Our Home For The Holidays

Happy Holidays friends!  We are T-3 to Christmas 2015, and the joy of the season is electric by way of white Christmas lights and treasured traditions.   Welcome to our Home for the Holidays where the theme of comfort and simplicity is well represented.

Our tour is of the dining room and the part of the foyer decked for the holidays. The dining room, a forever work in progress, has seen several design and decor changes in 2015, and will continue to see more in 2016.  The walls are devoid of artwork (the piece you see in this photo is part of the kitchen gallery wall) and the style jury is unable to reach a unanimous decision on accent rug vs. hardwood floors.  The dining room isn’t the only space getting a makeover.  My Mother’s Day gift from our son was paying for the new wallpaper I fell in love with at first sight but took several months to decide if I really had to have it. Turns out I did. Dave the Builder began the project, but real life obligations and unexpected circumstances stepped in and halted the foyer beautification project.  Patience is not only a virtue it is a necessary tool of the trade in design and decorating.

On the Monday before Christmas, my true love gave to me.  A single Santa leopard-ing

and a Christmas goose in the foyer displayed in front of the new zebra wallpaper sitting pretty (pronounce it prit-tee and it rhymes with tree.  Get it?  Partridge. Pear Tree).

A  holiday table centerpiece of magnolia leaves and holly is indeed so Southern, so holiday, so easy and so beautiful.

Bob’s Sweet Stripes as swizzle sticks and crystal finial ornaments as wine charms? You bet!

I purchased these vintage mini framed Madonna prints for my kitchen gallery wall.

Inspiration is everywhere.

The subject matter is holiday appropriate, and the petite size of the framed prints sealed the DIY deal.  Napkin rings it is!

I have collected Victorian inspired Santa Claus figurines for years.  Due to the epic move aka the gift that keeps on giving, combining two households into one and the renovation of my childhood home into our new to us home, most of my Santa collection now resides in climate controlled storage.  These inexpensive stand-in Santas have no great provenance or famous artist signature assigned to them, but I do love the colors and facial features of these old world replicas.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and this perfectly imperfect image serves as a visual reminder of my personal design and decorating philosophy.  Perfection, style and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  The life lived within a home comes alive through personal style and taste, and there is nothing more gorgeous than a home that beautifully illustrates personal style lives here.  Design and decorate it with a sense of you!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark Interiors

Dark interiors make a dramatic, commanding and intimate statement. Dark interiors are coming out of the shadows and into the trend spotlight.

Turner Classic Movies

Although black is not the only dark color choice associated with dark interiors, it does seem to be the basis for dramatic back in black magic. Black is the new black- a perennial color classic and decorating color essential. What oomph the perfect little black dress lends to a fashionista’s wardrobe, a space dressed from floor-to-ceiling in the color black speaks to a decorista’s personal interior design and decorating style.

Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles 

Visual allure produces a theatrical statement.

1stdibs

Donna Mondi Interior Design

Dark interiors keep beautiful company with deep accent colors rich in palette intensity, and therein lies the secret to the perfect design and decorating marriage.

Neu.Boheme

My initial thought when sourcing the Vertigo pendant by designer Constance Guisset for Petite Friture?  Haute witches hat.

Petite Friture

Dark interiors introduce a sophisticated warmth to the space.

Elle Decor

Veranda

Dark interiors.  What say you?

Curling Up With Good Interior Decorating, Home Decor and Architecture Books

Curling up with good interior decorating, home decor or architecture book in the name of all things house that make a home is always in style.

Beth Webb : An Eye for Beauty: Rooms That Speak to the Senses

Today I am sharing a short list of a few interior decorating, home decor and entertaining books I am looking forward to reading cover to cover.

A Place to Call Home: Timeless Southern Charm

I love a gorgeous read with an equally attractive jacket for bookshelf, coffee table and bedside table accessorizing.

I believe that’s what they call an interior decorating win-win.

Entertaining in the Country : Love Where You Eat: Festive Table Settings, Favorite Recipes, and Design

City Farmhouse Style: Designs for a Modern Country Life

An eclectic and dynamic fall reading list promises to deliver impressive interior decorating eye candy and inspire interior and exterior creativity.

House Beautiful Style Secrets: What Every Room Needs

It’s never too early to think about the holidays!

Christmas With Southern Living 2017 : Inspired Ideas for Holiday Cooking and Decorating

A Most Fetching Friday

This week’s Fetching Friday features signature design and decor interpretation, fashionable words, a perfect blend of antiques and modern, a summer settee, a full on fall preview, and a question for you all.

fetch·ing

/ˈfeCHiNG/

adjective

adjective: fetching

attractive.

synonyms: attractive, appealing, sweet, pretty, good-looking, lovely, delightful, charming, prepossessing, captivating, enchanting, irresistible

As illustrated in the Domino magazine feature “High Style Made Easy”, Interior designer Mary McDonald captures decorating lightening in a bottle in this office kitchen with her signature bold design choices.

Decorating in a straightforward fashion strictly based on the function and purpose of the space does not always a statement make.

Doesn’t this office/workspace with its playing it not so safe accents and accessories pop a bit more than a conventional just get the job done look?

The pairing, mixing and blending of antiques with modern and contemporary style elements is a decorative endeavor I highly recommend trying.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Style at Home

A Marina Rust, Penobscot Bay, Maine summer home and a pink settee seasonally in Vogue.

This Traditional Living Room by Springfield Interior Designers & Decorators Nathan Taylor for Obelisk Home defines full fall glory in apples, feathers, rich colors and warm accents detail.

What favorite person, place or thing will be a part of your weekend plans?

I hope you have a most fetching Friday.

A Most Fetching Friday 6

This Fetching Friday 6 features setting colors, fashionable words, traditional English style fit for fall, ooh la la in the kitchen, and a visual testament to a love of antiques.

fetch·ing

ˈfeCHiNG/

adjective

adjective: fetching

attractive.

synonyms: attractive, appealing, sweet, pretty, good-looking, lovely, delightful, charming, prepossessing, captivating, enchanting, irresistible

Being optimistic is always in fashion.

Be Optimistic Felt Badge – Best Made Company

Open the window and let the air of fall weather in is coming to a cool morning and crisp afternoon near you soon.

Architectural Digest

Leila Lindholm’s fabulous French inspired kitchen complete with eclectic extravagance with the accent mark on love the look!

Skonahem

A fascinating combination.

Never underestimate the decorative presence, power and inspired influence brought forth by the use of antiques and eccentricities in design and decor.  A point well made in the home of Houston antiques dealer Kay O’Toole as featured in Lonny Magazine.

I hope you have a most fetching Friday 6.

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