HOUSE TOUR TUESDAY, Summer Vignettes

Warning:  If you are a first time visitor, you should know that 

I  love   the beach. 

I go every chance I get.  So in my landlocked Kansas home, I use a lot of natural items that remind me of my time by the water.  (If you crave a little more inspiration, you can look here, here, here, and here.  There are lots more posts on this, but I should stop boring you now so you'll read the rest of this one!)

I titled this post, "Summer Vignettes", but some of these items are out all year--I just can't help myself!  A friend was recently over to my house and said, "You should do a blog post of some of these vignettes."  So, here it is...  

The huge float was a gift from a great friend who knows me well!

 This is Charlie the fish.

He frequently eats seasonal items and show up on blog posts.
This time he ate some sea glass and a shell. 

I have two of these corbels from a local antique shop.

I had no idea what I'd do with them when I bought them,

but I had to have them.

Forgot that my starfish needed a perch!

 A seashell swag on an antique iron hall tree!
Another TJ Maxx purchase--love that store.

Shock, another starfish in a lantern!

There are two of them too!

They hang beside an antique cabinet.

This cloche is from the same friend that bought me that large float in the first photo!

It sets on top of my Grandmother's bowed-front china cabinet.

And lastly, here's a little carved fish from TJ Maxx.
I paid $12.99 for it and saw it in an "antique" store for $80!

Yes, there are a couple of trends here.  One, the natural sea elements and second the antiques.  I think they make wonderful housemates.

 

Thanks  for stopping by.
I appreciate each visit and love to read any comments you leave.

Have a wonderful summer week!

  Robin

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A READING/DINING ROOM

Drat!  I forgot to take before pictures of the room I'm featuring today.  I hate it when I do that!  BUT, the room is so beautiful, it would be hard to imagine it any other way.

This is my sister's dining room and it has been a struggle to find a pleasing layout.  Here were the obstacles--

Problem #1--This room has two huge openings plus a smaller opening to her kitchen.

Problem #2--A pair of inherited chairs from our Mother's house.  She has been looking for the perfect fabric to recover them for about nine years.  Here's a before and after picture of the chairs.  Unfortunately, the after picture does not show how beautiful the fabric really is.

Solution--Finally finding the right fabric for the chairs and having them professionally reupholstered.  She tried the chairs out in the living room and that did not work.  I suggested she use them as "host" chairs in her dining room and they looked great.  Then, while I was visiting, we changed the room into a reading room.   Here is the stunning result--

 This is the first huge opening of three in this room, as seen from the living room.

  Don't you just adore that antique tea pot and stand?

To the right of this picture is the smallest opening of the three.  It leads to her kitchen

She lived in South Carolina for many years and acquired gorgeous antiques.  The mirror and the sideboard are two of those pieces, as well as the table and needlepoint chairs.  Our Mother did all of the needlepoint on the dining chairs.

This is the third opening to this room from the entryway.

So big you cannot see the entire opening in this picture.

Now, I want to go read in this room and have tea too.  Hey, there are two chairs...maybe...

Thanks for reading.  Till next time...

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The Living Room

A long, long time ago, I started a House Tour Tuesday segment on this blog and stalled out.  I'll blame the holidays, kids moving out, major death in the family, business meetings...you know, the usual suspects in life.  The truth is, this room is a bear to photograph and it is a living room without a lot of walls, I'll blame the open-concept house plan on that one.  So, to continue with my inferred promise of House Tour Tuesday, here goes with the living room photos.  (Have I made enough excuses yet, 'cause you know, I've got a few more...illness, poor time management, being just plain scared to put it out there...)

Here's what you'd see when you first catch a glimpse of the room from the entryway (I'll show it sometime).  Yes, sometimes, the light from that humongous window is a bit bright, but it is also one of the reasons we like the house.  We get cranky without lots of light in our house!

This is the view as you stand in front of that huge window and look back.  Furniture-wise, I have a sofa, a loveseat, and two chairs in this room, as well as tables, baskets for coffee tables, etc.  All of my end tables and such are antiques--that kind of caught me by surprise when I wrote that, not sure why, I do love antiques....sorry, I'm rambling.

Here we are moving around the room.  Nothing to say, except, notice the lack of walls.  The living room steps down from the entryway and the dining room.  Do you notice, I like light colors?  The other rendition of this room was very patterned and very colorful and it wore me out--I got tired of the busyness and looked for a calmer interior.  I'm sure my whole family's blood pressure dropped when I redid the space.  Now my entire house is done in this pallette.  I know it's too blahhhhh for lots of folks, but it suits me well these days.

Are you dizzy yet?  We're continuing in a circle around the room.  This shows the mantle, duh, but I also wanted to show that doorway to the kitchen.

I think now was a good time to show pictures of this room too, because it is as neutral holiday-wise as it gets.  I do have my St. Patrick's Day decorations out, but they are subtle and I love the soothing green in the room.  I'll show them in detail (didn't you know I would) later.  Hope you enjoyed the tour and if you'd like more detailed shots of something, leave a kindly comment and I'll try to oblige.  If you read this far, God bless you for your support--it means a lot more than I can say. 

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