the winter living room with tones of brown

Even though we are having unseasonably warm temperatures for this time of year in New Hampshire (highs in the 50's and only one night in the 10-day forecast to be below freezing- this is May weather for us:) it is still chilly outside and the trees are bare and the grass golden.

The living room with its simple mantel and the room with its many tones of brown feels calm and cozy to me; a feeling I love in these quiet winter months.

Walls are Benjamin Moore Ashwood OC-47 in eggshell.  Ceiling is Benjamin Moore White Dove in Pearl.  Trim is White Dove in Latex Satin Impervo.

(all paint and stain information can be found on my sidebar)

The living room from the entry.  

While I agree with the interior design adage that a room should always have a touch of black in it I, personally, am innately drawn to brown.  I think the naturistic quality of brown grounds a space and since all my rooms have so much "nature" in them it always works well, besides being pleasing to my eye.

The entry chest of drawers (circa 19th c.) is topped with 18th c. velum books and antique Chinese blue and white porcelains, vintage brass French Bouillotte-style lamp with a 70's brass and capiz shell lampshade (I'm obsessed with these lately:) and antique oil painting we found in Provence- "Aunt Minerva" -we name everything:) usually resides in the reading room.

The 23-year old ivy topiary shares the brass tray table with a little ceramic brown and off-white garlic-shaped holder that was a love gift (when my family gives gifts for no reason we call them love gifts!) from my sister Patti she found at Red Onion in Baton Rouge.  (If you live in the area it is a wonderful shop!)  I had just filled the room with browns when it arrived in a package a couple of months ago- perfect timing!  I love the color, texture and how it looks next to the leopard pillow.  It's the little details, yes?!   Thank you Patti...

I usually have two soft-blue velvet pillows on each back corner of the sofa, but I changed those out to brown velvet this year for the winter months.  I added another faux fur throw to this sofa, which the girls love :)

 I adore this brown silk lampshade on the antique Chinese green-glazed terracotta baluster made into a lamp.  When the light is off the shade is the color of the dark trim that you see in this photo- a dark chocolate brown.  You can see the brown velvet pillow in this photo. 

Antique:

  demi-john lamp, chinoiserie table, Santos, French gilt finial and Russian brass jardiniere.

 Leopard pillow on the left was made from a vintage muff.  The pillow on the right was originally two individual vintage hand-warmers that I found at an antique shop.  I sewed them back together and added a down-filled insert.

Old silver-plated doves/pigeons...columbidae!

Although "Mavis" is technically in the reading room, I thought she should be included in this post since she is donning the vintage leopard collar/headband (that was purchased with the muff pillow,) wearing it as a winter wrap:)

hope you're having a wonderful weekend!  

the reading room today

You might recall that the last time I showed you the reading room we had just found a free antique pedestal table on the side of the road!  HERE.  As much as I loved that table- especially for its story;) I knew it was always a "filler" until the perfect table came along.  

It finally did!

I found this antique, circa mid 1800's, iron table with black marble top in Vermont.  

I adore the table and love that it is around the same circa as the house.  The room is small, so it makes the space seem much more open.

I left the iron base in its current state which is an off-white painted finish with iron rust coming through the paint in the form of spots/speckles.  I'm guessing it spent years in an old barn/shed being semi-exposed to elements.  

I'm going through a "keep it clean" look at present (the kitchen island has absolutely nothing on it, which is unusual for me;) so the table is topped with two antique green glazed Chinese parrots (they are unusually tall and only part of our collection), a piece of white coral, and a demi-john bottle with a hydrangea branch from the garden.

Walls are painted Ashwood OC-47 by Benjamin Moore. Trim is White Dove by Benjamin Moore.  (All my paint and stain colors can be found on my sidebar for future reference.)

Antique brass chandelier purchased 23 years ago in Houston for our first house in Eastmoreland in Portland, Oregon, it was also used for a while in our home in Dallas.

I recently changed out the regular bent-tip frosted light bulbs for these silicone-tipped bulbs HERE from Lumiere Candles.  These have a regular/standard-size base (as opposed to a chandelier-size base) and are 15 watts each.  I just love their bulbish/squatty shape!  They look perfect in the antique brass chandelier. 

Don't  forget that Lumiere Candles offers a 10% discount coupon code for my readers HERE. I love their: real wax sleeves, large diameter solid candle covers (which are so difficult to find),   their silicone-dipped bulbs, and their large translucent candle covers (which are impossible to find ;)  They also have resin candle sleeves and covers when for the times when you need a higher wattage bulb than what is allowable for the real wax sleeves.

