Earlier this month, esteemed interior designer Victoria Hagan announced the expansion of her previous collaboration with The Shade Store – a leading name in the world of custom window treatments – with an exclusive array of luxurious materials that have a timeless sensibility rooted in tradition, yet feel fresh and modern, and relevant to a multitude of decorating styles. Hagan’s work has been inspirational for designers worldwide, and her soft and subtle approach to decorating have made her an excellent example of a decorator who can design both modern and traditional interiors. For today’s design story, I thought we could all have a peek inside her latest fabric collection.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn a commission on all qualifying purchases, at no additional cost to you. Thank you!
It’s that time of the year when I am desperately awaiting the arrival of spring, getting restless and hiding indoors, away from the biting cold. I finished Part I of Spring Cleaning earlier this week, the dumpster has been filled and rolled off, just before another snow storm hit Western Mass on Tuesday morning. Now I’m torn between continuing with our backyard, or focusing my attention and energy (both limited these days) elsewhere. While I decide, I thought I’d tell you a bit about where we are with our living room renovation, and share with you some of my favorite finds this week. (You can read all about the construction phase of our cottage living room makeover HERE. ) I’ve primed all walls and have been looking at color options cohesive with a blue, green and soft yellow scheme we already have going. The white settled in quite nicely, but why keep it simple when you can make things more complex (i.e difficult)? I was re-reading Roger Banks-Pye’ s book, Interior Inspirations, the other day and he is quoted saying that there are few occasions where walls should be left bare white and those few occasions should be discouraged. I tend to agree with Mr. Banks-Pye, which means I’m going to agonize over paint colors for weeks to come.
If you love that collected-over-time-as-opposed-to-decorated look of an old English cottage, then buying vintage furniture, art and home decor is one of the quickest ways to create a similar vibe in your space. Today’s topic – buying vintage home decor – is one I’m very passionate about, and this post was sparked by my latest purchase – a gently-used English roll arm, sofa bed. For the last three years I’ve been looking for just the right sofa for our living room and recently I found it on Facebook Marketplace! It looks brand new, the mattress has never been slept on, and it’s the right width, color and pattern. I had almost given up on it but the lady I bought it from was able to deliver it for an additional fee, and made the trip all the way from Connecticut. I couldn’t have asked for a kinder seller!
Spring is in the air here in Western Mass and our neighborhood is buzzing with activity! Isn’t it funny how a little bit of sunshine and clear skies can spring us into action? After months of cold weather, winter storms and snow days, the weather has finally let up and we’re slowly coming out of hibernation. The last couple of weeks I’ve been “enjoying” myself doing a bit of spring cleaning in our front yard, whenever I can find a spare hour or two, gathering twigs and fallen branches, cutting down overgrown shrubs and a particularly invasive species of roses that is hurting some of our trees.
Prompted by a dear reader’s question (Hi, Sheena!) I realized that, while I have reviewed a number of Create Academy courses on the blog, many of you are perhaps still not familiar with the platform, so I thought I’d give you a flavor of their amazing mission and course offerings. Create Academy is a learning platform focusing on arts, crafts, gardening, food and interior design. They launched in November 2019 with an online course by the British interior decorator Rita Konig, followed by a class on floristry with the lovely Willow Crossley. Since then, they’ve expanded their curriculum to include numerous interior design and styling courses, gardening and cooking classes, as well as arts and crafts – my favorite. If you love audiobooks and podcasts, this is, in many ways, an even better learning opportunity because you get to watch experts do the vey thing you’d like to get better at. In addition, each course comes with a free lesson you can sample before making up your mind, which I found very useful. (Bellow is a link to such a free sample taken from Rita Konig’s fantastic class – The Ultimate Guide to Interior Design.)
