China on the Wall

As we settle into our new addition, we have been trying to fill the very blank walls.  As I have written in a previous post, collecting antique prints can be quite affordable--and I therefore have stacks of them.  Once it comes to framing those prints, however, things start to get very expensive.

So I have been using more and more china, of which I have inherited oodles, to hang on the walls.  The hardware to hang them costs less than $10 per plate and is available at any hardware store.  If you have underused china in your house, this is a practical and affordable way to decorate, and free up cabinet space.

Below are a few inspiring images of the impact of china on the walls.  The first is Chateau De Drottningholm.  Drama!

I think this arrangement of china over a blue and white bed is beautiful. What really makes it work is the creamy wall color against the plates and blue and white upholstery.  I love the very simple headboards on the bed, too.

And below, Nancy Lancaster's last house, the Coach House at Haseley Court:

And last, this charming arrangement of a few of my favorite things: glazed pottery, antlers, bird prints, and china.

Waste baskets

One of the last things on my list once we had moved into our newly built addition was to find a trash can for every room.  Not a glamorous task, but trash cans are necessary parts of life, and I spent a while trying to find practical ones that were also beautiful.  Here are a few favorites:

The Woodrow Can from Umbra is made of laminated wood, and comes in great colors.  The classic design has a little modern edge, but not too much of one.  I have three by my desk for trash, magazines, and office paper.  Available from The Container Store.  

The Lotus, also available at The Container Store, is made of plastic so it's very practical, but the material looks like tortoiseshell, so it looks very chic--that is if you even notice it.  It tends to disappear in a room, exactly what waste baskets should do!

This is also an Umbra design: the Skinny can in galvanized steel, an industrial material made glamorous by the asymmetrical rim and sleek handle.

Another favorite: the Translations can from The Container Store.  This one is not a workhorse like the others--it's paper mache.  It's ideal for a powder room where it will get only light use, and be a clever little surprise for guests.  The red interior really makes this fabulous.

On Antlers and Taxidermy

My husband is a passionate hunter, and we not only have a chest-freezer packed to the brim with wild game meat, but also several mounted animal heads, innumerable antlers, wild bird mounts, and even a full body mount of a white mountain goat (known in our house as "Billy").  I did not grow up in a house with taxidermy, and it has taken me some time to come to terms with living with these critters.  At first, the only images of interiors with taxidermy that came to mind were from the Cabella's catalog (think: camouflage duvet covers, lodgepole pine furniture).

But lately, I've been poking around, looking at images of antlers and taxidermy in more stylish places, and have found lots of sources of inspiration for ways to live with my husband's trophies.  One of my very favorites is Carolyn Roehme's dining room in Aspen:

I'm particularly drawn to antlers in surprising places, like this arrangement of precious dog portraits, delicate antiques, and glazed green ceramics.  This type of antler mount, called a European mount, seems to be everywhere I look these days--maybe because you don't have to look the animal in the eye!  You can buy the hand-carved, Black Forest plaques to fit the skull and antlers you have to mount.  Or of course, the full mounts are available from auction houses and antiques dealers, too.

I love this antler mount alongside china and silver:

And these mounted African heads in this very clean, Scandinavian interior:

Leave it the French to have the chic-est taxidermy shop in the world: Deyrolle, in Paris.  The shop burned several years ago, but I think I read that someone has revived it.  Here is an image from before the fire.  The mint green walls are a surprisingly perfect backdrop; I don't think any American would think to use a green with so much blue in it for a taxidermy shop--we would naturally be drawn to a mossy green, but I really love this:

Images like these have helped me rethink our collection and my opinion of it.  If taxidermy and antlers were good enough for the chatelaine of the fabulous palace below, I guess I can make do!

 

Wood Stove Roundup

We're planning an addition to our house, and have myriad finishes and fixtures to choose, but I just had to start with the wood stove.  It's going to be the heart of the house after all, and the place we gather as a family the most (after the kitchen and the dining room table).

We were originally hoping for a field stone fireplace with a thick mantel.  Just a little something like this Lew French fireplace:

But reality and our budget intervened, as well as the practicality of a wood stove in our frigid climate, where a real fireplace can send your hard-earned dollars straight up the flue.

So, I've been hunting for the ideal wood stove.  I admit, I don't find them as appealing as a real fireplace, but I'm hoping to find a stove with as much character.

