Antique Chandeliers, Moras, Holiday Hours

 Holidays are fast upon us and our brick and mortar shop in Reading Mass 

has been pretty slow.  So that gives us a chance to catch up on other stuff,

like custom work and painting Mora clocks and revamping the shop.

Today we will be getting in a collection of old chandeliers from a Boston home

in the Back Bay.  You might know I have a weakness for old light fixtures,

and really think they can transform a room! This is one of the lovely fixtures

that will soon be in our shop.  I am not sure we will offer these online as they are 

so delicate and shipping can be rough on anything breakable.

We have worked hard these past few months, opening and closing shops

and trying to get our Reading store and our online shop up and running

the way we want it....so with slower sales predicted for the coming week

we will be closing the Reading store and taking a well deserved break. 

Closed December 22-January 2

Online open at www.shopmaisondecor.com

 Our Holiday Hour notice~

we have posted on facebook and twitter and instagram and now, the blog.

Hopefully no one makes the trek out to the shop next week, as we won't be here.  Hoping to spend some quality time together and doing what families do over the holidays. We have had great customers in our new location and know that they are busy putting the finishing touches on their plans as well.

 But we will back in January all fired up and ready to rock and roll! One idea we are hoping to develop is a Curated Vintage Collection.  That means being picky about the vintage and antiques we find that have the qualities we think embody the Maison Decor style.  Like these chandeliers that are simply gorgeous! Colin will be bringing them into the shop today and I can't wait to unpack them and check them out!! Not everyone is a vintage lover, but we think there are enough like minded folks out there who will appreciated us having a well curated vintage collection of home decor items.

Of course the coming year will include more blog posts about

 the how tos of decorative furniture finishes, 

like this example of using Foils for an easy gilded look.

Our Deluxe Mora Clock proved to be more popular than we imagined!

We set a record in the past four weeks and are proud to have gotten 

these wonderful reproduction clocks out to our

 shoppers by their Christmas deadlines.

Julie, this one is for you and you can expect it Christmas Eve!

(Note: Julie wanted her clock with a very light antique glaze, so this is a 

lighter finish than what we usually offer.)

So Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! 

Wishing you all a Happy New Year from 

me and the guys, Justin and Colin. 

(You think I might need to get a more recent pic of us three?!!)

Read more »

Gift Guide for Guys

Baby its cold outside! 

Christmas is on its way and it will be here next week.

Our dog Dillon will be getting a new bone, but what do you

get for the man on your list?  Dogs and kids are easy~

men are the toughest to buy for, don't you agree?

Forget the ties, the dress shirts and the new slippers.

Check out these suggestions from our online store

www.shopmaisondecor.com

If you order by Wednesday we will have it shipped out and 

on its way to you so you can get it wrapped and put under your

tree before Santa comes!

We just got an order in the shop and hope to close a few sales

before the holiday arrives.  But if you are one of our readers

who lives far away, this post is for you!

 Justin and I just unpacked these great architectural prints.

 They have an antiqued creamy ivory background with a slightly distressed black frame.

 These would give any wall that coveted library look, so appealing to men.

 Just get ready to break out the cigars after you hang them up.

 Miniature antique brass measuring tapes would be fun to add to his stocking....

 Miniature magnifiers in antique brass fold into a covered pouch.

 So easy to carry in his pocket, they'll make it easy on his eyes

when reading that lunch menu with tiny script in the club.

 Twine on a carved wooden spool!  This sits neatly on a desk top

or kitchen countertop and looks as handsome as it is functional.

 Accessories for the family room~

these candle holders definately have a masculine feel.

 Dogs! Men love dogs!! We have three different dog statues in a stone like resin.

Pale grey and charcoal tones.  Bulldog (not shown here), a lab and a great dane.

These dogs make great room accessories too.

 A table clock in black and gold has that "born to the manor" masculine feel.

Long rustic branch hooks are perfect for holding many things including hats.

Have you ever tried to hang a cowboy hat off a short hook?

These are cast iron and heavy hooks with a green wash over dark brown finish.

Get a few and hang a series in a row.  These are very cool!

A tall wooden architectural finial holds a round 

school house style clock from an iron hook.

Back by popular demand, this clock can easily be moved around.

Great on a desk, a foyer table, or as part of 

any tabletop decor, this clock is a winner!

We enjoyed our family Christmas movie last week, and here is 

a quick collage photo of some of our moments.

Take time to make some Christmas memories for you and yours,

and don't let the gift shopping stress you out too much.

And as always, we want to thank you for 

reading and shopping at Maison Decor!

SHOP MAISON DECOR HERE

Read more »

Painted Upholstery with Chalk Paint and a Pearl Plaster Croc Top!

