Decorating with Antiques in a Bedroom

This bedroom is in a little guest house at my daughter's house.   I just left this morning and thought I would share all the antique touches in the room.

The photo below was taken from the doorway into the room.  It is very welcoming.  I love the dramatic impact of the monster flower painting and the beautiful toile drapes.  The toile fabric is a vintage print, I know I've seen it in the Colefax & Fowler book.

The bed is covered in a white metalasse spread, great in the hot summer.  There is a really cute quilt done in tiny postage stamp size pieces that is nice if it gets too cold.  The giant snake pillow is a wonderful peice of french tapestry, the background of the tapestry is a gray blue.

The lamps on the nightstands are new, they look like trees with birds on them.  The house is in the country and this is something whimsical that works on this country guest house.

To the right of the nightstand is a wonderful little Georgian fire screen, and a needlepoint bench for your clothes or robe.  There are two wonderful blue and white German plaques that echo the cartouches in the toile drapes.   I remember my antique dealer friend telling me the story of how she dragged these back in a carry-on after purchasing them on Portobello Road in London.  Room was made for it on the plane, lucky for me they didn't get kicked to pieces underneath a seat.

 I can't get enough of that fabric. Isn't it a wonderful shade of blue!   I love having so many things to look at.  Some people call it cluttered, but I think it is fun.  There is a wonderful Berlinwork needlepoint with a girl and her parrot.  The glass on the front makes it hard to photograph.  There is a little writing desk in the corner to the right of the door.  It is stocked with note cards and note pads in case you need to make a note of where you are going the next day.  (remember this is a guest house).

Above the needlepoint is a lovely carved shelf, with what else but a cute piece of Staffordshire. Staffordshire is also sitting on the right nightstand.

 To the right of the desk are a couple of oil paintings, transferware plates, and an old piece of French gilt tin roses.

 I know, it's not minimalist, but my decorating with antiques has never been minimalist.  My daughter left this more English & German than the French that she usually does because she knows how much I love all this stuff!

Below is more of the German stuff in the room.  On the wall are Berlinwork needlepoint slipper pockets.  There is a dog, horse and monograms.  There are lots of other needlepoint pieces on the wall.

Above the nightstand, (an English chest of drawers), is a rack with a display of Austrian handmade antique petit point bags.  I sometimes use them when I dress up for special events.  It also follows one of my principles of collecting.  Mass similar items together for a more effective display.

To the left of the bed is this lovely turtle chair with dutch marquetry.  It is covered in Fortuny fabric, (when it is not covered with my bath robe!)

My nightstand has a couple of German hats on it.  There is a black one, very old.  The grey one my dad wore.  (See my German coming through, the verb at the end of the sentence?  I was an ESL kid here in the U.S.)    I didn't do anything to stage the room, so WYSIWYG.  

Ok, so here's my quick go to items on the nightstand.  I have  a silverplate tray to hold Jo Malone perfume, Secret, L'Occitane lotion (great stuff), Chapstick, L'Occitane lip balm.  That teacup is a fabulous handpainted teacup that I like to use for necklaces and rings.  I have a photo of my awesome daugher at work, framed in a black forest frame.  I use the little shaving mirror to put on makeup. The crystal Gallia picture frame of me with 4 of my sisters.  I was the bald baby on the end.  Mom made all the matching red and white dresses (yes it is a B&W print.  I just happen to recall wearing each and every one of those matching dresses.  I grew out of one, and into the other, wore that dress for 6 years..!!)

Below is a photo of my dad wearing the little grey hat.   Last spring when we were in Germany we saw a farmer all dressed up, or so we think, wearing said hat, riding on a tractor.

At the foot of the bed is a lovely antique French bench with stretchers.  Notice the carving on the front edge of the bench, beautiful!  It is covered in grey linen. 

There is carpet on the bedroom floor.  It is soft and wonderful to get out of bed and step onto carpet.  I know everyone loves wood and tile floors, but I am partial to comfort when it comes to getting out of bed and stepping onto something comfy.

Below is the bedroom set in a room before I moved.  We downsized so I had to figure out what to do with the set.  Storing it in the guest house is a great idea!  I get to visit it once in a while.

I think I like the fresh look of the new room, brighter colors.

