ANTLERS

 Do you add antlers to your decor?  I do.  Enjoy some of mine. 

Shed antlers in a container in my family room.

SHED ANTLERS COLLECTED IN A CLEAR JAR

I always use them on stacks of books.  I've included Bella.

ANTLERS ON PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS AND OF COURSE MY FAVORITE LAB, BELLA

I turned an old framed oil over and added some antlers.  Rustic + nature.

I'm not sure where this is going yet so it's currently resting on my zebra rug while I decide.

ANTLERS ON FRAMED OIL PAINTING

My neighbor's tree sheds these wonderful curly seed pods.  I combined them with some antlers in an urn.  They were my Fall decor on my porch a few years ago.

ANTLERS AND SEED PODS IN AN URN ON MY PORCH

You know I love orange.  I combined the antlers with some Hermes boxes and finials.  (The finials are Christmas ornaments that I refuse to pack away after the holidays.)

ANTLERS AND ORANGE

ONE OF MY NATURE-INSPIRED EVER-CHANGING MANTELS

TUCKED INTO A DOUGH BOWL

How do you add antlers to your decor.

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MY GRANDPA'S ART

I was lucky enough to grow up in western Pennsylvania in a small town north of Pittsburgh.  I was even luckier to live within walking distance of my grandparents and cousins.  I fondly remember the times spent with my siblings and cousins at my grandma and grandpa's farm.   We loved watching my grandmother can fruits and vegetables from the garden and make goat cheese.  I can still see the cheese in her colander.   I can also see the faces we made when we refused to taste it.   

My favorite farm event was the day my grandma, her sisters and her cousins got together to make pasta.  Their Italian heritage was still evident.  They added all the leaves to the table, covered it with a cloth and sprinkled it with lots of flour.  It reminded me of  a quilting bee with flour, eggs, and water instead of needles, thread, and fabric pieces.  I can still see that huge kitchen table draped with strands of fresh pasta and the fun they all had while we observed and waited for a taste.

One other memory is the day she baked bread.  We could count on her to slice it and lather it with butter while it was still fresh and steaming from the oven.  I can still feel the texture of the warm spongy bread, the crispy crust and  the taste of the melting butter.  Yum.

Grandma sometimes put us to work.  In retrospect, she probably just wanted to get a break.  She would pull out all her pots and pans and set us up at the picnic table under the yellow cherry tree and hand us Brillo pads.  We thought it was fun to scrub pots.

My grandpa was different.  He was very quiet and kept to himself.  He was a voracious reader and created his library retreat in one of the out buildings.  The walls were floor to ceiling shelves crammed with books.  The only furniture was a chair, a side table and a lamp.  It was his refuge.

What I remember most about him though was his art.  On the spur of the moment he would grab his easel and art supplies and paint.  Sometimes his spot was on the farm, other times it was a nearby countryside.   He was prolific.  We all were able to have some of his art. 

I have several of his small oil on board pieces.  If you look at the back of the art, he basically stretched canvas over a piece of cardboard.  I never framed them.  I cherish the front and the back.  They move around, but their current location is on my pair of family room bookshelves.

I mixed them in with my books and nature-inspired collectibles.

 

 

I have a large collection of trophies.  This mini loving cup is for Whist.  

 I paired it with a Whist rule book.

FIRST PLACE WHIST TROPHY 

These are two of the shelves on the other bookshelf.

Do you have family pieces that you treasure?

If you made it to the end of this long sentimental post, thank you for reading. 

 Everyone is allowed to digress from design for a bit, aren't they?

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A FALL WARDROBE CHANGE FOR MY LIMELIGHT HYDRANGEA

I so enjoy my limelight hydrangea and always look forward to its late summer blooms.  Unfortunately, as the weather cools, the blooms fade.   As I was cutting it back I realized that the faded blooms had transformed into the perfect warm sepia tones of Autumn.  I stopped pruning and brought out a seeded glass container.   I put some of the blooms in the recycle bucket and the others in to the vase.  I brought the oversized Fall floral arrangement inside and placed it on one of the islands in my kitchen.

OVERSIZED FALL ARRANGEMENT ON MY KITCHEN ISLAND

MY LIMELIGHT HYDRANGEA IN SEPIA TONES

I have two islands in my kitchen.  I use antique bread boards on both the islands.  I love the look of the bread boards, but they do serve a practical purpose too.  They protect the surface and act as large trivets.

MY KITCHEN ISLAND WITH THE LARGE FLORAL

If you look closely you'll see that I used some of the leaves from the hydrangea to line the vase and conceal the stems.

HYDRANGEA LEAVES IN BASE OF VASE

In addition to the bread board, I have a dough bowl on that island.  I know it takes up a lot of space, but I like it there. 

DOUGH BOWL AND BREAD BOARD ON MY ISLAND

ANTIQUE DOUGH BOWL

I arranged some branches, a found turtle shell, some glass beads and an animal horn inside.

INSIDE MY DOUGH BOWL

What do you do for Fall floral arrangements?

This is what my hydrangea looked like this summer.  To see the full post, click on the highlighted word  here or click on the image to be directed there.

MY SUMMER LIMELIGHT HYDRANGEA

MY TV GALLERY WALL

I've been working on creating a gallery wall around the TV in my family room.   I wanted the wall to be a mix of art and objects.  My goal was to try to tie in that huge black rectangle I call the TV with the framed art and objects.  The art I used was nature-inspired art from vintage books, matted inside black frames. To add interest and distract from the TV,  I mixed mirrors, turtle shells and even a mannequin with the art.

