dining room

Pretty genius idea …

October 6, 2011

So we’ve got this chandelier in our dining room. It came with the house, and while I probably wouldn’t have picked it myself, it is grand and probably cost a pretty penny. But I often find myself wishing it had a little bling, a little sparkle, a little … something.

Then I saw these in the Ballard catalog …

Set of 3 Magnetic Crystals

The box says it all …

Simply click and it sticks!

I ordered the pendalogue shape … but there are 4 styles.

I was skeptical that they might look cheap, but no … they are heavy and beautifully cut.

I also ordered some of the magnetic chains …

… played around a little, and …

… my chandelier’s got bling!

And the sconces too …

It literally took just minutes to do.

Depending on your style you could leave them up year round or just put them up for special occasions, holidays, etc.

Much less expensive than a new chandelier … and now mine kind of resembles some of the other chandeliers Ballard sells …

Anniversary weekend in the city

August 30, 2011

Yesterday was Dan and my 13th Anniversary … for the past several years we’ve decided that our “gift” to each other is to get away for one night in the city. We look forward to it all summer.

So my parents graciously arrived Saturday morning to stay with the boys and off we went.

After 13 years, Dan knows me well enough to guess that I would want to go visit a few of my favorite home stores while we were there. Our first stop after lunch was to West Grand Ave. … and you guessed, The Painted Lady … and she didn’t disappoint.

How sweet is this lamp that is shaped like a knight’s breastplate? I would have snatched that up in a minute when we were decorating our nursery years ago with it’s subtle fairy tale theme.

A cluster of old demijohn’s in the window …

So many soft and wonderfully vintage-looking grainsack pillows …

I totally loved this driftwood inspired candelabra. What a statement piece for a dresser like this, or a dining room table.

I checked out a few of the other stores along Grand Avenue too, but the Painted Lady is still my favorite.

After checking into the Hotel Dana and enjoying a couple of mojitos on their rooftop lounge we worked our through River North and over to the Mag Mile. We decided on a meeting time and place and then split up a little bit so we could each do a little shopping. I was anxious to check out the new Anthropologie just off Michigan Ave. on Chicago.

Anthropologie is one of my all time favorite stores. I love their clothes but I also just love the overall vibe of each store. There’s a warmth and quirkiness … a laid-back elegance, a wonderful patina to everything … I kind of want to just move in! It’s always amazing to see how they transform a new space into something that looks like it’s been around forever. This one has a wonderful street level entrance and then you actually walk down a grand staircase to the main part of the store. (Swoon.)

Again, more driftwood inspired candle holders … and the large tin bottle is a vintage perfume storage bottle, believe it or not. I love how they tag some of their vintage pieces and tell the story behind it.

After shopping it was back to the hotel to put our feet up for awhile before heading out for our night on the town. We primarily picked the Hotel Dana for its great, walkable location to so much great nightlife.

Our first stop was Studio Paris, the lovely rooftop lounge atop Paris Club.

Rooftop bars seem to be the place to be in the summer and we were happy to go along with the trend on this lovely evening. Our next stop was the rooftop of Epic (appropriately named Epic Sky) with it’s great skyline views. (By then it was getting dark and I forgot to take any pictures.) Finally, for dinner we headed to Roka Akor … one of the “hot” new openings of the summer … everything was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

Sunday morning the game plan was to sleep in as late as we could (why is it that once you have kids, your body is somewhat incapable of sleeping late?) head to brunch at Orange (I talked about it in this post) and then head over to the Randolph Street Market one more time before summer is over (and while we could take our own leisurely time sans kiddos.)

I didn’t take a lot of pictures this time (I truly was trying to not “work” and just enjoy the day, but I couldn’t help snapping a few …)

If the time were right, I would have loved to snatch up this table and chairs for our dining room and then reupholster the backs of the chairs in a fun print.

Cool old door turned mirror ….

Authentic old fishing floats.

So what did I get? A few fun little treasures …

I spotted this vintage metal T in this great coral color with a rich patina. There was only a T, so I think it was fate. I love the pop of color on our mantel and how it ties in with the other pops of coral I have in the room.

Dan found this baby and I was so thrilled.

As a writer and former journalist, I love its symbolism and like to imagine what wonderful novels or newspaper articles were created on it.

Someday it will sit prominently on the built-in bookshelves of my newly remodeled home office.

Have you seen these sugar molds in the NapaStyle catalog?

I’ve always liked them as a centerpiece to fill with candles, flowers, or … as they’ve shown … some “nibbles” for your guests. Plus I like how it can have a dramatic effect, yet you can still have eye contact with the person sitting across from you. The price for the long one? $189.

I picked this one up for $30 and it’s even longer …

For now I’ve got it on my buffet … and I still need to get some glass inserts, but I can’t wait to use it over the holidays.

Scary to think they’ll be here before we know it! Yikes!

So that’s what they’re called …

March 4, 2011

As I was writing my post earlier this week, An Easy Idea with High Impact, I couldn’t find the word I was looking for to describe the large bottles.

Then today I saw this article on Houzz: Flea Market Finds: Demijohns Around the Home . Demijohns! That’s it!

The subtitle goes on to read “Once Purely Functional, Now Decorative, These Bottles are Worth the Hunt.” I agree, don’t you?

Old World Custom Home contemporary dining room

contemporary dining room design by phoenix general contractor Hillis Bolte Luxury Builders

It’s an interesting history of the bottles along with more pretty ideas on how to use them and group them. They date back hundreds of years and were originally used to transport everything from wine to molasses.

In addition the inexpensive ones I found, I still love the one I mentioned in my post on vintage finds.

And then, as fate would have it … yesterday I found these lamps. I guess you could call kinda call them demijohn lamps …

I love that they are two different sizes. It’s a departure from the symmetrical look of buffet lamps … and I always like the unexpected! Plus I love to display actual serving pieces on a buffet .. and while you obviously wouldn’t put anything in these bottles, I like that they are an ode to the historic demijohns that might have graced an elegant buffet table long ago.

Have you found any demijohns for your spring branches yet?

Swoonworthy Color Combo

February 8, 2011

Do you watch Sarah’s House on HGTV? I absolutely love the “country house” she did for Season Three. Ever since I saw the bathroom and kitchen of that house I have been loving yellow and gray together …