 We have had quite a few fun projects in the shop lately.

One was painting a set of 6 chairs for Kim.

They were sturdy and in nice condition but were dated 

with shiny gold jacquard fabric and a tired brown wood frame.

With the interesting top we decided to add a French motif

with a stencil to the back of each chair.

The fabric was painted in a 50/50 mix of French Linen and 

Old White Chalk Paint, and the stencil was 100% French Linen.

The wood frame was painted with Paris Grey Chalk Paint 

with both clear and dark wax for a nice antique look.

 After the fabric was painted it was waxed with 

Annie Sloan soft clear wax that was 

thinned out with mineral spirits and applied with a wax brush.

 The wood frame was buffed up to a 

nice lustre a day or so after waxing.

You can see the before fabric here.  We painted the frames

first. Then went onto the fabric.  We ended up doing three coats of

paint, each coat was applied using a wet brush (with water) so as

to lighten the weight of the paint.  That is why it needs 3 coats.

If you don't water it down, it could be too heavy for the fabric and 

you can get cracking.  We painted each coat a day apart.

Painting good solid chairs with decent upholstery is a nice option over 

needing to pay an upholsterer. Be warned that you will use quite a bit of 

paint, we used one quart per two chairs. Fabric soaks up the paint,

unlike painting wood, where Annie's paint goes a long way.

Still all in all, its a great value to repurpose your chairs using Chalk Paint.

This little chest has not sold, so when that happens, we tend to rethink it

and try something else out.  I thought about switching the hardware out,

but ended up giving it the Pearl Plaster treatment with that fabulous CROC stencil

we sell in the shop.  It is a very cool stencil! Push the Pearl Plaster through it

and you have the most amazing looking crococile top on your piece!

I think it will be finished tomorrow with the wax job in clear and dark.

To purchase Pearl Plaster or the CROC stencil CLICK HERE

Read more »

Moras, Workshops & Family Fun

 It's December at Maison Decor and the holidays are fast upon us! 

 We have decked our halls just a little bit and have a few nice gift ideas

 in store for our shoppers. We will be growing our home decor department

 as we settle in to our new spot.  We just launched our revamped website too and 

Justin did an amazing job on it! Many of our items are now available online so check it out!

If you ever see anything on the blog that you would like to get more information, please email me

at amymaisondecor@gmail.com as many times we add things to the online shop so we can sell it to our customers from blogland!

We have rolls of French Country silk ribbon

Burlap ribbon with rusted jingle bells

and matching Christmas stockings and 

all sorts of neat home accents.

 We have been doing our famous workshops too this month

and you can see Justin teaching our group last Saturday.

 He reported to me that they were all pretty much super stars 

when it came to mastering the various

techniques.  We have lots of different workshops each month, 

so check out schedule online

and you can register there too. 

 Colin looked so handsome last Saturday ringing up one of our new grad students! 

 Also we are excited to let everyone know

 we got the sample pots of Chalk Paint back in!!

 I will be teaching the Shimmer and Shine workshop this Thursday, 

which will employ lots of metallics and ways to add a bit of shimmer to your pieces.

Tonight we are having our family Christmas movie night!

I am rushing to put this post up so I can get home and get this party

started!!! hahah! I will get the good camera and take some group pics

to share with you on the next post.

Our custom Maison Decor Mora Clocks are flying out

 of our workshop/warehouse this month!

Many are getting them for Christmas gifts and we hope they

 will be thrilled with their special clocks.

If you are interested in getting one of our lovely clocks, check out our website.

Remember everything can be found their~

Chalk Paint, Sample Pots, Mora Clocks, Workshops,

 Furniture and Home Decor items.  

www.shopmaisondecor.com

Read more »

Making memories with Christmas PJs

Last year I thought it would be fun to order matching Christmas PJs

for the family to wear. I went online at Target.com and found 

some cute PJs with skiing Santas in the mens sizes but no matching ones in the 

ladies sizes.  If I had thought about it I would have ordered myself a pair of men's

but instead went with conventional thinking and bought my self a pair of snowman PJs.

I ordered right after Thanksgiving and they arrived quickly enough for us to break them out for a tree trimming party with just me, Mr. Maison Decor and a couple of the boys.

Wearing Christmas PJs just makes you feel like a little kid~

all happy and everything seems more fun! 

You might think about adding this element to your holidays~

get a pair or two or three or four...and all of a sudden you have made 

some memories that aren't going to fade.

We wore them again on Christmas eve after our fancy dinner was over.

 This time there were more family members and everyone had a pair of PJs to wear! 

Brandon's GF Mimi got into a pair of men's that I had as an extra pair. 

 Look at all of the dogs in the mix!  

