Tonight we plunge ahead into 2018!   With the New Year’s fresh start in mind, I thought I would share a cool video sent to me by some friends in Texas showing some innovative designs of truly transformative furniture. 

You will love this video from Creapills, a French furniture innovation company. 
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Enjoy, and best wishes for a Happy New Year to you all!

​Warm wishes for a truly magical Christmas!  Upon awakening this morning, Christmas Eve, I was delighted by a beautiful pink sunrise over an icy landscape outside our home.  It made my heart sing with joyous gratitude for all the blessings our Lord has bestowed on me, my family and the world at large.  

​We all need a Christmas message of hope and joy! The ice storm of yesterday left a beautiful crust on the trees, each detail so tiny and delicate.

Christmas transformations…and hopeful wishes of peace and tranquility…..bliss…..but now how to adequately segue to a blog topic so worldly and small as an interior design transformation, but I’ll give it a go……. with the first “Before and After” I am posting on this blog, including a holiday twist at the end.
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First you see the “Before” photo of a client’s living room in a Victorian historic home (circa 1880), complete with a turret.  Every girl (including Rapunzel) needs a turret, don’t you think?

​And now the After photo, done by yours truly, with new paint, draperies, rug, chairs and lighting; the works.  My client was looking for an updated traditional look, still using her favorite color red, but in a more modern way.  As you can see in the photos, she’s a whiz at forcing bulbs (amaryllis and such) to flower throughout the year, 

​And, finally, the Christmas look for this beautiful room.

​Well, I'm off to get all the final Christmas activities taken care of, so best wishes to each of you for a lovely and transformative holiday celebration!    

This week I thought that I would share with you my Top 11, all-time favorite, Interior Design books from my own personal library.  I am a huge fan of the printed word, and when I say printed, I mean actually printed out on paper. Cyberspace is indeed incredible for communicating the written word and gorgeous photos, but I just adore books in book form, especially ones I can curl up with. 
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So, here are the interior design books that I reference all the time, from inspirational design to fabrication methods to architectural classification.  I’ll review each book, clockwise, starting in the lower left corner.  These are presented in no particular order in terms of how much I adore the books…it’s just too hard to choose anyway.  It was hard enough for me to pare it down to only 11!

8 and 9) Sarah Style (2014)  and At Home Sarah Style (2015) by Sarah Richardson
My all-time favorite designer, Sarah Richardson, has written two books that I recommend to anyone redecorating a residence.  She’s Canadian, and you have undoubtedly seen her on HGTV.   I love the fabrics she has designed and her overall sense of vitality, freshness, and use of textural materials in her residential interiors.  The looks she favors are particularly relevant in New England with our millwork, architecture and size and layout of rooms. 

So, that’s it for my Top 11 Interior Design books.  If you are in the Sudbury MA area, you are more than welcome to borrow any of these books…just call.

​Happy reading to you, whatever the format!  

Let me begin by wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - as I write this post about a crafty idea to hang your Holiday cards. By now you have probably received a few Christmas or Holiday cards and might be searching for an easy way to display them.  A way which doesn’t destroy the cards themselves (keeper photos!) or your walls, cabinets, or furniture with tape or nails.
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Here is an idea I came up with years ago to make ribbon holders that slip over the doors in my home—full size doors like this, and also cabinet doors in the kitchen.  The key is to use elastic and craft ribbon (sewn together or attached with safety pins) to make a stretchable sling.  Then I just attach small binder clips to the ribbon with straight pins (old technology) or a tag gun (newer technology, and advisable if you have small children).  So, no tape, no nails, nothing permanent, and totally usable for next year. 

​Here’s what the back side of the ribbon holder looks like.  I have sewn the elastic to the ribbon at the top, and used a safety pin at the bottom.  It is advisable to use a fabric ribbon rather than a paper or plastic ribbon.

It really couldn’t be simpler.  And I’m very surprised I have never seen this commercially available…though I have Googled it and have seen some other clever ideas, but never on exactly like this.