The other room was quite large and the look more monochromatic.  This room has a cozy (ok small) feel to it, and is fun with all the stuff in it.  I think it would be boring edited down.  If other company stays in here they must know it was done for me!!

Don't be afraid to use antique items for accessories.  I get really tired of all the pieces of coral and shells that I see in all the stores and decorating magazines.  So have fun antiquing and replace something new with something vintage or antique!

Friday Coffee Break with Antiques and an Early Needlepoint

My love of textiles has new things showing up at the house...  New to me, that is.  This piece arrived a few weeks ago and is my new favorite treasure.   It is a wonderful needlepoint with incredible detail.

It a period piece, dating from the early 1800's.   I show it sitting in my living room, so you can see the how wonderful the colors are.  There is something about an old textile.  The colors are so vibrant even though it is covered with 200 years of grime.

It's not perfect, it has been restitched onto linen, thank heavens somebody rescued this rather than just tossing it out, or cutting it up.  Again, it's the patina that an antique has, it adds character to a room.

 Don't you love the couple in period clothing, with all sorts of animals around them.  I just love the way these old pieces stitched the background with layers of green.  It seemed to be a common technique that thankfully kept some color.  There are pieces that I find that didn't keep alot of color, the old vegetable dyes can fade terribly.  Think about a piece left across from a window for 100 years or so.  My chintz drapes are faded to nothing after 30 years.

Look at  the details.  There's a snail to the right, a bird on a branch... love that cow!

The back even has a scrap of wallpaper attached. 

I will have to check my stock of old frames.  You know you are in trouble when you have a "frame closet".  (Oh dear.   I fear one day I will be featured on "hoarders".)   I will hang it up unframed for now--it is important to keep unframed items safe from damage.   On the wall it won't fall over, get bumped into, or hit by a vacuum cleaner.

This morning my husband comes home with a Starbucks for me (isn't he nice to me!) and says we have an estate sale in the neighborhood.  We jump in the car and head over...and find a lovely sale.  Not alot of stuff, but just enough to have some fun.

Lately I seem to be fascinated with fashion prints from 1800-1820.  They tend to be Ackermann or des Modes.   I found a few at the sale today.   

Hand-colored print of two brides.  The dresses are large, but note the date is 1861.
That is too Victorian for me.  However they were in a stack of earlier ones, so they came home with me.

The prints below are a bit more what interest me.  The skirts are slimmer.   These two below are more ornate than the Ackermann prints, but are a very nice size and color.

The print below looks more like a regency fashion print.  Did you know that these would be printed up, and then there was a cottage industry of women who hand colored these at home.  You sometimes see variation of colors from the same magazine issue.  Quality control was a bit of an issue.

Doesn't this have more of a Jane Austen (1775-1819) feel to it,  it is dated 1794.  Charming.  I love the lemon gold color frame.

To think, I wasn't expecting a single estate sale because it is a holiday weekend.

Have a great weekend.  Go antiquing for a few hours.

Who can resist an old book?  I can't.

Forget about your problems and go rummaging.  You never know what you'll find.  It will give you something to wonder about.  Research your new find.   Have fun!

Office Update with Paris Map on a Budget

I have been working on staging the office off the entryway.  I have a wall that I really don't want to put furniture on the map wall, but I didn't like a blank wall.  My solution was a $69 map.   It is a map designed by Turgot in 1739--so it is pre Hausmann.

It comes in 25 pieces that you have to tape together.  I've read on the internet how to print them out and trim them--but for $69, this seems like quite a deal.  You can read about it on Pigtown Design's blog, and even download the map.

The detail is quite nice.  It is nostalgic for me as we went to Paris quite a bit when my husband was working.  I think he was there every other month, although my daughter and I would join him once a year.   When my nephew was 12, he went with us.  He would scare me by standing too close to the trains.  We still giggle about him sawing his pizza in a Louvre restaurant with a plastic knife.  He wore out the blade, so we finally let him pick it up and eat it with his fingers (much to the amusement of the french lady at the next table).  What fun we had!

Back to the subject at hand....

Some of my other projects in the office were:  covering books with script paper, and I got some moss balls which looks great with the pale green walls of the office.   Confessions of a plate addict  wrote about some great deals on moss balls from the dollar store.  Alas, none in my town.

