Maison Decor: tole

While waiting for spring weather to arrive I have been keeping busy by getting things on my wish list checked off, so that when it finally does get nice outside I will be ready! And I think that the snow and rain and generally awful weather in Boston has had an effect on my desire to brighten up the interior around here. Florals have been really attractive to me lately, (hence my decoupaged floral desk a few weeks ago) and when I saw this brand new line of pillows by artist Jennifer Lanne of New York, I couldn't wait to get one for myself. She creates beautiful artwork, based on historical references, generally Rococo in feel, and has turned them into full blown version of European Old World Gypsy Boho style art that I think are amazing! She came up with the idea of taking her paintings and putting the images onto fabrics and released them this week for sale. So I was first in line, and now I have my own art pillow by Jennifer Lanne!

This is from her website ( I will provide a link at the bottom of the post, don't worry!) and it shows off her style very nicely. There is MY pillow, far right, tipped in a vertical position. I was tempted by the pillow front and center, but decided the overall turquoise pillow with small roses would look best for my home. She also has fabric tuffets and eiderdowns to choose from. Anyway, her artwork is one of my current obsessions~and come to find out we will be in the same field at Brimfield, next month, and our tents are back to back! I love it when the universe lines things up like this! Justin, my son, and I will be at New England Motel lot #40, and you will find a mix of Maison Decor Frenchy stuff with his Pioneer Goods, rustic stuff!! You can see us and then check out Jennifer Lanne's amazing booth all at the same time! Dates of Brimfield Antique Fair are May 10-15, 2016.

Ok, so back to my house~I just propped it up on my iron daybed to show it off. It looks pretty in my kitchen on the old worn green painted bench and just as pretty on the living room sofa! I guess I will let Fifi O'Neill decide where to put it when she comes to shoot my house in June. Thats another reason I am getting a few projects done around here, a magazine shoot will make you spring into action like nothing else! I plan to make a Sunbrella cover for the daybed mattress before it goes outside for the season, as you can see the foam sticking out on the end.

I will be doing a project with Matthew Mead for Sunbrella Fabrics, and in the corner you can spy some of the gorgeous Sunbrella that just arrived! I also got a bolt that you can barely see that is all white and it looks like a duck cloth, which I plan to use as the mattress cover. The celery green and the lilac geometric will likely be pillows. He will be shooting my courtyard and its going to be terrific fun getting it all looking amazing outside.

Since the daybed is an oddball size, as its likely 100 years old, I found a 4" thick foam mattress at Walmart that I cut to size with my electric carving knife. I plan to spray the bed an antique Parisian green, then put the white cover on it with the pretty green and purple pillows!! Maybe have a monogram on a pillow or two...can't wait to see this project come to life.

And in the kitchen, I finally got Mr. Maison Decor to switch out my kitchen chandelier for this old Italian Tole number that I have had for years. It was offered for sale in my shop but no one ever bought it. One lady would come in and look at it every few months, but she never bought it. It was the weirdest thing, haha. I wonder if she wishes she pulled the trigger and bought it after we closed up the shop? Anyway, I just love these kind of chandeliers. All handmade by some Italian craftsman. It has the original paint on it, and I think it looks great with my cottage kitchen.

As you may know, I just love antique or vintage lighting and I think it adds so much personality to a room. As does artwork and fabrics of course...its so nice to add a refresher for spring in the way of a new pillow or two, and with that, why don't you pop over to Jennifer Lanne's website and get inspired! Visit her here at Jennifer Lanne Art at Home. I am all about her art, so I just had to share my pillow and say this as well, its beautifully made with a down insert, zippered closure and as you can see by her label~MADE IN AMERICA!

What is not to love about a small business like this?

Most of my Brimfield score!

Yesterday I went to do some antique hunting at the Brimfield Fair.

The Brimfield Fair is Americas oldest and perhaps largest antique fair.

