Dark Walls and Styling The Seasons

I simply couldn't resist painting more walls, well it's been a few weeks after all!  You may remember that I painted my upper hall landing white which lasted less than one day, I then painted half of it in graphite chalk paint, which is very matt and black.  I loved it so much I have now continued the colour around the sides, and despite protests from him indoors, that it will make the area seem dark and gloomy, I don't get that vibe at all.

The upper hall landing doesn't get much natural light but it is an area that gets walked through a lot and so I think this is a great place to display pictures and art, as you come up the stairs you can view the walls from the bottom up and it's the perfect area to play with dramatic looks.  

I'm collecting works of art connected to tattoos.  Either by tattooists like Amy Williams and Angelique Houtkamp, or of tattooed women.  The frames are all old ones from ebay.

I find that the drama of the dark walls showcases everything you put in front of it, either pictures, furniture or flowers.

Metallics work well with black, as it can tone down the gaudiness.  My favourite kinds of frames are old gilt gesso ones and Im always looking out for them as they work very well grouped together on picture walls. The continuation of deep rich colour holds the smaller objects together so that it doesn't look bitty.

So far I'm not feeling that the dark walls are making this small area feel smaller, but instead I'm noticing the light and how it falls.  I particularly like it with my new seagrass flooring.

I have been making posies for May Day, an old tradition is to hang them on your neighbors front door but I will probably be selfish and keep them for myself this year as the fragrance from the sweet peas and blue bells is intoxicating.

May holiday was originally a Roman festival for Floralia, the goddess of flowers so it would only be appropriate to have little floral arrangements around the home. 

Happy May Day.

Chalk paint by Annie Sloan, woven basket by Southwood Stores, limited edition prints by Angelique Houtkamp from Salon Serpent Tattoo Parlour.

Urban Jungle Bloggers Plants and Blooms

Im so happy to be part of this community of Urban Jungle Bloggers, Igor and Judith are very generous in sharing posts and photos and their appeal is worldwide so it's very interesting to see people from other countries following the same challenges.

This month its Plants and Blooms, very appealing to me as there is usually some floral element in my photos, it's the finishing touch, a way to capture forever the beauty of something transient and fragile.  Below are some of my home grown roses, the bushes were planted this year and still giving me lots of fragrant blooms.

My background colour in these two shots is using Annie Sloan Wall Paint in Duck Egg Blue, but as I painted over a green colour this may have effected its hue. Always consider this when painting, colours will change from that on the tin if you are painting over another strong colour. 

I shall be reviewing this new wall paint soon, with full details of how it differs from Annie Sloan's chalk paint.

Above is a new play thing, a notice board from Rose & Grey. It comes with clips and a finish that looks like old wooden pallets. 

I should also mention that a couple of these small planters are hand made. Above the little pale green one is from Katie Robbins (Ceramic Magpie) and below the mug top left is from the online store The Future Kept.

This large round vase is a vintage one by the company Bitossi, a highly collectable retro range.  I really want one of their lions, and am always on the look out for one.

More vintage goodies in this photo, I attended a truly fab event The Bloggers Vintage Jumble and instagram meet. Fellow bloggers from far and wide congregated on a sunny Sunday afternoon for tea cake and shopping in a village hall in Lindfield. It was lovely to see the faces of social media friends, a too rare occurrence in my opinion.

Jessica Trent sold me the embroidered table cloth and this was one of many great items I came home with, I was unable to show any restraint. Heather Young very generously let me snaffle the hydrangeas.  I'm currently growing a lot of the plants but as it's their first year the blooms are still a bit young and floppy to hold any shape when cut. From what I can work out, the hydrangea heads only look like this when they are quite old flowers which almost dry on the bush before picking. So thank's Heather you have saved me doing a midnight raid on a neighbours garden .... :)

My next blogger meet is in Bristol for the Sisterhood Supper with Toast, not toast to eat, silly, but Toast the great label. The food is being cooked by a well known chef and we will be learning calligraphy and wreath making. 

I hope you are all enjoying the Autumn colours, in the UK we have been blessed with such great weather the last few months making this time of year even more special. 

Country Curtains - Divinely Vintage

This week I had the pleasure to work with a lovely lady called Sue from Divinely Vintage.  

Sue has been specialising in curtains for 20 years and certainly knows her stuff.  The main part of her business is in second-hand designer curtains which originally would have been extremely expensive. We aren't talking flimsy ready mades here, but bespoke heavy curtains made for country homes and manor houses, all at a snip of their original price.