(No, I am not being paid to endorse this company!  I simply love their beautiful products and the owners are super nice and they have wonderful customer service.)

I've removed some things from the top of the antique Italian case piece and illuminated the antique oil painting.
The simple French fauteuil chair was found in Marseille, France.  I had it covered in natural linen with a vintage alligator back.  A better photo of the back  HERE.

I moved several of the antique mirrors from a guest bedroom HERE to the reading room.  I love a good stack of antique mirrors!  The antique large gilded mirror in the back is French as is the Louis Philippe mirror in the center.  The small iron cushion mirror in front was found in France. Antique Chinese blue and white temple jar made into lamp and large aged brass ball sits on antique English chest.  Vintage mink muff turned pillow sits on a vintage Louis XV fauteuil (one of a pair.) 

"Mavis" is donning a vintage leopard collar around her waist for the cold winter months:)  You can read a story about her HERE.

On top of the stack of books sitting next to the Martha Washington chair is a book (National Gallery of Art, Washington) that we received as a wedding present 27 years ago from a friend (thank you Sue!)   I have always adored the painting on the cover.  

I like how in this photo you can see what the lamp shade looks like with the light on (front) and the pattern on the shade (in the back)  The story of the bookcase door HERE.  The bookcase is filled with antique books/reference books, small paintings, coral, antique iron urn, part of our collection of antique tortiseshell boxes and more of our collection of antique Chinese glazed terracotta green birds.

The south wall.

We found this antique oil painting in Marseille, France.  We named her Aunt Minerva.  She resonates with me. I love that she is reading a book in the reading room :)

An antique country English Chippendale chair with 18th antique vellum books and a bronze mold of a "nude."

The vintage painting on the east wall by artist Jerry Wilkerson.

Antique English oil painting entitled "Cottage in Devonshire" by listed artist James Poole in original frame. Circa 1850.

To see the reading room over the years and to read more about items in the room...

HERE

HERE

Note:  photographs taken for this post where taken in the early evening with lamps and lights on which casts a different light over the space than the daytime lighting in previous posts.

everything has a story: ivory escutcheons

When I showed the South guest bedroom I mentioned that there was a story having to do with the antique chest-of-drawers that would convince you (if you weren't already;) of Dan's talent as a craftsman!

When we found this antique English chest-of-drawers in Dallas many years ago it had a big "HOLD" tag on it.  It was also missing one knob, an ivory escutcheon and another knob was badly broken and not usable.  (For those not familiar with the term, an "escutcheon" is a protective or ornamental plate or flange- as around a keyhole.) 

I loved the chest, the price was right and I didn't concern myself at the time at how we (i.e. Dan ;) would remedy the missing knobs and escutcheon.  I was more concerned with the big, ole "HOLD" tag that meant I couldn't buy it!  It was on hold until the next day at 5 p.m.  So, the following day we arrived at the antique shop at 4:45 and waited!  5 o'clock came and went and we asked the staff to call the person to see if they were going to take it.  The person decided against it because the width didn't fit their space and we snapped it up!  

Replacing the missing knobs turned out to be fairly easy.  As is often the case on antique chests, the hardware has been replaced over the hundred plus years of its life to what was the latest "style"- yes, they even had trends back then!  For example, when this chest was initially made it was designed to have brass pulls.  It later became fashionable for chests to have "wooden" knobs, so the brass pulls were removed, the holes plugged/patched and new holes for the wooden knobs were drilled.  It is rather rare to find an antique chest that didn't go through this type of modification over the course of its lifetime.
When we bought the chest there was a wooden knob in the top center drawer.  In this photograph you can even see the indentation from the knob around the ivory escutcheon.  It took a while to figure out that the reason this knob wasn't in line with the other two top drawer knobs (which can also be seen in this photograph) was because originally this drawer didn't have a pull of any kind and was only opened using a key. When we removed the knob in the center top drawer we found the hole that outlined where the original ivory escutcheon had been, but the escutcheon was gone.  They had used that hole to place the wooden knob which is why it didn't line up with the other two drawers.   So, now we needed to replace not one, but two escutcheons.  We removed this knob with the intention of leaving the center drawer accessible only via a key as it had been originally designed, and used the knob as the replacement for the one that was broken.  We then went to our go-to place for miscellaneous antique parts in Dallas: Uncommon Market  and found a replacement for the missing knob.  

In this close-up photograph you can see where the holes for the original brass pulls were patched- probably 100 years ago!  The other telltale sign that the knobs weren't original is how they overlap the ivory escutcheon- it would never have been designed that way.

