Winter Sideboard and Mantel

Winter Sideboard and Mantel

Unknown   Januari 13, 2015   Comment  

After the whirlwind that is Christmas all I want is to create simple sideboard and mantel arrangements that will see me through until the spring. Something calm and easy on the eyes, but still pretty.

I added some colour to the sideboard by embracing the warm side of the palette - red, pink, and orange. I was inspired by the fresh colours in the plates that I re-hung on the wall ... after not being able to find them for TWO YEARS.  Yep, two years ago I took them down to hang up the Christmas plates and very carefully put them away so they wouldn't get broken. When I went to put them back up, I couldn't find them anywhere and it has taken all this time for them to reappear.  Welcome back fruit plates.

I like that I can change out the flowers when needed to any red, pink, orange, or even white flowers or maybe even add a potted plant (which is a good thing because shortly after I took these photos the hydrangeas wilted and only half of them recovered). The carved oranges are fully dried now - with the more orangey ones being from the Christmas craft party this year and the more brownish ones being from the craft party last year. They are honestly the easiest hit of natural colour ever. I went wild with the tablecloth just because I love how cheery the colours are. And I couldn't figure out any other place to put the red tissue paper flower I made for the husband's birthday so I hung it from the top of the mirror.

The mantel is still very neutral with a collection of white stoneware across the middle and warm browns on either side with the bracket fungus and the brown pot holding the plant on the other side. That plant has been alive through two summers in the garden and this is its second winter indoors.  I love how it looks like a bonsai.

Do you change up your mantel and sideboard. It's one of my favourite ways to decorate our home.

Spring Mantel and Sideboard

Spring Mantel and Sideboard

Unknown   Maret 02, 2014   Comment  

It was time to change things up around the house and bring in some pretty spring colours.  It may still be ice and snow outside (and we just got another 4 cms this weekend), but I sure was ready for fresh spring turquoise and yellow inside.

This was the first time I had put my Grandmother's batik on the mantel (it usually goes over the sideboard in the dining room) and I'm so glad I did because the colours are perfect for spring.  I lined all the turquoise and a few clear glass vases and mason jars up along either end of the mantel and added some tiny pink flowers.  I didn't know the name of these flowers until I Googled them, but it seems like they are waxflowers (chamelaucium).  Not a very pretty name, but they sure are a pretty flower and look great with turquoise.  Do they go by any other names?  

At the other end of the room I used yellow on the sideboard and dining room table.  My husband has a green thumb and has managed to whisper in the ear of all three of our orchid plants and they are blooming at the same time.  And for this lovely display they deserve to be given pride of place on the dining room table.  You can't really see all three plants in the photo below so I included a second shot with all of the plants visible.

  

The sideboard has yellow striped napkins on it and a yellow striped jug on top.  I love all the sun-shiney yellow.  Yesterday I ventured out through our snowy backyard and climbed the snowy climber to get some pussywillow cuttings.  They are actually starting to open up on the tree.  How do they do that when it is well below zero outside and the ground is covered in snow?  All I can say is that it sure is a welcome sign of spring.

  

Have you started decorating for spring?  March 1st was my ticket to change things up.  Now if we could just get those temperatures to go up a bit too.

Winter Mantel and Sideboard

Winter Mantel and Sideboard

Unknown   Januari 07, 2014   Comment  

I've been doing a lot of helping kids pack recently.  Well not really pack - they are old enough to do that for themselves, but more discuss what to take and what not to forget. 

William is back in Winnipeg and started classes again yesterday.  Kate is off to the University of Bath in the United Kingdom for a term, but is first going to Paris for a couple of weeks, then to Amsterdam for a few days and finally to London for a few days.  She also hopes to visit Spain over the Easter break.  There was much deliberation over what clothes to take that would work for winter, spring, and even summery weather.  She took a small backpack for her computer and books and a wheeling bag that was half filled with her sleeping bag and the rest with her clothes.  She actually had room to spare which was the goal as she will want to bring things back with her.   

I decided to draw Kate's packing list as a good sketching exercise and a little reminder in years to come of what she took.  