I started on the left side of the TV.  I've already written about that here.

LEFT SIDE GALLERY WALL

If you saw my post about how I pulled one side of the gallery wall together, you'll know that I've tweaked that side a bit.  The mannequin swapped her pearls for some sunglasses.

MANNEQUIN WITH SUNGLASSES

   I added a small sunburst mirror.

 

SUNBURST MIRROR

I also added another piece of framed bookplate art.

MORE ART ADDED BELOW THE MIRROR

Here's the completed wall.

BOTH SIDES OF THE GALLERY WALL

Here's the right side that I recently completed.

RIGHT SIDE GALLERY WALL

The Nate Berkus faux turtle shell breaks up the framed art and repeats 

the color green found in the room.

GREEN NATE BERKUS TURTLE SHELL

CLOSE UP OF ONE OF THE FRAMED NATURE-INSPIRED BOOKPLATES

Layering works.  The mirror straddles the two pieces of artwork.

MIRROR LAYERED OVER ART

More layering.  The shelf and demijohn are layered in front of the art.

The moss ball and stack of Hermes scarf boxes form another layer in front of the chrome shelf.

DEMIJOHN LAYERED OVER ART

Love my stack of Hermes boxes.  They're perfect risers and add another color to the room.

HERMES SCARF BOXES ADD A POP OF COLOR 

How do you deal with your TV?

To read my post about my inspiration for my gallery wall, go here.

To see the post about how I began creating this gallery wall, go here.

Mid Century Modern Brass and Chrome Shelves

You know that one of my favorite things to do is to style bookcases.  I saw this pair of Mid Century Modern shelves at a local estate sale.  The glass shelves were missing and I commented that I wished the shelves were there.  Do you believe they said that they had the shelves?  They brought them out all wrapped carefully in bubble wrap ready for transport.  Of course I bought them and was so glad I had asked about the glass.  For a while I've needed something on either side of my buffet turned TV cabinet.  They fit into the space perfectly.

MCM Shelves Flanking Buffet

It took all of half an hour to style them.  I just walked around the house grabbing what would work. My things are so used to moving around from room to room that no one objected to a new location.  The only new-to-me accessories are the brass spheres on the top shelves.

Left Shelf

Right Shelf

Need a closer look????

Framed Bookplate, Stair Finial, Faux Turtle Shell on Stack of Leather Books

My Favorite Brass Elephant Next To My New Glam Sphere

The spikey sphere on the top shelf was meant to hang on the wall but the flat back worked perfectly on the top shelf.

Another Framed Bookplate, My Santos and My New Spikey Sphere

My antlers decided to wrap around each other and overflow a large glass jar.

Antlers Interlocked in A Glass Jar

The bottom shelves have bottles and framed French engravings.

Vintage Bottles, French Engraving, Pagoda

Covered Bottles and French Engraving

Doesn't it feel good when you find something that pulls it all together?

Kathy

To see my other styled bookcases go here and here.

Some of What I'll Have at Vintagepalooza

It came up fast but this Saturday, the 15th, is Vintagepalooza  and I wanted to tempt you with some of what I'll have for sale.

The Vintage Marketplace at Glenwood
2945 RT 97
Glenwood, MD 21738

Please visit their website to see what

all the vendors are showcasing:

https://www.facebook.com/TheVintageMarketplaceatGlenwood?ref=ts&fref=ts


I'll have this fabulous garden table.  It could work inside or outside on your porch or patio.  Six can sit comfortably around it.  On top is a dough bowl with boxwood spheres and on the bottom shelf a small lazy susan.

My favorite furniture piece for this sale is this re-purposed file drawer section.  The raised panels suggested a Union Jack design to me.  I did a Union Jack variation in tones of black and gray.  I added some vintage iron legs from my stash to raise it up.  It could  be a side table or a buffet with file storage.

Front

I cascaded the pattern to the back as well as onto the front.

Back Side

I just had to share the before.

Before

For Mid Century Modern fans I'll have a brass bar cart, metal faux bamboo glass-topped table, side chair with chevron fabric, bar ware, a green demi-john with peacock feathers, and gold pheasant salt and pepper shakers.

I always love caned pieces.  I have the rails for this single bed which would make a perfect day bed.  The one-drawer night stand matches the bed.  The vintage metal wall sconce has been re-wired and has a plug.   No need to call the electrician.  The book ends are architectural fragments.  Scrolly ironwork can go inside or in the garden.

I always have to have some nature-inspired items for sale.  I filled a cloche with shells and placed it on a Pottery Barn pedestal.  The shell on a stand is faux.  The turtle shell and antlers are authentic.

I was so excited when I found these rubber stamps in their original box.
 There are 89 letters and symbols!!!!!

All things Frenchy next.  The Robin Hood flour sign is enamelware as is the canister set.  They're resting on a ledger book within a scale.

I'll have my shabby stools that got their face lifts.

This vintage vanity has curvy cabriole legs.  I recovered it in a creamy Belgium linen with braided trim and nail heads in the corners.  Check back later for tutorial.

Gotta love that leg.

I hope to see all you DC area readers on Saturday.

Kathy