  Replacing the ivory escutcheons proved to be more difficult. For the next month, or so, we discussed all the possibilities of what we could use to replace the missing escutcheons.  We had several antique ivory billiard balls that we had found in France, but if you've ever priced them they can range, on average, from $95-$195 each, so no one was going to cut up an antique billiard ball!

About this time our next door neighbor who had just retired and was preparing his home to sell called and said he was cleaning out his garage and asked Dan if he would like some boxes of old tools that had belonged to his father.  Well, of course Dan would like some old tools! 

The boxes contained years of accumulated random odds and ends, some wonderful tools AND, 

(now, hold on to your hat ;) 

as luck would have it.....

half of an antique ivory billiard ball!   

I can hear you saying "Get out"!!  No, you get out!!!! :):)

 Our neighbor had no idea why his father would have had an antique billiard ball, but you can imagine our surprise and delight upon finding it!  Something like a needle in a haystack, only better!

Then began the process for Dan to try to figure out how in the world do you get a paper thin escutcheon out of a round ivory ball?!  

Since each escutcheon was initially hand cut, no two of the shield shapes were alike.  Dan started by tracing the shield outline from the holes in the drawers on paper (those are the two paper samples on the left) and then transferring the pattern onto a piece of cut ivory (the two cut ivory samples are on the right).  But, that all makes it sound too easy- this is  not an episode of "This Old House" where everything is perfect the very first time!!  First he had to figure out "how to cut" the ivory...

  Keeping in mind that he only had so much material to work with, (i.e. only a partial billiard ball) there was no room for error.  Dan quickly found out that because the ivory was so brittle the cut couldn't be too thin or it would break the second he started working on it.  Just when he thought he'd have a perfect piece a chip would break off and he would have to start over .  After several failed attempts he realized to prevent breakage he needed to cut the slices thicker than what would fit flush in their respective drawer holes.   He made the initial slices using a coping saw (that's for all you men out there reading;) and then used a Dremel drill with a sanding attachment and a utility knife to gingerly shape the shield design.  Next, he turned a belt sander upside down and held the escutcheon down with his finger to get the shield down to the proper thickness so it would fit flush on the drawer front.  The last step was cutting out the keyhole in the now paper-thin center of the ivory piece.  Using the Dremel drill and making many small drills he eventually made the opening into the shape of a keyhole.

The finished product, though this was one of the culls that didn't quite make the cut!

After gluing the new escutcheons in place they were just a little too white, so I lightly oiled them in Old English (Dark) to age them and they were perfect!  So much so, in fact, that to this day neither Dan, nor I, can tell you which one (other than the top drawer) is the one he made!

(To read other "everything has a story" posts click HERE)

pillows and cushions

While working on the barn room I've been thinking a lot about pillows, or cushions-  a term you often encounter when looking at "antique" pillows, so I thought I would share some of the pillows and cushions I have around the house all together in one post.

I feel pillows send the message:  please relax and be comfortable in this room!  
Since I love antiques I often use vintage and antique fabrics in making pillows/cushions.




Our living room sofa is covered with down-filled pillows and cushions.  The 18th and 19th century antique Flemish tapestries that I had made into cushions are my very best antiquing find and buy...ever!  They share the sofa with light cocoa-colored swirl-patterned pillows and two gray velvet pillows.

I love re-purposing vintage fur "muffs" into pillows.  This one in the living room is mink.





This small pillow, the same velvet on the sofa, was sized to perfectly fit the French chair in the living room.

 An antique tapestry piece with pea-green ticking is a cushion on the chair in the master closet.

A rectangular chocolate velvet pillow shares the linen chaise in the master bedroom with an antique tapestry cushion.  The delicate trim on the edge of the tapestry is also antique.

This pillow was made using the reverse side of the fabric which was softer in color and worked better in the master bedroom.

A large antique Flemish verdure tapestry made into a cushion shares the bed with two raw silk pillows in one of the guest bedrooms.

The beautiful piece of antique red velvet and hand-stitched gold scroll-work was originally a bell pull.  The large linen pillow expands the width of the full-sized bed in the other guest room. 

 Another vintage muff turned pillow- this one in leopard sits in a chair in the reading room.

Antique tapestry cushions at the kitchen dining room table.

 Master bedroom bed pillows.  The large cushion is made from an antique kilim rug.




And, finally- another mink muff made into a pillow in the master bath.




To find gorgeous 16th/17th and 18th century antique decorative cushions contact Debra at
 Oreillers .