ness, showing off her classy, cool California home. I didn't fall for any particular photo - just her groovy personal style, her classic and classy but approachable interiors, and her lovely colour sense. I am smitten!

I find it hard to describe styles to other people, but to me, her work is sophisticated and refined, but also quiet and soothing and liveable. She loves chinoiserie and classic details. And she chooses the prettiest, most perfect colours imaginable. She effectively deploys an arsenal of pale, watery blue-greens and pinks, soft creams and whites, and dusty old muted blues and purples and greys. Plus, I love her unexpected punches of warm colours, like this golden-yellow to keep you on your toes! Pure heaven to my eyes!

The following photos (some rooms are the same as above!) are from Windsor Smith's own L.A. home, as photographed by Miguel Flores-Vianna for Domino, August 2007 (endless thank you's to Style Court)

And to keep you drooling, this glorious sofa (Chloe) is from Smith's own collection:

Isn't she lovely?

Neutral It Is!

Inspiration rooms on my way to finding a "perfect" neutral wall colour:

After months of serious deliberation, I’ve finally decided on a paint colour for our main floor. And I better be sure because we have painters arriving on Monday! It might seem like I'm playing it safe because I've chosen a milky beige called Soft Chamois OC-13 from Benjamin Moore. But it was an all-consuming internal debate and the choice was anything but obvious!

I've been on the fence about a colour for our main floor. We live in a 35-year old four-level split where the main floor living and dining rooms are one continuous space, together with the kitchen (which is all cupboards and has almost no wall space). Because of the layout, the front foyer and two stairwells (to the upstairs bedrooms and downstairs rooms) would look best painted the same colour (instead of having an ugly and obvious colour change on a corner). The upstairs and downstairs hallways would ideally be the same colour too!

In other words, I needed to find The Perfect Colour. In the beginning, I was insanely smitten with a heavenly stormy blue from Farrow & Ball called Skylight. This is a next-to-perfect blue in my opinion, but blue just won’t cut it.

First of all, it’s a huge space to paint blue and I'm afraid I’ll tire of it. I love blue, but do I want a whole blue house, considering that my office is already blue, we have a blue-grey powder room and various green rooms already?

*

And our living room furniture is sage green, so the blue wasn't an obvious complement. The dining room rug is rose (which looks gorgeous with blue!), and our living room rug is a multi-colored blend of cream and sage and rose and blue (which looked good too). But as much as I coaxed myself to think it might work, the reality was that blue walls introduce yet another pure colour to an already cacophonous mix of shades. Besides, our dining room chairs have blue and pink stripes, the kitchen counters are olive green, a downstairs floor is brown, and the kitchen valance is burgundy! I want tranquility, not chaos!

So I started to think about green. I really wanted a “colour” on the walls, if you know what I mean, since I love the way white lampshades and table linens and white accessories look against a coloured wall. Plus, I love white things. The walls are currently a chartreuse (yellowish) green that isn't so bad, but each alternative green I considered seemed wrong. Pale sages work the best, and look lovely, but the fact is, I'm no longer crazy about my sage green furniture, and the room is sage overload with both furniture and walls in the same colour!

So I settled on a neutral palette. It feels like a cop-out going neutral, especially since it felt that with all my decorating knowledge acquired over the past year, I should be able to pull off a complex palette. But the truth is, I want a calm and collected palette. And a pale, creamy colour seems like the only choice to pull the disparate elements together.

In the past weeks, I’ve painted endless sheets of Bristol board with various Farrow & Ball and Benjamin Moore shades. I've taped these samples to the walls, moved them countless times as the light changed, and stared at them each for hours on end, trying to find the colour equivalent to *Mr.Right*. In fact, I think finding a man is much, much easier than choosing paint colours!

Since greys are all the rage, I looked at a number of grey and greige shades, but they all seemed rather cold to me, even in my south-facing room. So I kept coming back to the warm pale beiges, especially in the evenings when the light fades and the greys become rather dismal and chilly.

