To Like & To Behold

This dining room/kitchen appeared in a recent issue of House Beautiful, and I find it nicely refreshing because:

A. There's no chinoiserie wallpaper with vines or birds. (Nothing against chinoiserie, but it's way overused in dining rooms).
B. There's no oriental rug — better yet, no rug at all. (Nothing against rugs in dining rooms, but really, do you want food to stick onto a rug or carpet?)

What I really like are the chairs. Apparently they were painted to look old, and expertly done. But I especially like the chair cushions featuring one fabric for the tops, and a completely different fabric for the bottoms. It's such a great detail.

I also adore this Vintage by Hemingway Design wallpaper collection I saw in a recent edition of Interior Design magazine, especially the 1930s-inspired Deco Diamond pattern. It's so chic and elegant.

I picture a movie star wearing a black fishnet-covered hat, sipping a sidecar and smoking a long-handled cigarette. Care to join me, Darling?

Day of Coupage: The Game Changer

This work is kind of a companion piece to Ballerinas Having Flown (see previous post). I call it The Game Changer because the two men in the boat are confronted with potential obstacles, such as the erupting volcano to the right — plus their boat is perched precariously atop a bridge. Maybe they're jewel thieves (see sequins in boat) trying to escape with their loot?

I started with an 8"x10" canvas board and painted it titanium white (acrylic), with just a touch of potter's pink. I considered sponging the paint, but decided I like the way the deep colors of the wallpaper pop against the white.

Then I used my "Vista" vintage wallpaper sample, cut out the different pieces and laid them out on a white piece of paper. The difficult part was layering the pieces onto the canvas board to exactly match my original layout. (I photographed my layout and printed it out to recreate the pieces on the canvas). I applied the pieces using acrylic gloss medium, then added the blue sequins to finish it.

I used one of my fancy stick-on labels from Florence, and placed it on the back of the piece.

Day of Coupage: Ballerinas Having Flown

This is another project I finished from my decoupage class, which I call "Ballerinas Having Flown."

My instructor, the excellent Jenn Sherr, took this photo of the work in progress.

Pretty Ballerinas decoupage

I started with an 8x10" canvas board and sponged it with acrylic paints in manganese blue, unbleached titanium, tint white, potter's pink, quinacridone carmine (burgundy), and iridescent bronze. I don't quite have the sponging technique down, but I took a small piece of sponge, dipped it in water just enough to dampen it, then I blotted it with just a little bit of paint. Then I took a piece of dry sponge and blotted and blended the paints together.

The ballerinas, flowers, leaves and ribbon are all from the same sheet of vintage wallpaper, The Ballet.

As I was cutting and placing the wallpaper pieces, I decided it was just too pretty, and needed a little edge, so I added the "disembodied" ballerina in the upper right. To finish with a little bling, I placed shiny blue sequins in strategic places, and voila!

Ballerinas Having Flown

The sequins happened to come on a wired sprig with a gift from my friend Patty D., and I think they add just the right touch, like little exclamation points (and maybe a little naughty whimsy — oh behave!).

On the back, I used acrylic gloss medium to attach a label (it's actually a beautiful sticker label I bought in Florence years ago).

Back label

Since the piece is a standard size, I decided to frame it, and now it's hanging in my bathroom — which happens to be blue and pink! Applause, bow, pirouette, curtain.

Ballerinas Having Flown, with chocolate metal frame