Painted Italian ceiling panel above a headboard
made from a salvaged cherubic boiserie…
Designers Babs Watkins, Julie Watkins Baker, Eleanor Cummings
More at House Beautiful website here
When all moves to modern….here’s where
you’ll find me…stuck on texture and aged patinas…
and a touch of color gracing the soft neutrals…
From the same incredible Houston home…
a sense of treasure found along the way…
I’m so cued in to blue tones these days that a huge, chippy, blue side of a building
I found at a salvage yard keeps whispering to me….”make me into plank shutters…
a garage door…add those rusty hinges on Ebay…”. Certainly it couldn’t come near
this prettiness…this perfect composite of all the most beautiful shades of blue
on this antique Swedish hutch from the home above…
Wendy Lewis of The Textile Trunk has been running with a slew of beautiful blues
lately…in the midst of her over 1000 listings of antique and vintage European
textiles on Ebay. Love the above vintage hessian grain sack! She’s in the process of
unloading ninety enormous new boxes of gorgeous textiles direct from Europe…
so be sure to keep an eye on her Ebay site here
An article just came out about Wendy in the New York Times here
Congratulations Wendy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On the slim chance you haven’t heard of Wendy, here’s
an earlier post I did of The Textile Trunk here
Since I’ve recently been spending all my time
outdoors…I bought the requisite weatherproof Sunbrella fabric
pillows …these from Restoration Hardware…
But wanted a softer looking cushion for a set of their Klismos armchairs off the master bedroom.
They arrived looking a bit too new…so I rubbed a little paint on them to give the some age…
I’m imagining a French mattress like seat cushion…would rather not cover the back…
perhaps a lumbar style smaller pillow. Its been over three months since the neighbor’s
oak crashed through the fence…a slow process of re-imagining this corner of the yard.
I asked Wendy about using natural fabrics outside and she replied:
Actually hemp is ideal for outdoor furniture!!~ It is naturally mold and mildew resistant ~
The sun, over time…will degrade any fabric but because these textiles wear like nails,
it wouldn’t be a problem in our lifetimes!! J ~ the stripes have been exposed to sunlight
for many many many years, and they only get better with time…the natural dyes used
in the 19th century were very hearty ~
A search for “hemp” on Wendy’s Ebay site here yields almost 400 options.
Small glimpse of my new lavender….sigh…I’ve forgotten how long a new garden
takes to really take hold. Eventually each plant will be two feet wide and tall
and virtually carefree. So while I’m waiting for some color in the new garden…
I’ll be working on those cushions and a few dozen more ideas.
And in the meantime I’m gravitating
to all shades of blue…
Interior Design Barbara Westbrook
House Beautiful here
Hope you’re off to a wonderful weekend…
