Shabby Chic With Pink

Photo: Emma Mattsson

My making my announcement on Thursday.  

Hint: it's Danish.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Creative Things Thursday at The Vintage Farmhouse

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Beverly's Pink Saturday at How Sweet The Sound

My Loft by Emma Mattsson

o sweet spontaneous

o sweet spontaneous

earth how often have

the

doting

            fingers of

prurient philosophers pinched

and

poked

thee

,has the naughty thumb

of science prodded

thy

     beauty       .how

often have religions taken

thee upon their scraggy knees

squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive

gods

      (but

true

to the incomparable

couch of death thy

rhythmic

lover

            thou answerest

  them only with

                        spring)

e.e. cummings

This time next week I will announce my big announcement.  I can't wait.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Creative Things Thursday at The Vintage Farmhouse

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Images of Emma Mattsson

There are interior photographers that breeze in and out of your home, get the shots the editor asked for, and split before the good evening light comes because they'd rather get an early reservation at a hip eatery.  And then there are photographers like Emma Mattsson.

Emma, still in her 20s, shoots many different kinds of homes and businesses for her ‘reportage’ (rep-port-TAYGE) to Scandinavian publications.  Her business card is very sleek and sexy: a black and white abstract image of two young women’s bodies fused together.  I was delighted to watch her work with stylist/writer Petra Kjellstroem at my studio, excited to see how a chic European woman would interpret my cottage.

After she got the shots she needed the light grew too bright and we went to an early dinner.  Returning, the light turned autumnal and golden.  She went up to my loft after Isuggested I light the candles and lamp, and shot.  And shot and shot.  It was like watching a dancer.  Bowing, bending, ear to the floor, then leaning left, right, forward, back, always closer and closer.  

Emma ‘got’ what I tried to do with a fantasy space, and shot it in the way a romantic would see it.  And the gift of her interpretation of my cottage is priceless.  I love the way Emma saw it.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Beverly's Pink Saturday at How Sweet The Sound

More Skona Hem Photos

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of scars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

W.H. Davies

I love sharing Emma & Petra's work for Skona Hem.

Speaking of Scandinavian things: I have a great offering later this month.  Stay tuned.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Beverly's Pink Saturday at How Sweet The Sound

Dainty Shabby French Neo-Classical Decor

Begin doing what you want to

do now.  We are not living in

eternity.  We have only this moment,

sparkling like a star in our hand –

and melting like a snowflake.

--Marie Beynon Ray

For the remainder of the month I'm going to reveal photos of the loveliest shoot done at my studio cottage.

I tried to get these images published in Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic Inspirations book by way of telling Rachel over the phone they were my favorite of all.  In October 2010 young photographer Emma Mattsson and stylist/writer Petra Kjellstroem flew all the way from Stockholm to shoot homes in Manhattan and Upstate New York on speculation.  Lucky for us Skona Hem (Sweet Home) -- the top interior design magazine in Sweden -- bought the story for their November 2011 issue.

You may notice, gentle reader, I've watermarked the photo.  I don't like the distraction of watermarks, but Pinterest has altered the online playing field so much not only am I forced to do this but I'm creating an account there in an attempt to give credit to photographers, stylists, and print publications.

The photo above is a shot of my mantel with a lovely c. 1920 shabby white oval mirror with swags and ghosted glass for $299 at Sandi of A Cottage Muse's booth at The Wrentham Country Store in Massachusetts.  The candlesticks are yard sale finds I paid $2 - $12 for each.

Dainty pale pink paper roses stamped with French writing add a soft touch: try these from artist Angela Harris.  

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

 Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage

Beverly's Pink Saturday at How Sweet The Sound

Nailhead Trim: Refined or Raw

Above, an elegant chair (long since sold) from the 1stdibs space in New York from Disegno Karina Gentinetta.  She uses a strip of same-fabric (natural cotton muslin) seam tape and places the nails evenly.

Above, a deconstructed chair in Sweden exposing very raw burlap and nails from the book Vintage by Nina by Nina Hartmann with photos by Maria Isabel Hansson.

On the far left with black legs, a chair between refined and raw in the incomparable Norwegian home of Jannicke Helgesen of Lille vildand.

The exposed nail head look blends with vintage, shabby, industrial, French, Nordic, farmhouse, and country styles.  It looks great dressed up or down!

Steel upholstery tacks

Ask at your independently owned hardware store (or Jo-Ann, A.C. Moore, Michael’s, Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc.) for 3/8” steel upholstery tacks.   They may say ‘black’, but they will be all different colors like gunmetal, charcoal, and graphite.   A small package costs about $3.

Update: on 7 February 2012 La Brocanteuse published a very good, almost scholarly, post on stripped down upholstery.  

This post was supposed to unveil my new daybed bought for $5 at a yard sale, over-plumpy with Euro square pillows and a fat mooshy white linen cushion.   The covering over the bottom was to be more linen tacked on with steel upholstery tacks.   It all burnt in the fire that destroyed my unfinished home, but someday I’ll find something else.   Something even better.

I send everyone hugs back for your support.  You are all so sweet.

Until next time, stay shabby!

Sharing with:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

What's It Wednesday at Ivy & Elephants

Favorite Things Thursday at Katherine's Corner

Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Farmhouse Friday at LaurieAnna's Vintage Home

Feathered Nest Friday at The French Country Cottage