The last few days have been wickedly cold and there was some snow yesterday which caused Kate's flight to be delayed by 12 hours resulting in her missing the connecting train from London to Paris.  Sigh.  I will be glad when we hear that she has finally arrived in Paris.

With all the Christmas decorations down, it was time to decorate the mantel and sideboard for winter. 

I went with simple and natural for the mantel this year.  I kept the paper star and the foil birds I made before Christmas and added some pottery jugs, candles, a few things we have collected from over the years from various walks, and a plant.  The plant was growing in our front garden all summer and I couldn't bear for it to be killed by the frost so I dug it up in the fall and put it in the brown pot and it has thrived (or at least not died and that counts for something).  I like all the soft browns and grays and silvers - they are very restful.

The sideboard is a little brighter than the mantel since I kept the red and orange snowflake runner as the base.  It seemed natural then to decorate with golds, bronzes, oranges and reds.  We still have a few seasonal plants around so they got added to the sideboard along with the carved oranges.  I kept the bronze candlesticks and pine cones along the back.  I love the look of the sideboard with the candles lit during dinner.

And last, but not least, I want to thank all of you for your kind words regarding my father.  I am just now getting myself in gear and replying to you, but I want you to know that your support has meant a lot to me.

Gallery Wall

Gallery Wall

Unknown   November 06, 2013   Comment  

I know, I know, I can't believe it either. I finally got the gallery wall done I've been yakking about for a couple of years now.   The family room looks much more complete with something on that wall.  I'm thinking we can add to the sides and keep taking over the whole wall with pictures (kind of like a fungus - only prettier).

Here's what we hung on the wall:

-- two photos I took, one of baskets of seeds and grains at a market in Bangladesh and the lower one of the interior of Rouen Cathedral in Normandy, France

-- a photo I took of the cliffs at Étretat in Normandy, France

-- a photo of a half-timbered house in Rouen, France

-- a painting of Ritchie Falls that I did this past summer.

-- an art print taken by my friend Kat Warren from Low Tide High Style (by the way, do you want to know the most recent photo of Kat's that I'm obsessed with - check out this blog post and go down to the last photo.  Gorgeous, right?)

-- and finally two paint-by-numbers I found at a thrift store last year.

There you have it - a tour of our gallery wall. I think I'm going to change the waterfall picture when I paint new ones that I like so we have a rotating display.  I just glued a hook on the back and hung the canvas up which will make it easy to change it with new paintings.

 And here is what that poor wall looked like in all its nakedness before the gallery wall.

Have you jumped on the gallery wall bandwagon?  


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Hello Blue Chair! Hello White Bench!

Hello Blue Chair! Hello White Bench!

Unknown   September 18, 2013   Comment  

Have you ever painted furniture that you already loved the colour of?  Crazy isn't it, but the furniture was needed and the colours just weren't right, so I painted them.

In July I bought blue cushions for our family room to coordinate with the light green sofa and wall colour (you can read more about it here)?  The banker's chair that sits across from the sofa was black. While I loved the look of the chair in black, I really felt that the black was too heavy and a dark blue would work better in the room. 

It took me two tries to get the right blue. The first coat was too bright and just didn't get along with the slightly different shades of blue in the cushions and the rug. I took my can of paint back to the store and had them make the paint as close to BM Old Navy as possible and now I love it.

We also found that we needed a coffee table - somewhere to put our drinks and the magazines and the laptop and our feet. I moved the bench from the front porch (which you can see here) into the family room to see how it looked. I liked that it had such a low profile since the sofa - ahem - does not. The only trouble was the bench was painted in a turquoisey blue, which looked great on the front porch, but didn't go well with the blues in the cushions and rug. I realized the bench was the best solution for our feet and drinks so I decided to paint it a creamy white.

Initially I used the same white paint that I had used on the upper kitchen cabinets, but for some reason it seemed very stark white on the bench. Most of the whites in the cushions and the rug are cream or light beige so the white just made them all look dirty ... and that wasn't the look we were after. So I mixed six spoonfuls of a light beige paint I had into some of the white paint and ended up with a softer cream colour that was just right.

It felt funny to paint furniture that I already liked and then end up with both pieces being slightly the wrong colour. Fortunately both were fixable and now make me happy. Do you often take a couple of tries at getting the right colour when you paint?

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