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!

The Recession Faux Finish of the Month!

Easy on the Pocketbook Faux Finishes:  I wanted to start this segment that hopefully will become a permanent fixture on this blog. Everyone is concerned with saving money these days - and how to keep more of it and how to spend less on decorating your home. In terms of decorative painting, one of the best budget-friendly faux finishes is - without a doubt - a glaze. What exactly is a glaze?  It's a "carefully controlled transparent film of color superimposed on opaque color," according to the first queen of decorative painting - Isabelle O'Neill.  In other words, over a painted surface you then apply a thin veil of color (usually paint that's been diluted with a glaze mixture - or, as in how we do it...a glaze mixture that's been colored with a blend of full strength tints).  With a glaze you can transform a wall or just about anything in a subtle or very dramatic way - all depending on the colors and strengths of the glazes used.

It's a staple in every professional faux finisher's repertoire. It had fallen "out of favor" for a while for a variety of reasons. One cause of its slide in popularity was because many homeowners and designers thought of it as "sponge painting," the ubiquitous (and ugly) faux finish of the 1980s that found its way on to a lot of walls. This type of "glaze" was all about the tool - and having the impression of the tool be seen - front and center. Today's softly, blended glaze finish is all about subtle depth and ever-so-slight texture - which just lends interest, beauty and atmosphere to a space.

 

This is a stried glaze that we did in a living room at the Legends in Melville NY.

It adds a subtle sophistication to a room.

A strie is a glaze that's manipulated with a soft brush in a vertical, as above, or horizontal manner.  You can strie walls, furniture, moldings - the list is endless.  The finish adds more of a formal look to a room - but when done with a thicker glaze or texture, it can be more casual.

Many different plasters usurped the glaze's predominance in residential homes as well. The popularity (but still very misunderstood) of Venetian Plasters and Tuscan textures stole the spotlight for quite a while on the decorative painting scene. But as Wall Street and real estate faltered and wallets were squeezed, homeowners and designers alike turned to simpler - yet beautiful - finishes on walls and furnishings. 

 

My walls will be on TV: Here I am, on left, will my client Diana Bonelli after doing a pearlized 

glaze finish in her kitchen. We added stencilled florals on the soffit for visual  interest. These walls

will be seen on TV soon - Diana is a fantastic, professional dog trainer and is currently

filming a reality show about her work.

A light taupe base with pearl glaze in a living room/dining room that we did in Nassau County

How Do You Know the Difference Between a Beautiful Glaze and a Blobby, DIY Glazed Finish.


Most of my clients know that I have been on a soapbox about this - but I have to let the world know that there is a world of difference in glazes - just as there are differences in a Hugo and a Jaguar.  Some glaze products dry up too quickly and, in the wrong, untrained hands, this results in lap lines, dark lines (or very light lines) at the ceiling and baseboard lines. We only use professional, to-the-trade products that give you a beautiful and soft finish. There also a big difference in proficiencies in who applies the glaze. House painters who say they do faux finishes - and who are not trained properly - will give you the 80s blobby finish that went out years ago.  So - when you do intend to hire a faux finisher to do some magic on your walls - ask to see their portfolio - in photos and actual samples. You will be better able to judge if they are a true professional after seeing some proof of their work!


My company will soon be teaching Professional Faux Finishing Techniques in our Huntington NY Studio.  So, stay tuned to this blog for our teaching schedule!

More Ideas for Bedrooms

Gaining Inspiration: Anyone who knows me well has seen my "Inspiration" file (or rather files and files and files) of rooms and ideas that I love and want to emulate. I have been decorating a lot of bedrooms lately, so I thought I'd share a few more ideas from my "file."



I love either using large scale stencils or vinyl decals (for those who'd rather a non permanent design) to decorate a bedroom - especially a young girl or teen's room. Be on the lookout for these vinyl appliques at HomeGoods etc - because you can pick them for a song! They lend personality and energy to a room quickly and easily. 

 

I created artwork from appliques for this bedroom. The Eiffel Tower I found at HomeGoods for $10 and the wording I ordered from a signmaker for $20.   I then faux finished the 3 canvas panels &

Voila!  Art! Photo by moi

We applied a black chandelier decal to this room in a home that we staged for sale.  The home sold in 3 weeks.  The new owners wanted to keep the design - as is!  Photo by moi

Now for Something Completely Different: This is the same bedroom as the first picture in this post - only the wall is done with horizontal metallic stripes. When stripes are done horizontally - it makes the room feel wider...more expansive and it also creates a sense of calm in the room (much like the serenity you feel when looking at the horizon line where the sea meets the sky.



Photos: Ideal Home

A Colorful & Contemporary Teenager's Bedroom

Add a Burst of Color on an Accent Wall in an All White Room: We did this beautiful accent wall with another artist - Marty from Classic Faux Studios. You don't have to add color to all four walls when you're re-doing a room - in fact, that would have been overpowering in this space. I'm happy to say that...

So...Accent Walls Are Back!

This lively design, derived from the artist Damian Herst, gives the room a more contemporary feel and some much-needed color and energy. It took some prep time to figure out the right size, number and colors of the circles - but the entire wall was done in one day. We used a one-time-use stencil in order to do the design quickly and accurately.

Feathering Our Nests

Nesting - Instead of Moving. Faith Popcorn, the guru of spotting trends, wrote in one of her books that "nesting" would be a trend among homeowners. She wrote this long before the recent trouble in the housing market. Homeowners are staying put, rather than selling up right now and they are fluffing, sprucing and re-doing their homes to create a more perfect "nest." I thought that my decorative paint/design business would have suffered a lot during the recession - but I have found that the phone is ringing with homeowners wanting a beautiful Master Bedroom Suite, a gorgeous dining room or living room...a drop dead kitchen.

Creating a beautiful entryway seems to be on everyone's to do list these days. My studio has introduced a line of floor designs that are very affordable (way less than half the price of doing an inlaid wood floor design). If you are going to be sanding and re-staining your wood floors, you need to know about adding this beautiful addition to your entryway - or dining room, great room, living room - anywhere you want to make an elegant statement



In the above photo, we created a "faux" inlaid design motif for one of my clients in Dix Hills, NY. She told me that she was having her wood floors sanded and restained - so I suggested that she add an elegant touch to the entry. I brought over a portfolio of designs - and the next week, she had a wonderful treatment on her wood floors. One of my wood floor installers told me that a similar design done with inlays of wood - would have cost 3 times the price - and they would have had to do some demolition in the area the design was going in (additional cost, not to mention mess).

We have been doing these designs on floors - and now we are also doing them on ceilings as well. It's a beautiful and creative additional touch to any home. It's a relatively inexpensive way to feather your nest and fall in love with your home once again.