Maison Decor: Store

Showing posts with label Store. Show all posts

Friday, April 24, 2015

Last Two Days in the Store: SALE

The 48 hour countdown has begun at Maison Decor.

We will be closed at the end of business day Saturday April 25, 2015.

Stop in today to see our steals and deals.

All of our gilded chalkboards have been removed and sent to our Boston

store. Justin will be doing something amazing with them I am sure.

Below is just a sampling of some items left in Reading, MA.

50% off these Pagoda prints, now $40 each.

Whimsical table painted in the MacKenzie Childs style is on

clearance for only $40 too! This is made by Shnadig Company.

Many compliments over the past two years were given to this china cabinet in the

workshop area that we used to hold our supplies for workshops.

Its a Drexel Heritage cabinet and now it has hit the floor, looking for it's forever home.

Its a steal of a deal at only $199!!

The ornate tufted French Provincial chair with original upholstery is $75.

Getting the cabinet out onto the floor took a little doing.

We asked one of our customers to help move it, lol.

Julia is high fiving Laurie after a successful move. Thanks Laurie!

A clock that needs to be finished is only $50 and an assortment

of mirrors are all marked down too. The decoupage chairs are no longer available.

Last night we raided our supply of vintage linens and filled the cabinet on the floor.

Every piece of linen in this cabinet is being sold at $5 each!!

Tablecloths, bedding, dust ruffles etc!!

Old lace adorns many of the pieces~come grab some while they last.

Our complete stencil selection has sold, BUT all the stencils

we have used in the course of doing shop business for the past two years are on sale for at least 50% off!! So come check out our pre-used stencil selection and get some smokin' deals!!

One last sip of coffee and I will be headed to the shop.

I will be teaching my last Chalk Paint® Introductory Workshop tomorrow.

So long everybody!

A Whimsical Painting Style, Mora Clocks, and My Painted Piano

Painted Furniture can be done in so many ways.

This table was done in a whimsical style copying

a well known company, MacKenzie-Childs.

MacKenzie-Childs is out of New York, and it is

recognizable due to its mix of black and white checks with

fun colors and painterly techniques. Whimsy abounds!

Gina created this table with paint and decoupage techniques.

This image shows the edge of the table where some tissue paper

was being attached using a decoupage method using Annie Sloan's

decoupage varnish. What was happening in the photo was that the shop

floor had flooded and I was taking a picture of the water all over the floor!

This is the only during process photo I have,

but essentially the table was painted with Graphite

then some actual MacKenzie-Childs tissue paper

was decoupaged on the lower shelf and along the top edges.

She decoupaged some butterflies and flowers on top of the checkered paper.

Colors were added in pinks and blues. Gina used a painterly free hand

technique on the black and white striped border along the upper rim.

Gold gilding wax was added after waxing and the crackling. She used

Annie Sloan Cracqueleur along the top to create tiny cracks for character.

Dark wax was applied after the cracqueleur to accentuate the cracks.

A little more gilding on the legs after waxing the piece.

Its charming and fun and a great knock off of MacKenzie Childs.

Think outside the box when you want to have a whimsy piece for your home.

Using decoupage and paint from Annie, your choices are unlimited!

Switching gears abit...

I don't blog that much about our wonderful Maison DecorMora Clocks.

But rest assured they are a big part of our family business!

We have had so many happy customers and we continue to

take orders and customize them and send them on their way

to their forever homes. We asked people to be a bit more

patient this holiday season as we had record breaking orders.

So just in case you were wondering how they are coming along...

The base of the clock operation is in Boston on Tremont Street at

our sister store, Pioneer Goods Company. We have created a special

clock workshop to handle all of our clock orders, and each one is carefully

created, giving it an aged appearance and antique patina.

This is our Clock Workshop!!

This photo was taken this morning by Justin at my request.

It looks like one is about ready to get shipped,

while the others are getting ready for their faces and

aged waxed finish coats.

I love seeing our clocks in their forever homes, like this one

at Dear Lillie's mom's home in New Hampshire.

It looks perfect!

I would love to have anyone who bought one of our clocks

send us photos of them so we could create a gallery

featuring them in readers and shopper's homes.

Send your pics to maisondecorinfo@gmail.com

And now to my home....

I wanted to refresh your memory of how my piano

used to look. The dark mahogany kind of swallowed up the

corner of the room. I rarely photographed that area because it felt

so dark and different than the rest of my home.

Well all that has changed! I love it white!

I used Annie Sloan Old White Chalk Paint.

I added a little detail under the hood...and I am unsure if

I am going to keep going...or not.

I love how it looks right now. And so that is probably my

clue to leave it just the way it is.

New Year Decorating Inspiration

source

Its the last day of 2013!

When a new year comes along I find it brings a unique energy.

