Showing posts with label vintage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vintage. Show all posts

4.03.2015

A Staffordshire Easter

“Be daring, be different, be impractical; be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers.”

- Cecil Beaton



Well it has been a while, hasn’t it?  Nothing like a holiday table to bring me out of blog hibernation.  My apologies for the radio silence - life, as it were, as well as some good things on the horizon so pardon my sporadic absences.  Never fear though, as an avid IGer, you can always catch me fancying about over there.

In the spirit of good ol’ Cecil, my Easter table this year is anything but practical and safe.  I sort of waited until the last minute, thinking that I would do a rerun of my blue Chinoiserie table from a few years ago.  But in a frenzy of inspiration yesterday, I switched gears entirely. Why not gather all my Staffordshire together in a riot of color to celebrate Easter?  Color me happy.










Happy Good Friday.  Hope your Easter weekend is colorfully happy.


All design, styling, and photos by Emily Vanderputten


kisses,  mrs. V   
 

11.06.2014

One Room Challenge Linking Event - Week 6 - The Big Reveal








The big day is here!  Reveal day, or the Full Monty, as I have taken to  calling it.  Welcome back to The One Room Challenge™ linking event. I re-did my bathroom in 6 short weeks, handling all the work between my mister and myself, and have lived to tell the tale, although my marriage had some sporty moments.  This is my 3rd time participating (here and here, in addition to this one) each time it is complete and total hairy eyeball chaos. Thank you for checking in each week, your encouragement is everything!  If you are new to chez V, you can catch up on all the drama, and believeyoume there was plenty of it, including my starting point, by checking out weeks 1 – 5 on the links below:



Today I will spare you the verbal gymnastics just this once, and get right to the goods.  Just know it pains me to my soul not to spin some kind of yarn…














































I love this dear little jewel box of a loo even though shooting it was a lot like that time I did an intense yoga class in Midtown Atlanta.  I had to contort my body in ways that should be illegal to get any kind of shots in this narrow space.  And much like the macho dude who was whimpering next to me in that tortuous yoga class led by a no-nonsense yogi dude with black toe nails, I just might have let loose a cry or two as I surely pulled my groin trying to straddle the toilet while balancing the tripod on my nose.

While my Ms. Mame of a water closet looks pretty during the day, she positively comes alive at night.  The glossy walls reflect the light around the dark, jewel box.  The brass light fixture creates an incredible geometric pattern on the ceiling and the sconces create the most perfect lovely light in the vanity.  These pictures do not it justice...
















That's it folks.  I am beat-to-a-bloody-pulp tired.  Need a vat of wine to properly recover.  I will follow this post up with more details about each of the elements perhaps tomorrow, or next week, or whenever I have found my brain and can string two coherent thoughts together.  In the meantime, if you have any questions you would like answered, ask away in the comments.  I try to respond to every comment, provided you are not a 'no-reply' nincompoop.  PS – Beth C – thank you for the heads up that my subscribe widget is busted.  I’ll get right on that and the font color.  Love me some pink, but my mister also complains about it too. ;) 

Some of the sources are vintage that I have had for a while but I have included links to the places where I found them.  If I haven't listed something than I've likely had it for longer than Methuselah's long ass life.

SOURCES:



Another big heartfelt thanks to Linda for organizing The One Room Challenge™ and the linking event.  I now have 3 knock out rooms in this postage stamp of mine because of participating. Yeehaw!   Cannot wait to settle in and see the amazing transformations of the other 90+ participants.  Check them out here.


All designs, layouts, and photos by Emily Vanderputten

kisses,  mrs. V

4.30.2014

One Room Challenge - Week Five - Painting, Lights, and Wallpaper

Welcome back to week 5 of The One Room Challenge™.   Thank you for following this crazy ride as I re-do the dine-in portion of my kitchen which involves finishing out a banquette, upholstery, paint, wallpaper and lighting.  As I type this, I am sort of in denial that I have one week left to pull off this room. In true panicky fashion, I took to cleaning my bathroom baseboards with a toothbrush this morning.  So what.  Tell me I’m not alone in addressing looming deadlines with soul crushing procrastination.  To catch up with my shenanigans from the beginning, click the following links below:

WEEK 1:  Plan & Inspiration
WEEK 2:  Progress Report – Floors
WEEK 3:  Electricity
WEEK 4:  Upholstery

If you are super smart and totally, like totally, cool, then you are already following life chez V on IG and you will have seen these dreams that are made of these.  And by dreams, I mean my recurrent prepster yet irreverent Chinoiserie filled dreams which involve things like this supremely gorgeous Scalamandre wallpaper which went up today thanks to the brilliant install by Liz and Bill of Natural Look Painting & Decorating.  Cincy & Dayton peeps, give these folks a shout if you need any wallpapering or painting done!




