Show Time

Sorry for my recent absence. I traveled to my hometown of Memphis over the weekend for my 20-year high school reunion. I never know what to think about reunions, but I really enjoyed seeing the girls I went to school with two decades ago (I went to an all-girls Catholic high school). I could still recognize everyone which means we couldn't have changed that much - a reassuring thought! Anyway, I'm now getting ready for my older child to start school tomorrow and my younger one to start kindergarten next week (they do a staggered start for the kindergarteners), so I've been a little preoccupied. However, I have some interiors to share with you from The 2011 Memphis Home Showcase a couple of weeks ago. My sister was kind enough to go and take photos for me.

The first house apparently didn't have a lot of redeeming qualities, so Susan only took a couple of photos.  Here they are . . .

That's my mom walking in the back of the room. Not a lot to love in this room, pretty ordinary, but I focused in on the French doors. These are like the ones I want.

This bedroom seems a little under-decorated, but sometimes simplicity is a good thing. I really liked the small loveseat/settee at the end of the bed.

 

The second house had an entire floor decorated by Amy Howard so it was more appealing overall. Although, as is the case with many showhouses in my opinion, it looks like they just threw some furniture in the room. This is especially true when one particular furniture store/manufacturer designs a space. There's usually much more variety when individual designers can draw from multiple sources. But, there's still some nice eye candy.

I, of course, was drawn to the art and asked my sister if she knew who the artist was. "It's Anton Weiss. Isn't that who painted the piece in your dining room?" she asked. Why, yes, it is. No wonder I like it.

This room lacks personality and looks like the undersized coffee table was an afterthought, but individually I like the pieces.

Looks like an Amy Howard showroom. Hard to see but the mirrored console is pretty.

I've seen this art before; can't remember the artist. Interesting sculpture on acrylic/lucite base.

Nothing new here . . .

or here.

I'm liking this coffee table.

Nice chairs.

A little too perfect.

Now, this, I like. At least they went out on a limb with the lighting.

Close-up of the floor lamp.

Pretty bed and bedding. Keeping this in my file for an upcoming post on bedding options.

Like the table, but not the styling.

This vignette has some personality.

Overall, some pretty pieces but nothing out of the ordinary. Well, we're off to the pool on my daughter's last day of "freedom." Hope you're enjoying what's left of your summer.

A Belated After

Since I finished painting my dining room about two weeks ago, I figured I would go ahead and show you some after photos. We moved the furniture, rug, mirror, art and accessories back in, but I sent the draperies off to be dry-cleaned before I affix the Greek Key trim (which I still need to order). So, I just didn't show that unfinished side of the room. Without further ado, here it is . . .

Just as a reminder, here's what it looked like before . . . 

I love the richness of the deep, saturated Champion Cobalt (Benjamin Moore) paint. It makes the mirror, art and furniture really stand out.

As I mentioned, I still have to finish and hang the curtains, and of course, it will never be totally done as I keep getting new ideas. Exhibit A:

Wouldn't a little Chiang Mai on the side chairs just kick it up another notch? I know, I'm crazy. I'll leave it be for now.  I'll be sure to show the other side of the room (which is just a window) once the curtains are finished and hung. Unless I change my mind about them. Just kidding.

I'm Feeling Blue

Oh, no, not sad. Just blue. Like this . . .

Or maybe this . . . 

You see, I finally bought the Champion Cobalt on Sunday and started painting my dining room . . .

My husband made me do this. Yes, I'm wearing pajama bottoms at 5 p.m. at night. So what?

and I've been covered in blue paint for the past three days. It is seriously about the color of a Blue Man. I wonder if their shade is Champion Cobalt as well? I could join their group.

Child labor is okay, right? They only painted for about 10 minutes so it wasn't too taxing.

I swear my dining table is not red.

