More Bedrooms and More Peach!

 I'm still looking at bedrooms!  Above is a favorite because of the wonderful mirrour headboard!  Horchow has a mirrored headboard that I would love to have, but I am loathe to pay over $3,000.00 for it! This mirrour is perfect because of its curve and its spotty antique look. My bedroom curtains should arrive this week and I'm hoping that they are a perfect fit! Below, I love coronas!

Yummy colour! I don't think I'll ever stop loving peach and coral.

Below, this looks very much like our 2nd floor stairway with the exception of the carpeting on the stairs; I've also done a picture gallery although I don't have as many pictures hung there as this. I have "picture galleries" all over my house.

I love this peach colour.

I think this is an extremely interesting curtain treatment and would work for our living room since we have the same bay window - completely rectangular - only larger. I hadn't considered having the curtains come around to the actual wall.  I have side windows, and I don't like that these are covered.

   These balloon shades will go on the stair windows on three floors. They are very simple and will be about this colour, too. These two pictures come from a decorating blog I found called Decorica.  The last post was in November, but I hope she continues the blog!  Check it out!

Home Decor: Noticing a Theme

I'm having a wonderful, albeit at times frustrating, experience decorating our new townhouse.  At my age, one knows what one likes, but unfortunately, I also carry a lot of baggage from years ago, and have to make sure that my interiors don't look too dated.  I am certainly not a slave to trends and deplore  following the latest new fad as though it's the Second Coming! However, it is good for me to remember which century I live in and make sure that small details, as long as I find them attractive or functional, keep my interiors from looking stuck in some time warp.
Having loved French and English furniture for so long and adoring the English country look, one lesson, especially since we are also downsizing is to reduce clutter: Less is More.
I love the serenity of the bedroom below - and two tones, with one of them being an off-white suits my design sensibility perfectly! New touch I should consider: adding a padded headboard - and this one is my all-time favorite!  What is already in my bedroom: similar curtains and rods with clip rings, mirrors chandelier, soft off white slipper chair to the side of the bed, different bedside tables, offwhite spread and the same bedskirt.  I am also thinking of adding a half-canopy.  I do like the one here although I'm very fond of those that curve.

Below, yes to the chandelier; it's smashing!  The curtains are to die for! Wonderful tailored spread and bedskirt.  Love the ornate mirror and the moldings in the room. I believe this bedroom from 1962 is an all-time favorite of mine.  Mirror, half-canopy, padded headboard, French furniture, lovely soft colours, two-colour scheme. Of course, it's Jackie Kennedy's bedroom in the White House.

This New Orleans bedroom is simplicity itself. I love ballon shades!

Very luxe!

Below, the ceiling treatment is wonderful! I do love colour, and this is magnificent!

This all-white bedroom gets its colour from the outside world. Nothing competes with the view.

 

This living room is so elegant  with its high ceilings, and drapes and wall colour the same muted colour that seems to glow. I love monochromatic colour schemes; the window treatment is perfect for this tall room with its smaller, slipcovered furniture.Although the wallpaper has a pattern, it blends perfectly in colour and works perfectly here.

More on Bedrooms

I am finally back from Africa where I had a wonderful time visiting my family. We spent Christmas at a wonderful resort in Swaziland after spending some time at their home in Mozambique and touring some beautiful countryside in South Africa. We went swimming on Christmas Day; it was hot and fairly humid. I am glad to be back in a colder climate however; I don't want to miss the snow for anything! I've made New Year's Resolutions which include getting the townhouse very clean and very together!

Our guest bedroom, a work in progress. The curtains are a faux silk moire; the walls are pale yellow and the curtains have pale yellow checks. Scalamandre fringe trim in blue and yellow will go on the edges. These are simple rod-pockets from Country Curtains. I had originally planned to let them hang straight, but decided against that once that were hung. There is a shade that matches the beige in the curtains that will totally black out the room.

My bedroom is slowly coming together. Above is a gold leaf candelabra with an icon I bought on the Greek island of Patmos below it.
Below, we will have matching lamps in the bedroom and different bedside tables.  These are a stopgap until I can go "shopping" at our house in Arkansas. Oh, and the "bump" in the bed is Cluny the cat.  He loves to crawl up under the covers and nap, and I didn't have the heart to move him because he is so happy there!

The curtains here are temporary. They are not lined (although because of the shades and because I like the lamplight from outside coming into the room at night, they don't need to be)and were a great bargain at Marshall's. I decided to go ahead and hang them from the special rods I bought (they are keepers) because I was tired of bare windows with only the shades. They do provide a more relaxing ambiance and can be replaced as soon as I find my dream curtains.

A favorite painting by Eleanor Cooperman that looks perfect against the pale peachy-pink walls of the bedroom.

Some of My Favorites!

These are some rooms that I absolutely love! If you see the previous posts, you can see where I am going with my own bedroom. And you will certainly notice the prevalence of peach and pink - colours that are beautiful in interiors (um, also in exteriors, especially in the tropics). I love the oval gold mirror over the bed.

The curtains here are especially nice, I think, with the wide banding in another fabric. I think it was Sister Parish who said that curtains should always have some sort of edging. Again, note the colours.
A favorite peachy colour here.

---

---

This bedroom's layout is very much like mine with the windows on either side of the bed. I also have large double windows to the right so my bedroom has tons of light. I already have the curtain rods to put up (like these) and I am getting cream silk curtains with edging trim.  I really like the two little tables here although we will not be replicating those since we have more tables than we know what to do with at our house in Arkansas.  I also have a chair where you see one in the picture; mine is a cream-coloured slipper chair with a bottom fringe about 4" long. My bed is bigger (a queen) and my chandelier is smaller.
Meanwhile, on the fourth floor, the picture dilemma: I brought down one of the paintings and added another Val Blackwell watercolour that I had to the right of the large center watercolour.  I think that I need to lower the center picture, too. As you can see, there is an awkward access to the attic below the bottom picture (there is another one on the other side of the room). Someday we may open this and make a rooftop patio. If you recall, this space is awkward because above the blue is a 3 foot slant before the wall actually reaches the ceiling. The second picture really shows the slanted ceiling. I also have this interesting bit of space behind the railing - this is the top of the stairs.