Moss ball is sitting in a lovely old piece of Moore Bros porcelain.  It is from the 1870's.  Moore is very distinctive because the porcelain is very fine, and (fragile) tends to have cherubs with some kind of fauna/flora.  Cactus are the most common, but I have one with hydrangeas.

The office is off the entryway, and we had a second office in the basement.   This really didn't look like a functional office, but a great collection of antiques.   The downstairs room need the modular furniture removed so we could strip the wallpaper.   Below is a "before" photo.

Office "Before" the great furniture move

Office "After" the big move

Moving the modular office furniture took a day.   We had to unload it and figure out how to get these units up the stairs.   Unfortunately, we spent quite a bit getting nice, solid cherry.   Being married to an accountant and being a computerholic myself, purchasing modular furniture seemed like a great idea years ago.  It really is very functional, but not my first choice in decorating.  The great part is you can have it installed without a carpenter moving in, building a custom library.  THAT would have been my first choice.  Wouldn't this look great as a built in library?  Oh wait, that's what the owners had in here when we bought the place...except it was a complete nightmare with amateur cabinets.   We tore it all out in 1985......  My husband says someday the house will look just like it did when we purchased it.  (Except I don't think I'll ever own the fabulous Astor breakfront that was sitting in the dining room!)     I didn't put all of the modular furniture in the new office.  I had desks all across the window, but decided I like to walk to the window, and other people might like that too.

I've added a center table, which is actually quite handy in addition to looking good.   There is a swedish mirror to the right, which I wrote about here in November.   I have an oil painting next to it, but I'm not really happy with it there.  I feel like I want a set of 4 prints next to it--I just need to find the right prints.   (That will be my next mission.)

There is a second door-to the right that goes to the kitchen (and garage, and staircase)

Almost all of the accessories came from estate sales, with the exception of the mirror and a chair, which came from an antique shop and show, respectively.  Below is a bronze camel lamp with some green antiquing or patina.  That was $45.  I added the riser and linen shade.  The shade was probably that much.

Estate sale lamp

The drapes in the room are my favorite, even though they are years old.  They are done in a chintz fabric by Mario Buatta.  I wish I could still get this fabric.

Mario Buatta chintz fabric drapes and
an estate sale staffordshire cottage $150, and fancy bracket $65

For some reason, I love portraits.  I don't know why.  Instant relatives?   Someday I'll share my favorites.  I notice that portraits of women and children are more expensive than men.  Ugly people don't cost as much either, hee hee.

Estate sale painting $300 is a copy of a famous painting.  The face is nicely done, but look at those
spider hands!  The hands always give it away! I suppose I should have that hole repaired...

This edwardian chair was found at an antique show.  The needlepoint above it is one I made.
The chair was expensive, I can't remember how much, maybe $4-500?

I love painted and inlaid furniture.  This chair is 1900-1920.  That ribbon with swagged flowers,
who can resist?

The needlepoint is a copy of an antique beaded piece I didn't win on Ebay in 2003.
I thought it was an interesting subject, so I decided to do it myself.  I used an interlocking mesh canvas, 12 stitches per inch, with Appleton wool.  My favorite wool, a great value compared to all the fancy yarns available today.  The frame was from an estate sale $65.  I didn't put glass on it, because I don't like the glare.  

This is the original photo that I copied.  The entire piece was done in beaded needlepoint.
Wish I'd bid higher.  The piece was from Germany.

Victorian needlepoint chair.  I love the color and thought it was an interesting design--not to typical.  It came out of an estate sale less than a mile from my house.   It was $250, and I complained that I overpaid.  It's very sturdy and comfortable as a blogging chair!

I hope you've enjoyed my office redo.  The very pale celery green wall paint is Sherwin Williams 6414 Rice Paddy. I'd strongly advise you to do samples.  That was my third color.  We live in the NW where it is cloudy and dark every day, so color is important.  This shade really is quite lovely, even Mr. Antiquestyle loves it.  The room faces north and needs lights on most of the time.  The color couldn't be better!  I don't say that too often! 