You can find Sue's curtains through a number of different ways, theres a facebook page, website, ebay and etsy shops and also several Antique shops where she sells (Ampthill Emporium and St. Martins Antiques Stamford), all the links are on their website.

There are many big designer names in Sue's stock, Colefax and Fowler, Sanderson, Zofany etc. Most of these curtains are lined and inter-lined, and as the weather is now turning colder this is a perfect time to change over from your Summer lights to some serious draught preventing door and window drapes.

Sue stores much of her stock in a listed barn, which it is hoped will be turned into a showroom.  Amongst the beams are piles of gorgeous vintageness, so we had a rummage and took some of the stock outside. 

As this was probably the last of the beautiful weather we were so happy that the sun shined for us this week, a nip in the air but oh so lovely and much appreciated after the rain.

Recently Sue was commissioned to re-home all the curtains from Toddington Manor and this is another of the services she offers, working on commission to find a good home for a used quality item.

Im sure if you read this blog then you are like minded when it comes to second hand, it's not always perfect and even if it seems dated in some settings, it is possible to re-invent a look for it.  In the 1980s the fashion for floral was to have it everywhere, every surface covered, with extra borders and frills, a bit much Im sure you will agree, but take out some elements from that period, like some lovely Designer Guild curtains and put them in a setting with wooden floors and plain walls and you will create a whole new look.

For all the links to see Sue's curtains and outlets go to her website http://www.divinelyvintage.co.uk/ and give a home some old manor glamour.

Styling The Seasons Autumn tables

So I thought I would just show a few images from earlier this year of how I decorated tables and some new ones done for our monthly Styling The Seasons, I hope these inspire you to think outside of the box when it comes to choosing containers. 

I often use Moroccan tea glasses, and hope to boost my collection when I visit that country again next year. Lucky for me though, my local lifestyle store "Holy Cow Home" has stocked some beauties. The ones above have a lovely silver sleeve around the glass, making it easier to hold when full of hot mint tea. Having a few of these in your cupboard will always prove to be handy as either tea glasses, mini vases, or you can even put a candle in them.

To be honest, most regular kitchen utensils end up being used as something else, a boyfriend once had a rummage in my cupboards (as they do) to find some cooking pots, as he pulled one out at a time I pronounced "no thats the one I melt candle wax in", "no thats the one I use for acid baths in jewellery making"  ... and so on, you get the idea.  So, not surprising, my collection of enamel coffee pots are used mostly for flowers, spoons are used to stir and mix paint and baking trays to dry pot pourri in the oven. 

My personal style with flora is very unstructured and wild. I like to mix them up with foraged hedgerow, and even the weeds get used.As I drive around the countryside where I live, my eyes are always out on stalks looking for something interesting to snip and take home.

We all know that presentation of food is an important factor, and the table setting should be too, perhaps using one central centre piece or little individual place settings. Even a buffet wall can be made to look seasonal by hanging up some ivy or creeper.

Colours around food are as important to making the food apetising as the edibles themselves. As a colour lover Im besotted with the psychology of what it does to our brains. Wall colours in rooms can make you calm or hungry, vibrant or rested. It's the same with food presentation, nothing is less appealing that grey food, so what are the colours that make us hungry and get our mouths watering?

Green is associated with health and abundance. Yellow makes you happy and orange stimulates the brain, gets you excited and is also considered healthy and comforting, like Pumpkins, carrots and squash.

Top of the list for stimulating colour is Red, the most commonly used colour in restaurants as it pushes your hunger levels to max.

So here's a thought, why not use food as the container? Hollowed out pumpkin would give you a hit of orange, place it on a circle of autumn fall leaves maybe, the perfect centre piece for a Halloween buffet filled with flowers. I placed a glass inside to hold water and depending on how long you use it as a vase for, you may still be able to use the pumpkin in soup or pie.

So here's my looks for the start of the Autumn, still in transition as there are a few summer flowers around like the hydrangea and rose. The leaves are now turning so we shall have to be more inventive as we head towards winter. 

If you can't get out and about to find flowers or rummage the hedgerow here's a couple of great places where you can organize delivery from;

IN THE USA; https://www.bloomnation.com/

IN THE UK ; https://www.bloomandwild.com/

IN EUROPE ; https://www.euroflorist.com/