---

---

---

The exterior of our townhouse. What is amazing is that I took this picture today.  I don't have any Christmas decorations up yet, but the geraniums are real - they are blooming like crazy even on the fourth of December.  I can hardly believe it!  They have been beautiful, and I am definitely NOT known for having a green thumb.

Decor and a Happy Thanksgiving

Hurrah! As always, I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday of the year.  Usually I like to cook a big dinner and have relatives over to eat, eat, eat, and drink wine.  Since I have not lived in my hometown for about 40 years, those who come usually stay with me making my house full and happy.  This year, however, we will be going to a restaurant instead of staying at home to cook.  And for once, I am glad this is so, since I have been extremely busy lately and finally I do have family living in the same area I'm in.
 Because I'm not cooking this year, I have more time to ponder the problems of decorating the townhouse. Above is our small entryway.  Two problems here:  do I change the little lantern-like light fixture and put a small chandelier there - or a different kind of lantern?
The other problem is with the sidelights - the little windows on either side of the doors. In his book, 101 Things I Hate About Your House,  decorator James Swan criticizes those who leave these windows uncovered.  However, with the different floors we have, it's not likely we will be running around the living room without clothes so that someone could see in .  I like the light they allow in during the day, and since the living room sits above street level, I think we're safe from passers-by staring in.
 Below is another problem: the square bay window.  The bay's ceiling drops down from the tall living room ceiling.  I'm not sure what to do about curtains. And once again, should I curtain the sides of the bay or leave them open.  I have some luscious coral silk I bought in Brazil that will make wonderful curtains - I'm just not sure how to style them.

Finally, above, should I put a different mirror or keep the round gold one.  I do have a French mirrour that is longer and a creme lacquer like the bed. I'm going to have to try it. I do love having the gold pick up the gold in the little chandelier though.
  Happy Thanksgiving!

I was out and about today in the November drizzle, going to the post office, dropping by Filene's to see if anything I couldn't resist had suddenly appeared on the racks.  Despite its being November and the rainy day, the temperature is in the 60's, so it's actually quite pleasant.  It's a good day to work!
     I've been trying to make up my mind on curtains - for every room!  Thank goodness the bedrooms and bathrooms have shades or we'd be living our life on a stage (that's what it looked like from outside the breakfast room before I put the simple curtains up there).  I happened to look up one night when walking back from a restaurant after leaving the light on and was shocked - it was just like a stage!  Inexpensive linen-weave curtains went up that week, and I didn't make anymore midnight forays into the kitchen dressed only in my gown or pajamas! Below you can see the trees turning through the breakfast room doors, and the great chandelier that I had rewired ( a better picture is coming).  It was in my husband's grandfather's farmhouse dining room many, many years ago. 

I finally got our electrician over to install the little chandelier in the guest room and the front exterior light. In the guest room, a little Maria Theresa chandelier works well with the French beds and the flower prints I bought in Paris.  I am thinking about using checked blue and yellow silk curtains at the double windows.

Above, Cluny is talking to me. He doesn't really like it when I am up and down around the house. He prefers that I stay in the living room where he can curl up in a chair in the bay window, or on the fourth floor where my studio is and I spend hours on the computer. I have a cat tree for him there and he's very fond of it.

Finally, another decorating problem involves the fourth floor.  To the right is a wall of bookcase and the large flat-screen tv.  At the opposite end of the couch is my studio.  I put some of my favorite paintings here (2 by Val Blackwell, including the large center picture) so that I could look at them often.  The problem here is that the ceiling is slanted.  The wall goes up as far as the blue, then for 3 feet it slants before it hits the ceiling.  I wanted the painter to take the paint all the way up 3 more feet, but he said that the edge would not be straight since there was a slant, but no molding.  Hmmm, maybe I just should have painted the ceiling blue, too?  But the large room is wonderful, full of light with large sets of windows facing both south and east. When I sit on the sofa in the summer evenings working on the computer, I can look to the east and see the full moon rising. Beautiful!

Life in the Townhouse

I am blissful this Fall season as I enjoy the crisp Fall weather and rainy days here in the Washington, D.C. area in my own townhouse.  We can see lovely trees outside almost every window of the townhouse; the leaves have turned yellow, gold, red, and a pretty chestnut colour.  I can hear cars go by constantly, a sound I love, since we live on a major thoroughfare. I never feel alone because of the city sounds and the many buildings surrounding me.
   My two cats are jubilant.  Because the townhouse has four floors, they have stairs galore!  And each flight of stairs twists and turns so that Cluny and Cuervo have a ball chasing each other up and down.  And sometimes, the exuberant Cuervo just runs up and down for fun. 

 You can barely see Cuervo on the landing.  We are having difficulty finding window coverings for the large stair windows since we want to preserve light, yet also have privacy at night; the situation is more complicated because of the position of the stairs.

 No curtains in the bedroom yet, but we do have accordian shades for total privacy.

 I love the mirroured wall, but am having problems with the placing paintings on the left wall.

     Cuervo peeks through the third floor railings watching for people to come up the stairs.   
The townhouse is coming together and I'll be posting pictures.  Trying to get all of our furniture in the smaller space is challenging, and, of course, we'll never get all of it in here; we won't even try.  I still want to keep the grand piano though, and when we finally move it up here, it's going to be an ordeal!