The estate sale items were "shopped" from other rooms in the house.  If it had a hint of celery green, it came to the office. I should go to more estate sales, but with the price of gas, and horrible traffic, I've been preferring Ebay.  I hope I've encouraged you to do some antiquing to add something interesting to your rooms.

Now I'm off, I have wallpaper to strip out of the old office!

OMG, isn't this scary!  I've loved my red office, but it's been about 20 years.   I hunted for photos and  this was the only pictures I could find of the old office. The glass went  to auction, we had too much and lost interest in it.  One of these days I'll have to do a post on displaying a collection!

Wish me luck.  Dif wallpaper remover is my best friend.  Our realtor should be happier with both rooms.  Have a great week and .... Happy Antiquing!

Needlepoint Christmas

I just pulled out a needlepoint pillow I made.  It is probably the only modern canvas I have used.  I love the effect of a sampler with a happy reindeer bounding through it!

Winter Sampler - by Birds of a Feather

I think I should take the fringe off the pillow for a fresher look.  I might even put a trim of toile instead of gimp.  


Stay Warm!

Stockings, Nutcrackers and Mohair Snowmen

Some of our favorite things about this time of year is pulling out family christmas collections.  With a German background, we like collecting many handmade christmas items.  My favorite collection is our Steiff snowman collection.  They are the cutest mohair snowmen!   Steiff comes out with one almost every year.   Every time I get them out, I have to giggle about how it all started.....My husband left my daughter and I to entertain ourselves in Munich.  We were to meet up with him by taking a train to Paris later that week.  When he opened his suitcase of casual clothes...it was filled with teddy bears and snowmen!

Between a trip to Rothenburg and Katha Wolfart, and the huge sale at Kaufhof in Marianplatz, we wound up putting Steiff creatures in dad's shoes, and every nook and cranny in the suitcases.  It was great fun!  (My husband keeps saying, if only I didn't have to share my doll with my 5 sisters while growing up, I wouldn't have buy many toys as an adult!)

This year they are standing guard over the cute needlepoint stockings....

Russian Santas are standing on each stocking holder.   They were a souvenir from a trip to St. Petersburg.   

Cutest Quimper Couple Needlepoint Stocking!  I purchased at Pierre Deux
 in Carmel after Christmas last year.  (I'm so sad that they are bankrupt... )

My daughter wrote a guest blog about her nutcrackers that she pulls out for Octoberfest here.   I thought that I should try to limit my collecting to shepherd nutcrackers.   My favorite ones are by Ulbricht.

Shepherd Nutcrackers

My daugher has a collection of santas with reindeer.   Isn't this one cute!

She has this one on loan to me for the holiday--the beautiful white Santa

Ulbricht White Santa in Center

We were in Gumps on Sunday and spotted this nutcracker by Ulbricht.  Isn't he cute!  OK, maybe I need to start another collection!

And for my favorite wall decoration, who can resist this reindeer?   He is about 5 feet tall, and traveled half way across the country to settle at home with me.

I must continue my hunt for boxes of decorations.   We really enjoy all the handmade German ornaments.   It is a way to enjoy the holiday with craftsmanship reminding the family of the old country.

18th Century George III Wingback Chair Upholstering Project

I purchased a really fun chair--an 18th century George III wingback with exaggerated wings. The curves of the wings, seen from any angle, really makes this a wonderful chair.  So now my project is--what fabric do I select?   I could use it in 3 different living/family rooms.  Colors that would go are likely to be a neutral cream/tan, blue, or red..  The 3 rooms could be one that has a country french yellow toile drape in it, a family room with brown la declaration drapes, and a living room with a coral sofa, blue would be great in there.

Finding an old chair made me wonder what it may have been upholstered with originally.  After hunting around, I found a reference Judith Miller made in one of her antique guides.  She says that originally these chairs were upholstered in grospoint or petitpont needlepoint.

So I started my hunt for pictures of what a wingback chair from the 1700's would have looked like.  There's a website called Furniturestyles.com that had this example. (See link below to read more)

Furniturestyles.com

This beauty is on Ist Dibs - (click on the link to view ad.).  Interesting floral pattern.  Sort of a Jacobean influence?

Ist Dibs Chair $18,000

Another wonderful example with large bold flowers:

George II Walnut Chair, circa 1730.  Christies
More of those wonderful bold flowers.

