Wonderful Color!

Above, Charlotte Moss's library in a peachy tone. Charlotte Moss pictures from The New York Social Diary
    I've seen so many white rooms lately that I'm reminded of my love of white in the 1970's. I even had white carpet in my living room! But even then, the white was enlivened by the presence of many, many books in wall to ceiling bookshelves. I must confess that I was afraid of color and never thought that I could do it right. But, after many years, I've come to have more confidence.
     But I am mainly a lover of color because it makes me happy. I do tend to like monochromatic color schemes, maybe two colors at most. This is because we have a plethora of books and art that I cannot bear to put away out of my sight. The things that make me happy do so when I am surrounded by them. So even though we are downsizing, we still have so many things that we will keep that we may have to rotate them. But that's okay. We will keep them because we like to look at our pictures, and we like to read our books (over and over).  They add the color and contrast that make us comfortable and make our home a home.
    Below, I love cozy; sparse rooms are seldom cozy, and Charlotte Moss's bedroom is a classic blue and white with plenty of places to sit, place things, read, and write. I love it! Her library, above, is a wonderful mixture of homey and elegant.  I can't imagine being bored in this room.

Above,Charlotte Moss's living mixes tones of pinks and greens with cream and gold.  Below, another view of that wonderful library (note that no books are wrapped in white paper and there is a ladder so that you can reach the volumes higher up.  I doubt that the ladder is for show.  I love the way she adds paintings to the bookshelves in the English manner.


Above, look at that beautiful wall!

Above, an English country house classic combination: yellow and blue.  Look at the rug!
Below, there's that gorgeous coral color again!  This time the room looks quite contemporary, but still comfortable and warm.  Imagine if this room were all white!
   I have a feeling that in about 15 years, the burlap, stenciled pillows, and flaking furniture are going to look terribly, terribly dated.  And people are going to want their interiors to be anything but white or beige.

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.

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!