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? 

Going Old South for Halloween

Hello, everyone. Happy Halloween season.  It's my favorite time of year!  

So it's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Gone With The Wind.  My southern home is definitely my version of Tara.  :-) For work, I did some promotional shots for a costume line.  One of the costumes of my choosing was of course, Scarlett O'Hara.  The photos were taken in my home, in the ballroom.  I thought I'd share them with you, since they show a little bit of the house.

This first photo is taken in front of the fireplace.  A couple of months ago, we switched out the painting that was above it for this beautiful 6 foot tall mirror.  I'm only 5'1" but the mantel in this room is massive and the ceilings are very tall, so it makes me look even more vertically challenged lol. 

Here's another from a different area of the room.

In case you are wondering, the area rug was from Pottery Barn.  :-)

That's pretty much it.  I just thought I'd share.  We are currently in the process of decking out the whole first floor for a Halloween party we are having.  I'll post some photos once everything is in place.  I'm excited for the set up we have in the back porch.  

Do you decorate inside your home for Halloween?  If so, do you do more than one room?   

Dining Room New Additions

I apologize it's been a while since my last.  I just had surgery, so I haven't been at the computer much at all.  But I wanted to share with you the new additions to the dining room.  My hubby made me four wall shelves to finally fill in the wall space on either side of the hutch, and display my whiteware.

So happy with the results.  I think it really pulls the room together and gives it that cottage feel I've been wanting for the room.  (I also have some new Delftware as you can see on the top shelf of the hutch.  I thought the blue added a nice pop of color amongst all the white.)

A lot of the pieces are finds from Marshalls and Ross. The plates and bowls are from Target and a couple pitchers are from ebay.

I also had Hubby install a door to separate the dining room and kitchen.  The kitchen has dark wood and has more of an Old World French feel, very different from this room.  So I really felt that it needed a door between the two.

And of course, I had to get a fun door knob.  As I always say, a door knob is a fun necessity that can also be an accessory.  Of course, I went with a Victorian look with the face plate, and I thought a crystal knob would look pretty in the sunlit room.  

It's similar to the other decorative knob sets I purchased for the rest of the house.  (Only the other knobs are not crystal, they are oval shaped and in antique bronze like the face plate.)  I ordered them from HouseofAntiqueHardware.com.

Recovering from surgery, I've spent a lot of time on the couch watching movies.  My favorite movie of all time (mainly because of the house in it) is Practical Magic. I watched it twice recently and was really inspired by the Owens kitchen and dining room.  I'm already a fan of hanging candles as it is, but I noticed hanging candles on the wall of the kitchen in the movie.

That inspired me to hang mine in the dining room.  I decided to hang them on a little bird hook that I had purchased at Joanne's a few months ago, but had no use for.

And that's it for the dining room.  To see what the Dining Room looked like before we transformed it, click here.

We've finally finished our kitchen and have been accessorizing as we wait for the final touch- our light fixture to arrive, as it has been on backorder.  As soon as that goes up, I'll do a post on the kitchen.  It's one of my favorite rooms in the house.  As you can see, the overall theme of my home is definitely a form of French.  Each room just takes on a different style of it; the ballroom- French Pronvincial, the Diningroom- French Country, and the Kitchen is more like French Vineyard.  Very excited to show you.  I still need to do a post on the Morning Room.  It's all coming very soon, I promise.  Thanks so much for reading! :-)

The Great Room - Another Transformation

I've been wanting to post the Great Room transformation with you for a while now.  Sadly, I've been so busy I hadn't had a chance to take some decent photos of it.  But I finally did this weekend, and I'm happy to share them with you.

Just a little information about the room: We call it the ballroom because according to the historic society, back in the early 1900's they use to hold a formal functions in that room.  Our street was named after the woman who built the house and back then, our neighborhood was the dwelling of many prestigious people.  One of them, being the governor himself. So you can imagine the kind of parties they had back then.  

Here is what the room looked like before we purchased the house last year.  No offense to the previous owner, but I think she had a very "minimalist" approach to decorating lol. (She wasn't very kind to us, so I think it's okay to say that without reservations):

Before

Before - The Bay Window

Before

Not sure what paint color they had on the walls, it was like a brownish-purple color.  Very drab! First thing I wanted to do was lighten up the room with a neutral beige tone.  I planned to go with a French theme, so I'd add in pops of powder blues and bronze tones in paintings and fabrics.  

Let's take one more look at the Before:

Before

And now for the Transformation:

After

After

The flowered pillows shown here are French aubusson pillows from one of my favorite ebay stores.  All of the other pillows are taffeta and silk, my mother finally taught me how to sew recently and we made them together.

The bronze mirror is from Neiman Marcus, the urn holding the roses is from Pottery Barn, and the random statues and candelabras seen throughout the room are from ebay and local antique stores.  And as with all the other paintings in the house, they are from art.com.  I am very picky with art, so I have a blast searching through their database for exactly what I want.  I had all the art in the ballroom delivered on stretched canvas and had them framed at Michael's.

I'll stop blabbing now and let you take a look around.  :-)

After - The Bay Window

Some more of my antique book collection

As I mentioned in my Shabby Chic bedroom post, since I was a little girl- I always had a love for victorian trinket boxes.  I think your house should be a representation of who you are.  That's why I make a point to display my collections.  Groupings can bring everything together nicely.

 

I love mixing old with new.  The candelabra here was purchased on ebay, it is an antique Tole piece imported from Italy.  The casket box next to it is made of resin and was bought at Family Dollar!  I just painted it with metallic enamel paint and TA DA!  :-)

And for my themed candle for this room, I took a departure from my usual Yankees.  I went with a Cozy Cashmere scent, a Colonial Candle.

And that's about it for the ballroom.  I know I didn't get any full on shots of the entire room.  I'm waiting for our upcoming banquet to show some wide shots with people in period attire.  Should be fun to share! :-)

I'll post another transformation this week.  I'm going to share the before & after's of my Morning Room.  I hope you enjoyed this post.  See you next time! 

An Afternoon & Evening On My Back Patio

This week I felt it was time to dress up the back patio a bit.  I was going for a garden courtyard look, so I purchased topiaries and ivy from Michaels to bring some greenery to the deck and enclose it a bit.  This post is part of Tablescape Thursday on Between Naps on The Porch.  Care to join me for an outdoor lunch?  :-)

There's a nice breeze, enjoy your lemonade while listening to the sound of the chimes...

Here have a look around...

Oh, it's starting to get dark out!  Can you hear the crickets?

Oops! Pardon the cord please

And by the flickering of the lanterns, I wish you good night...