Better Late Than Never For This Month's Sale @Buckeystown Design CoOp

This week just got away from me but I thought I'd share what I have for our July designer tag sale anyway.  You still have two remaining days to shop and plenty for everyone.

Enjoy.

Please join us if you live in the Washington DC area.

Link to BDC Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/BuckeystownDesignCoOp/?ref=bookmarks

Holiday Mantel 2013

My mantel is my first holiday project this year.  Whenever I do change ups, I try to use what I already have.  Once you adopt this policy you'll find that so many of your decor works in different settings in different rooms. 

I have to confess that I did make one new purchase.  I seem to have formed a fascination for faux taxidermy.  I couldn't pass up this plaster ram.  I knew he would be perfect above the mantel wrapped in garland and a string of glass beads.

My Faux Ram's  Head Wrapped in Garland and Glass Beads

Here's how I pulled it all together.

  I've had this damask mantel scarf for a while.  It was a little small for this mantel but I made it work.

 It's red and gold and it directed the colors I pulled from the other rooms.

My Scalloped-Edge Mantel Scarf with Tassels.

You've seen this patent leather chair before.  I dressed it up with a pillow I borrowed from a dining room chair.  The pillow is made from an antique rug with some soft velvet in the center.

Vintage Patent Leather Chair and Persian Rug Pillow

The spheres rolled in from the foyer.  I tried to dress them up for the holiday, first with ribbon and then with some berries, but decided that they were perfect unadorned.

My Wonderful Wooden Spheres

I love this Mid Century Modern brass and nail head cube.  I had it for sale at The Design House, but it didn't sell.  I sometimes put a high price on items I really like.   If they sell, I'm happy parting with them, and if they don't, they're mine.  Yea.

MCM Brass Cube with Nail Head

I topped the cube with some books and stole the faux coral from the sun room mantel.

Zgallerie Faux Coral

These coral-inspired candle holders usually reside next to my clam shell
on my mirrored Chinoiserie table.  They were very happy with the change of scenery.

Coral Inspired Candle Holders

I always try to have an architectural fragment in my vignettes.  The plaster fragment is a bookend on one of my bookcases.  This one was very happy to be part of the holiday decor and anchor one end of the mantel.   I specifically shopped my house for something white in addition to the red and gold to tie in with the white ram.  White and plaster.  Perfect.

Scrolly Architectural Fragment

This matching fragment had to be satisfied to still be a bookend,
 but I did give it some different books to support and oriented it in a different direction.
The crown is an ornament that I use here and there throughout the house throughout the year.

Red Leather Books, Architectural Fragment, and Crown Ornament

You've seen my tangle of antlers in a jar before.  I just dropped some red ornaments into the jar
 and left them where they tumbled.

My Tangle of Antlers and Ornaments

Here's how it all came together.

My Holiday Mantel

My Family Room Mantel

What holiday decor job do you do first?

Kathy

An Unexpected Surpise Under the Sun Room

When we added the sun room to the back of the house, we not only created my favorite space in my home, but we also gained an unexpected living area on the patio below.  Before the addition, we hardly used the brick patio.  It was very sunny and it seemed that I did nothing but sweat and pull weeds that sprouted up overnight in the cracks between the bricks.   I have to confess that the patio was the place where I'd paint my furniture in the warm months.  Those paint spot speckles on the bricks prove it is my workshop.  Eventually my sweet friend, Nancy, found some chinoiserie furniture for me and I decided to clean up that area. 

My Unexpected Space Under the Sun Room

 

The photos in this post were taken by C.M. Glover, the photojournalist who did my photo shoot for Houzz.  She kindly came back to my house at a later date and took some more photos.  These photos were taken at dusk.  Below is a view from another angle.

Another Angle of the Area

This is the before picture, complete with my son's sports net pitch back and a trash can.

Before Back Yard

To give you some perspective about the space, you can access the back yard and patio from either side of the house.  If you come down the driveway, there's a path to the patio between the garage and the screened porch.

Path From Driveway to Patio

Or, you can enter from the kitchen side of the house and follow a different path to the back yard.

Path From Kitchen Porch to Patio

 C.M. suggested that before she returned, I should style the area as if I were hosting a party.  
I couldn't believe it when I went to Trader Joe's looking for flowers and found some in the exact colors of my cushions.

Styled Table

 

 Here's a closer look at the flowers.  Did you notice that I found a spot for those orange shutters?  I just couldn't part with them after I purchased them.  They hung around for a while in the garage, with everything else in my secret stash, but I knew I'd use them.  Their orange color was my inspiration for the space.  I still have a few more hanging around.  I'm hoping to pry them from my greedy little pack rat fingers and put them up for sale.

Table Setting With Chippy Shutter in Background

 You know how I love clocks and demijohns.  They were perfect on the bar cart with some ferns from my garden.

Clock and Ferns in My Demijohn on the Bar Cart

I put candles in the candelabra I suspended from the pergola.  I even did place settings on my 

clock face table.  You can see that I really got into this styling. 

Under the Pergola

I had some faux cabbage leaf place mats to go under my cabbage dishes.  I paired them with some leopard print flatware and glasses--gotta get that animal print in somewhere.

All Ready to Eat---Where's the Food?

