Television Show "The Insider" Airs Photos of My Home

Hello, all. This is somewhat related to houses. "The Insider" aired a segment about me this week regarding my career as a new media personality. They showed some photos of my house, so I thought I'd share it with you. New blog posts coming soon.

The Morning Room - Coastal Victorian Decor

So I've been saying for a long time that I'd do a post on the morning room.  I haven't had a chance to take more pictures, so I just thought I'd put up the ones I have.

According to Wikipedia, a morning room is a nineteenth-century designation for a sitting-room, often with east-facing exposure, suited for daytime calls, or the middle-class lounge, a late nineteenth-century designation for a room in which to relax.

This is the only room in the house that we didn't paint. I wanted to go with a coastal look, and the walls were already a light sand color which was a perfect backdrop for the punches of blue I had planned. For this room, I was inspired by a painting I had called "Beach at Trouville."  As shown below, it depicts the beautiful french coastline during Victorian times.  It's another Claude Monet, like the paintings in my diningroom.

If you look around the room in the after photos, you can really see all the colors in the painting.  The blues and yellows are in the stripes of the sofa and loveseat.  The sand is the color of the walls, the turquoise on the staircases can be found in the vintage bottles on the mantel, and the brick color on the buildings match the brick of the fireplace.

And now for the before's and after's:

BeforeBefore
Before
After

I found the victorian fireplace screen on ebay.  It was originally black and I spray painted it white to have that victorian lace look.

The mantel displays lots of vintage bottles, old nautical-themed books in different tones of blue, and a ninteenth century toile vase from England.

And the room most certainly wouldn't be coastal without some shells...  :-)

I'm not typically a fan of tassels on drapery, but I wanted the window treatments to embody both the airiness of a beach house and the elegance of the victorian era.  So for the drapes, I went with a light blue and white striped sheer from the Martha Stewart collection.  And I went with the white tasseled valances, because they reminded of me of a victorian lady's parasol.

In decorating, I just kept picturing young girls picnicing on the beach in their victorian dresses and dainty parasols to shade them from the sun.  Add lots of beachy accessories and you have what I call, Coastal Victorian.

AfterYankee Candle of the room: Beach Walk.

This post is part of Met Monday.

 

New Diningroom Slipcovers

Hello everyone.  I hope you had a wonderful holiday.  Over the Christmas season, my mother knew how much I've been wanting to get slipcovers for my dining room chairs.  But I've had difficulty finding them already made- since my chairs are so large and a unique shape.  I ended up going with white linen for the fabric. I wanted gathered skirts and three tie ups in the back for a cottage look.  Below are the results.  

I love them, but I know I can only have them out for special occasions.  Our cat is just dying to roll around on them!

Happy New Year!

Christmas in The Old South - Our Tree

Seasons greetings!  I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season thus far.  I thought I'd share some of my decor with you.  You can click each photo to see it larger.  This post is included in BNOTP's Met Monday and The Hooked On Houses Holiday Decor Party.

For the front parlor, I wanted to go with deep tones of gold and deep crimson red.  The red looks brighter in these photos than it is in person.  The tree is 12 feet tall.  

First, I'll share my favorite photo with you.  Someone managed to sneak into frame lol.

The red flowers are hydrangeas, the flower of the Old South.

And here is a shot during the day.

I also put up a smaller tree (6.5 ft tall) in the dining room.  

For the Dining Room tree, I went with the colors white and platinum.  I wanted to incorporate some old fashioned flare, so I hung some pieces from my antique cameo collection as ornaments.

I'll work on sizing some other photos I took. In the meantime, please comment and let me know what color scheme you did on your Christmas tree this year.

The top part of these crystal candle holders where the crystals are hanging from is actually a piece from one of the old chandeliers in the house.  The piece is rounded so it sit perfectly right on top, and the candles fit perfectly through the hole in the middle.

Thanks for stopping by!

Dining Room of Doom

Hello, all.  I'm still working on the party decorations in the back porch and throughout the rest of the house.  But I thought I'd share some photos of what I have done with the Dining Room so far.  I went with a bit of a Gothic style, using black, white, and a pop of orange.   

What is your favorite Halloween themed scent?  I have "Candy Corn" by Yankee Candle, but not a big fan of it.  Any suggestions?