Many of you were curious and reached out through comments, emails and private messages here and on Instagram after I shared glimpses into our dining room wallpaper hanging process last month – Thank you! – so I thought it would be interesting to share my experience in a blog post, in case you were considering a similar project in your home. I am by no means an expert, far from it, but the results were pretty great for a first try… Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Former editor in chief of WSJ and The New York Times Style Magazine and founding editor-in-chief of Domino, Deborah Needleman needs no introduction on my part. Her creativity and editorial talent have left a considerable mark in the design world, while her books on the art of decorating – The Perfectly Imperfect Home: How to Decorate and Live Well and Domino – The Book of Decorating – have become design classics. Published more than a decade ago, The Perfectly Imperfect Home is a collection of principles distilled throughout Needleman’s successful career as an editor. Although not a decorator herself, Needleman’s astute observations and impeccable taste (no doubt honed by looking at thousands of pictures of beautiful rooms) are as real as they are insightful. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn a commission on all qualifying purchases. Thank you!
Originally I had something else planned for today’s story but I changed my mind halfway trough writing that post and instead, I’d like to take a moment and thank you all for your sweet messages the other day. Your kind comments, here and on Instagram, your DMs and emails after Wednesday’s post have left me speechless… Thank you all so much! Your thoughtful words and encouragement have made my week, and they mean more to me than you’ll ever know. You’re the best! And for those of you who are interested, here’s how the wallpaper installation is going so far. (If you’re just tuning in – we shared the evolution of our cottage style dining room in this post, and are now in the process of installing a vintage wallpaper above the wainscoting. )
It’s been a while since I last shared updates on our home renovation so I thought today is a good day to share with you the evolution of our cottage style dining room. We’re not quite finished yet, but I wanted to give you a glimpse into the process and where we are right now. As you all know, decorating is not always a linear process. It’s a function of budget, the availability of all the many trades involved (contractors, seamstresses, carpenters, painters and electricians), product lead times, etcetera. Even with great plans, things don’t always work out as quickly or as smoothly as we’d hope.
If you’ve been following Café Design for some time then you may have noticed that I often share with you old design books that I come across in my travels. Like many of you, I love design books both old and new, but the old ones offer something that the new ones cannot – they let us see which design elements stand test of time and which ones do not. So whenever I visit an old antiques store or charity shop, the book aisle is one of the first ones I scour, with often rewarding results. Buying (hunting, really) out-of-print design books can be a thrilling and economically-rewarding endeavor. For instance, last year I found John Stefanidis’ book Island Sanctuary for pennies. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn a commission on all qualifying purchases. Thank you!