One of all things new, a brand new start, and a time for reinventing.

Naturally I think of my home decor and now that includes the store decor.

Even if just a little bit or a whole lot, everything is

open to renewing and review.

So with that we have been working on our shop during

our closed Christmas holiday to do a little bit of tweaking,

some redesigning and remodeling.

Together with my sons, we hatched a plan to create a little

more ambience in the Maison Decor shop.

It was a basic box with 4 walls, which doesn't give us

the interior display space, nor does it give our shoppers the

experience we want them to find when they visit.

And so a wall.

Yes, my guys built us a wall in one day.

Justin used previous builder's experience and together with Colin they

had this amazing L shaped wall constructed in short order.

What a difference it is going to make!

I was so surprised at their skill in getting it up

and so excited to think of the fabulous things to come.

Funny how a simple thing can be so powerful in design.

source

The fun part comes next with using the wall for a backdrop of

placement for furniture and home decor accents.

So look for some changes in our shop and I will

be sure to share it online here of course.

The guys and I have business meetings where we discuss purely

esthetics and our design vision for Maison Decor.

We are excited to execute our vision in 2014.

Justin and I will head to Atlanta in a few weeks

to the big Home Decor & Gift Market

in search of things to bring back for our shoppers,

all selected with the Maison Decor esthetic in mind.

source

Our esthetic is going to be a mix of my true love

of Rustic French style mixed

with a bit of Shabby Chic along with Justin's preference

of Rustic American Classic Farmhouse style.

source

This wonderful eating area is a good example of the mix of styles

we will be focusing on for the shop.

Rustic with classic elements that have

a European antiquity about them.

Lanterns and chandeliers with tons of neutrals in

greys, black, ivory, white and beige.

Metals, both rusty and gilded, will mix freely side by side.

Its so invigorating to think of decor plans,

whether its for a home or for a retail location.

Maybe you are thinking of switching things up a bit too?

Perhaps start an inspiration board, whether its on Pinterest

or created in reality on your dining room table.

via House Beautiful

An inspiration board will pull all your thoughts together

and keep you focused on what you really like.

I am working on a giant inspiration board for

the shop called Maison Decor Style.

One look at the board will tell our shoppers

what our design esthetic is all about.

Finding inspiration comes from so many different places,

from fabric patterns, magazine images, paint colors etc.

My newest source of inspiration came from a long awaited book

I purchased for both the store and myself.

by Rachel Ashwell, the Shabby Chic maven and legend,

it is her latest book Couture Prairie.

It is a pictorial compilation of the ranch in Texas

that she purchased and operates as a B&B.

It is a fabulous book filled with gorgeous photos

and a mix of design styles that I am captivated by.

I have a copy in the shop opened to a page showing a big ranch hall

that has the most wonderful mix.

I posted this photo on my instagram telling my followers that

Rachel's book is now on the shelves at Maison Decor.

And just look who wrote me back....

Rachel left a comment: "Glad to be on your shelves"

It was the second time she left me a personal comment,

the first was on Christmas day when I instagrammed a pic

showing her book in my home and how I had caved in and couldn't

wait for Christmas morning to open the book and start turning the pages.

She wished me a Merry Christmas too.

She has inspired me through the years, not only in her decorating

style but also her being a small independent business woman.

So much fun on Christmas morning to get a message from one of

my decorating icons! Thank you Rachel!

I look forward to being creative and having more

decorating opportunities in the new year.

More home decorating blogging and doing,

more exciting things for our store and working together

side by side with my sons Colin and Justin as well

as having Justin's fiance, Madison join the team on a regular basis.

All these things are on our horizon as the clock

dial turns and we head into the year 2014!

via Eloquence

Happy New Year to you all!

Inspired to do just that!

making Life more Beautiful! Mora clocks and lovely things

making Life more Beautiful

That is our tag line~make Life more Beautiful!

We had the sign maker put this on our front window

and I love the feeling it conveys~

make your little world a bit more beautiful in so many

different ways. Painting older pieces of furniture, hanging a new

piece of artwork, adding a fresh group of items for an enchanting

table top vignette, a new toss pillow....

there so many ways to make life a little more beautiful, don't you think?

We have been getting in more shipments of lovely things for our shop.

This is the view from my desk and I had to snap a pic with my iphone.

New artwork and tabletop decor items have arrived and its been great

fun to add them to the walls and the pieces of furniture in the shop.

We are still loving our floor~everything looks good with it or on it.

A set of vintage inspired Pagoda prints are so fabulous!

I had to hang them by the entryway so you can't miss them!