*

My final choices came down to (1) Farrow & Ball’s Slipper Satin, a creamy pale beige that seems to glow (2) Benjamin Moore’s White Down CC-50 (an antique white/ivory which I have in my bedroom and adore), (3) Benjamin Moore’s Seapearl OC-19 (a grey-toned oyster beige, pale), and (4) Benjamin Moore’s Soft Chamois OC-13 (a pale milky beige with warm-tones).

Then yesterday, I decided (or so I thought). I chose the Farrow & Ball Slipper Satin and excitedly checked with my painting contractor to see if he minded using it. He was amenable to the idea, so I phoned our (only) local F&B supplier to see if they had enough product on hand. To my dismay, they only had 2 gallons in store ($69.50 per gallon, FYI) and I’d have to wait a couple of weeks until the next shipment arrived!!

*

Since I’m going on vacation in 3 weeks, already have painters booked, and find myself utterly fed up with paint chips, I decided to switch to Benjamin Moore's Soft Chamois just to get this over with! Soft Chamois OC-13 is a nice, soft, quiet beige that I can best describe as “milky beige”. It will look lovely with the sage furniture, the olive countertops, and our dark wood furniture. It'll work especially well with both rugs, which was my main concern since they add the most colour to the rooms.

*

Just for information, I noticed that the actual Soft Chamois paint (from the sample pot) seems darker on the wall than on the paint chip, whereas the White Down I used in my bedroom is much whiter on the wall than on the chip (where it's rather beigey). So I really hope the colour works out once it's on all the walls because these sample chips seem so unreliable with darker colours looking lighter on the chip and vice versa!

*
I feel like the consummate bore doing a beige room - but being unable to start from scratch and having to tie everything together – gave me little choice in the end. Eventually we want to replace the furniture with something more elegant and lighter coloured (like the sofa below) and then I can consider changing to my coveted blue walls! But until then, this is my transition colour to make sense of all the bits we’ve already got.

This summer I intend to replace the drapes in the living and dining rooms (I have some favorite sample fabrics, in linen) and eventually I'll replace my student-days coffee table with something more elegant. I have a cool grey leather armchair that needs re-upholstering and another I want to slipcover, but those are eventually. For now, getting these walls painted thrills me!

Once the painting is done next week, I'll post some before and after photos to show the progress...

More inspirational neutral rooms:

All Photos House to Home

~ The Pretty Room ~

Nothing beats a pretty room to make my heart skip a beat and feel suddenly at home.

There are all sorts of "pretty" rooms, from simple to sophisticated, but by my definition they all have tranquil pastel palettes that soothe the eye and the soul! Soft pinks and blues and lavender, complemented with lots of white, can't help but make a room look oh-so-pretty.

Curvy furniture in feminine colours looks pretty and nurturing, and lots of softly-textured pillows in magical fabrics are inviting and enveloping. Small elements like a bouquet of flowers, a "curlicue" sconce, a delicate lamp, or a canvas of floral wallpaper are often the only flourishes needed to soften and make a simple room go from plain to pretty.

The photos shown are some pretty rooms I've found in the last few months and saved to a "Pretty" folder for a rainy day. I wanted to post more photos, but just didn't have time to go back and dig out even more images from all the country magazines I love (that are often the cat's pyjamas of romantic pretty!).

All the rooms shown have elements I find pretty, some more subtle than others. They share soft colours, feminine motifs, pretty (sometimes country or elegantly curvy) furniture, bouquets of lovely flowers, and a certain feminine je ne sais quoi. They all make me want to redecorate for spring!

What do you find especially pretty? A certain colour? A certain flower? A particular style of furniture? A romantic pattern?

Sometimes I think I want a genteel, slightly worldly and academic house, but then I see these exquisite, relaxed, pretty rooms and I just want to forget sound and sensible and go wild with curvy, romantic, pastel loveliness!

Luckily that look can be mimicked in many rooms by bringing in some flowers, adding some pretty pillows or bringing in a few candles and a new pastel accessory or two for spring. We just bought a celedon green glass vase for our living room, at an art sale, and it's eye-catchingly pretty for spring! Happy Dreaming!
All photos Domino, except for mint green bedroom (10th photo) and elegant lavender living room (2nd photo) from Traditional Home. First photo is from Country Home.