Chandeliers In, New Finds

Jeanette’s house, which we are renovating and putting on the market, is looking wonderful - we put in the new lamps - chandelier in the dining room, new fixtures in just about all rooms in a 1930's inspired theme, we have doubled the light in the house and softened it.



This is about combining styles so the house brings out its cuteness. I actually found flatware that had both French and Tibetan designs worked into the same pattern so I can tie Jeanette’s French style to her Tibetan carpets she had custom made by Tibetan exile friends in the Himalayan foothills of India when visiting there.

For the dining room I am using blue and cream toile in the curtains and a tall white curio corner cabinet that Sara Storm is painting and wallpapering with the matching toile paper which we will use to display Jeanette’s handpainted blue and cream French dishes. The chandelier is gold and clear glass beads in a French style I picked up at Lowe’s for $88.00 and we have a turn of the century handmade French embroidery framed depicting couples at a party for the wall. Under the chandelier we’ll be using the round wooden table I picked up for $15 and Ken Vititus, the painter, refinished for fun when he visiting Seattle from New York in 2003.

I actually got so excited about the design of the kitchen window treatments I could not sleep last night - we are making it look cute and sweet and wonderful; friendly. Dai, playing the part of an electrician dropped in and installed all the lights, what a surprise! Especially sweet is the African Trading Bead inspired hand blown glass lamp in the upstairs hallway. For some reason everyone is wild about the kitchen light fixture. It makes the uneven quality of the kitchen look normal, cozy, and as if this is the kind of kitchen where everything just seems to pop magically perfect out of the oven!

I am staining and varnishing the brand new doors we had installed, with a three step process that gives them real depth – starting with a honey oak, and then varnish, then a pinkie red stain then varnish. In this way I can control the levels of color and reflectivity. Of course I am a fine artist so doing doors with energy is important to me. Hey they look like a French Hobbit cottage and that was my goal.

I think I would love doing this fulltime.

A former owner taped the walls to the trim and Julie, Sara, and Jeanette are striping that all off and back filling it and patching and sanding it. I got to get back to packing.

Renovation
Seattle
Makeover