How I Would Spend $500 on OKL?
If you live in the Tri-State area, I hope you had a chance to spend some time outside, yesterday. It was a perfect Spring day. And today....not so much. It's rainy, so I will be inside contemplating on how I would spend $500 on One Kings Lane....if I could win my own contest.
$500
$500
Of course I can't win, but I'll tell you what would be on my list of purchase possibilities... I love the Global/Traveled look, and the International Influence Sale has quite a few conversational pieces that interest me.
International Influence by callingithomeblog featuring bracelets
I also love a few vintage art pieces sprinkled around a home. This is my living room before I gave away that large sectional sofa. I purchased the vintage poster art in London, and I love her.
You can see more of this room, here.
I am dying over all the beautiful vintage art on sale right now. Here are some of my favorites.
Vintage Art by callingithomeblog featuring spanish home decor
Unfortunately, these sales will be over by the time my Polyvore contest ends. No worries, I am confident that OKL will have more treasures that we could covet.
Did you see Chinoiserie Chic's post yesterday? Beth has entered and her boards are so CC! You can follow Beth on Polyvore, here. Jennifer is making a board a day (no limit on the amount you can enter) and announced that next Monday she will be hosting a Polyvore contest. I am entering that one for sure! You can follow Jennifer on Polyvore, here.
How would you spend $500 on One Kings Lane?
Did you see Chinoiserie Chic's post yesterday? Beth has entered and her boards are so CC! You can follow Beth on Polyvore, here. Jennifer is making a board a day (no limit on the amount you can enter) and announced that next Monday she will be hosting a Polyvore contest. I am entering that one for sure! You can follow Jennifer on Polyvore, here.
How would you spend $500 on One Kings Lane?
Coastal Tropical Chinoiserie Chic
There is one Blogger that makes me laugh more than anyone else. Fact. She is high maintenance, high style, and highly opinionated. And it works for her. I think Beth, from Chinoiserie Chic, and I are distantly related because we definitely laugh and fight like family.
The truth is, she will always give me her honest opinion. As you will see in her guest post below, she held nothing back. Any woman that has the moxie to write this post about a National Company, will always have a seat by me. I once asked her to write a post about Nantucket Chinoiserie, and to this day....people still love that post.
Please see what my on again/off again/Sister-Friend has to say about Tropical Coastal Chinoiserie:
Linda and her family will be relocating from New Jersey to Florida sometime this summer. With her upcoming move, Linda has announced that her new look and style is going to be "Coastal Tropical."
Linda's current home is what I would call Nantucket style, but she is excited about her blog and her new home having a more tropical and Floridian vibe. Will her blog, formerly known as "My Crafty Home Life," now named "Calling It Home," soon become "Calling It My Crafty Coastal Tropical Home?" We will have to wait and see.
As we know, Linda loves Chinoiserie, so she has turned to me for guidance on infusing her new lifestyle with Coastal Tropical Chinoiserie.
First, I think a new wardrobe is in order. This Greg Norman collection is called "Coastal Tropic" - what could be more perfect? These mix and match pieces will allow Linda to look like a complete dork whether she is playing golf, blogging, running errands, hanging with her kids, or wielding a circular saw - with safety goggles on, of course. Perfect for that casual, coastal, nerdy look, right?
Doesn't Linda look great in one of her new outfits from the Greg Norman Coastal Tropic Collection?
Now on to decorating her home. Linda loves driftwood furniture, but never felt it was quite right in her Northeast Nantucket style home. Not so in Florida - she can go completely adrift! And if she ever gets sick of her decor, she is one bonfire on the beach away from a fresh start.
Here are some rooms with driftwood that Linda posted about that she loves. She said that the first one below stopped her in her tracks.
Well Linda, I have found more driftwood for every room of your new home -
And Linda's Florida home at the holidays could look like this -
Oh my my my. I have the feeling I need to stage an intervention immediately or Linda's new home might become Restoration Hardware at the Beach also known as Coastal Dumpster Chic. I think we might be seeing this driftwood decor in the next Restoration Hardware catalog. Call me Gary and we can chat.
Or the next One Room Challenge could become the semi-annual One Hundred Rooms With Driftwood Challenge. Linda, just say no to driftwood. That's why I'm here. Friends don't let friends decorate with driftwood.
Now we will look at the correct way to do Coastal Tropical interior design. Did Linda call someone opinionated? I envision less of the navy and white preppy of Nantucket and less of the bright colors of Palm Beach. Instead -
*Tropical print wallpaper and fabrics like banana leaf, especially Martinique and Brazilliance.
