Decorating Dilemmas!

Hmmm! Just the other day, I was talking to my good friend Cruella and she was telling me about her sister’s new mega-mansion house. Cruella, who‘s decorating philosophy is “the more stuff the better “said that this house needed less than what her sister had and a few modern pieces due to the architecture of the house, which included lots and lots of windows! Cruella noted, “She could not believe that she herself was saying “less is more” --but this is what she was going to prescribe for her sister.

After Cruella uttered those words, I immediately had had visions of a clean, well-edited Barbara Barry look--which I personally love and I’m currently thinking of doing myself one day! Cruella thought that her sister should do away with some of her antiques and collectibles that would not work in her new house. Trust me, this is hard for us die-hard antiquers to admit to sometimes, but sometimes, certain antiques just don’t fit the bill. While talking to Cruella, we both surmised that her sister had her work cut out for her.

Image from Architectural Digest-Designer Barbara Barry

Afterwards, I thought about my own cottage house. We’ve lived in a few different styles of homes--a few of them we even owned. We currently live in a 1930’s cottage house that we’ve slowly been working on. So let’s see, I have some French pieces, a little bit of English; a few flea-market finds, and a tiny bit of IKEA. So if I had to tell someone my style I would be a little lost for words. If I could start all over like Crullea’s sister, I’d seriously consider it. Would the hubby let me? Definitely not!

This is my English dining room table that I stole from my inventory after I discovered we were heading to Charleston. The table is actually more for a breakfast room or large foyer (I have neither), and that’s how I, ineffectively, had tried to sell it. The table has always met my needs, and now I’m actually using it in my dining room. It’s small and I don’t plan on having a big Thanksgiving soiree any time in the near future!

The chairs need to be reupholstered!

This is my French daybed--after schlepping this around to an antique show after show and having people admiring it but never really wanting to pay for it, I decided to keep it for myself. The toile is vintage but one day I have high hopes to have it reupholstered! The mattress we got for it is quite hard, according to my mother-in-law, who tested it out when it was in our guest room.

Here’s my Federal style bench—this is a piece that I have schlepped around—Atlanta, Charleston, Nashville, et cetera, et cetera. I actually bought this as inventory (I got carried away one day at an auction one day) stole that from myself as well! In Charleston this was in my bedroom. I have high hopes of putting it in a foyer, and reupholstering it too, of course! It came with that fabric!

My French chair—I bought this actually for myself while out shopping with Cruella, and if I would not have bought it then Cruella would have. I couldn’t let that happen! When I bought it, it had a god-awful bird fabric. Nothing against birds, but it was awful! Cruella helped me pick out its current, red-checked, silk fabric which leads me to many more dilemmas. Hmmm: silk, three-year-old neighbors, dogs, and hubbies! Later!