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9 Comments

  1. love, love, love your blog! always learning something from your french pov! i have a question, though…your color palette is so soft, but your bedroom is chartreuse!
    it works, and i really love it, but i thought it was an odd choice for you 😉

    1. It is not ‘odd’ if you open your eyes and want to stay awake,
      she broke the code. Coffee works too if you are not surrounded by such loveliness.

    2. I’ve actually thought about painting it many times, and may one day do it, but the color makes me so happy and the balance in that room is that everything else is white. Btw, the green color was inspired by a pretty little stationery envelope from the place cards for a party I hosted many years ago. I think it’s a lot softer in real life than it reads on a computer.

      Thanks for your kind words, btw!

  2. I loved the “know when to stop” part. I have lived in my apartment for just over a year and have This Week, come to that part. I just bought my third armoire and I adore it, but any more furniture will be going onto the bed!!! I’ve been collecting, enjoying, but will be reopening my etsy shop as I make my “turnaround” and start to pare down some of my smaller treasures. I love to decorate constantly and am fortunate to have shelving in my garage so I can rotate on a seasonal basis. I love your blog.

  3. My living room is 15 x 18. The size is great but the placement of the fireplace makes decorating a challenge! The 9′ long fireplace isn’t centered on the wall. It’s actually set to the far right with the firebox off-centered to the left. When we bought the house 38 years ago, the rustic brick fireplace had a 2-foot deep hearth and only a 7-inch deep mantle. Three years ago, I had the fireplace “faced” with millwork. The flat-faced brick is completely hidden and the surround has a 20″ deep mantle and molding on the “legs.” The new surround/mantle has been centered over the firebox. To make the firebox look centered, we created a “niche” on the right side where the mantel is only 12″ deep. I had marble-look porcelain tile installed over the brick hearth and around the firebox. I love the look and it’s a huge improvement but the door and window placement make it impossible to use the fireplace as the focal point of the room! The key to decorating this room is the proportion of the furniture to the size of the room. It’s taken a long time, but I’m finally happy with the way this room looks and functions! Thank you for your continued inspiration.

    1. Sounds like you came up with a great solution. A fireplace does not have to be the focal point. You can use artwork, a mirror, an armoire or many other things, instead… 🙂

  4. It’s all well and good to try to follow the rules, but what if you have to work with competing existing factors? We can’t run out and buy all new furniture, nor do we want to. I inherited a 150-year-old 8×10 gorgeous Kashan in (predominantly) traditional red and blue, a 150-year-old Chinese table identical to this:
    https://www.pamono.eu/chinese-coffee-table-19th-century/?cn=pt&utm_medium=cpc_test&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=PLA_PT_8519981893_86068301669&utm_content=405453926052_c_&utm_term=pla-294682000766___EII-899787&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIjoin1qqU8gIV8e3mCh055wanEAQYBSABEgL2nfD_BwE
    and other beautiful things like a large Honorable Ancestor. In an open-plan living/dining/kitchen space high in a 3-storey house, every window has stunning views of the Alps. It’s a struggle to know what to highlight from all of that! I do intend to hide the TV, though. Thanks for the pointers.

    1. I think a lot of those beautiful pieces can work together and still fall within the “rules”. But also, the only real rule you need to follow is ensuring that you love your pieces. As long as you’re not keeping everything just because you inherited it, your rooms will be beautiful… 🙂 If the rug is centered in the room with the Chinese table sitting on it, with conversational seating centered in the space around the coffee table, you’ve already satisfied the suggestion to pull the furniture away from the walls and center it in the room. It sounds like your windows could possibly be the focal point, but with an open plan and everything centered, you’re probably ok without an obvious point of focus. Perhaps a piece of artwork over a console table if there is no fireplace, especially if it can be placed between two of the tall windows?