Toile Curtains from sheets and an Amazing Decorating Book!

 Decorating is a never ending process for me. 

 A space should never get old or boring to your eyes and keeping things pretty and fresh is kind of what I do....all the time, in between my mom and housewife duties of course.  My kitchen is quite small and dark and has one window that used to wear a pair of lace panels.  Next, I made some green and white buffalo check panels, but moved them to our back door for privacy and light control. So I have been pondering what to do with the kitchen window, especially since the house is going to be photographed in ten days or so for Romantic Country magazine.  While shopping for bedding I ran across a set of twin sheets by Tommy Hilfiger, in a pretty green toile with deer and a woodland setting.  I decided they would make cute curtains in the kitchen, perfect for the cottage vibe I have going.

 Incredibly easy to stitch just a rod pocket at the top, and hem the sides, as I split the flat sheet into a pair of panels.  They are a 60/40 cotton poly blend so they should wash up without any shrinkage.  I think they are really sweet and add that bit of personality I was looking for in the kitchen.  

 The leftover bit is on the dining room table for now. 

Yardage with sheeting is fantastic and its easy on the pocketbook too.

And speaking of always decorating....

 Hold on to your hats!!  I have just finished reading and drooling over this new book from Leslie Sinclair, SEGRETO VIGNETTES.  Leslie is a gifted decorative painter turned entrepreneur, author and designer.  This is the third book she has written and its fantastic! Let me tell you about Segreto, if you are unfamiliar.  They are a company of incredible artists that create amazing finishes for the home.  From walls to ceilings, from floors to cabinets, you will never see finishes more beautiful than you will from Segreto.  Based in Texas, some of the most beautiful residences have been touched by the artists of Segreto.  What is so wonderful about this book, and her other books, is that you get to have amazing tours of incredible homes, one after another.  

 Leslie sent me some of her book images so I could share them with you all.  This dining room has a special plastered ceiling that has been polished with wax to give it a reflective glass like quality. Of course she did the walls too, and I love seeing the light fixtures and the beautiful furnishings in these rooms, don't you?

 This book not only discusses trends in fine finishes, but it also focuses on some of a home's rooms in particular:  The Kitchen, The Bedroom, and The Bath.  When she told me that part of the book shows off Bedroom Retreats, I was very happy as that is one room that has always been difficult for me in my home.  I hoped I would get some ideas and inspiration that I could steal and use for my bedroom.

After seeing so many beautiful bedrooms I came to the conclusion that I would need to start from scratch, hahah!  Well not really, but her lovely rooms all start from a calming zone of neutrals, and that indeed is one sure way to get a bedroom that is a retreat.  Of course many of these rooms have a french flair, and the fabrics and furnishings were just a treat to look at.  Look at the big trumeau mirror and the slipcovered chairs in the sitting area of this bedroom. A window over the bed is disguised with shutters and balanced off with drapery panels, creating a back drop for a pretty bed.  How to work with problem areas and use finishes and other tricks to are also covered in this book.  It is essentially a decorating handbook for creating a GORGEOUS home!! 

Ideas are worth millions.  At least I think so.  When I get my hands on something as special

as Leslie's latest book, Segreto Vignettes, I know it will stoke the fires in my imagination as it relates to my own home or other projects I may be working on.  Stenciling a wall can be so amazing, when it is done as beautifully as the Segreto team does it, and images such as this, make me wonder where I can create similar magic.  So get inspired and get your hands on what will sure to be a staple in your decorating library.  I still look at my first two books from Segreto, and I know this new book will get dogeared pages from repeated reference.  One thing I like to mention is that Leslie is a very lovely person, and she has been supportive to me in my business and family life.  She has created an amazing small business for herself, and I am so impressed that she self publishes her books to bring her portfolio, her ideas and her tips to us readers.  So best of luck Leslie, and I am proud to have your newest book in my collection. 