 
But before I introduce you to my hotty wallpaper, let’s revisit a few other obsessions of mine:  color and lighting - two things that can instantly transform any room.  So last week I was lamenting that we didn’t have paint on the walls due to ElectricityGate but now I am happy to report that the walls have been painted.  Sherwin-Williams graciously provided the wall paint and I could not be happier with the results.  








Not only is the customer service on the corporate side impeccable but the guys at my local store are rock stars and deserve a shout out. They are always so helpful whenever I am in there and even helped me with my floor stain/poly sitch when I wasn’t even for shopping for floor stuff! I have painted more than my fair share of stuff along the way and can say based on experience that quality paint makes all the difference in the world.  My family and I have been using Sherwin-Williams products for a long time.  My front door is painted with SW paints as well as my kitchen cabinets which I painted a few years ago and have stood up to our daily traffic beautifully.  I used the ProClassic Interior Acrylic Latex Enamel in white on the cabinets and plan on using more to repaint the trim this week.  For the kitchen walls, I selected Great Green SW 6430 in semi-gloss from the Emerald line which was color matched to my wallpaper.  The color is very similar to what was previously on the walls but more pigmented.  The Emerald line went on smoothly with excellent coverage.  But there was a brief moment when the mister and I howled because when the paint was first going up it looked identical to the previous color.  However, once it began to dry, the deeper pigmentation began to come through.  With tons of light, this kitchen can easily handle a deeper pigmented color.  Officially living for this more mature color.


What the what?!  This looks like the same color that is already on the walls.


Dried beautifully into a deeper, more mature green


The color is quite smashing with the wallpaper


As to lighting:  typically I’m a vintage gal all the way when it comes to lighting.  But there are certain occasions when I stumble on a new light that simply cannot be ignored - like my Ranarp sconces and my Jonathan Adler foo dogs from my previous ORC room.  And my Ballard Designs pendant that I just scored at the outlet for this room.  Or any of the multitude of great lamps at Home Goods.  Lamps Plus is another great source and graciously provided us with lighting for this challenge.  Now I have to say that I was blown away by the sheer magnitude of the selection and not only just lighting.  So many great choices that it was hard to choose but I knew that I wanted some sconces flanking my vintage pagoda mirror to add some ambient lighting to the banquette area.  I selected Visual Comfort’s Bill Blass library sconces in brass and again was blown away by Lamps Plus customer service, the timeliness of delivery (only a few days!), and the quality of the light.  Very, very impressed.










And now, allow me to properly introduce my new beau hunk, Parapluie.  The mister forgives me my wallpaper dalliance with the express understanding that ‘Luie replaces  someone in my elevator.  Luie plays nicey with the other kids in the sandbox, particularly the sconces and my pagoda mirror.  Sadly, it would seem that Parapluie in this green colorway is no longer available from Scalamandre as I bought up the last remaining lot which just so happened to be the exact amount I needed #amatchmadeinheaven #sorrynotsorry.  But you can find other Parapluie colorways via sku# WP88216 on the Scalamandre site.  




I am already envisioning many a boozy night with lots of laughter and friends sequestered comfortably on the banquette against Luie’s beautimous backdrop.  Scratch.  Oh yes, the banquette, that elusive design element.  We still have to finish all of our sewing for the banquette cushions and pillows, figure out art placement (got some great stuff coming from Jennifer at The Pink Pagoda!!!), and I have yet to begin sourcing accessories.  Also, I have one major design element planned for the room that literally pulls everything together like Lebowski’s rug that will likely not be ready in time.  Wah, wah, wah.  Looks like rather than Donnie, I will be the one out of my element for the big reveal but I still think it’s gonna be real good. This is what I've accomplished and lots more upholstery is what I got up my sleeve for this week...








Did I mention that I got a wild hair to tile my backsplash this weekend? The mister hates me for real and for true.

As far as dreams intersecting with reality, I can safely tell you that based on the wallpaper alone, I will be obsessed with this room for life or longer.  Or at least for two weeks until such time that I turn my sights to my outdoor patio room where major patio perching happens on the regular during the warmer months.

Love ya, mean it.  Now go check out my girls…


A special thank you to the following sponsors and supporters of Chez V and The One Room Challenge that are graciously providing items to help me bring my vision for this room to life:


All photos and styling by Emily Vanderputten unless otherwise noted

kisses,  mrs. V