 Matching PJs made for memorable family pics! 

 I think every year Nick n Nora comes out with new patterns and they are all so fun!

This was the pattern I bought last year.  They cost about $20 a pair on sale and if you order over $50 I think you get free shipping. Target sells Nick n Nora brand and I like them because they are cotton, not polyester or some other synthetic.  Most have draw string waist bands so you can easily fit in bigger sizes, which is good cuz I will be wearing a men's medium, which is the smallest size in the mens that you can get.

This is the set I ordered for this year! Its called Reindogs and I love it because it has a dog that resembles all of our family dogs: Dillon, Tobey and now Sylvia! They are on their way to us as I write this and we plan to wear them for a new family tradition we plan to have called Christmas Movie Night!  We will be watching the fantastic Polar Express. Justin said he has never seen it, which is just shocking to me.
We will have our family plus Justin's fiance, Madison, and Madison's little sister, Taylor so it should be a tradition that will be one we can build on.  I can just imagine Justin and Madison having kids and they get to watch Christmas Movie Night in their matching PJs with their parents and grandparents!! Ok, well maybe I am getting ahead of myself....
But more than ever, I really want to have more of a memorable Christmas season, rather than a season of gift giving and receiving.  Don't you think it is those times that were extra special that become the ones you remember the most? Who really remembers what gift they got, or what you bought for so and so last year?  I  know I don't.  But I do remember the night we horsed around in our PJs!

Its December One and its Sunday~which means its a day off from the shop. I will be putting our Christmas wreaths up today and hopefully a little bit more too.   But I think we will wait for our Christmas PJs to arrive before the tree trimming party....

(P.S. I am not paid or compensated by Target in any way...I just like these PJs!)

Read more »

Do you shop on Black Friday?

Are you one of the hardy shoppers that springs into action to get the best deals the day after Thanksgiving? Or even the night of Thanksgiving?  I never was.  I dislike crowds and like to shop when it feels leisurely and not stressful.  But now with our new life of running a small business I am thrown into the very thing I tried to avoid!!  Its a paradox alright.  My sisters and I used to have a Christmas shopping tradition when we lived in the small suburban town of Winchester, Mass.  We would shop on Christmas Eve day and visit all the cute shops in downtown Winchester buying gifts for one another and other family members.  Then we would have a bite to eat in one of the small eateries in the town to cap it off.  We all enjoyed that for the years that it lasted before geography separated us. We were shopping local, in the cute little town we grew up in.  "Shopping local" has become a catch phrase these days, and for good reason.  Small businesses need shoppers to survive, and if we don't the world will be filled with only the Walmarts and Targets. 

I managed to get a small feast prepared for our small Thanksgiving.   

(Though not much else in the way of table decor as I was working 

in the store the day before Thanksgiving until 5 pm.) 

We had a nice quiet dinner and then went off to the movies to 

see Captain Phillips, the true life thriller of the Somali pirates taking over

 an American tanker. The movie stars Tom Hanks.

The funny thing about Captain Phillips, is that he also grew up

in my small town of Winchester and was a friend of mine.

His nickname was "Jungle". Hah!

While he was going to the Mass Maritime Academy he would

go out to sea for weeks at a time, and then come home for a few weeks off.

I would go pick him up in black VW or he would swing by

my house and pick me up in Steve's vintage fleetwood Cadillac.

It was always a good time hanging out with him!

What a nice guy~he was a funny guy too, but they never

showed him telling jokes or doing funny stuff in the movie.

(Good movie, by the way.)

But I digress....back to the point of the blog post.

While I never shopped Black Friday, I did shop local.

Which brings me to this shameless pitch:

We will be behind the counters for this weekend of

Black Friday and Small Business Saturday at

150 Main Street Reading Mass.

50% off sales?! You won't see that at small businesses.

We don't price our things with that much meat on the bone

like they do at the big box stores.

We have to start our with competitive pricing to begin 

with, so when we have sales the discounts are smaller

but the value is real.

Just know that whatever small business you shop at

you will be making a difference. 

And isn't that a nice feeling?

Read more »

Feeling Lucky? One smartphone pic is all thats needed for $1500 in Chalk Paint!

Win $1500 in Annie Sloan products from Annie Sloan Unfolded by visiting your local Annie Sloan Stockist and snapping a pic of yourself in front of the paint display. We will happily take your photo! Then upload your photo on the ASU Facebook page and follow the simple instructions. Contest starts today! Seriously, can you imagine having one quart of every color, every paint brush and more?? Wow! 
Merry Christmas from our corporate headquarters to someone who is simply going to LUCK out on this huge giveaway! So Snap &  Share! 
For more information visit Annie Sloan Unfolded on Facebook here.

Read more »