Yangtze River Dining Room

I've had this dining room plan floating around in my head for a while.

It started with Schumacher's Yangtze River fabric in Aubergine:

I'd use it for the curtains. Then I'd paired it with lime green grasscloth walls:

Then would come the perfect dining chairs to work back to the fabric. Ballard Design's 12th Street Chair in Linen Magenta for side chairs:

And Ballard's Cortina Chair in Linen Peony for the head chairs:

I'd want a very modern dining table. Something like a blonde wood waterfall situation or sleek marble, like this Atlas Dining Table from Zuo Modern:

Then I'd soften it all with a pair of powder blue lamps ...

perched atop a fancy antique sideboard like this one:

All very low-key and budget-friendly 😉

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Schumacher for Kids

A couple of unrelated points here, best done in list format:

1. I peaced out on the blog last week - took a trip to Cali for work and it was lovely. I drank all the Zinfandel in Sonoma. And had some productive meetings.

2. You are generally winning if your kids get to play in a Schumacher-fabric-laden teepee.

3. I'm on a plum/burgundy clothing kick, so I want that little girl's leggings.

4. The bedroom on the bottom is incredibly legit with its color combination, brass bed, casual canopy, and stained/painted dark ceiling. The simple pillow arrangement is also catching my eye.

5. What I liked most here is the color story. Plum and citrine at the top and then plum and royal blue (peeking out from the blanket) on the bottom. I have seriously been loving plum/orchid for years and images like these keep feeding my addiction.

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Schumacher Classics

Schumacher's Instagram feed has been teasing us with their new "Schumacher Classics" collection - a round-up of some of their most iconic prints redone in some amazing, fresh colorways.

Like my beloved Lotus Garden - the fabric I used in our master bedroom - is now this bananas jade green and orchid situation:

Isn't it magnificent? This will forever be one of my most favorite prints so I love to see that it's been given new life via color.

Here are some other previews, all just as gorgeous:

I am so excited to see these new fabrics start popping up with designers - I'll be keeping an eye out. The fabrics will be available in showrooms starting January 9th.

See the Instagram bits here...

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Friday Crush

A delightful vignette from Lucas/Eilers Design via Twitter from a home on Kiawah Island featuring Acanthus Stripe wallpaper from Celerie Kemble for Schumacher. Where would you begin here? I'm at a bit of a loss...the wallpaper is incredibly fantastic but can we talk about the patterned floor? And all of the rich wood tones? And of course the beautiful pottery that looks absolutely perfect here. I would be quite pleased if this was the entry of my lowcountry home.

Fall is in full swing and we might attempt a pumpkin patch this weekend. Hope you have a great one...see you next week!

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Schumacher Citrus Garden

Schumacher has released their 125th Anniversary Collection - a vibrant re-imagining of some of their most iconic patterns - and let me tell you, the collection does not disappoint.

But one fabric in particular left me essentially breathless. Hello, Citrus Garden in Primary:

I just love a fabric with a zillion colors and the hues of this particular one are so fresh. That jade green! And the fruit tree (yellow oranges?) makes for such a lively motif - fun and whimsical without being too floral. It's simply divine.

Imagine it paired with this other showstopper from the collection, Zanzibar Trellis in Jade:

It's the stuff dreams are made of.

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Friday Crush

Not sure if I'm more excited about my own announcement this week or Schumacher's - Miles Redd will be debuting a fabric line with them this fall!

I'm always thrilled to hear about designer collaborations with my favorite fabric lines - though occasionally I'm left a bit underwhelmed, I know the Redd-Schumacher combo is a winner. Miles Redd is just pure decorating genius...this line will be sensational and I will be anxiously awaiting its arrival. Read more about it here...

Thank you for the warm wishes about Baby Boy Shuffler this week! I'm so happy that you are in the know. I'm also thrilled Fall has unofficially arrived, though you wouldn't know it with the 90+ degree temps we've been having here. But I'm sure the end is in sight and I can go back to my uniform of (maternity) leggings and boots all day, every day.

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Schumacher Bombay

Schumacher's new Simply Charming wallpaper collection landed in my inbox last week and I quickly found a new favorite pattern...

I'll take them all but contestant #2 won my heart. That lovely pinwheel pattern in the sweetest shade of blue. It's called Bombay in Delft and I need it:

I'm a nut for anything that is french blue/periwinkle and I just find the adorable pinwheels so....charming! Would love to see this in a little boy bathroom, in a blue/white kitchen, gracing the walls of a cottage guest room...I could go on.

