Café Design

Decorating Consultations

Decorating Dilemma: Form over Function?

I need your advice. It’s not a big deal, but it’s something that’s been bothering me for some time and I have been going about it in circles trying to figure it out, and I could use a second opinion. There are two sofas in our house, and I love them both. They are both serendipitous Facebook Marketplace finds, both 78 inches wide and comfortable, which makes this decision hard because size-wise the two are interchangeable. I’ll explain: One is a soft green & cream plaid English roll arm sofa that folds out into a queen bed, and that is now our living room sofa (below).

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This Week’s Finds

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I receive a commission on all qualifying purchases. Thank you!

Good morning, dear friends! Thank you for the lovely messages after Friday’s design story, I enjoyed reading your takes on decorating with found treasures very much!  It is clearly a topic that resonates with many of you, and it makes me happy to know that. 

For this week’s finds, I gathered a bunch of different stories, home tours and shopping ideas, with a focus on things that are not only (and hopefully) entertaining and inspirational, but also packed with useful decorating advice. We’ll get to be frugal and playful and reuse those tester pots we have lying around and paint with decorative artist Tess Newall; learn to style a comfortable bed with decorator extraordinaire Emma Burns of Sybil Colefax & John Fowler; and for those of you with a weakness for botanical prints, there’s a great source for herbarium specimens I return to time and time again for my projects, and a cute-looking and versatile metal drinks table that’s a budget-friendly option to the more expensive versions out there, design reads, fun and colorful cushions, and more. I hope you’ll see something you like! 

The One Day Box – A Life-Changing Love of Home by Flora Soames

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Thrifted Knick-Knacks for a Soulful Home

There are many ways to make a house a home, but that final layer of knick-knacks, those bits and bobs that are a bit quirky and a little off, and that decorate our mantels, table tops or shelves, are (in my opinion) the most personal touch of all. When all is said and done, the floor plan straightened out and the furnishings placed comfortably about, a room still needs layers of warmth and personality, and knick-knacks (thrifted or not) have the power to make a space uniquely ours.

Thrifted lamp base, thrifted lampshade, thrifted picture frames

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Some Much-Anticipated Design & Gardening Books in 2024

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission on all qualifying purchases. Thanks!

Happy 2024, dear friends! I hope you’re well! For those of you on the lookout for interesting new books on decorating and gardening, here’s a list of some exciting book launches this year, books that promise to inspire our future decorating & gardening projects. Some of the titles on this list are quite new, either newly launched or soon to be released, but some of them are older gems I discovered recently and have found inspirational. Create Academy‘s course, Cut and Come Again Masterclass, taught by Sarah Raven (which I’ll review in detail in a future post) has been an eye-opener for me, and a game-changer for many gardeners who wish to maximize the productivity of their garden patch. Following her Masterclass, I’ve become a fan of Sarah Raven’s no-nonsense approach to gardening, hence several of her books are included in today’s post. So, if you, too, are in need of a distraction from the cold winter weather, I hope something in today’s list will catch your eye. 

Sean A. Pritchard – Outside In

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This Week’s Finds

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission on all qualifying purchases. Thank you!

Wishing you Happy Holidays, dear friends! If you’re still looking for gift ideas for the gardeners and design lovers in your life, I hope today’s post will inspire some last-minute shopping.

Create Academy’s Christmas Sale – 25% Off on Everything

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