Fall Flowers

I bought a bunch of bright yellow mums this week to brighten up my coffee table in this dreary weather. It must have worked, clear skies ahead!

I arranged them in the green milkglass vase from my lily of the valley this spring. I hope you all have great weekends!

Seeing Stars

My favorite building I visited while in Paris was the Palais Garnier or Paris Opera House. Read the history of the building and see the library in my post HERE and the main performance space HERE. One of the small anti-chambers in the main public space was this incredible small jewel of a room which I spent a good 10 minutes in. The ceiling was painted black with silver leafed stars and gilded rays emanating from a brass chandelier.

Even the mouldings were gilded and the black background and silver stars were

even more brilliant by contrast. I think this is a great solution for a small windowless room -why not provide your own view? I could especially see a dramatic treatment like this in a dining room or maybe even a screening room; the movie palaces of the 1920s come to mind.

The walls were a neutral french gray with gilded mouldings, as seen above with flash, but the dim ambiance of the space made them feel a more chocolate brown (below).

This goes to show that any space, no matter how small or of minor function, can be special!

Colored lites

I've been helping my friend Maxine put her new townhouse together which has been a lot of fun!She loves color and since the walls were freshly painted a nice neutral beige I had the problem of where to inject it. She favors a clean, architectural style so colored window treatments were out of the question. I chose some basic interior white wood shutters instead and was inspired by Victorian stained glass.The house is brand new and so new custom windows were out of the question (and budget!), but the mullions in the top pane were perfect to introduce squares of 'art glass'.

We found some professional grade window film online and after some trial and error (apply the films to WET glass!) and some thought as to arranging the 6 different colors here are the results! We're so pleased!These small details really bring the whole house to life! The top 3 images are of the living room while the bottom images are of the master bedroom above. Proof that inspiration from the past can affect our homes today in 'modern' applications.