Tree House Escape

Gotta love a good friend who thinks about your blog when she's out driving with her kids!  Here are some tree house pictures from a yard in Rhode Island, in a town by the water.  She stopped to ask the owner if she could take some pictures, and he offered a tour.  Enjoy!

Can you imagine the joy this would bring to your family?  And, what a great place to escape to when you can't take another minute of the craziness of life! :)

Have a great day.
Talk to you soon,
Carol

Choosing a Rug with a Client

No matter the style, a rug should enhance the furnishings of a room.  Sometimes, it is the inspiration for an entire room design, sometimes it is added later as the room evolves.  Occasionally, a room can stand on its own without one (read my post on this, here).  Today, while dropping off some pillows we had done for her family room, my client Donna asked for my opinion on a rug for the music room.

The chairs and side tables we had ordered for the music room recently arrived, and Donna, who had told me she was going to wait on a rug for the space, had suddenly changed her mind and called to tell me she'd purchased a rug, but didn't know if it was right.  Her rug guy, Fahad, was bringing some additional rugs for her to look at.  This was the first one, which she loved and had lived with for a week, but wasn't sure if it was the one.

When I came in the house, my first reaction was "wow!"  that's a gorgeous rug!  You would think that would be a great response.  Not necessarily.  Unless you want your rug to be art on the floor as a focal point, a rug, like all the other pieces in a room, ought to help produce a reaction of "wow, what a gorgeous room."  It should play together with the other pieces -- not having to match exactly, mind you, but each should make the other look good, not steal the show.  So, we looked at some other choices.

Fahad laid down three rugs with beige grounds and hints of red in them, which talked to the drapes (but were too bland and weren't enhancing anything), and Donna's heart still went to the first, more vivid and formal one.  The red just spoke to her.  I should have photographed every one he put down, but I didn't (duh!).  In the end, it came down to the initial red one, and my favorite, a more muted, softer, and somewhat more casual piece.

It's hard to see from the picture above, but the new introduction, on the right, is so much softer in the room. It calmed the whole room down, while speaking to, but not fighting for attention with, the drapes.  The new brown velvet french chair, which will live to the right of the armoire (along with new artwork and floor lamp), is shown below in a close up of the newer rug.  This picture really shows a truer sense of the warmth of this rug.

Yum.  Unlike Donna's initial choice, with it's more vivid color, tight pattern and ivory border, which seemed too formal, this one speaks to the casual, warm elegance of her European-inspired home.  It also conveys a warm, "come sit" feeling she wanted the room to have, as it's where her daughter's practice the piano and guitar.  I'll hear in a week or so what the final decision is.

On the topic of how a rug should enhance a room, but not steal the show, check out Maria's living room rug on her blog Colour Me Happy.  I think it is beautifully balanced with the other furnishings of the room (I thought it would be a fun look at a great rug in an entirely different style room.)  Click here to see what I mean.

So tell me, does your rug steal the show, or does it make everyone else look good, too?

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Party Prep Day Two...

So, my pal and I  were off again, ready to wrap up the food shopping...

His attention is on a squirrel!

After making the rounds at the fish market and the grocery store, we went home to start cooking and building the buffet table.  First on the list, making a floral arrangement.  I went outside and cut some tree branches for fall color, some fading fern, a few hosta leaves, and some coleus.  It's amazing what you can do on a budget -- think outside the box.  I'm sure everyone has a gorgeous arrangement waiting to grace a table, right from their own backyard.

I added the sunflowers I'd bought the day before.

Then it was time to start building some interesting height on the table.  Easy to do -- just grab some sturdy items from around the house, and make sure to put heat protectors on them if you'll be putting hot food there.

Now to add some fabric -- I often get fabric remnants, like this toile, and use them either layered over another tablecloth, or on their own.  This is a great budget-stretcher -- you get all kinds of table coverings for a lot less than a collection of finished tablecloths (and what people notice is the color and pattern, not the fact that it's a piece of fabric!)  Just be sure to have neat edges, or tuck them under.  Next, the flowers and some plates.

The table will end up with several heights of serving plates -- doing this makes your guests feel special, I think.  So much more interesting than a bunch of serving pieces spread out on a table with a small flower arrangement flanked with candles.  Then it was time to start on the dining table (oh, and do a lot of cooking in between all of this!)

Not super exciting,  I must confess I was running out of steam, with the cooking and of course, balancing family life on my day off.  I felt like Kipper at this point...

After following me around non-stop all day in the kitchen, the stress just got to be too much.

Wrapping up a day of prep, I put a pot of mums in the living room for a little fall color.

Ready for my dad's 80th birthday party!  Stay tuned for some photos of the food, and of course, the birthday boy!

Talk to you soon,
Carol

Let's Talk Front Doors

Does the color of your front door have a lovely conversation with the inside of your home?  Does it speak to you when you approach it,  telling you of the colors and mood of what awaits inside?

photo: Carol Beck

photo product and credit: Thibault Wallcoverings and Fabric

Or does your front door scream, "I have NOTHING to do with what's going on in there!  Somebody just liked this color and had no other place to use it!" I see this often and it makes my brain hurt.  Imagine opening this door into a beautifully decorated living/dining room where the salmon colored door rests against these walls....

photo product and credit: Thibault Wallcoverings and Fabrics

 Owww!  Quick!  Somebody paint the front door either black (ok, I know it's bad feng shui, but I love an elegant black door), or a deep raspberry.  Or perhaps another color picked up from an adjacent room that we cannot see here.  In my mind, painting the front door to coordinate with what lies beyond it can make the biggest difference in how someone reacts to your home on first entrance.  Are your guests, or even your family every day, hugged when they walk in, or assaulted by uncomfortable color combinations?

So, my friends, if you want to know if your front door says something about the inside of your home, put down your coffee and go outside.  Go up to your front door, taking the color in as though you'd never visited before, and enter in.  Does it work, is it an ivitation to what lies ahead?  If so, kudos to you!  If not, plunk down the $15 or so that it costs for a good quart of paint and get to making a great change!

On the Side...

I haven't written much about food lately.  I'm working on some recipes to be posted soon.  The food part of this blog really is meant to be an occasional indulgence, served "on the side" of my design musings.

Talk to you soon,
Carol