Café Design
Decorating Consultations

Create Academy | A Guide to Pigments, Paints & Palettes by Edward Bulmer

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Create Academy and contains affiliate links. As always, all opinions are honest and my own. 

Edward Bulmer ’s Create Academy class, A Guide to Pigments, Paints & Palettes, is for many of us a heaven-sent opportunity. Color is one of the most elusive aspects of interior decoration and getting it “wrong” can be an expensive mistake. So, if you’ve ever been faced with the daunting task of choosing “the right” paint color for a room in your home, then you, too, can appreciate the value of lessons on color coming from someone who not only practices the art of interior decoration, but comes at it with a deep understanding of pigments and the discerning  knowledge of what makes certain paint colors better (and more appropriate) than others. 

View Post

New Dawn Roses & Covid-19

“The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry…”  Robert Burns

Well, instead of meeting up with dear friends and hosting a new set of house guests who’ve come from overseas, our plans have gone terribly awry and we’ve spent the better part of this week in bed, each one of us quarantining in a different part of the house (hence the wonky blog schedule…) We fell ill like dominoes, one after the other starting last Friday, and have been trying to get back on our feet ever since.

View Post

Renovating a Cape Cod Style Cottage | Family Room | Choosing a Paint Color

If there were a rule on the number of blog posts written on a single topic, I would have, without a doubt, already broken that rule a thousand times! Haha… So at the risk of sounding like a broken record, if you don’t mind seeing and reading about our family room again, I have a few updates to share with you that I’m super excited about! 

Our family room: June 2022
View Post

5 Easy Ways to Extend the Life of Your Upholstery 

Much has been written on the fascinating topic of upholstery cleaning over the years and, while I do not claim to have some miraculous new ways to keep our sofas and armchairs clean, what I do have is some serious hands-on experience in making old upholstery feel fresh and appealing again, and I thought I’d share some of it with you in today’s post. Sofas and armchairs are big ticket items on any decorating plan and can make or break a room in terms of comfort and style. The naked truth is that no mater what we do, or how careful we are, eventually our sofas and armchairs will get dirty, and will require upkeep to look their best. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn a commission on all qualifying purchases. Thank you!

View Post

The Brimfield Antique Flea Market | Spring 2022 Edition

Good morning, dear friends! As you may or may not know, the Brimfield Antique Flea Market is happening these days near Palmer, Massachusetts, and since I know many of you would love to attend but live too far away to make the trip, I thought I’d take you along and share some highlights from the first day at market. Who knew heaven on earth was a 37-minute drive from Amherst? 🙂

View Post