Glutton for Punishment

February 22, 2010UncategorizedMrs. B at HomeMrs. Blandings

I’m in choppy waters here. The few times I have thrown this room open for suggestions it’s brought an incredible amount of opinions, information and criticism. With a little help from a friend I decided to move the painting to the living room, move the living room prints here, paint the picture frame moldings black and recover the chairs. I picked up an incredibly inexpensive ticking at Nell Hill’s which may or may not remain depending on the sure-to-never-be-ordered curtains. (You can see the “before” here.)

I love the paper, still, but this room is a whole lotta brown. Never a fan of brown table and brown chairs, I’m lucky to have this hand-me-down set.

I do like the table, but it’s oval top is constraining. The room is nearly square and round would be a million times better. The front legs of the chairs are appealing. You can’t see them, of course, because they are pushed under the table.

This really bothers me. A lot. It is not carved into the wood, but applied, and I think I could easily remove it.

Which would make the front look more like this. Which would be better. Assuming I don’t jack up the chairs. My latest idea is to paint them black. The only thing that stopped me Sunday was two other paint projects that I had started and not completed. And, please, don’t advise the purchase of either table or chairs as my budget will not allow the purchase of as much as a picture of either a table or chairs.

Also, if you are going to say something unkind, at least preface it with “Bless your heart.” All good Southern women do it and, oddly, it takes the sting out. For example, “Bless her heart, I don’t know why she wears sleeveless tops when her arms are so heavy. Sweet thing, maybe it helps keep her cool in this heat because she’s so big.” Something like that.

Slippery Slope

February 19, 2010Uncategorizeddesign books, Mrs. B at HomeMrs. Blandings

I’ve been noodling around with the idea of what to do with my dining room chairs. Courtney Barnes, at Style Court, is always a good sounding board and patient with my paragraph upon paragraph of indecision. The thought of painting eight chairs is daunting as I don’t even like them. Then another friend presented the idea of slip covers.

I hemmed and hawed with Courtney. Would they be too kitchy? Too 80’s? And she emailed back, “Well, the dining room chairs in Will’s apartment on Will & Grace were not country. They were tailored and chic.” Or something like that. Then she did that great slip cover on her own chair.

Which is why I like Courtney. Because she has a great eye and she remembers the slip covers on dining room chairs in a sit com that hasn’t been on the air for four years. So I’m reconsidering slip covers. But not really doing anything. For the record.

In other Dream House decorating news, a friend recently asked how much input the eldest Blandings boy is getting on his new room. You tell me. And, no, I didn’t paint it. It’s a Fathead; based on my ability to bring my dining room to closure, some would say we both are.

Image from Will & Grace from here. Slip cover images from New Farmhouse Style; photography by Kindra Clineff. Drawer-painting is on the list this weekend.

Seasonal Appeal – Post Script

February 17, 2010UncategorizedVintage DesignMrs. Blandings

Terrific post on Duncan Grant and Charleston at 2TheWalls here. And, also, in my fog I forgot to mention that Persephone Books offers a six or twelve-month gift subscription here. I believe you can choose the titles or the giftee can choose the titles. Need help choosing? Suggestions on their site here. Assuming the gifter and giftee are not the same person.

Seasonal Appeal

February 17, 2010UncategorizedProduct, Vintage DesignMrs. Blandings

This may be a meandering mess as my head is clogged, and my ears are ringing just a little bit, but I am not sick enough to go to bed with no guilt.

One of my fellow travelers last week was showing me the catalogue for a charming publisher and I realized at once that the universe was hitting me over the head as this was the second time it had presented me with this jewel. Today, as I was clearing my desk of tissue and tea cups, my hands fell upon a page ripped from a current magazine and I had to admit that my cotton-headedness has nothing to do with my cold.

Persephone Books is a British publisher specializing in books by women that had previously been out of print. “Middlebrow” as they describe it. Well written, good stories, though probably not “literature.” The covers are the chicest dove grey. And then there are the end papers.

This is from the book at the top of my list, The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. The end papers are described as follows, “The design of this Warner silk, velvet and terry material, exported to the USA during the early 1920s, was derived from a French fabric based on medieval tapestries: two birds are facing each other and away from each other – as in marriage, they are both coupled and confrontational.” These are the type of people you want to support, aren’t they? Rather than the large on-line retailers who make you feel your books fall with a flat, hard “thunk” when they hit your shopping cart.

Not the type of girl to choose a book on end papers alone, still Good Things in England by Florence White caught my eye for just that. (Intrigued by the name I lost interest when I realized it is about cooking.) These end papers are based on a fabric designed by Duncan Grant.

Duncan Grant of Bloomsbury fame. Coincidentally, I’ve just begun a reading run on the Bloomsberries since my book club chose Mrs. Woolf and the Servants by Alison Light. I’ve finished Bloomsbury Recalled by Quentin Bell, which gives a nice overview of the cast of characters, and have just begun Virginia Woolf, a Biography, also by Bell.

After admiring the end paper I went on a hunt to see if the fabrics are still in production. Charleston was something of a country outpost for the group and the home’s site has a nice selection of original fabrics from the house under the heading, “Learning.” Indeed.

What little I knew of Bloomsbury did not seem to fit these designs, though I couldn’t tell you exactly why. Probably because of what little I knew.

Charleston does offer reprints on some of Grant’s original designs.

Including “Grapes,” which may make me like gray. Which would be a good thing as it has been the theme of January and February around here.

No persuasion necessary to like the glimpses of the house that the site provides.

And this detail of Grant’s door, a photograph by Tony Tree, makes me want to head off round the house with my paint brush immediately.

Immediately after this cold has gone. For daily-ish updates from Persephone Books check their blog here.

Top three images via Persephone Books, the remainder from the Charleston website.

S’not What I Was Thinking

February 16, 2010UncategorizedblogsMrs. Blandings

I was away last week which led to some wonky posting and comment moderation. Forgive me. I hate to give the internet a heads-up when Mr. Blandings and I are away and the boys are home. Upon returning from sunny climes I found they had conned the babysitter into fixing their lunches (they were supposed to be “hot lunch”) letting them eat all their Valentine candy in one sitting and not bathing the entire time we were gone. Five days. “They didn’t really want to,” the explanation. The oldest did shower after basketball, both practice and games, which was oddly reassuring. In addition, the youngest claimed we were “out” of Pop Tarts so a newly opened box greeted me from the pantry. Everyone agreed they were perfect angels. Why wouldn’t they be?

And, yesterday, I woke up with a cold. Not the flu, not a fever, nothing dramatic, just a garden variety cold.

So, today, no post, but I need a little help. I’ve received sporadic emails that some, though not all, readers who receive the email subscription of Mrs. Blandings are having trouble with jumbled text and pictures. I have done a little tweaking to see if I can fix it, as Google provides absolutely no support for either blogger or feedburner. Do let me know if it is better today.

The image, above, is Cecil Beaton for Vogue using a Jackson Pollock as a backdrop. I can’t begin to remember where I found it, but it is all over the internet . It seemed mildly on theme. If there ever is such a thing here.

I wish I looked as chic as she; I more closely resemble the chaos behind.