After one coat, it looked like a bad denim faux finish. Then it became obvious it would take three coats. Luckily, it's a very small room with only three walls (open floorplan). I still have to finish the trim area around the top and the vent. I hate that stupid vent in the middle of the wall. The people who used to live here painted it the wall color initially so we've just kept doing that. It actually does blend in better than a white vent or one of those fancy vents. Plus, you know I camouflage it with furniture as I'm apt to do. "What? There's a vent there? No, no, you must be mistaken." Deny, deny, deny.

I see you brown column. Your day is coming soon!

Here's a sneak peak of the finished wall with the mirror up. I'll do a final reveal once I'm totally done and have all the furniture/accessories back in. I really like it now, but can't wait to see it all done!

Don't forget to enter my Shabby Apple giveaway!

Sources: Blue Man Group, Smurfs

It's a Small Wall After All

Good news. I actually bought some tester pots of paint for my dining room and have samples on the wall. Progress is being made! I decided this was the perfect time to try out a new product I originally heard about from my friend Tina. A friend and neighbor of hers, Julie Boney, created a product called "Small Wall" which is exactly what it sounds like.

They are 12x12" adhesive-backed panels (that come 2 per package) that are ready for paint. They won't curl up like poster board, and you don't have to have color blocks on your wall. Genius, I say.

So, I decided to try them out for my dining room project . . . 

I wrote the name of the paint on the back of each sample so I wouldn't forget which was which. 

Champion Cobalt is the one on the right. It was the color from my original inspiration photo from Lonny.

Here's a closer shot. I really think it might be the one. I love it. It's deep and regal and saturated. Just what I was hoping for.

The other options I tried. Upper left is Georgian Bay by Sherwin Williams. Lower left is Blueberry by Benjamin Moore and the lower right is Farrow & Ball's Hague Blue color-matched for me by my local Sherwin Williams (because we don't have a Farrow & Ball store/distributor in Nashville)

There are other paints I could try too, but I don't want to get overwhelmed right now. Any thoughts or favorites? 

A special thanks to Julie Boney of Small Wall for giving me some samples to try. They really are a convenient and easy way to test out different colors. You can find Small Wall at most Sherwin Williams stores and some Ace Hardware stores. Just check Small Wall's website for a list of retailers. Also, thank you to the kind people at the new Sherwin Williams store near my house (on Hwy. 100 in Nashville) . . . they were extremely helpful!

Sources: Small Wall

Crazy, But in a Good Way

I'm sure there are nice, normal people out there who don't want to re-do their homes constantly. Unfortunately for my family, I'm not one of them. My newest idea . . . I want to re-paint my dining room.

This is how it currently looks. Not bad. Well, now that I've got that Chinoiserie pagoda mirror (that I picked up from a local online auction for a song), I feel like I need more vivid walls for it to pop against. I know, crazy. 

My inspiration?

Ashley Putnam's dining room from Lonny.

And, I have these nice linen curtain panels I picked up at an estate sale for $20 for the pair. 

They're not hung correctly. I just threw one up to see what it looked like. My plan is to have put Greek key trim around the edges, like so . . . 

Except, I think in orange . . .

to contrast with the blue walls a little bit.

I even went to the Sherwin-Williams site and played around with their Color Visualizer . . . 

Okay, so I didn't do that great of a job, but it gives you a general idea. Just squint. And this isn't the exact color I was going for either. Something a little more saturated like the Benjamin Moore color above (Champion Cobalt). This is Sherwin Williams' Regatta.

So, am I crazy? Or at least crazy in a good way? Please tell me I'm not alone.

Sources: Lonny, House Beautiful, M&J Trimming, Sherwin-Williams

Supper Club

Our supper club Saturday night was great fun. Of course, I was a little on edge and snapped at my loving and patient family (don't worry, I apologized) as we cleaned the house and prepared the food. I self-admittedly get a little tense when company comes. I'm not OCD, but you might think so on these occasions. Matt was so glad the house was looking nice, that he snapped some photos of our spiffed up crib.

Here's a candlelit view of the table. I hollowed out the big white pumpkin and placed a vase full of Trader Joe's flowers in the center.

