A Beautiful, Well-Designed, Staged Home in Muttontown NY That Sold Quickly

Our sister company, Beautiful Staged Homes, created a wonderful, well-designed $3.5 million staged home in Muttontown NY.  Staging a home for sale is a bit different than designing a home for very personal use...but this newly constructed home showed a potential buyer how beautiful their life could be, if they purchased the home. 

That's what I think the purpose of home staging really is - it shows the buyer "how to live" beautifully, serenely - to live their "Best Lives."  It is a beautiful property - and it "sold" within 3 weeks of being on the market!  So - in the higher-end market, staging can really make a property "a HOT commodity." 

We created some beautiful decorative finishes in this home...

• A gilded ceiling medallion in the dining room
• A soft metallic sage green plaster in the powder room
• A pearl stried finish on the dining room walls
• Several aged finishes on the furnishings throughout the house

Here's a link to more of the beautiful rooms in this home

Photo Album of Muttontown Home

For more information about beautiful home staging contact Linda Leyble at 631 793-1315.

Some Beautiful French Antiques...At Reasonable Prices!

From a blog by a fellow blogger, Jamaica Byles I learned about many beautiful stores, artists and antique dealers that I would never had heard about. One such is Tongue in Cheek Antiques


Tongue in Cheek Antiques' owner – the poor dear, Corey Amaro, lives in the South of France (so jealous!) and her job is visiting various French Flea markets (that’s something I would do for fun!), and then she posts her finds on her site – for very reasonable prices. She collects beautiful remnants of how life used to be lived, such as calepins (see first image on the left - small decorative notebooks used by a woman at a ball to reserve her dance partners). People used to be so civilized! Plus ex votos (see last image in center - these were small decorative charms that would be placed in a church if a prayer had been answered.  On her site you'll also find antique French stencils, love potion glasses, small pocket frames, antique measuring tape, French clock faces, French marriage vases, French stamp holders, communion wreaths and so many other beautiful things. Here's a sampling -

 I purchased some antique music cards (left) – small cards that were used by French marching bands. Admittedly – I am weak when it comes to anything French and anything dealing with music – so I had to purchase these. I will frame them and use them in my home office – and, of course, by my baby grand piano in the living room.






Tonight, Jan 31st, Corey will be posting new finds. You do have to act fast - items get scooped up very quickly!  Good luck.

Please visit Jamaica’s other blog Pattern Lovely  - it’s her online journal where she experiments with beautiful surface and textile designs. She is so creative – and designs just flow from her. I took a silk screening class with Lucretia Moroni of Fatto a mano a few years ago – and I learned to draw my own fabric designs and wallpaper patterns (without the help of a computer). This was not an easy thing to do – so I am very envious of Jamaica’s natural talent.

Take the "What's Your Style" Quiz:

Is your style "Rustic Contemporary" or something else?  Find out!

Knowing Your Style and what you love should always be at the forefront whenever you start a design or re-design project. Identifying what you absolutely love and what you can't stand will help you to make the right design choices.


Go to Sproost and take their quick assessment quiz to find out your style.  Is it 100% accurate - not really.  But they were pretty darn close in assessing mine. I was deemed a combination Nantucket Style/French Eclectic/Traditional.  I think the French Eclectic is pretty accurate - not so much the Nantucket Style.


But - it's fun and you'll begin to know your likes, loves and absolutely nots!  They also will show you sites where you can find the types of furniture that suits your style best.


Let me know what styles describes you the best!

Image: Apartment Therapy; Sophie Robinson

A New Magazine to Inspire You



A new magazine celebrates green living, revamping old to new...in a beautiful way!

 2009 saw many design magazines come and go - Domino, O at Home, Cottage Living, Southern Accents and many others bit the dust this past year. But yet there are some intrepid publishers that still want to enter these treacherous waters!


One magazine is called Flea Market Style. I love the magazine because it helps us stay "green" by using our own or others' castoffs in new and beautiful ways. I pick up many "found on the side of the road" items and I repaint, stencil and handpaint them back into loveable objects - but this magazine really does a beautiful job of it. Read more about the magazine at

About Flea Market Style

A layout from Flea Market Style

The magazine helps us to see our old discarded things with new, creative eyes



A revamped dustpan! Making it into a flower box is highly imaginative as well as beautiful

Another idea is the creative reuse of an old lantern that is no longer functional. It combines using some things that you would otherwise toss out - old wallpaper and lighting.

I always encourage my clients to ferret out things that have been banished to the basement, attic or garage - because there's "gold" lurking there! So - reuse, save money - and have beautiful "green" homes!