I went to my favorite website for pictures, Liveauctioneers (yes I got permission, ok to use if I put in a link), and found this --and subsequently went to the Bonhams website.  Again, a lovely floral needlepoint.

Fantastic chair from a Bonhams auction - photo Liveauctioneers.com

So I checked out a few English antique websites and found more floral needlepoints.  I'm assuming that the backs may be replaced?

Wakelin-Linfield Antiques had this chair.  They said it is a George I period chair with most of it's original needlepoint

A 1750's chair with later 1800's needlepoint.
Notice the background color is different from the other examples.
Not liking that.  At auction.

A GEORGE I WALNUT AND NEEDLEWORK-COVERED 

WING ARMCHAIR CIRCA 1715 - ($62,500) Christies.

Hmm.  An interesting departure from the other florals.

I thought that I'd check out what museums have, and found this at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. -- An American chair.  I totally love this back.  The front is interesting, a geometric patten.  Date:  1758.  I find that fascinating.

Fantastic needlepoint on the back of a chair, dated Newport 1758
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Front of 1758 Chair at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The back reminds me of a needlepoint sofa-back - I'd just love having something like this.  Don't you just love this.

Here's another to die for chair with a price tag equivalent to a few houses in Iowa:

Christies Auction Nov 2010 Sold for $113,000

From the Christies catalog:

A GEORGE I WALNUT WING ARMCHAIR 
CIRCA 1720 
With associated gros and petit point needlework, the back with a panel depicting a maiden by a well, surrounded by trailing foliage and flowers, the sides and back with plain cotton, on shell carved cabriole legs with pad feet and leather castors, some reworking to the needlework, the back seat-rail replaced, restorations to the ears of back legs

Check out the detailed stitching.

Below:

A GEORGE I WALNUT WING ARMCHAIR 
CIRCA 1720 
Upholstered in associated 18th century close-nailed gros and petit-point floral needlework, the back and seat depicting classical figures, on cabriole legs with pad feet

Christies Auction Nov 2010 $55,000

Here's one in an upcoming auction.  I have to say this is what I think most motifs are, although most of what you see is floral, I suspect that many I see in my price range (ok, not in my range, but ones I am able to see) may be later than 18th century.

Christies Nov 2011 Auction

A GEORGE II MAHOGANY WING ARMCHAIR 

MID 18TH CENTURY 
With associated 18th century figural needlework covering, the back legs later and oak...

ANYONE READING want to buy me a christmas present? !!

Judith Miller said most of the antique chairs would be figural or I assume she meant like these scenic.  I do love the huge flowers.  Given the age of these pieces, can you imagine how bright the chairs really were?  If you think about the times, I'd like to sit by the fire, curtains pulled, dark rooms, most likely, to stay warm in the winter.  A bright color would be needed, don't you think?

So now that I've seen all these fabulous examples, needlepoint that is only 100 years old just doesn't have the same look: 

This French chair with needlepoint looks like a later design.
It is circa 1900 from http://www.oldplank.com

So how has the design community reacted to wonderful old needlepoints and tapestries?  We get stuff like this. YUK in my book after seing so many wonderful antique pieces.   

From Liveauctioneers.  Don't do this fabric.

There is another option:  Crewel fabric.  The chair below is probably the type of crewel that is available.

Chair from auction, probably not antique.

If you decide to go crewel, set the bar high.  Using a colorful crewel is definitely the way to go.  Often times the crewel is only used on the inside of the wing chair--I assume to save money as you can spend upwards of $500/yard for some of this stuff.

http://pontysporch.blogspot.com
Read her fun article on wingbacks.

I spotted this on Ebay, one of my favorite dealers who carries textiles has this in her house:  She is spot on, having found a wonderful tree-of -life crewel fabric.  Don't you just love how the pattern fits on this chair?  Wonderful!  I would love to find something like this for my chair!

from a favorite eBay dealer:  rivervalleytextiles.  Click here to read her bio, and read about this project.  (Check out her listings, she has the prettiest pictures.  Plus  she gives you great tips on care and collecting of textiles.)

Chelsea textiles makes a dynamite option  $510/yard wholesale. 