Of course Bombay comes in many colorways and my second favorite combination is COMPLETELY different:

Yowza. Gilt brings the sultry shine...perrrrrfect for a high glam powder room with a black mirror and Moroccan lantern.

What do you think? A new favorite for you too?

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Anshun by Schumacher

It's been a while since we've talked drop-dead gorgeous fabrics, so here's a stellar find to add to our ongoing conversation.

Anshun by Schumacher:

Where to start??? The colors? Deep jungle greens, peaches and rose, cerulean blues...all working magically together to create an unexpected jewel-tone palette. Yes, yes, yes. SO good.

And I of course love the birds but mostly love the little insects - butterflies and dragonflies - that seamlessly mix with the flowers.

This is crazy pretty. I would love huge big swaths of it like curtains or couch upholstery. And I would have to pair it with forest green velvet...HAVE TO. Maybe with a blue leather chair. #luxeliving

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Schumacher for Dempsey & Carroll

Remember Schumacher's collaboration with stationery brand Dempsey & Carroll to put Chiang Mai Dragon on paper? Well this image surfaced on D & C's twitter feed and it alerted me to some other collaborations between the creative companies. This particular stationery set uses Schumacher's Deco Flowers with stunning results:

And if you want to drop some coin on personalized stationery, check out the beautiful use of Shantung Silhouette on cards and envelopes:

Lovely, no?

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AO House Tour: Master Bedroom

Admittedly, if you recall this post from three years (!) ago, our room looks pretty much the same. That's cool with me - it's working. I really love it. It's simple with not a lot of distractions. The angled ceilings really limit the pieces of flair you can put on the walls and I welcomed the limitation.

The biggest change is likely the rug - we really needed something to warm up the floors so I opted for a lovely traditional rug that has that gorgeous shade of celadon blue.

 

We've kicked our puffy duvet to the curb since Ana Claire's arrival. We usually like to have our bedroom nice and chilly in the winter but seeing as how infants need regulated temperatures...well, the duvet just isn't needed. I kind of like the clean lines of the bed without it.

The box spring cover is one of my favorite DIY projects - full directions here in this old post.

I made the pillow on the bed with my inspiration fabric - Schumacher's Lotus Garden.  It might be my #1 sewing project to date. I piped and backed it in the brown stripe and it's pretty amazing. It's actually a king-sized pillow (with my cover over it) which I find is the perfect size to serve as a decorative pillow for a queen-sized bed.

I also FINALLY recovered the seat of my chair. It's been YEARS since I've been wanting to do it, and I finally spiffed it up with a piece of my fabric. I love how the browns mix with that terracotta color.  Side note: I registered for that little basket (that I use as my wastebasket) from Pottery Barn (I think) when we got married and boy has it been a favorite. I adore it and was super-smart to also register for its big sister size, which lives in our guest bathroom.

Ok, not a super-exciting corner but keepin' it real. The vanity in the previous picture as well as this chest of drawers are hand-me-downs from Mama Jo, Carter's grandmother. I love that they are my everyday pieces because they have a lot of meaning. The set also came with a four-poster bed which lives in one of our guest bedrooms (I would have used it for us in a heartbeat but it's a double). Enjoy the peek of my messy closet. 

Note that the alcove pictured in the before photos is not amongst this set of pix...I just can't get that space right. It's just a weird hodge-podge at the moment. I'm hoping to be inspired one of these days and then I'll bring you a post on how I turned it into a magical spot.

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SOURCES

Paint - Desert Camel by Behr
Bed - Louis Bed by Ballard Designs (our was a low-profile version that seems no longer available)
Rug - Newberry Area Rug in Blue/Cream
Box spring cover - DIY

Curtain and box spring fabric - Soleil Sun Stripe in Mocha by Waverly

Pillow and chair seat fabric - Lotus Garden in Lacquer by Schumacher

Brown velvet pillows on bed - Essential Pillow Covers from Ballard Designs

Chair - hand-me-down
Vanity desk - Vintage hand-me-down

Side table, sunburst mirrors - HomeGoods

Bamboo shade - Overstock

Lamps - Can't recall source, but these are similar

AO House Tour: Master Bedroom Before

Lest you think I live in a Skittles package, I thought we would switch gears and visit the master bedroom. If you've been around for a while you may remember it because I've blogged about it before, but I've given it some recent finishing touches that I'll reveal tomorrow.

