Our Home Tour 2017

Our Home Tour 
I recently updated the photos to show how our home looks now.
My rooms are always being redecorated for one season or occasion,
or simply because I am rearranging my furniture!  
Can you relate? 
I hope you enjoy the tour of our home~
From the courtyard and garden shed, to our small front yard,
take a walk around and come on in!

 French Courtyard

Garden tool shed 

Rose arbor and wire bench

White picket fence for the dogs

Our new addition,  little Piper, an English Cream Golden Retriever

Living room image via Romantic Country Magazine Spring 2017

A piano, painted white, is played by our son.

French chair in living room in my favorite toile!

Antique and rare, our blue opaline chandelier drops and goblets.

We use these goblets on Easter to celebrate.

Dining room, french romantic style. 

Purple transferware is my obsession,
as is antique lighting.

 One of many sets of curtains for the dining room, these in pink linen

Our two year old boy, Colby

Purple transferware on the hutch, decked out for Christmas with greens

 French settee I purchased from Designer Matthew Mead, 
which led to our friendship and many adventures

It sits underneath cabinet doors removed from an old built in.

Hallway in the kitchen with an old green bench.

Our cottage kitchen, accents of green

Green and purple do so well together

Piper in the tv room, underneath a landscape mural I painted

A sisal runner in grey for our busy household 

 Our master bed with pretty Belgian spread,
aquamarine is the order of the day.

My favorite antique~this painted table

A restful escape at the end of long days.

Master bathroom countertop has touches of aquamarine as well.

The painted cabinets are a pale Duck Egg blue with gold hardware

His and hers, sinks and chandeliers!

Thanks for visiting! 

Photographs by Matthew Mead and Amy Chalmers. Please do not use without permission.

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Shockingly Cheap Belgian Linen Panels for my Dining Room and little Reeve

 The finest linen is made in Belgium, and so it was a shocking surprise when I found Belgian Linen panels at rock bottom pricing at HomeGoods! Run, don't walk, if you are interested

 in getting some linen panels for your home.  I have purchased curtain panels from HG before,

but I have never seen linen panels, and there were several colors and styles.

 White ruffled linen, lined and at 96" long, these couldn't get into my cart fast enough.  This package is a PAIR of panels, not just one.  YES!! A pair for $89 bucks.  So do the math, lined, ruffled linen for less than $50 a panel.  The other panels I scored were in a mineral blue color.  These were shorter at 84", unlined, and rod pocket style, at $59.  I am redecorating my family room in a Swedish color palette, and these would look perfect for what I had in mind. Hopefully I will be sharing that room soon.   Piper the puppy is putting a dent into my productivity however.

 The long white panels were irresistible, and I have to say they look wonderful!  

 If you are looking for a refresher, go hunt some down for yourself, you won't regret it!

This room feels light and airy~perfect for summer. 

Ruffles are on the leading edges of the panels, and I let them hang straight down

 to the floor, without pulling them back. I am in love with the look of these panels.  

My little sidekick, Piper, joined me when I hung up the panels. 

 She is so sweet, and I am really enjoying her puppyhood.  

But she is not the only new little one in my life....

We were blessed with the arrival of little Reeve. 

 She is my first grandchild, and I am over the moon about her. 

 Could she be any cuter??

My life is full, and I am on a high enjoying these new additions to our family.  

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Pink Linen Curtains for my French Dining Room

 Perhaps I have been swayed by the popularity of blush pink in interiors this year.

It is a color that is everywhere these days....

Pink is a color I have always been attracted to, and yet it can be a bit much

in "regular" rooms, often relegated to babies rooms or young girls.  Maybe since 

I have a grand daughter on the way, this desire for more pink in my own house

was too much to ignore.

 Whatever the reason, I ordered a bolt of pink Irish linen to create

a pair of panels for the dining room windows.  I rolled out 3 yard increments

on the dining room table for each of the four panels.  These would not be lined,

yet simply hung with a straight stitched rod pocket and hemline.

 A french console with a pink marble top that used to be in my shop's foyer was installed between the pair of windows, underneath the venetian mirror.  Its a nice narrow display space for flowers, dishes, candles or whatever I want to highlight.  The pink looks pretty with the purple transferware collection.  Harkens back to my seventh grade bedroom, which as done in pink and purple with French provincial canopy bed.  The set was a little girl's dream,

 and I was lucky enough to have one at the age of 12.  

 We eat dinner in this room every night as a family, and most often we dine on placemats instead of a table cloth, as placemats are easier to launder.  I made a set of pink toile placemats about twelve years ago and they have stood up so well over time and repeated washings.  Sewing can really come in handy when you want specific styles in draperies, pillows, placemats, napkins and the like.  Sewing gives me the ability to showoff my personal style, and I won't see it anywhere else.

 A pair of antique gilded candlesticks from my blogging friend Cindy at Edith + Evelyn Vintage's etsy shop grace the French console.  She has many french accessories in her online shop.

I traded the candlesticks for some of my purple transferware with Cindy, which was really fun.

I am looking forward to seeing my old plates gracing her beautiful French home on her blog.

 My centerpiece is an antique garden trug that Matthew Mead gifted me.

I placed a pink gardening shovel in the trug that I found on our trip to Long Island.  

The shovel was about the only pink thing for sale at the White Flower Farmhouse shop.

This room's redecoration is a nod to spring and summer, 

and the lightheartedness these months bring to our daily living.  

Looking forward to the French doors opening to the courtyard, white wine and soft

summer breezes.  Centerpieces will be made up with cuttings from the garden pink roses.  

The pink draperies will get changed back to the grey after Labor Day, 

but until then, we will be in full spring and summer mode, here at Maison Decor.

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