I have days where my mind never stops thinking about a zillion things. I think I have good company. I think we fill our minds with stuff, good and bad, but today my mind has been filled with color and outrageous design.
This morning I went for my usual walk and came home and sat down with my favorite magazine, The World of Interiors, the magazine that features rooms with dust. My youngest daughter and I decided an interior design magazine is not worthy or authentic unless you can visualize a room and know that there is dust comfortably residing in the rooms, and no one really cares because they are too busy living! Some magazines feature rooms that are so perfect you wonder if anyone actually lives there. In this magazine, there are rooms with dust as well as paint peeling, textiles shredding, crumbs left on the table, and you know someone just left the room with a drink in hand to walk out into the garden with weeds.
I put my blue socks on today because of this staircase I saw in the current issue of this magazine. Yum! Honestly, this made my heart beat faster. Someone out there has the courage to do what I would love to do…live outrageously with color!!! The cottage belongs to the Brandolini’s and Muriel is the designer. She grew up in Vietnam and Martinique. She has an eclectic edge to her designs and style. Her colors sing. I think she has a little dust on her tables. I think she is okay.
I really cannot draw. It is definitely a drawback in my life. Believe me, I have tried, including life drawing classes, but my love, and I think truest expression, resides in color.
An unfinished antique spool chair. Should I have painted it? Yes. It had no value due to a damaged leg, but I felt it could be valued as a tribute to its style and period if it became a Cinderella, not remain the ugly stepsister.
Collecting pieces of broken ceramics is my passion. Someday a collage will be created so I keep adding to the pile. Mosaic always reminds me of patchwork quilts, dispersed beauty collected from the past as well as the present. I am collecting dust as well as projects, but I think some will be finished especially if color is the guiding inspiration. Regarding the dust, I think it is fashionable and worthy.
Hello Phyllis, what an interesting post, and where did you get those wonderful socks, i must find a pair like them for colour-drenched days like this! I totally agree with what you say about dust, all the best homes are pretty dusty, its a by-product of an interesting life rather than an evil substance to be purged on a daily basis…
I too have a collection of broken china to make into something ‘one day’, I was thinking of making a kind of mosaicy/patchworky vase or plate in a Kaffe Fassett style…
I have posted more about the quilt today, you may like to take a peek, its nearly finished now! Have a lovely weekend, Lois xx
I think the British know how to live in their homes better than most of us here in the states. Maybe it is the tattered chintz thing, books everywhere, and the gardens just outside the leaded glass windows.
I will go over and take a peek at the post. Thanks for the update.
Hey, I have that stash of broken china, pottery, glass too.
And oh my those stairs! I think I’m going to have to do that! I have the perfect staircase for it. And-the green on the rafters in that picture, that’s the color of my kitchen.
You have to promise all your blogging friends that you will do a post on your painted staircase when you get it done. I would also love to see a photo of your green kitchen. I know I would love it.
i kept looking at that staircase and finally realized that it was because it looked like a rainbow but it isn’t really because the colors are slightly out of order and not a complete spectrum. wild. i love it.
I did the same thing. I tried to figure the color spectrum, and then when I realized it was random, I was even more excited. Muriel definitely has this mixed bag approach to her designs, and she does not want anything to be too predictable including the steps of color.
Ilike that idea. It really makes room decorating tangible. Of course, I would like it because that’s how I live. And that staircase is something to treasure. Just imagine a “down” day. All that you would have to do is get yourself a cup of tea and sit on the stool and meditate on the stairs. Voila’ , you are cured!
I know you have some Muriel in you. Anyone that loves art the way you do would have a home that embraces this style. I think you are right about the uplifting mood of such a staircase. Who could be down after meditating on color-drenched stairs?
Love those socks…we all need more color in our lives.
Socks let me be outrageous in a safe way. Fairly conservative look until you get to the feet and then you wonder…what was she thinking???
I have lots of plans for my broken china, including wall plaques and a table top, but just plan to keep collecting more dust to add to the collection because there is no rule that says I have to use it!
Judy B
Actually, there are no rules about anything when it comes to creative output. That is why creative energy and expression is very special. Keep on collecting and add the the pile. Mine is growing too.
O.K., Miss Phyllis Mendofleur…I went and did it! My blog is up! Oh, it is so primitive, but I will pursue the dark and seemingly inpenetrable mysteries of cyber technology and get it whipped into shape soon, thanks to the inspiration of women such as yourself. My blog is typepad Silkenwind. (I don’t even know how to state my address correctly, but if you google typepad silkenwind, it comes up, and that’s good enough for now.) I’ll learn the proper lingo soon. Sincerely, Julia Moore
Congratulations Julia!! That is great news. I will look forward to following you in your creative ventures! I know they will all be fun and intriguing and inspiring.
Did no one see the bench of many woods? *smile*
I too save ceramic bits, to an extent. I would really love to make a mosaic, but know it might not happen. Practical? Yes. Boring? Most definitely!!
I did save the pieces of a duck dish that I ‘let’ my granddaughter break. No one was hurt, the dish fell behind a cupboard, but it’s like I wanted it to happen when I placed things in front of it….Now the dish is more interesting [in it's broken-ness] and the head will look cool in among plants.
Isn’t it funny sometimes how a dish will look better in its broken state than it did in its perfection? I guess that is why a patchwork quilt is more interesting than just a piece of fabric. I am into bits and pieces I guess. It represents life. The bench of many woods was a bit camouflaged in that photo. When I finish it and it looks a bit funky, I will post it in its final state.
I love the staircase!! The different patterns and colors are so exciting for the spirit. Rooms like these inspire me to be more daring with my decorating. Anything goes..just try it!
This staircase of many colors is now my new metaphor for everything….design, color, joy, and living on the edge. Yes, these are so exciting for the spirit. They do rejuvenate don’t they? I think we all need to be more daring in our designs and rooms. Why not? Rules on decorating are rules that need to be broken. Thanks for leaving a comment!