FREE OFFER!  Here’s a special offer for all you readers out there!!!   I am happy to send one of my card holders FREE to the FIRST 10 people who request it.   Just contact me by clicking here and sending me your address and the height of one of your doors.  Most doors are about 80”.  Also please tell me if you want it the ribbon to be more of a Christmas colors (reds) or neutral (silver or gold). 

Thanks for reading my rather crafty post today.  I hope that your holiday decorating and shopping are going well!  In eastern Massachusetts we got almost 7” of snow yesterday and that definitely puts me in a fine Christmas spirit.  Now if I could just find some energy to send out my own Christmas cards….

​Paisley…you think you know what it is…fabric with those amoeba shaped thingies…or a pattern on a man’s tie…but are you really sure?  I confess that I was a bit in the dark about the exact origins of paisley before researching this post.  So, for today’s blog, let’s discover paisley together. 

My Greenhouse Fabrics vendor (https://www.greenhousefabrics.com/) says the following about paisley: 

• “The small weaving town of Paisley, Scotland, lends its name to the ancient Persian symbol. Although famous for their intricately woven paisley shawls, a variety of traditional patterns including plaids, stripes and beautiful floral designs were also crafted there.”

Wikipedia (in my book, the fount of all knowledge achieved with just a few keystrokes) gives an excellent definition:

• “Paisley or paisley pattern is an ornamental design using the buta (Persian: بته‎‎) or boteh, a teardrop-shaped motif with a curved upper end. Of Persian origin, paisley designs became very popular in the West in the 18th and 19th centuries, following imports of post-Mughal Empire versions of the design from India, especially in the form of Kashmir shawls, and were then imitated locally.  Although the fig- or almond-like  form is of Persian origin, its English name derives from the town of Paisley, in West Scotland, a center for textiles where paisley designs were produced.The pattern is still commonly seen in Britain and other English-speaking countries with men's ties  but remains popular in other items of clothing in Iran and South and Central Asian countries.

• The Industrial Revolution, based on the textile industry, turned Paisley from a small market town to an important industrial town in the late 18th century. When silk fell out of fashion in 1790, the mills switched to the imitation Kashmir (cashmere) shawls called "Paisley". By the mid-19th century weaving had become the town's principal industry. The Paisley weavers' most famous products were the shawls, which bore the Paisley Pattern made fashionable after being worn by a young Queen Victoria. Despite being of a Kashmiri design and manufactured in other parts of Europe, the teardrop-like pattern soon became known by Paisley's name across the western world. Although the shawls dropped out of fashion in the 1870s, the Paisley pattern remains an important symbol of the town.”

 
Given the expanse of the British Empire 1700’s and 1800’s I guess that it makes perfect sense that the British brought the design from the East to the mills in Scotland and popularized this very interesting and universally liked motif. 
 
Paisley patterns can be either asymmetrical or symmetrical as shown by the beautiful selections from Greenhouse Fabrics below.  The motif is indisputably botanical in form, and is thought to have derived from a palm, pine, or cypress tree. I think all that you really need is the little squiggle to classify it as a paisley.   

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​It seems like both women and men like paisley since paisley fabric is used widely in both apparel and home décor.  For example, Here’s a paisley tie that is available from Amazon (like everything else in the world these days….)

​Paisley works extremely well on upholstery, as shown on the chairs in my client’s recently redone living room:

​And of course, paisley is terrific on draperies, valances, bedding, and other soft fashions.   Here is a Milan valance I did for a client. 

​You’ll see the paisley motif in rugs too since it can really bring color and a splash of flair to a room. Paisley rugs in more formal spaces are usually a symmetric arrangement since it really raises the formality factor. In more informal rooms, paisley, in a non-symmetrical form, can bring out a bohemian look.

​Well that’s all for our brief paisley overview…a timeless fabric that delights with its curving form, like a versatile acrobat. It pairs exceptionally well with geometrics. Please consider it for your next design project!  Now that you’ve read this you’ll recognize this curved form everywhere…you’ll see……