We already have a small Jotul, a Norwegian wood stove. It's a smaller version of the F500 Oslo model below.  I'm partial to the Gothic arches, especially the side door, which reminds me of the elaborate woodwork in Gothic churches.  These stoves do an impressive job of heating a house.

I'm also a fan of this funny little Shaker stove by Wittus.  My husband thinks it's hideous.  I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder:

Same goes for this Danish Morso stove, below.  My husband thinks I'm insane, but I think it has such personality!  And history: it's been made this way since 1932.

Soapstone wood stoves are great because the stone retains heat and radiates a more gentle heat than cast iron, and for long after the fire dies.  I can't find a soapstone wood stove I absolutely love, but this one is attractive enough.  It's the Heritage model from Hearthstone.

Another soapstone stove I like a lot is the Fireview from the Woodstock Soapstone Company in Vermont.  I seem to have a thing for Gothic arches:

Of course, the granddaddy of all soapstone wood stoves is the Tulikivi.  With a price tag about ten times that of the model above, I'll have to save this one for my day-dreams:

Update over a year later: We installed a Progress Hybrid from the Woodstock Soapstone Company.  We have been very impressed with it.  It heats beautifully, the soapstone holds heat even overnight, and the fire itself is fascinating to watch.  If you really want to geek out on wood stoves, watch the YouTube video of the Progress Hybrid at a wood stove convention.

Here is a picture off the manufacturer's website of the stove.  Ours has black cast iron trim, not brown, like this picture.  Also unlike this photo, ours sits directly on our polished concrete floor.  Because we were short on inspiration and time, the wall protection behind ours is black-painted sheet metal.  I'm hoping one day to replace it with something more interesting--maybe Delft tile?

ISO The Perfect Dining Chairs

Our dining chairs are so tired they literally scream at us each time we sit in them.  They creak so loudly, it's like they are saying: Put me out of my misery!

We've dithered forever about what to get to replace them.  We've spent so long looking, the pressure has now mounted, and we're on the hunt for the perfect dining chairs.

We have a long, narrow, farm table with a thick, oak top and black base.  What we really want are six to eight interesting, not too formal, antique chairs with character.  

Something like this spindle chair:

Ann Morris Antiques on 1stDibs.com

Or comfortable, English country chairs like these:

Jean Williams Antiques on 1stDibs.com

Or these fine but informal rush-seated chairs:

Spurgeon-Lewis Antiques on 1stDibs.com

Wouldn't those all be great?  Of course, it's not hard to find furniture worth dreaming about on 1stDibs. And not hard to buy it either if money is no object!  But the reality is, our chairs will get abused over the years, and we might be better off with less precious, new chairs.  Here's a roundup of some that have caught my eye.  I've listed prices where I know them.

Here's a worthy candidate.  It's Hickory Chair's Seymour Side Chair.  It's very traditional, but also a little modern.  Definitely a classic:

Prepare yourself, I'm going to go all over the dining chair map.  

How adorable is this little painted chair?  Although maybe not terribly comfortable.  It's Baker's Tulip Side Chair, based on a historical design from Charleston, SC.  I especially love the handle:

The wood seat on this industrial classic warms it up enough that I think it would look at home at our table amongst a collection of informal antiques.  The 1006 Navy Side Chair with wood seat from Design Within Reach. $725:

I took a look at the options at our nearest unfinished furniture store.  Would it be crazy to have a set of these Queen Anne arm chairs, and leave them unfinished? I would cover the seats in something with an earthy texture and color.  If that doesn't grab you, what about painting the chair in high gloss in a great color, like navy, ivory, rust, jade green, or chinese red?  For $159 plus paint, it would make quite an impact.  Since our table has a black base, I could see them painted black with a fresh blue and white fabric on the seat.

Here is another interesting option from the unfinished furniture mart.  A Beech Steambent tall arm chair.  I think this chair has to be black, or maybe red.  I think of all of them, I'm drawn to this one the most.  It's traditional, but unusual.  A little bit Asian, a little bit New England.  $164.

If I'm going to venture into the realm of modern furniture, it has to have character and warmth to help it blend with other styles.  I don't live in Philip Johnson's Glass House, for pete's sake.  We have a motley crew of inherited furniture and wedding presents, no style in particular predominating. IKEA's Reidar Chair would disappear a little, but be an interesting surprise once you really looked at it.  Did I mention it's aluminum?  What about the fact that it's stackable?  And how about the price?  $49.99.