I thought the flowers looked especially nice as the sun was setting.

Building Fragment, Sphere, and Lambs Ear

Sweet Woodruff, Hosta, Lamb's Ear, Nandina, Ferns

 

Hosta, Dracena, Impatiens Along the Path

       I'm very happy with my surprise living space and guess what??   
The shade from the sun room also took care of the weed problem.  I still paint on the patio and the sun room offers me shade and protection from raindrops too. 

Kathy

I have to show you the "before" of the Chinoiserie settee and chairs.

 

Before the New Upholstery

If you missed my Home Tour Feature on Houzz, go here.

ENJOYED THIS POST? 
 Sign up to receive a notification every time I publish by clicking here.


 

Fall Mantel

 

 Not long ago I wrote a post about my family room mantel.   I had created over sized art above it using vintage architectural prints and I had slip covered the rough cedar wood that I hated.  If you missed it, here's what it looked like.  To see the full post, click here.

You know that anything can give me an excuse to change things.   My reasoning this time is that a change in the weather equals a change around the house.

The first thing I did was to remove everything but the wall sconces and the slip cover.  I wanted something large to fill the space and chose these vintage iron grates which I painted yellow.

Before I leaned the pair of grates onto the mantel, I layered the chevron fabric that I had used as a back drop in my bookcases over the slip cover.    In front of the grates I added this yellow vase with an assortment of feathers.

You know I love to use architectural fragments.  I sometimes use this piece as a book end.  I wanted it on the mantel because it had the yellow, green, and orange that I have in the room.

Here's the final result.

The other items I added were some dried gourds, a small sunburst mirror, an antique bird print-- stolen from my bookcase, and some faux acorns.
I'm ready for Fall.


Kathy


To see another post with Fall decor ideas, go here.

Styling Bookcases Part 2

I just re-did a pair of bookcases in my family room.  I purchased them from a consignment shop and had to sand, prime, and paint them.  The color I used was Benjamin Moore Pittsfield Buff.  

Here's the before ( after painting)

Notice that they were missing their backs.  I think that's because they were originally built-ins.
I decided that I would add some fabric to the back rather than adding some bead board.  

I basically cut the fabric a little larger than the opening.  I used a cardboard upholstery tack strip across the top to make sure the top was straight.  I used my electric staple gun to hold it in place. ( You must invest in an electric staple gun.  So much easier on your wrists.)
You can purchase the tack strip  here.  I purchased the roll for $3.99 for 500 feet.  If you're not going to do more upholstery though,  I've found it before at fabric stores being sold by the yard.
I included the link so you'd see what it looks like.
I use it all the time when I'm attaching cording to chair seats.  It keeps the cording straight so you don't have to use so many staples.
Here's how I used it to attach the top of the fabric to the back of the bookcase .

And just FYI, here's how I use it when adding cording to the bottom of a chair seat.  Totally unrelated, I know, but good info.

Once you attach the fabric to the top with your staple gun, staple once in the bottom center, then in the center of each of the side pieces.  Continue stapling around the remaining three sides.  Make sure that the fabric is pulled very tightly.  You could add a piece of foam core on the back on top of the fabric for extra support if you want.   I just counted on the wall for support.

Here's the after with the fabric.

Next, the styled version.  Please view my previous post, here, if you want some tips about item selection, balance, placement, and symmetry.

This is the left bookcase after styling.

This is the right bookcase after styling.

If you've read my previous post you know that I love to use books and architectural fragments when styling a bookcase.  To this mix I decided to add birds, nests, emu and ostrich eggs, tortoise shells--real and faux--and even a piece of coral resting on a book.  I called these nature-inspired shelves my Cabinets of Curiosities.
The bird prints on easels are vintage.  The largest bottle in the grouping of apothecary jars holds feathers.  Mirrors serve as backdrops for the tortoise shell and the ostrich egg.
You know how I love cloches.  I found one that not only fit perfectly on a mirrored dresser tray, but which had the word Nest etched onto it.  The emu egg on a stand fits perfectly within.
My pops of color come from the green in the transferware plates with birds, the mirror with a velvet frame,  the vintage English tile, the deep green egg, and the gold on the book spines.  
Completing the space between the bookcases is a sunburst mirror.   Surprise!   Framed architectural reference book plates and an iron bird are reflected in it.

I added a pair of slip covered slipper chairs in the foreground, and a vintage deco table with a lamp. A smaller bird print in a burled frame is on the table too.
I had the chairs covered in a neutral fabric-- something that I never do-- but I wanted them to match anywhere I put them.   I ended up hating how bland they were, even with a  pillow, so I added the strip of Robert Allen Ikat fabric and some awning stripe pillows to make them more appealing.   What do you think?
I don't know if you can make out the top of the table.  It's a mirrored top with a mirror bullseye in the center.

I want to share one more image.  It's an area rug  I found  at Tuesday Morning.  If you watched my segment on The Nate Berkus Show
you know that I received a gift certificate from Nate to Tuesday Morning.  I was very excited when I found this rug.  I knew it would work in the family room.  What a great find AND what a great price.  Thanks Nate.

Be sure to let me know how your bookcase styling turns out.
What do you think about using fabric as a backing?