I have found a designer I like quite a bit who I was previously unfamiliar with. His name is Skip Sroka and he is located on Wisconsin St. in Washington, D.C.
Best of all, Skip Sroka is not afraid of color!
Showing posts with label Virginia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virginia. Show all posts
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Where I Live: Virginia and D.C. from Food to Interiors
Still thinking of the delicious meal I had last night in Alexandria, VA at the French restaurant, Bastille. From appetizers to desserts, everything was luscious. I had a Burrata cheese and melon appetizer that was light and tasty. My nephew enjoyed the fois gras tremendously; my husband almost licked the bowl of his Caesar salad, and the next time I go there, I will definitely get the delectable shrimp and corn beignets my nephew Grey had. The bottle of Malbek was excellent as well. All in all, a very good experience and one we want to repeat!
I have found a designer I like quite a bit who I was previously unfamiliar with. His name is Skip Sroka and he is located on Wisconsin St. in Washington, D.C.
Skip Sroka's rooms are wonderful comfortable looking and luxurious without being at all stodgy. The muted room above has a great furniture arrangement and I love the sconces over the fireplace.
Above, I adore this room! I could stay here for hours reading and drinking tea, and yes, even working. Look how wonderfully comfortable the seating is. Check the lighting in the built-in alcove bookshelf.
Above, a room where the focus is on books, art, and comfort. Notice that you'd never have to search for a place to put down a drink or one that had proper lighting for a good book. I am generally not a fan of the gold color used here, but the room is so perfect that I would love it! This is the way intelligent people should live.
Books in the bathroom? I'm all for it! And behind the picture that you see on the bookcase is a small hidden television. The sconces on the mirror are perfect and so much better than overhead lighting. The towel is in easy reach and there's a chair that will come in handy for your clothes or dressing.
The small powder room, above, has a vanity with a vessel sink that manages to look traditional and contemporary all at once! Again, the sconces are great!
Best of all, Skip Sroka is not afraid of color!
I have found a designer I like quite a bit who I was previously unfamiliar with. His name is Skip Sroka and he is located on Wisconsin St. in Washington, D.C.
Best of all, Skip Sroka is not afraid of color!
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
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.
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.
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.
Monday, January 23, 2012
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.
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.
Sunday, December 04, 2011
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
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!
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.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
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!
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.
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!
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