Alas, none of them is perfect, so I will just have to continue the search.

Update over a year later: We finally found them!  

They are windsor chairs made in England by Batheaston.  We think they are cheerful and full of character.  They remind me of English pubs.  They are also supremely comfortable, and very practical.  I was drawn to a lot of chairs with rush seats, until I realized they would get caked with food over the next few toddler years, and no one near us in Wyoming can replace rush seats.  These chairs wipe clean and have even survived puddles of milk left overnight on the seats!  Here is the side chair of the same style:

And another chair made by Batheaston that I absolutely LOVE and was tempted to get instead.  But I decided a set of eight was a little much in this style:

Antique Prints

If you have a taste for fine art, but don't have the budget to match, antique prints are a practical and fun thing to collect.  The older prints are hand-colored, so they have a very human quality, and the natural fading and yellowing of the paper gives them a great patina.  And did I mention you can get them for a song?  

I remember reading that when Jackie Kennedy Onassis's estate was sold at auction at Sotheby's in 1996, one surprise was the dearth of original art.  She had mostly collected prints. Here is a photo from the auction catalog of her Park Avenue apartment.

via Habitually Chic

The first antique prints I bought were several James Sowerby botanicals that I found in an antiques store, and they hang on our bedroom walls.  Here is a print by Sowerby of Feverfew that is similar to the ones I own:

Printed in 1791, it's for sale on Panteek.com for $25.  Not a bad price for an 18th century antique.  There is no question our prints are the oldest things in our house.  

Panteek also has an eBay store, and if you are lucky, you can get prints there for even lower prices than on their website.  I have many that I bought from them on eBay for under ten dollars, because there were no other bidders.  They do a beautiful job of packaging the prints, and sending you copies of the title pages of the antique books out of which most prints are taken.  All of the prints below are for sale on their website.

This adorable little hummingbird print is as tiny as its subject.  The paper measures four by six inches.  Perfect for a powder room full of itty bitty curiosities.  It's a 1833 Jardine print for $45.

Here's a pretty John Ellis Coral print, published in 1786.  $165.

These egg prints seem to be everywhere I look.  The colors are wonderful, and they look right up to date, so I can see why.  1867 Morris egg print.  $29.

I love these Johann Weinmann 1737 prints for their boldness and scale.  These are large: nearly ten by fifteen inches.  This one of a horse chestnut is $245.  Everything about horse chestnut trees is beautiful: their form, their leaves, their flowers, their pods, and of course, the shiny brown horse chestnuts themselves.  Sometimes I daydream about a whole room of comfy furniture slipcovered in Rose Cumming's Chestnut Leaves  chintz, below.

But I digress...

Here is another from the Weinmann series.  How great would this look in a kitchen over a breakfast table?  I love the combination of olive green and burnt orange.  $395.

I'm sorely tempted by these 1912 French fashion prints, especially these shooting outfits.  My husband is a serious bird hunter, so to me, these are a hoot.  $165 each.

I could spend hours on Panteek's site.  I'll try to restrain myself to just one more favorite ... this 1815 Turpin print of an oak for $35:

Your friend, the upholstered headboard

I am a big proponent of upholstered headboards.  They are inexpensive enough to be the perfect first bed for a singleton's apartment or a new couple's first house, and if after ten years you tire of it, you can replace it with your dream four poster, or canopy bed, or whatever you wish.  Or pick a new upholstered headboard from the endless variety available and keep on updating ad infinitum.  But you may just love your first headboard so much you never change.  My mother's upholstered headboard endures after forty years.

Upholstered headboards also take up a lot less room than most bed frames.  My husband and I switched out an old cannon-ball bed for an upholstered headboard, and we gained a good nine or ten inches of space at the end of our bed.

Here's a classic from West Elm, available in Queen in this Jute for a mere $449.

Or it can be special ordered for the same price (as far as I can tell) in more than a dozen other fabrics, including this velvet in Lagoon.

Or this paisley:

I'm partial to the Stevenson Nailhead headboard from Ballard Designs (it's what I have) and I love it in their Parish fabric:

Even Target has upholstered headboards.  The Brittany in Aubergine velvet is pretty good looking, and even better looking when you know the price, $284.99 (on sale at the moment).