OK, so I don't have any connections to get crewel on the cheap, haha.  So what other fabrics are an option?

After checking out all those wonderful English chairs, I thought I should check out what you see on American chairs.   I immediately thought of Colonial Homes, and how you saw two things:  plaids or damasks.  Talk about two extremes.  Both are really strong statements, I think...  Here are two plaid examples:

This is actually more historically correct--most of the chairs did not have a cushion, and if it did,
it was a thin cushion.

Another example of a blue plaid chair.

Probably more historically correct - no bottom cushion, according to other reading.
Then I read that they sat on plump pillows.  HMMM,  this is confusing.  What do you think?.

(FLAT CUSHION DIVERSION)  Here's another chair with that flat cushion.

This chair is interesting--it has the flat cushion.  The photo is a bit blurry--
I can't really tell if it is a tapestry or chinoiserie fabric.  Bonhams auction  

So I checked out alot of photos on historic wingbacks in the U.S.  There are alot of beautiful chairs at Winterthur, the White House, and Blair House --it seems as though damask is what is used on these expensive chairs.  I looked around on the internet, and found these beautiful chairs.

Interesting UK website 

Isn't the chair above really awesome looking?   I think the yellow fabric really looks the best, but I am pretty gutless when it comes to using yellow.  Coral would work better for me than yellow.

The same website has all kinds of interesting wingbacks.  I thought it would give me a good visual of what a pattern damask would look like.  

Interesting channel back.  I like the soft colors.  Cut velvet is something that is actually "antique".  

Of course if I do cut velvet, only $500/yard (guess) Lee Jofa will do.

Le Notre from Lee Jofa

But what if it winds up looking like grandma's velvet from the 60's?  OK, back to damasks.

Killer green chair.  But how would it look in a room? I really love many shades of green,
but this one I think would whack me over the head when I walked into a room.
Ist Dibs

I actually love this bright chair.  Great pattern.  I think the damask pattern needs to dominate the back, don't you?
These chairs are so big, it needs a big pattern.
Ist Dibs

I thought about blue.  This one is too baby blue, I'm thinking an indigo blue.  However, I am showing this one because I like the large cartouche on the chair back, works for me.

Or you could go conservative cream:

A fabulous period chair.  Very formal.
Ist Dibs

Of course, my version would be less pricey than $30,000

liveauctioneers

OK, another rule, give up the arm covers.  I have never liked them.   No, I don't care if the chair gets dirty.   The big problem with damask is that the "authentic" looking stuff is silk.  I am way past doing chairs in silk, unless they're a little chair that I'm just going to look at, and never sit on. (had to qualify that)

For those who were looking for wingbacks, and got stuck reading my blog, I'll throw in some current chairs on the market, that aren't museum repros breaking the bank:

Hollyhock has this one:

I don't think I'm in a "busy pattern" mood.   Could be fun in the right room.  

Jacobean fabric.  I always like the free flowing vines on Jacobean fabrics.
  Chair on http://assemblageltd.com

Below is one from Anthropologie.  It made me think, toile!

So of course I had to grab a Charles Faudree book and see what he likes.  

Plaid -hmmm.  Country French?  or too early American?  

Pierre Frey Petit Parc fabric.  A nice rich bold color.

Look no further than the front cover of Charles Faudree's book.
I think this is a Groves Bros fabric.  I sent away for samples.

I don't really like all toiles.  I'm not really liking the chair below, I don't know why it seems flat to me.

apartmenttherapy.com

Red or blue would work very well as an option for my chair.  This pattern below is lovely, very Fortuny-like.

A nice large pattern works best on such a large chair--don't go for a wimpy cartouche!

Not sure if I like the look..............

Bright red pattern. The larger the pattern, the better.
Aspire Auctions

I do like this red pattern better.............

So what would you do.  My chair is like the one above.  I'm getting fabric samples.   Stay tuned.  Feel free to chime in on opinions.   I'm just so paranoid after the 80's and people putting huge floral patterns on everything...but I don't want plain linen, don't want country check, don't think I want velvet, saving that for the moss green upholstery job on the sofa.  I wish there was something out there that has the feel of the fabulous old needlepoints, but it doesn't seem to exist.  I would love that!

What would you pick?