The master bedroom shares the upstairs with the nursery. We live in a cape cod, so the two rooms split off from the center stairs and they are mirror images of each other - slanted ceilings and all.

Here are some before pictures from when we first moved into the house:

It's funny, but the original paint color is pretty close to what we ended up selecting for the nursery. In person, the nursery's color is much better, but I digress.

If you've been a long-time reader you may recall that my inspiration fabric for the master bedroom was Schumacher's Lotus Garden:

SO gorgeous. I found a remnant of it on eBay and just had to have it. Not cheap but totally worth it. It captured exactly what I wanted the bedroom to be and color palette was amazing.

So taking that fabric as my cue, I started to gather items that would work well with khakis, brown, and the most beautiful celadon blue.

Here is the design board I created:

As you'll see, this room is pretty simple in it's composition so it came together pretty quickly. But I was happy to finally check some items off my list recently that I wanted to finish.

Check back tomorrow to see the after...

 

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L'Indienne Fabric from Alessandra Branca

Funny how tastes change, right? I'll swear off a color or pattern or style deciding it's not for me...and then I see it done well and I jump on the party train. Am I fickle? Or just a lover of everything?

One thing I've never really been keen on is paisley. Not really my jam. But then I started seeing these gorgeous block-print type paisleys mixed with traditional furnishings and that was it - sign me up!

Alessandra Branca's new collection for Schumacher is fab, and my favorite is her take on this type of warm, rich paisley. It's called L'Indienne:

The differences in colorways are very subtle...the first is a little more pink than the last and the middle one incorporates blue. But they are all gorgeous, no? How about we use it as curtains in a wood-paneled study with a shiny oxblood leather Chesterfield sofa? Sounds good to me!

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Mary McDonald in Miniature

Gorgeous spaces by Mary McDonald featuring her fabrics for Schumacher:

That's a dollhouse,  y'all (did I give it away in my post title?):

So fun, right?! I love anything mini.

Mary McDonald teamed up with Martyn Lawrence Bullard to create this dollhouse for the Kaleidoscope Ball to raise money for the UCLA Mattel Children’s Discovery and Innovation Institute.

Read all about it here and see Martyn's spaces up close on Schumacher's blog...

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Chinois Palais

Falling into the category of insanely beautiful is the fabric Chinois Palais by Mary McDonald for Schumacher. Like panels of our favorite hand-painted Chinoiserie wallpapers, this fabric comes in the most splendid hues. I love the idea of upholstering a wall with any one of these:

And the loooong repeat lends itself well to curtains:

Fret not if you don't have to-the-trade access...I found this Etsy listing but be warned that it's not inexpensive. But beauty like this is worth every penny in my opinion...just one repeat's worth and you have a dynamite piece of art to hang on a large wall.

Have you seen the rest of MM's collection for Schumacher? It's definitely my favorite designer collaboration thus far.

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Mandarin Peony Wallpaper

I'm not sure how this happened, but I only recently discovered Schumacher's Mandarin Peony wallpaper. Where has it been all my life???

Mandarin Peony in Pear

 Mandarin Peony in Aquamarine

Mandarin Peony in Alabaster

I hereby pledge my utter devotion to this wallcovering. It is a spectacular Chinoiserie floral with the same feel as a handsome de Gournay number. I am thrilled with my Le Lac nursery plans, but had I known about Mandarin Peony, I may have gone this direction.

Seriously, I can't stop staring. I really want to use it somewhere...oh the possibilities!

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Chenonceau Bedroom

I love a serene bedroom and this one uses Schumacher's Chenonceau to perfection.

 Photography Van Chaplin, Charles Walton IV / Styling Buffy Hargett via Southern Living

Wouldn't this same exact room look just as fantastic with some of the other softer colorways too?

I think you know that I really, really love silhouette patterns in fabric and wallpaper. And to go with that, I am constantly enamored with spaces that stick to a duo-chromatic (that's not a word) color scheme of white and the background color. And yet I've never had the guts to do that in my own home. Most people are afraid of committing to color, but I'm afraid of committing to the lack of it!

Hope you had a restful holiday weekend!

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