Julia, my old shop gal, and I set out for a day trip. Julia had never been

and I have been a few times before so I had a rough plan. Park near the church

and get out with our rolling shopping carts and hit the route. There are so many

fields with hundreds of vendors in each field so its impossible to visit the entire

antique fair in one day. But its alright to not worry about seeing everything,

just start wandering and start buying whatever catches your eye and seems

like a price you are willing to pay. I had nothing I was looking for except

for perhaps an old screen door to attach to the outside of our side door for

that old fashioned breezy summertime feeling. Other than that, it was

just going to be a very laid back hunt.

It took us less than an hour and half to get to Brimfield, Massachusetts from the Boston area.

When we got close to a mile away the traffic stalled but it only took a few minutes or so to find a

local place to park. $5 in someone's yard and we were off to look for antiques!

My first score was this spherical told chandy. It had no price tag, so I had to ask....the lady in the tent said it belonged to another vendor and she would call him on the phone. It was not looking good....but the guy answered and he told her he wanted $20. HUH?! SOLD!! The cheapest chandy I have ever bought and now it was mine. Its a little round metal chandelier that I want to put in my small home office. I might paint it antique green, but its too early to say at this point.

You can see it sitting in my rolling cart. I already have a pile of things inside

my cart, as I was having good luck. Maybe if you aren't looking for things they

come and tap you on the shoulder? In the cart was a Florentine musical jewelry

box for $25 and some other goodies. Julia was holding back and her cart (the blue one)

was still empty. I had to encourage her to BUY stuff!! Come on girl!! Get our your wallet

cause you are at Brimfield!!

At this point of the day, as you can see by the selfie we took in the gigantic tin tile mirror,

Julias cart was loaded. Alright, well half of it was mine, but she was catching up with me.

We had to peek through the bird cage holder that I bought. It has a matching bird cage that

was in a pretty antiqued green and gold finish. What is it about bird cages that I love? I have

no idea, except that they remind me of small gazebos and I love outdoor garden houses.

We made a point to visit Cary Goodrich at her booth in the Shelton Field.

It was filled with interesting smalls and garden pieces. One thing in particular

caught my eye...this large round window. I saw it on Cary's instagram feed

and I just had to see it in person. Cary was featured by Matthew Mead for her

collections as an antiques dealer and she is in DECORATING with me in the same issue.

Here is that amazing window!!!

I would have loved to get that thing and install it somewhere....

but where oh where was the question.

Anyway it was SOLD by the time we got to it.

So I have this funny story to tell about the Matthew Mead DECORATING magazine

that Cary and I are currently featured in. Here you see a stack of them for sale in Cary's booth.

Well this was the second siting of "MY" magazine in as many minutes at Brimfield!

You see we were at a dealer's tent two doors down from Cary's and finding all kinds of the stuff I LOVE! Like pink Florentine frames and boxes, (gold italian decorative wooden pieces),

florentine style sconces, ceramic asparagus molds, botanical prints etc when I spotted the Matthew Mead magazine sitting on a table in the back of the booth.

So I asked the dealer, "oh have you been reading this magazine?" and the guy says, "Well my friend is in it!" he said very proudly. I asked him, "who is your friend?" He says, "Cary. Cary Goodrich. She's an antiques dealer who is a friend of mine"." So then I said, "I know Cary! She is a friend of mine too. And.....I am in the magazine too!!!" So now the guy looks at me really carefully. I pick up the magazine and flip the page open to my spread, the one with the blingy chandelier dripping with crystals and all....and I say, "This is my house!" Then I turn the page where there is a photo of me and show him because I wasn't sure he believed me. Hahaha!!!

He probably didn't recognize me in my big sun hat. Not exactly a glamorous look.

Anyway, it was SOOOO WEIRD! After seeing my layout he says happily,

"Oh no wonder you love all of MY stuff. It will go perfectly in YOUR house!"

So that was a very funny thing that happened to me at Brimfield and "Tony" was a great dealer, but old school he said, so I have no website or Etsy or Ebay shop to hook him up with you. Oh well.