"Aerial" view. Of course, I had not put out the napkins, silverware or glasses yet, but oh well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a close-up of my pumpkin place card holders. I spray painted all my pumpkins and gourds gold a la Eddie Ross. I just grabbed some leaves from the yard and scribbled on the names with a sharpie, then cut a slit in the pumpkins

Side note: some of the little pumpkins on the table came from our own little pumpkin patch. Our house backs up to woods, so last year when we were done with our pumpkins, we simply tossed them over the fence thinking the deer could eat what was left. Well, apparently, some seeds took root and this year we got about 5 pumpkins off the vine. Pretty cool.

And on the menu, Rosemary Rib Roast. It was delicious. Probably a little more rare than I intended because my meat thermometer malfunctioned.

I typically don't have recipes on my blog because I don't usually cook anything that interesting, but I pull out all the stops for special occasions. My friend Becky forwarded this recipe to me. It's one she got out of Southern Living years ago and makes every Christmas. I loved how easy it was to prepare! Here it is . . . 

 

Rosemary Rib Roast

Have the butcher remove the chine bone, and then tie it back on--this will give you the flavor from the bone, but allow you to easily remove it for carving.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour, 35 minutes
Stand: 50 minutes
Yield: Makes 8 servings

Ingredients
6  garlic cloves, pressed
2  teaspoons  salt
2  teaspoons  pepper
1  teaspoon  crushed rosemary
2  tablespoons  olive oil
1  (7-pound) 4-rib prime rib roast, chine bone removed
1  cup  sour cream
2  tablespoons  lemon juice
2  tablespoons  horseradish
Preparation

Combine first 5 ingredients in a small bowl; rub over roast. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.

Bake roast at 450° for 45 minutes on lower rack of oven. Reduce temperature to 350°, and bake roast 45 to 50 additional minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 145° (medium-rare) or 160° (medium). Let roast stand 20 minutes.

Combine sour cream, lemon juice, and horseradish; serve with roast.

That's it . . . easy peasy.

 

We're off to Memphis tomorrow to visit the cousins, aunt, uncle and grandparents. I'll be busy doing laundry and packing tonight. Some light reading I'll be taking along . . . 

And some not so light reading . . .

I'm more than halfway through this book and hope to finish it over the holiday. Some of the reader reviews on Amazon were less than favorable, but I'm actually enjoying it. Call me a contrarian.

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Note: Some of you asked if I got the chairs from Habitat. The answer is no. I haven't even had a chance to go back there. Secondly, I have put myself on a self-imposed chair diet. I have too many as it is. This could change next week.

Before and After

I don't have too many great "before and after" photos of design projects for a couple of reasons.   


1. I haven't redone a whole lot of stuff.  
2. More importantly, I forget to take "before" photos thus lessening the "ooh and ahh" effect. Because seriously, who cares what something looks like now if you didn't bother to record the piece of crap it was before.


But, I did happen to find some great shield-back dining chairs on Craigslist a few months back AND I remembered to take a couple of photos. I knew they would need to be reupholstered, but I also got the idea to paint them white making them look a little less granny and a little more current. 


Without further ado . . . here is the BEFORE:

And drum roll, please . . . the AFTER:

Some people, and you may be among those, think I'm crazy for painting these perfectly nice mahogany chairs white. First of all, I actually paid a nice lady and her daughter to paint them for me. Secondly, I like the effect and just wanted something different that would contrast with my fairly traditional dining room table. I re-upholstered the seats myself. They're not perfect, but who cares. 

I ordered a host and hostess chair in the same fabric for either end of the table from one of my best friends Kristen, the interior designer (who has access to great stuff).

I could have gone with a coordinating fabric but I had already purchased way more of this fabric than I needed, so I used what I had. Plus, I liked the idea of having different styles of chair with the same upholstery.


So, finally, after almost two years of having just a dining room table with no chairs (I can be indecisive at times, and at other times just lack the funds), I have a somewhat complete dining room.


Ta-da!

So what do you think? Should I have left well enough alone?