We move to the Living Room and Library. Did I mention there are a few pictures of her cats in the book. She starts out talking about how their house was built in 1751. Can you imagine living there? This chapter has a lot of patterns for making the pillows, and a painted table top. She talks about seeing needlepoint pillows and turning the pattern into a knitted one. Did you know she worked for a yarn company and has many patterns out there?
A lot of their furniture is 2nd hand, is there any better. Older furniture is built so much better than the stuff today. Like walls sometimes all you need to do is re-upholster and voila you have a new piece of furniture.
How about creating your own wallpaper. The wall in the library has quite the stenciling and painting. Looking at it I have to wonder how she kept the colors from blurring into each other. Reminds me of trying to polish my saddle oxfords - you can not get the black on the white and you can get the white on the black. I hated those shoes and as hard as I tried I could not destroy them. While the paper itself is busy she also puts some framed pictures up which are busy as well. But it works, the frames separate the wallpaper from the picture and breaks things up so you see the picture more than the wallpaper.
The bedroom has these huge sunflowers painted in muted golds and greens. It does make it look very cheery. She has the cutest little door on one wall. I wonder what is there? There are patterns for decorating a lampshade, a stool, more pillows ( I love the polka dot pillow on her bed), slipcovers, and even her closet doors are patterned.
I imagine there is not a wall that is bare in her house as well as each piece of furniture covered in warm comfortable afghans and pillows that just invite you to lay down and take a nap.
Let's move outside. I remember she would post the beautiful sunflowers on her blog. There were hundreds of them in all colors. She has a pottery shed and garden shed. I would love to have both but my HOA would have a cow. Besides living in the city I am not sure how safe it would be. I do have garter snakes that live under the shed and I sure would not want critters living in my craft/garden sheds.
My favorite part of the book is about Maud Lewis. Look her up. Briefly Maud was a Canadian Folk Artist born with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. She was in a lot of pain and could not do much. Her mom taught her to paint and so she made Christmas cards and sold them. Her parents died and she lived with her aunt. She met Everett Lewis and got married. They lived in a one room house and every inch of it was decorated in some pattern and color. She continued her painting and sold them. When they both died concerned citizens did not want the home destroyed so it is in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
The book is full of inspiration and patterns and how-tos to make your house more your own. In the back are templates to help you get started. I enjoy sitting and just looking at the pictures and getting ideas. Maybe someday I will get brave enough to decorate some of my walls. My library carries this book so go to the Library (get a card if you don't have one) and check it out.
No comments:
Post a Comment