If a book loaded with heavy glossy pages of beautiful interiors and decor ideas interest you,

you won't be disappointed. I give this book an 11 on a scale of 1-10.

To purchase Segreto Vignettes click here. 

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Spraying my French Day Bed Fiasco, Getting Old and more

Before we get to my fiasco this week, I did have a triumph to share.

 Here is a little consignment project I took on this month. 

I don't do much painting of furniture anymore since my shop closed, but

a friend from my tennis days asked me if I would...so I agreed.  What I love about this is

that you can see how a perfectly fine piece of furniture (not antique) can look a bit dated in a room.

After painting it with Annie Sloan's Paris Grey and giving it a hand rubbed clear wax finish, 

the icing on the cake was giving the server (and the china cabinet, not shown) new hardware.

 A trick for any of you who want to change to a knob instead of pulls, is to use a backplate.

That can cover the old holes of the pulls, and then you simply drill one hole in the center and 

push the knob stem through the hole of the backplate.  We picked this hardware out from Myknobs.com and we were careful to not select acrylic knobs (they don't look that great).  Glass is ok, but crystal is BEST!  We loved the difference it made in the room.  

And while I was there putting on the hardware, I noticed that my friend had left a photo on the server.  I didn't even look at it for the first fifteen minutes...then I realized it was a photo of us and all the other tennis pals from twelve years ago!! 

Wow, I really feel old now.  I am on the right in the lilac top.  Smokin' hot, right? Haahah!!  It was the year I met my husband to be, and so it was the year that my life changed forever.  No wonder he wanted to date me. And why do we, as women, get so critical about ourselves only to figure out as time passes that we had no reason to be.  Anyway, I stopped playing tennis a few years later, and I miss all the fun we had together.  The gal right next to me is the one that gave me the piano that I painted white.  She moved away to Florida.  Life has a way of carrying on, doesn't it?  Anyway I have to say my forties were so much fun, and now that I am almost through the next decade, I am having an adjustment with the things age is doing to me.  Ugh, right?  Enjoy where we are, because I suppose when I blog in ten more years, I will be saying how fabulous my fifties were and what was I thinking??  

Mr. Maison Decor and I went to dinner at a french restaurant that we love to celebrate nine years of marriage.  Twelve all together, as we started dating in April, and we married three years later in April too.  Happy years and a happy union, its been the best thing that has ever happened to both of us, and how I know this, is that he wrote me a letter and told me so.  How sweet is that?  

 Soon I will be writing a blog post on how I am suffering from ADD, because I have so many projects going on at once.  And this project is the French Day Bed project.  The bed is a rusty mess, and anything I put on it gets rust marks.  I am making a Sunbrella cover for the mattress I bought for it (another project with Matthew Mead) and so I wanted to preserve the rusty look by coating it....so I went to Lowes and talked to some guy in the paint department, looking for an Exterior grade clear coverage thing.  

 I went home with this...when I applied it, it was so noxious, that all the doors and windows had to be flung open...the house still stunk. I finally dragged it outside myself after barracading the dog in the kitchen behind a bench.  He is afraid to go around stuff, so I take advantage of that, haha. 

 He is so funny. He was whining his heart out to let me in...you can see his toys and stuff all over the floor, and my basil plant waiting to go outside as well sitting on my Matthew Mead french settee, which doubles as a dining room barrier.

So the bed went outside...after awhile I checked to see if all the rust was now encapsulated.

NOPE. Turns out this inhibitor spray is an oil!! And now I had rusty oil all over the bed.  GRRR. So I washed it all down with a bucket and scruffy sponge and some Mrs. Meyers.  I was over the fumes and now mad that it was going to take another step to get my bed ready for the cushion I was sewing.

My supplies in the cellar yielded a can of this spray...so I gave it a try.  After that dried, I wiped it with a paper towel and rust was still coming off.  A facebook friend said she had to do two coats, so I just applied another coat today. If that doesn't work, I am going to have hubs take it to the autobody guy and ask him to spray it for me.  I won't have a rust finish if I do that, but at this point I am OVER trying to figure out how to preserve this rusted look.  Hahha.  Ok, that is the latest from here....I will be stitching up the sunbrella cushions and pillows and hoping the weather turns warmer so I can get some outdoor living started! 

