Grey velvet curtains, gilded cornices and Piper

 Velvet draperies are so luxurious.  Hard to tell from this shot, but the velvet

warms up the room, making it nice and cozy for the cold weather months.

I found these 96" lined velvet pinch pleated panels at HomeGoods, in case

you are searching for some at a reasonable price.  Their drapery department has

been pretty impressive lately, as I also found Belgian linen panels earlier this year.

I have had white smocked curtain panels from Pottery Barn hanging in this room

for years now, underneath white metal cornices that I made from vintage cornices

I found at an antique shop in New Hampshire.  They were stamped brass metal, in an

old gold color.  Hmmmm, I kind of wish they were the brass finish now.  At any rate,

I didn't like the look of the grey velvet under the white cornices so I painted them with 

Paris Grey Chalk Paint by you know who.  

 After painting them, I outlined the top with some gilding wax in gold.  Its a quick project

that I was able to do in an hour.  Getting ready for the holidays around here now, so I am envisioning a very Versailles Christmas in my mind's eye.  That means gold and gilding and velvet and of

course that wonderful blue color that Marie Antoinette loved so much.  Its much the same as my wall color in the living room, Woodlawn Blue by Benjamin Moore.  Imagine a white christmas tree with blue and gold....maybe some velvet ribbon.  Yummy!  In the latest Horchow Collection catalogue they have a Versailles Christmas ornament and ribbon collection!  I almost fell out of my french chair.  The only thing I didn't care for was that they added red to the blue and gold collection, which will never happen on my tree.  And thats the awesome thing about Christmas decorating, or any kind of decorating....you get to put your own stamp of personal style and vision together.  And each year its always a bit different, and that makes it fun for me.

So forgive me if Christmas decorating starts making an early appearance on my blog, but I am more than excited this year to get my trees up!  I think Reeve will love seeing the twinkle and the sparkle and the wonder of it all.  I am hoping little Piper can keep her composure around the trees and not make a mess of it.

She's pretty curious about just about everything. 

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Luscious Linen Balloon Curtains for Master Bedroom

 Romantic and luscious, these Linen Balloon Drapery Panels are gorgeous!

They add more of the European relaxed glamourous look that I was going for in the

master bedroom redecorating project.   Soft Surroundings is so

wonderful for their European and French home decor offerings.
I was delighted to partner up with them again on these beautiful window treatments.
  They have a large selection to choose from,

 but I really had my heart set on these linen panels for our bedroom. 

The panels are lined in white cotton which gives it extra weight and fullness.  

The bottoms of the panels are sewn back onto the lining and it creates a balloon effect. 

 These are not puddled and turned under at the floor, but instead are sewn with a balloon

bottom which is effortless to create a perfect cloud-like bottom that sits 

elegantly on the floor.  The top of the panel is a tie top created from a ruched and ruffled header, 

which feels like the essence of European glamour.  The color of my panels is ivory.  

The ivory is very soft, off white, not yellowy, and it looks nice with the white bedding.

The panels do come in white, but I was afraid it may be too white, so I opted for ivory.

Can I say......I am in LOVE!

The gauzy ivory linen with the white cotton lining sits elegantly on the floor.

I pull the curtains closed at night with a simple tug, and they don't get

 messed up on the bottom like puddled curtains do.  I couldn't recommend

these curtains more highly~they are beautifully made and look incredible!

My husband got in bed the first night they were hanging, 

looked up at the window and said, "Wow, these look very grand!"

Grand, indeed!

Another tiny thing we did to the bedroom was to add these simple wall

sconces.  They are not hardwired, and they have a pull chain to 

turn them off and on.  The cord is tucked behind the headboard, and it is

one of my favorite improvements in adding to the overall ambience of the room.

Since I love to read at night, and hubs falls asleep before me, they also are 

good at directing the light in a small pool towards my book.  I am reading 

Empty Mansions right now, and its fascinating!  True story about a rich eccentric 

heiress, with many mansions that she kept up, but never visited.  Bizarre! 

I lie in bed and look at my grand curtains and think maybe the heiress had 

something similar in her bedrooms~she was born in France, after all.  

The master bedroom is a wonderful respite at the end of a long day in the garden (me), 

or out in the excavation pit (hubs).  We love everything we selected, the mattress, 

the bedding (which is the Regency Tapestry Coverlet from Soft Surroundings), 

the tufted blue headboard, and last but not least, the Linen Balloon Panels!! 

Note that I ordered the curved bronze rod from Soft Surroundings

to hang the panels as they show in their online shop.  It is not the easiest

rod to install, and although I was able to do it myself, it really is a two 

person job.  Lets just say my 25 years of custom window treatment installations

came in handy on this pesky but alluring rod.  I like how the rod curves out

into the space of the room, and that is why I think hubby thought they looked grand.

Its an understated wow kind of look!  

Simply put, these panels are wonderful!  

I read a lot of the reviews on the Soft Surrounding site

and some were concerned about the wrinkles in the panels when they

unpacked them.  I had a simple solution to handle this issue:  give the 

panel a spritz with Downy wrinkle releaser and smooth the panel with your hands

after you have hung them up. The wrinkles came out right away, 

and it only took ten minutes for me to do both panels.  

Soft Surroundings Linen Balloon Panels 

Soft Surroundings Curved Drapery Rod

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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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Romantic Living Room Update

Recently I had the pleasure of updating

 a living room for a client.

 She loves the glamorous, romantic, french style.

This before  picture was taken after the painters 
had finished, so the cornices were still down.
What a difference adding to her window treatment made.
The existing cornice boards were already upholstered to match

 the chair and sofa in the living room. I added long silk panels with fringe.

Her walls were originally linen white, now a beautiful pinky beige.

Take a look at the finished room:

I specified a paint change to BM Bradstreet Beige

 and the ceiling in BM Sunset Pink.

There was a lot of pattern with the Aubusson style floral carpet 

and the floral pattern was everywhere you looked.
I wanted to soften that overload of pattern.

 I toned it down with solid silk panels in a melon pink

 with lush fringe in a beige and pink combination.

 I applied a pink and beige brush fringe

 to the top of the lambrequins (cornices with sides).

Each panel was held back by a burnished gold medallion.

Her furniture is in a whitewash oak which

 comes across as a peachy pink. 

The room has layers of beigey pinks

 that are quite elegant and romantic.

A favorite painting won at an auction in Paris 

now holds center stage over the mantel.

 It used to be on a side wall.

 I replaced a contemporary oversized painting

 that was too bold for the room.

A tole candelabra in aged green

 is the centerpiece on her marble coffee table.

The color of the silk drapes is repeated in the coffee table.

Small changes in paint colors and beefing up top treatments

 can give any room the face lift it needs to stay current!

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