Paring down inspiration folders

Do you have inspiration folders that are specific to looks you want to recreate or that contain elements you would like in your home?

I'll show you a few of my inspiration images along with how they have turned up in my house.

I wanted the painting above to be in a casual family space in my house.

my house

Can you whittle down a massive folder of inspiration pics to one or two per room?

I absolutely had to pare down the inspiration and have one file of ideas I will use and another, massive file of images I really like.

Dining room inspiration #1

Dining room inspiration #2

The images I choose offer general style cues for me instead of an exact look to recreate.

My dining room

Most of my rooms are a work in progress. The dining room needs more on the walls and perhaps an artful setting to fit the look of the inspiration pics. My living room is waiting for items to arrive but in the mean time I have put together my inspiration for the room.

inspiration from Lonny

Lonny had a wonderful image of a bombe chest with a modern painting above. 

My bombe chest

My vignette will include the painting shown, above the chest flanked with Brno chairs.

My huge file of images is still a go to when I just can't think of a way to put something together.
Keeping these photos of other people's houses helps me to define what I like, love, and absolutely hate in decor.

Slowly but surely

Bit by bit, things are coming together. My dining room is mostly back together. 

The curtains are back and a few pictures hung.

There will be more on this wall. When I hung the mirror, the first time, the old and brittle wire snapped. It hit the chair rail knocking a hunk out and gouged the wall. Luckily I was standing there and caught it before it hit the floor and shattered entirely. The wall had to be painted a fifth time! 

I was thrilled that my pillows arrived for the family room and...

The walls really are pink

the living room.

The bombe chest arrives today and nearly a year (10 months actually) after moving in I feel like my spaces are closer to my goal.

The end is never really the end. I'll always be tweaking this and that but my goal was to have a cohesive look instead of a white box with furniture in it.

How long did it take you to decorate your current house?

Living rooms to love

Yum pink!

I am in a living room state of mind since I'm ready to jump headlong into finishing my own.

Here the symmetry and eclecticism speaks to me. Love the sculpture and Barcelona ottomans.

I am not loving this furniture but the grand painting and the interesting panels on either side of the fireplace.

The persimmon fabrics against a neutral background are a fabulous look. Its a very un-Halloween orange and black combo.

sneak peek

We are finished painting the dining room --YAY!

It sucked in such horrible ways. If you enlarge the photo above you will see the painter's tape yet to be removed behind my antique chandelier, that I adore.

It beats the hell out of this boring thing

The walls are not what I had hoped. I wished for a lacquered look but got glossy paint with orange peel texture due to a bit of bad information. It all works because my inspiration photo (below) includes oodles of pictures, prints and paintings in frames.

I am totally covering as much as I can with stuff. Good stuff.

Stay tuned.. Dining room out of commission for living room paint job.

This is my liv room moodboard with the "dragonfly" chair's new fabric as a background. The wall color has changed to SW Faint Coral  (from the one pictured inthe moodboard) and the coffee table is still undetermined. Lucite...somewhere.

I have purchased the Bombe chest and wish to put a pair of modern vases or tiny lamps to complement the painting to be announced by an artist you all know!!!

Thinking rust colored silk curtains to shout "Hooray" next to all of that ivory, black, and pinky peach.

Yes?????
Anyone, anyone?

Another fabric score

The other day I swung by Fabrics Unlimited to browse and see if there were any damasks that I might want to use on these chairs.

I bought a pair of the chairs on eBay and Greyhound smashed one.

The broken chair is now at the repair shop. $$$$$ ouch.

I am not crazy about the dragonfly fabric and I found the ivory damask on sale for $3.30 a yard. They had 8 1/4 yards. Perfect.

I have had some seriously awful luck on eBay and with shipping in general lately and it felt wonderful to get this spot of luck.

The ivory looks wonderful with the ivory stripe on my Sheraton sofa. I have new pillows on the way and my eye out for a different coffee table. Now I need to decide on a wall color and fabric for the drapes.

Lucite tables in a classic setting?

my formal living room

Surely, you can't be tired of my home. There is still so much work ahead, much of it fun.

As you can see,I have a pair of matching Duncan Phyfe style end tables and it's dowdy cousin, that coffee table. The coffee table will have to find another home because I hate it.

The Sheraton style sofa stays too. At some point, hopefully soon, the mini blinds will leave and a fabulous chinoiserie fabric will grace the windows.

That being said, I don't want to keep things in only one style.

Its just not me. 

Ethel Kennedy's home

As far as non-designers go, Ethel Kennedy is one of my heroes for using the standard preppy,chic with an edgy (for the time) salmon pink and fabulous lucite table.

Notice the charcoal of Bobby (?) above the sofa. The lines, fabric, and artwork are rather expected yet the wall color was a slight departure from the 70s and 80s stylish pink. The clear table gives it a modern edge and a visual lightening with all of that pattern.

My own living room is kid-free and begs for a less traditional piece as it grows into a space I like.

I'd like this.

Can you see it here?

Look at these rooms with classic features and lucite tables.

I think Lucite pairs well with classic pieces, don't you?