Wednesday, February 3, 2010

just for fun...mixing it up!



just for fun, i thought i'd let you see some of the projects that keep me busy...i love to paint.....do collage.......bead.......dollhouse restoration........paint dollhouses....paint furniture.......sew.....


 this is the family room when i tried out this happy blue color...we have a big couch and a big chair slipcovered with  heavy "blue jean" .....it's great for the family room...i covered everything with blue and white fabric...floral, stripe.
we all liked the blue....but biff and i thought we'd try going back to the yellow....that we had years ago...laura ashley, cowslip 3...
http://lauraashley.valspar.com/   i love the colors because they are so clear.   gravitate to clear rather than muted or muddy...and i love those colors when i'm in someone elses house... clear colors keep me happiest.

this is the blue in the family room with a bit of the blue jean chair visible....i had little hits of black to give it some updated feel...the pillow on the chir is a great big pillow that i got at home goods and stitched on a marthas vineyard  or nantucket or new york cotton, dish towel...the stitching was with red yarn...just some idea i had when i found the dish towels at lillian august http://www.lillianaugust.com/

the black rocking chair i found in an antique store in connecticut...oh how i love the little nook and cranny antique stores.
this is the color that was in my head for the family room...a clear, crisp blue .....like a beautiful sky at the beach....who could be happier sailing on a day like this.





  

the buffet, behind the couch, was from my mom....she had it since she and my dad got married in 1949.  we had the dining room table, the breakfront and the buffet.....and one night while biff was at my mom's for dinner, he heard the "TSST" sound behind him...and he recognized the sound....his mom and dad had the same dining room set.  talk about feeling at home with each others' families!
of course, i stripped the mahogany and shabby'd it with some white and cream paint, sanded it roughly.....now it's more my style.  and my mom was so happy that we could give it new life with our family.
 
above, you can seethe painted buffet some painted mirrors from antique stores... i love when things are not so perfect and i can play with them to turn them into my style...just a little lighter in feel.  you see the candelabra style "lamp"....i  removed the electical cordsrurned into a candle-abra...abra kazoo!  i added new crystals and painted it cream...sanded a touch and attached some glass votives for candles...we use it often.   i love the cherubs...the round table  the candle--abra ka-dab-ra is on....it was a marble top table...i didn't want the marble.....i left it at the store....i took the base, painted the legs and basse....i went to lowes and bought a round pre-cut table top, painted it....and it's sweet.

  this pic is in the dining room...just to show the jade green from laura ashley.  this was here in the middle of furniture moving...it's history now but we still love the green...

these chairs were painted cream to sit at our irish pine table...we love the table and we now have chairs that are much sturdier and better suited for the table....cream of course.  i like  the textures and contrast of the two.
this is not my mom's breakfront.  i love the lines....i have some of my china in there.  some is from years of collecting...something my mom and i loved to hunt for..."chelsea" or "Grandma's tears" its called...and there are also reproductions, so you have to be careful....it is important to check it out carefully.  

so many beautiful china patterns...they deserve to be mixed and matched...i have lots of collections...it's insanity my mom passed down.....the insanity and lots of china....i do use it all...no museum living for us!
this is on the way upstairs...this house has a coat closet and a coat rack...you'd never know it after school!