Vintage Wonderland

This is my new vintage Christmas-motif kitchen tablecloth ...

Most often I see these with poinsettia designs or with lit candle designs. I chose this one because I love the wavy-line border and the fun geometric trees. And, the light blue, gray and black are non-traditional colors for Christmas, so all the better to coordinate with my blue, white and yellow kitchen.

Here's the tablecloth with my vintage Star Glow cream and sugar set as centerpiece:

And here's how I have the table decorated for the holidays, featuring my vintage Mt. Pleasant glass bowl filled with vintage blue Christmas ornaments. Jolly, jolly, jolly!

November's Color Scheme: Burnished Harvest Cornucopia

Inspiration:
My vintage potato salad bowl, still beautiful and useful, chips and all.

Though the bottom of the bowl says, "Made in Japan," the painted colors make me think of the Mediterranean in summer or autumn. I pulled out the colors from this bowl to create a beautiful palette of warm hues in yellow, rust, and berry rose, which I envision working equally well in a living room, kitchen or dining room.

If I were designing a traditional living room with this palette, I'd use Mountain Peak White for the ceiling, Limon for the walls, and a combination of Rust and Yellow Highlighter for the trim, depending on what the moldings and other room features look like. If the room were lucky enough to have a fireplace, I'd use the Roseate, Italiano Rose, and True Pink for the fireplace area.

I'd use these fabrics to tie the room's color palette together:

I'd use the yellow gingham for Roman shades, the burgundy for a sofa, the variegated color fabric (which cools down the color scheme a bit) for a loveseat or chairs, the boxed velvet for a large ottoman, and the copper crushed velvet fabric for pillows.


Elements:
Benjamin Moore Paints (clockwise from top): 
Mountain Peak White, Rust, Yellow Highlighter, True Pink, Pilgrimage Foliage, Delightful Yellow, Limon, Roseate, Italiano Rose.


Fabrics (clockwise from top): 
Newfield Check by Lee Jofa® in 100% cotton. Daffodil.
Pattern 180569H Highland Court Exclusive in Viscose/Cotton/Polyester. Copper.
Boxed Velvet™ by Beacon Hill® in Rayon/Cotton/Metallic. Hazelnut.
Gymkhara Weave by Lee Jofa® in 100% cotton. Chestnut.
Mingle by LoomSource in Polyester/Rayon. Passion.

Design Pile-up

Books are awfully decorative...

It was no joke when Gloria Upson quipped, "Books are awfully decorative, don't you think?" in Auntie Mame. Despite the current prevalence of clicking or scrolling to read your favorite book, I have to agree with Gloria.

There's a lot to be said for a coffee table displaying a neatly stacked collection of books ... it just looks, well, neat.

Books are displayed this way in just about every shelter magazine spread you see, so it must be the correct way, right?

But, why not try fanning the very same collection of books?

It adds visual interest to have the books fanned, and helps you to see parts of the front covers for the whole stack. It also makes for a less uptight, more casual look. I think this technique tends to work better with magazines, but if you don't have too many books in one stack, give it a whirl.

Step On It, Joe!

I once had a GO AWAY doormat in my first Boston apartment, and someone stole it.

Now I have this:

Barnboard Doormat

Though it's still off-gassing, I have it in my kitchen in front of the sink. I especially like its trompe l'oeil effect. My only minor quibble aside from the off-gassing: I wish they hadn't rounded the corners so it would look even "rawer." In any case, I think it was an excellent update, and it complements the new natural shade I installed on my window this past summer.

Torero! Vintage Wallpaper Collage

This is the largest wallpaper collage I've done so far. It measures 17" x 24", which is about the full size of the wallpaper sample. This piece is entitled, Torero! on vintage Salon de Paris wallpaper with fishnet.


First, I drew the bullfighter by copying an illustration from a vintage LP cover, Torero! Music of the Bullfight. The original definitely looks like a watercolor. I used colored pencils and Tombo markers to achieve a similar effect.

In addition to the difficulty in getting the proportions of the drawing correct, cutting and pasting the drawing onto the wallpaper was also a challenge. Originally, I was going to use blue and red party toothpicks for the arrows attached to the bull, but I managed to cut them out successfully from the drawing.

I added the fishnet last to give the piece a more gothic feeling suggested by the very dark wallpaper (Can you imagine having wallpaper this dark in your house today?!). I wasn't sure how to attach the fishnet to keep it taut. I thought thumbtacks might work but they were a bit too long and would have pushed through the foamboard. So, I used black thread to tie the fishnet in the back:

It looks very much like a mess of spiderwebs, doesn't it?

Check back here in December, when I post the Christmas wallpaper collages I completed last year.

Vintage Wallpaper Collages

This first collage is Mr. Owl on "Fontainebleau" vintage wallpaper.

This second collage is Mr. Owl on "Virginia Colony" vintage wallpaper.

I drew Mr. Owl using colored pencils and Tombo markers.

This is the vintage wallpaper book (I'm guessing it's from the 1950s) I salvaged from the trash in my condo building years ago from which I took the wallpapers I used for the above collages. The book measures 20" x 24". A lot of the designs are dark and predominantly floral, but there are some interesting deviations of scenes and textures, some with metallic details. 

This is the inside cover of the book. Apparently there was a showroom of some sort at 405 Boylston St. in Boston at one time. Many of the samples are brittle and falling apart, and it seems a shame for this book to sit and deteriorate, so that's why I'm using the samples for collages.

I'm currently working on another vintage wallpaper collage. I've chosen the wallpaper sample but haven't tackled the drawing yet. I'll post it here when it's completed.

Last year I made a series of Christmas collages with some of the samples in this book. Revisit this blog in December at which time I'll post those.

Gnome Man's Land

Meet Leo... 

I don't have a garden of my own, but now I do have my very own garden gnome, Leo. I thought of naming him Vinny since part of his ear is cut off, but the name just didn't suit him well. He seems too jolly.

He was a great bargain I snatched up for $20 at the most recent Brimfield Antiques Show.

He's currently residing in my computer/play room, but I will probably move him around depending on my mood. If nothing else, he'll make a great doorstop (he just gave me a dirty look — sorry, Leo). He is quite heavy.