Decorating with Flea Market Finds

Tour these stylish rooms, filled with flea market finds, for great ideas on how to display your own vintage treasures.

Changing lampshades is an easy way to update a favorite lamp. And in long rooms, old doors can be used to divide living areas to create nooks.

An 1870s weathervane takes folk art to high style on an antique table still sporting its original paint. Don’t be afraid to mix high- and low-style items. Mixing things up will keep your rooms interesting.

To add character to the dining room, Susan simply propped two vintage doors against the wall. Their rustic charm provides texture and interest. When working with architectural salvage pieces, take a cue from Susan and think outside of the box.

Create vignettes with your favorite finds to infuse spaces with warmth and style.

Stacking this collection of 1800s-1920s blankets helps keep clutter at bay and makes a colorful display.

The weathered texture on this country table mixes well with modern chairs made from reclaimed wood.

If you prefer uncluttered spaces, keep your collections organized behind doors. This 1870s cupboard holds antique stoneware and glassware.

Timeworn pieces like the stool and oars mix beautifully with new linens. Make thoughtful choices when blending old and new, keeping in mind the overall look of the room you wish to create.

The blue hue of this vintage mirror is the result of natural copper aging. To age a new metal-framed mirror, use a patina gel, available at craft stores.

By Hillary Black
Photography by Mark Tanner
Styled by Jacqueline deMontravel

Shared by - Flea Market

Art and Architecture: America’s Gothic Revival

Descending from medieval Gothic cathedrals and England’s Gothic Revival, “Carpenter Gothic” is a visually playful American architectural style. In her book Storybook Cottages, Gladys Montgomery explores the history, people and technology behind this picturesque style still beloved today.

{Credit in caption: Photograph by Brian Vanden Brink, from Storybook Cottages by Gladys Montgomery, © Rizzoli 2011.}

In beautiful photographs, architectural renderings and illustrations from pattern books of the time, Montgomery showcases the style’s hallmarks: steep gables, pointed arches, windows and doors, and elaborate gingerbread trim. From the tiny cottages at Oak Bluff, Massachusetts, that began as a Methodist retreat to the lavish Lyndhurst high-style Gothic Revival residence in Tarrytown, New York, Montgomery offers a lot both to readers who know and love Carpenter Gothic and to those who are learning of it for the first time.

Montgomery includes a section on the Carpenter Gothic garden as well as a few ideas on incorporating the style into your home, such as imitating its architectural elements—for example, make a headboard, door frame, or window with a pointed wooden arch. For more ideas, check out Montgomery’s book: Storybook Cottages: America’s Carpenter Gothic Style, published by Rizzoli New York, © 2011. Visit rizzoliusa.com.

By Hillary Black

Source: Victorian Home

Bathroom Textiles and Linens

You may have spotted our Q&A on bedroomsandbathsmag.com with Pandora de Balthazar, a master collector and textile expert who’s been sharing with us her expert tips for creating a luxurious bedroom. Curious about her advice for a lavish bathroom? Read on!

B&B: In the bathroom, where people don’t often think of textiles and linens, what are some of your favorite ways to use fabric?

Pandora: Hand towels are in residence daily. They are softer [than paper towels], have many uses and are much more genteel.

B&B: Also much more practical and healthful for the environment.

Pandora: Yes. And in my home, café curtains are de riguer; I can recycle those for use in the bedrooms and as door treatments when necessary. I also make shower curtains or drapes from antique sheets or bedcovers that are too small for today’s large beds. It’s a beautiful and simple look.

By Jickie Torres

We Love: Flour Power

Reuse what you have in romantic ways. Pick up home decorating ideas from items you may already have around the house. Today, we shine a little light on vintage flour sifters for many purposes they fulfill. 

Not only do we love vintage flour sifters for their nostalgic and practical appeal, but they also make colorful utensil holders.

You can find them in an array of designs at antique shops and flea markets.

Display them on your kitchen counter or atop the cabinets and fridge for instant country charm. Then place your cooking utensils inside for a look that will serve you a smile as you reach for the spatula.

Photography by Jacqueline deMontravel

Tips to Take a Look from Work to Home

As a shopkeeper for an antiques store, Sally McNellis employs a few tricks of the trade in her own home. Here are a few of her tried-and-true secrets:

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• Start with the simplicity of white furniture and build from there.

• Use lots of fabric with basic white as the background, then bring in
floral prints to add pop to a room.

• Artwork adds personality to a space. Sally pulls anything from originals to antiques to fill her store.

• Be reasonable about how the item fits in with your lifestyle. Your
furniture and accessories should work for you, not against you.

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By Regan-Elyse Elder
Photography by Jaimee Itagaki
Styled by Jacqueline de Montravel

Shared by Cottages and Bunglaows

How to Enhance a Historic Home

The right architect and contractor will enhance a historic home’s aesthetic integrity.

The true value of the renovation of an old house is not being able to tell that any alterations were made. Architect Carol Tink-Fox chose to put the addition on Kara Kosinski’s garage instead of on the main house to maintain what she calls the “cute cottage character” of the historic home. “By making a separate small building, we kept the new space historically in context,” she says.

Home Cottages

Here is what she did to link the past and the present:

• A steep-pitched roof and attic were added to the flat-roofed garage, which also has a historic designation.
• The home’s exterior color scheme was repeated on the addition and garage.
• Heavy-timber beams along the breezeway with diagonal braces evoke the feel of those of the main house.
• Windows and French doors open the guest room to the beautifully landscaped backyard. Because the garage is on a slab, unlike the house, there are no steps to go down to enter the garden.
• The old swing-style garage doors, which looked like barn doors, were replicated. Contractor Scot Lewis custom built the fully weather-proofed doors using tongue and grove pine with solid brass oil-rubbed bronze hinges.

By Nancy A. Ruhling
Photography by Jaimee Itagaki
Styled by Molly Kosinski and Hillary Black

Shared By Cottages And Bungalows

How to Get Chic Style in a Country Home

Designer Nancy Toon has lived in palaces, estates and posh townhouses but found a way to make her big style shine in a small country house. She shares her tips for getting chic style no matter where you are.

• I like starting out with large-scale furniture. In a large room, it is substantial and provides a good foundation; in small spaces, it creates warmth and coziness.
• Then I like to add textures in the fabrics. I use a lot of linens and white denim because it’s very practical, and neutral backgrounds allow you to change and update your look. I add patterns in pillows, and textures are found in the woods I use and peeling-paint patinas in accessories.
• Working with today’s much simpler palettes, you have to layer, otherwise the look can easily fall flat and feel cold. Use a variety of textures and subtle patterns.
• If you mix new with old you get comfort of newly designed items with the depth of antiques.
• Accessories are what really pull your look together. I like to use metals with great textures. Antique mercury, hand-blown glass candlesticks, natural corals from the beach— these are elements that add unique style and personality.

Working at Home

Nancy uses her home as a testing ground for her new projects and merchandise.  “I use my house as a workshop,” she says. “It is very important to me that I only offer my customers things that I would want.”

This rotating array of items also helps to keep her design stimulated and evolving. As things make their way in and out, it helps to keep Nancy in touch with how her clients live and what they would want.

“Being based in the Hamptons, our clients come to their weekend homes to relax with friends and family and so our design is based on their requirements for casual but sophisticated rooms for elegant living and entertaining,” she says.

By Jickie Torres
Photography by Jacqueline deMontravel