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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.

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Dining Room Makeover and Thanksgiving Day

Our dining room has been undergoing a few cosmetic changes in the 

past few weeks.  It all started with getting the enormous purple turkey

platter to add to my transferware collection.  I decided to take down the

mirror in the dining room and put more of my transferware on the wall.

After the purple was added, the blue opaline chandelier clashed, so I 

decided to finally hang up a different antique chandelier I had been hanging

onto for over a year.  "Not for sale" was the tag on it, as I used it in my shop

for adding ambience.  I planned to hang it someday, but didn't know where.

Do you buy things because you love them, and then hold onto them until

the perfect place presents itself it? On occasion I do, particularly with antique

chandeliers.  We will move one day, and when we do, I will pull an Ernest Hemingway's

wife move, where she took down all his ceiling fans in his Key West house and installed

her antique French chandelier collection while Ernest was off on a fishing trip.

But I digress...So gone was the beautiful blue next to the dramatic purple, and 

the room was feeling better to my eyes.  Purple is a tricky color to use in 

home interiors, too much is too much!! Purple plates on the wall feel just about 

right.  I may be adding a purple damask, toile or checkered roman shade or swedish

shade in the windows, but thats about it for adding more purple.

Sylvia and Tobey always run into the room when I start snapping 

photos.  Everytime. Finally they get bored and toddle off. So you may

see bits and pieces of them in these shots.  Dillon is too mature to care 

about trying to get into any photos on the blog.  So while I was switching out

chandeliers, (or should I say Mr. Maison Decor was doing that), I was

also happily working in my new vintage French Settee for seating.

But after I added that, I hated the chairs I had. They were too low in

profile and didn't feel balanced opposite the taller cane back settee.

See what I mean?  One chair was being painted, but since I wasn't

feeling it, the rest stayed in their natural state until I could get excited 

about keeping them.  And so the day before Thanksgiving I saw a post 

in Facebook by one of my customers who paints furniture with our 

Chalk Paint.  She was selling a set of 6 French Provincial cane back chairs!

I sent her a private message on Facebook, and in 3 hours her hubby was

delivering them into my house!  Hehehe...yes a LOT of planning was 

involved. NOT.  I just knew I would love them, so I bought them, and I was

also happy to do business with another small business owner, who happened

to be a good customer of my own shop.  Her business is called Melissa's Perfect Piece. 

Melissa paints furniture with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, 

and sells from her home and markets her furniture 

on Facebook if you want to look her up.

So I had my FP cane back chairs to go with my French settee I bought

from another small business guy, designer/stylist Matthew Mead.

But Thanksgiving was next up, and so I pushed the settee in front 

of the backyard window, and used all of my chairs for the 8 or 9

we had coming over for dinner.  I was already plotting on the new

floor plan after this holiday was in the books.

This morning I had Mr. MD help me remove the extra table leaf

and then switch the settee and the chairs around.  I took the solid 

cherry chairs to my shop where they are now for sale.

 I love this settee! And my purple plates!

I put two big linen pillows and one small 

quilted purple velvet pillow on the settee.

There was one other thing I did the day before Thanksgiving...

It involved breaking out my Annie Sloan paint....

I couldn't have the library/office cabinet stay 

that soft blue color anymore...it had to go!

So French Linen to the rescue. I am still in the process of deciding what

else I want to do to it, but I like the darker grey in the mix.

And it all started because of a Turkey plate and a French settee....

I never got a family photo taken during the holiday.

But we had a great time, and hope you did too!

 One last thing...I like having some greenery in this room.

So there are various urns and containers carrying plants 

and orbs with lights.  I may have just the perfect French bistro

side table to put here to hold them all...