*Rattan and unpainted wicker furniture
*Faux and real bamboo
*Potted palms
*Palm fronds in blue and white Chinese porcelain vases
*Oversized blue and white Chinese ginger jars
*The good news is that you can keep your brown wood furniture
*Ebonized wood is also perfect
*The color palette is that of nature - lots of greens and browns and blues
*Think British Colonial
I love this style myself and I can't wait to see what Linda does with her new home in Florida.
The Pink Pagoda created these graphic botanicals for Linda's One Room Challenge family room and they will be perfect!
Thanks so much Beth, can you email me a link to those clothes?
I wonder how she really feels?
Nantucket Chinoiserie Chic
Alright, how much full disclosure do I want to give you about my friend, Beth? She is probably one of the most personally private bloggers around. I have been teasing her all week that this is going to be the Chinoiserie Chic Roast. She didn't flinch one inch on my empty threat.
Our unlikely friendship started over a guest post that I did on her blog. That should have been the death of it. I was new to guest posting, and sent the entire thing over in Word. You can't access pictures in Word, and she could not upload them. I remember her words clearly, "this has never happened to me before". To make matters worse, I was already in Florida on winter break with my family and had no way of resending any of it. So while she painstakingly figured out image by image what to do....I was sitting by the pool. Miraculously, we bonded over it....after some time went by.
Fast forward, and we have become quite chatty with each other. This may surprise you because she does not openly comment on my blog, but I kid you not, she lets me know exactly what she thinks of my posts via email. In fact, I can't begin to tell you the amount of banter we have shared over this particular post. She may even discover that some of the images have been photoshopped. Of course I give her an equal amount of unsolicited advice back. I think she is learning.
We are like two teenage girls sharing the same cabin at camp. Cracking each other up, sending emails with links....no words necessary, and exchanging ideas. Just yesterday, I gave her a dare....and from what I can tell, she has not done it yet. If it were not for blogging, there is no other way we would have met. I could not get into any of the Colleges she attended. She masters the English Language, and I butcher it. The most common bond that we share is the fact that we are both mother's of daughter's whom we hope will out shine us in every possible way.
Although she has been blogging about Chinoiserie for years, the fact that the masses are now rediscovering it has me predicting that 2013 will be her most successful year. I better keep giving her advice. Beth has a heart of gold, and like gold....it just takes some digging to find it :-).
If I know her, she will not be writing her post link over until after she is able to read mine, and then she will have her full rebuttal or plausible deniability....always the former Lawyer.
Here is Nantucket Chinoiserie done by Beth from Chinoiserie Chic.
When I think of a home in Nantucket that would include elements of Chinoiserie, I see a palette of navy blue and white with pops of coral. I would incorporate lots of stripes for a nautical feel and because I love combining stripes and Chinoiserie. Blue and white Chinese porcelain, sisal rugs, and Chinese Chippendale designs would all be musts.
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| The Entryway - Jamie Meares |
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| The Entrance Hall - Carolyne Roehm |
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| The Stairs - House Beautiful |
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| The Living Room - Ralph Lauren |
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| The Dining Room - Coastal Living |
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| The Dining Room - Michael S. Smith |
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| The Bedroom - Kim Alexandriuk |
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| The Bedroom - Ralph Lauren |
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| The Bedroom - Ralph Lauren |
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| The Child's Bedroom - Alessandra Branca |
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| The Powder Room - Jennifer Dengel |
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| The Bathroom - Coastal Living |
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| The Porch - Carolyne Roehm |
Thanks, Girlfriend....I'm still waiting on that dare.
You can see all of my Nantucket series, here....and if you are feeling lucky, you can enter my iPhone case giveaway!
I'll Probably Regret This
....but I hope not.
Do any of you remember seeing this fabulous console table that Chinoiserie Chic posted about? I have been stalking Craigslist for anything that would resemble it.
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| Ruthie Sommers via Chinoiserie Chic |
This is what I found
I know!!! Crazy good, yes?
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| Source |
Well, after walking all over my home....I just can't find a spot for it. Trust me, I really tried. I think my husband is secretly happy...but he is acting all, "Oh, are you sure? I know you really liked it?" I can just hear his smirking in his text.
Somebody, please go grab this...fix it up...and come back and tell me all about it!! I will be so jealous happy for you.
It could look like this
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| Source |
Or this
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| Source |
In a room, you would never leave
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| Source |
I'm a little bummed about it...but I know that the Craigslist fairy will bring me something good real soon. Now I'm off to track down some more stuff that I don't need and can't live without.
Chinoiserie Chic is in the House...Guest Post
OK, pinch me....ending my week off from blogging is my friend Beth from
kitchens (and they are few and far between) that would serve as
inspiration in creating my own Chinoiserie Chic kitchen. I thought you
might enjoy seeing the rooms that inspired me and how I interpreted
them in my space.
but glamorous touch
in the kitchen
I'm a Stalker!