These are truly enchanting! I imagine this set might just end up in my home,

I feel in love with them! Sorry for the reflections on the glass,

but each vintage pagoda building is surrounded by an etching framework

of floral and ribbon detail and at the bottom of the framework is

a different feature, like a ships anchor for the Swansea Mass pagoda,

A crown and butterfly for the New Iberia, Louisiana pagoda,

a bumblebee and crown for the Mystic CT pagoda,

and lastly a crown and fleur de lis for the Mount Vernon Virginia pagoda.

They are all on an antiqued paper background and

antiqued black and gold frames. Just wonderful!

I made a zebra toss pillow with lime green poms...its darling!

Really feeling the green mixed with blacks and golds.

A large artichoke finial and easel clock were added to this vignette.

A tall wooden finial with a hanging clock in black metal

with a tiny crown on the face

mixes it up in another vignette with green topiaries and orbs.

For those of you patiently waiting on your custom moras, wait no longer!

We had a longer than expected backorder of the last shipment of the clocks.

But they arrived and we made it our top priority to get them painted and finished.

We do them all be hand, each step of the way.

We had a customer who ordered one a few months ago...she was so happy with it

she placed another order to give her daughter one as a gift!

Look at these clocks! All need to be finished by hand!

We have our old Malden shop as our warehouse now so it has

made this part of the job easier.

Here the clocks are wearing their first and second coats of paint,

no antique glaze has been applied.

So be advised the clocks will be headed to their new homes

at the beginning of the week!

Wanted to share this photo Colin took of Justin in the doorway of a brownstone

in Boston this morning. They delivered a piece of furniture here.

Its a beautiful building, and the painted chest will look great in its new home.

We offer local delivery services to those who purchase furniture from us.

The other service we offer is custom painted furniture.

A customer brought in this gigantic gold mirror

she purchased at HomeGoods. Its enormous!

Its really pretty, but the gold doesn't work for her home and so we will

be custom painting this mirror in a pale grey with white so it appears

to be a white mirror, but will have the depth to show off all the detail.

When you see something like this at HomeGoods you can always customize

it to your liking. I will be showing off the whole process next week.

Colin snapped this pic through the side window while I was writing this blog post.

A little birdies view for you~that is my desk and there

are the pretty pagoda prints on the wall.

Have a great day!

Adding Patina and Ragging Walls

Thats right, a finger tip of patina...a little bit here and a little bit there.

It just brings out the antiquey goodness in a cabinet I think.

This is Gilder Paste in Patina. It mimics the turned copper look.

I like to use it in tandem with a gold color.

The cabinet is in our Workshop area and it holds our workshop supplies.

I painted it in Chateau Grey Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan.

Then I drybrushed it with Duck Egg Chalk Paint.

Followed up with some clear wax and then I was ready to add some patina.

Literally.

All the moldings got a bit of some Gilder Paste.

I used some Antique Gold Gilder Paste with the Patina.

We sell it online, and I will have a link below. It lasts forever and

I am still on my first container of all the various colors and

I even use them in my workshops!

Just remember to add gilding products after you wax.

Another way to add patina or age is by using paint. This is our lovely little bathroom in the shop. Pretty basic for basic needs...we need to add a bigger sink so we can wash brushes, and I really can't stand the look of a plain jane room~so it got a makeover this weekend.

I started with a ragged wall treatment using Annie Sloan's Antoinette and Coco Chalk Paints. Big swipes on the wall with a paint brush...then a spritz with a water bottle and then rag it in...add a little here and a little there...the next thing you know you have a marvelous looking wall!!! Its so exciting, its easy, and it hardly takes any time! Seriously! I am going to do some walls in my house!

Spritzer bottle, two cups of paint, one chip brush used for both paints, and the only other thing you need is a ladder and rags. When a rag gets really heavy with paint, you will change it out for a new one.

Woah~look at this wall! I LOVE it!!!

I added some little gilded bumble bees with a stencil from the

Royal Designs Studio line that we are thrilled to be carrying now in the shop.

But of course I used my stencil a little bit differently than they show how

to use it. I just placed them randomly about~just a few.

Here is Mr. Maison Decor in his normal attire...workboots and a cowboy hat.
I ~~begged~~ asked him if he would help me build a platform for a sink~
an idea I had was to rip off the boards from a wood pallet and make a sink console.

He was up to the task and after 12 hours it was done...
what a long day that was! Only one period of grumpiness was had,
and then we enjoyed a nice dinner out. We were both starving and although
I was wearing my worst grubby paint clothes, I still walked through the doors
of a restaurant to get dinner. I did make Mr. MD go first so I could hide behind him...
left my pride at the door. When you are hungry you don't care
that you are looking like hell in a baseball hat and paint splattered yoga pants.
He is so much the "ladies first" kinda guy, that it was hard to
get him to walk first as the hostess ushered us to our table.
We both laughed and ordered a well deserved drink.