He is from Savannah Georgia. His wife is a big button dealer.

I just do find myself loving how people in the South tend to decorate.

I swear I must have been an old Italian/French lady who settled in the South in a former life.

You can see Tony his booth. This photo was an after thought. I had left the booth for the neighboring one and decided I must take a pic of his wonderful booth. See the tole floral chandys

he has hanging on the left. The metal grates out front, and then tons of gilded goodies inside.

That was a memorable visit. Some booths you just wander in and out, others you forge a quick friendship as you exchange money for goods they carefully curated for their booths. Antiques dealing is not for the faint of heart. Its a lot of hard work for the money and boy do they work hard to set up at Brimfield.

At some point along the way I spotted this green screen door. It looked kind

of short, and our side door is shorter than normal. It also had a wooden panel

on the bottom that I wanted to keep pawing dogs from busting through screen

after screen. It might be perfect, but I had not measured so I just had to wing it.

The price was knocked down to $50, so I bought it.

Counting out the money to this dad and son dealer team.

He said he would bring the door to our car at the end of our shopping day

if we pulled into his little dirt road. Sounded great to us. No lugging needed.

As far as the screen door I had my fingers crossed it would fit.

If not, the door it would look pretty good as a garden ornament

with a big hook holding a hanging plant.

So many pretty booths, and many had themes. Like sweet painted cottage style

furniture or industrial goods, or all chandeliers etc. After about four hours we

were run down and ready to go home. Plus we had no more room in our rolling

carts. It was time to hit the road. Julia got a pink metal bread box and a big iron

plant stand for her patio. She also bought a crystal sconce from Tony.

I grabbed a few more goodies along the way and even found a purple transferware

bowl for $12~! A brown transferware vase for my sister for $5!

A fancy pink horse ribbon from 1939! In pink, no less! Did I say it was pink?!

( I rarely see pink ribbons)

I also scored on a wonderful old wedding ring quilt done by hand in the softest pastels

and it was in almost mint condition. It was all too much fun.

Loot was loaded and were done with Brimfield.

We loaded up and headed back. Husbands and kids were waiting on us.

Not to mention dogs....

That night I felt like a kid on Christmas pulling all my antique treasures out of

old paper wrappings and mismatched bags that the dealers had used to wrap them

securely. One by one I set them onto the dining table. I was in heaven!

It was really a lot of fun, and I did not spend more than $80 on any one thing.

The quilt was the most pricey at $80 and the rest were in the $20-30 range.

My pink horse ribbon and a pair of Florentine boxes, one a musical jewelry box.

A pair of soft pink and green botanicals would go inside a pair of vintage Florentine frames.

And above them the spherical chandelier in tole.

A neat tole library lamp in that lovely antique green color. Ivy pattern painted on the base

and a pastoral scene with dogs on each shade. I fell hard for this lamp. Both these light fixtures

were destined for my little home office. The one I have the pair of garden architectural prints of Versailles over my desk, remember? The leaf patterns will be perfect for this garden theme.

A European maker of bird cages, Julia knew of them, but not I. She told me they were the word in fine bird cages. And its matching stand! I could not resist its charms. Oh, I stand corrected, this

pair set me back $110.

I got these pink Florentine frames from Tony, as well as the botanicals I will use.

These aspic molds with signatures and bearing my favorite asparagus and artichokes.

A lovely taupe needlepoint that I will fashion into a lumber pillow for our bed.

And that wedding ring quilt? I thought it would either go in our bedroom as an

accent throw on the big leather chair, or it might look nice for the summer laid over the

back of our white living room sofa. I set it up in the morning and planned to photograph

it later in the day after I finished washing the crystals on a huge lamp I bought last month at

another vintage market, SOWA. As I was in the kitchen washing a billion nicotine stained crystals...

each one had to be removed, washed and then dried and reattached...so about an hour later I came back into the living room holding the lamp and what to my wandering eyes did I spy??