INSIDE OUT IN SEPIA, SHADOWS, AND SILHOUETTES

We had our first snow storm in almost two years.  These photos through the window grids appear as black and white images. The fern and shells inside look like shadows; the snow their back drop.

LOOKING OUT THROUGH FERNS AND SHELLS

Through another window grid the snow coats my Tulip Magnolia's branches.  You can see the top of the snowy stripes on my pergola in the lower right corner.

TULIP MAGNOLIA AND PERGOLA COATED IN SNOW 

The top of my bar cart and the framed prints on the window create another silhouette.

BAR CART AND ART IN SILHOUETTE

The cardinal breaks up the black and white.

A POP OF RED IN THE BLACK AND WHITE

The protected front porch even got a dusting.  

CHINOISERIE BENCH, SPHERE, AND FRENCH BULLDOG WITH A DUSTING

Do you love the way snow changes the landscape?  I do. 

ELEPHANT DECOR

Do you ever notice that you repeat decor around your home? 

 I just noticed that I have elephants around my house.  LOL  

In our sun room I have a plaster elephant peeking around my bar cart.  I purchased it for one of the Design Houses I did.  It didn't sell, so it was all mine.  I've said this before but sometimes those items that don't sell become my favorites.

PLASTER ELEPHANT IN MY SUN ROOM

CLOSE UP OF PLASTER ELEPHANT

I have a similar plaster elephant on my screened porch.  It's much larger with a flat surface so it can serve as a small side table.

ELEPHANT SIDE TABLE ON MY PORCH

I have another Chinoiserie elephant on the railroad cart coffee table.  I mixed him in with the blue and white ginger jars.

BLUE AND WHITE CHINOISERIE

One of my favorite elephant finds is this mache elephant from Anthropologie. 

 Originally it was in my kitchen.  

MACHE ANTHROPOLOGIE ELEPHANT IN MY KITCHEN

He's since moved to the laundry/pantry.

ANTHRO ELEPHANT IN MY LAUNDRY ROOM

I'm not done yet.  I decoupaged an elephant image on some book spines.

ELEPHANT ON BOOK SPINES

One of my favorite additions to my new kitchen was the appliance garage.  You can see my elephant mugs on the top shelf.  FYI, that majolica lettuce leaf teapot is my sugar bowl.

ELEPHANT MUGS IN MY APPLIANCE GARAGE

Even though I always love the things that don't sell, there are many who get away.  This elephant bookend was one of those I wished I had kept.

ELEPHANT BOOKEND THAT GOT AWAY

What decor items do you repeat in your home?

What home decor item do you regret giving up?

 

If you're interested in seeing the the original posts for these images, simply click on the highlighted words or the images. 

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

SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS

 We have a room addition on the back of our home.  One wall is the original exterior brick.  I love that feature.  When the contractor wanted to cover it with dry wall, I immediately nixed that idea.  The brick has a brown undertone so I painted the walls brown to blend with the brick.  (Benjamin Moore  HC 76  Davenport Tan)  We've always called this room the sun room because the remaining three walls are almost all windows.  I realize now that that was a misnomer, at least until the day our neighbors cut down a huge tree that shaded our property. (I'm sad that they cut down a perfectly healthy tree.)  Now each sunny morning I'm greeted by streams of dappled sunshine and I can truly call that room a sun room.  This was the room that Nate Berkus showcased when I was a guest on his NBC show many years ago.   It's  very special to me.  I was able to capture the new sunshine and shadows playing in that room and thought I'd share this new brightness with you on this chilly winter day.

It spans the length of the back of the house.  You can enter through french doors from the living room or the dining room.  This is the view  from the living room entrance.

LOOKING IN FROM LIVING ROOM

SUNLIT BAR CART

The sunlight even found my elephant.

ELEPHANT IN SUNSHINE

To the left of the bar cart is my mirrored top table and Chinese Chippendale chairs.

MIRRORED TABLE AND CHIPPENDALE CHAIRS

The combination of the reflections from the mirror and the sunlight is dramatic.

SHELLS AND SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS

I was happy to find this brown and white geometric fabric for the room.  I only sewed draperies for the two side walls.  There is no privacy issue with the windows that face the back yard.  I left them bare.  The fabric is inspired by Imperial Trellis by Kelly Wearstler. ( It's no longer available.)  I used the extra fabric to make pillows and new seat covers for the  Chippendale chairs.

GEOMETRIC DRAPERIES

This is one of two Pottery Barn banana leaf wing chairs in that room.  I'm a sucker for wing chairs.  I thought these woven chairs were a fun twist on traditional wing chairs.  The comfy down-filled coral pillows are from Design Legacy.  I love their unique fabrics.  I use them as back rests on the chairs.

POTTERY BARN WING CHAIR

Next to the wing chair is a walnut side table that holds a stack of books.

STACK OF BOOKS IN SUNLIGHT

The dappled sunshine continues on the mantel and brick.

DAPPLED SUNSHINE ON THE MANTEL

On the other side, the sunlight even spills over into the dining room.

SUNLIGHT SPILLING INTO THE DINING ROOM

If you enter from the dining room, you'll see our sitting area.  It's our tv watching side of the room.  Notice that I layered some mirrored coral prints over the drapery-less windows.