 If I can squeeze it in and it looks right, I will show you next time.

But its time to move onto Christmas decorating isn't it?

Looking forward to decorating a little bit more with naturals

this year, and some sparkle of course. Thanks for reading the blog,

its fun writing it, and I get a kick out of having some of my 

blog readers come by the shop to say hi, some of them

from across the country, like yesterday!  So this is a special

hello to Yolanda and her awesome husband and daughter

from Indiana.  You guys rock!!

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Updating a desk with Chalk Paint

Update your traditional furniture with Chalk Paint and a few tips.

Often times we are asked at the shop to hunt for specific pieces of 

vintage furniture for clients. We have contacts with auction houses and 

can usually source what we need to find in a few weeks.  Ana wanted

a drop front desk that we would paint to go with her decor.

Sometimes it seems that what you were looking for was plentiful,

but as soon as you want to buy it becomes very scarce!

It took us about a month when finally we came upon two options

at one auction. A very french style drop front desk up on legs.

and a more traditional New England style drop front desk

we call a Governor Winthrop desk. 

We purchased both at auction and Ana chose the Governor Winthrop.

We still have the french desk, and I will be painting that soon for the shop.

This grainy auction pic above shows the mahogany desk with ball and claw feet.

 After Ana made a visit to Maison Decor at 150 Main Street, Reading, MA, 

the colors were chosen for the desk.  Here it is with two coats of 

Coco Chalk Paint by Annie Sloan on the exterior.  

No waxing had been done yet. All the hardware was removed, 

but was being painted and gilded per Ana's custom order.

 This is our trick for painting hardware if we have to remove it. 

 Get some thick cardboard and push the drawer pull right through 

the cardboard and it will stay still while you paint and wax it. No dirty fingers! 

And no lost hardware, it all stays nice and neat until its ready to be reattached. 

The hardware above was just getting coated with the clear and dark

 wax to protect and seal it.  After this step it would be gilded for the finishing touch.

 The interior of the desk has a little surprise! 

It is finished with a contrast color, Duck Egg!

A pale green-blue color that is the number one selling color in our shop. 

The desk above is shown before wax was applied. 

 Ana wanted a dark wax finish, and as you should know, 

that is done only after clear wax is applied.  

We waxed this in traditional fashion by first applying clear wax,

 followed by dark wax.

Do it in sections and then wipe off the excess wax with a soft clean rag.  

We use our large wax brush to apply the clear wax and our 

special dark wax brush to apply the dark wax. If you only have one wax brush, 

use it for the clear wax, and apply the dark wax with a rag. 

 Don't cross contaminate your wax brushes as you want to 

make sure clear waxing stays clear on your next piece.

  Look for all of our wax brushes in our online store as well if you are interested. 

Many ask how do we paint and wax the cubbies? 

 Switch out your brush for a soft rag. Use one rag for clear wax 

and one rag for dark wax. Using my fingers wrapped in a rag 

I get a little wax and spread it around. Then I follow up 

with a rag using dark wax, rubbing it all into the painted wood.

For the narrow side slots I wrapped a rag around a 

painters stirrer stick and applied the wax 

into the recessed area where fingers could not fit.  

After the waxing, I applied German Silver Gilder Paste using 

our Gilder brush to highlight the outside edges of the cubbies.

The edges of the cubbies and the tiny knobs to the apothecary drawers 

were gilded afterwards with German Silver Gilder's Paste, 

our number one selling color of gilding paste.  

Its a champagne gold color and looks pretty amazing

 with any choice of Chalk Paint color.  

Makes for a pretty interior, doesn't it?

Interior is all finished and it looks amazing!

This is such a neat little touch that really makes for an 

elegant presentation when the drop front is opened. 

The interior and exterior shown above with clear 

and dark wax with gilded cubbies.

Now all that is left is to add the hardware back on!

It is also gilded for a bit of understated bling.

Update your older furniture~its simply amazing!

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