LOOKING IN FROM THE DINING ROOM

The sofa is also a Pottery Barn piece.  I  mixed the geometric patterned pillows in with some fun West Elm ones with garden benches.

POTTERY BARN SECTIONAL SOFA AND WEST ELM PILLOWS

 The wall sconce is from a Pittsburgh department store.  I only have two of them.  They were originally planters mounted on columns on the main floor of Horne's Department store.  I had them converted to wall sconces.  I wrote a post about them many years ago.  Here's the link to that post if you'd like to know more.  Link:  here.  If you look at that post you'll notice how the room has changed over the years.  

I also have a matching love seat in that room.  The large woven basket is from my store.  Yes, I keep stuff for myself always.   It mostly holds books and magazines and sometimes throws. 

MATCHING LOVE SEAT AND GEOMETRIC DRAPERIES

 I layered a hide rug under the ottoman.   We use the large leather ottoman as a coffee table.  When we have guests, it becomes extra seating. 

OTTOMAN AND HIDE RUG

I like to layer rugs.  The hide rug partially covers this Stark seagrass one.

HIDE AND SEAGRASS LAYERED RUGS.

Do you have a room that's bathed in dappled sunshine and shadows?

ANIMAL PRINTS ARE NEUTRALS

As we begin a new year  I want to wish each and everyone of you a happy and healthy new year before I begin another year of blogging with my first post of 2021.

I've been blogging for a long time.  It's been a wonderful opportunity to make so many e-friends.  I've even met some of you in person.  You all have been my support and encouragement for all my projects.  I can't thank you all enough for being loyal followers and friends.  I don't think I would have completed even half of the projects in my home without you cheering me on.  Thank you. 

So, let's get started.  After putting all the holiday away, I realized just how many animal prints I use in my home.  I think it rivals all the black decor accents I repeat everywhere.  I'm sure you've heard that "animal prints are neutrals".  I can't agree with that phrase more.  So instead of sharing all that is black, I'm sharing all (well almost all) the animal prints that fill my home--and my closet.  I'm going to subtitle this post A BOMBARDMENT OF ANIMAL PRINTS.  

My absolute favorite pair of chairs have a leopard print.  I liked them so much that I used them as the header on my blog.

LEOPARD PRINT CHAIR IN MY FOYER

Of course I have another single chair that moves around the house because the soft leopard print works anywhere.  It's currently in the hallway, but previously resided next to my desk.

LEOPARD PRINT CHAIR NEXT TO MY DESK

The animal print continued in the kitchen renovation.  I added a goat fur runner to the dining room table.

GOAT FUR TABLE RUNNER

I have a leopard trinket tray beside the sink.  It holds my rings when I'm washing dishes and also is a place for my scrub pad.

LEOPARD TRINKET TRAY

There's a matching tray next to the cooktop.  I don't know about you, but when I'm cooking I assemble all the spices and ingredients before I begin to cook.  The tray makes it easy to have all together.

LEOPARD TRAY NEXT TO COOKTOP

My kitchen runner is what else but an animal print.

ANIMAL PRINT RUNNER

It doesn't stop there.  I filled a vintage jar with animal print flatware.

ANIMAL PRINT FLATWARE

 I even have animal print dishes.

ANIMAL PRINT DISHES

Check out my bar cart.  Yes, leopard barware.

MY BAR CART

I have zebra print runners in my sun room.

LAYERED ZEBRA RUG

I repeated the zebra print on the chair cushions on the chairs.

ZEBRA CHAIR CUSHIONS

I draped an animal print throw over my deconstructed chaise in my living room.

ANIMAL PRINT THROW ON MY DECONSTRUCTED CHAISE

It's not all leopard and zebra.  I have a "dalmatian" cachepot on my desk that holds my pens,

DALMATIAN CACHEPOT WITH PENS ON MY DESK

I even have animal print towels.

ANIMAL PRINT TOWELS IN THE BATHROOM LINEN CLOSET

Recently my low maintenance dog started wearing an animal print hat.

DOG WITH A NEW HAT IN THE MASTER BATH

It goes without saying that I have animal print pillows everywhere. 

 I'll spare you and just share this one.

ONE OF MANY ANIMAL PRINT PILLOWS

You can find animal prints on my bookshelf too.

BOOKS WITH ANIMAL PRINTS ON MY BOOKSHELF

It doesn't stop there.  I don't just dress my home in animal print.  I outfit myself in animal print too.

I have boots.

MY FAVORITE RAIN BOOTS

I wear these leopard print ballet flats with everything.  I'm ready to get my second pair.

MY FAVORITE  COMFY SHOES

I wore these shoes to my daughter's wedding.

MY DRESS-UP ANIMAL PRINT SHOES

You know that I have animal print jewelry that I keep in animal print trinket trays.

ANIMAL PRINT JEWELRY AND TRINKET TRAYS

I have many animal print slacks, skirts, and tops.  One of my favorite outfits though is this dress that I top with my jeans jacket.

ANIMAL PRINT DRESS

Oh my, I think I may have just done an animal print overload.

Happy New Year.

FYI, if an image or word is highlighted, that means there's a post related to the image.  Just click on the image or words and you can see that post.  If you view the posts you'll notice that things move around quite a bit.