What type of boudoir are you?

the Beach Studios

It's been a lovely lovely rainy weekend (we need it). And as always, my thoughts turn inward: who am I? And on my head is the topic of dressing tables/boudoirs.

We all need a spot to place our beauty jars, perfumes, pretty hair things, brooches, rings, earrings, nail polish.

Daron Chatz

And depending on our lifestyle and personality, we all need different "boudoirs"... (i.e. dressing tables).

Some of us need a pretty with capital P (and capital P for price)

Now defunct Domino

Mi Casa Revista

others need a simple furniture piece

Lucyina Moodie

Lucyina Moodie

others yet demand for drawers and drawers
some of those need their stuff spilling out those drawers and drawers

James Tse

others like their drawers but like their surfaces clear.




Some of us who can afford it like a dedicated dressing alcove...

Madeline Stuart

Some of us who choose to splurge on a luxurious dressing table and place it next to the bed...


Some of us like it in the bathroom!


I'm not talking presentation (i.e. colour, finish) but the style or type of boudoir-ing one needs to put on one's face in the morning.

Flickr: rockymountainroz

While I would LOVE to be the sit-down-and-pretty-up-in-a-nice-dedicated-table-on-a-yellow-and-white-stool-type... I realise I'm not that type.

I'm more the simple type. The hoarder type. hehe
The stand up at my boudoir and throw stuff on and rush out the door type.

But I still like a pretty space.

So I repurposed a pretty white cabinet I got off eBay 2 years ago that used to be my craft cabinet and then bookcase.

A white cabinet much like the one in this gorgeous bedroom...





One day I might become a sit down one... like at Miss Pettigrew... but for now... this cupboard will do me just fine. (Pardon the super bright blue... t'will become a lovely watermelon soon.)

Progress in guest bedroom

Budget: $00.00
Sources: eBay, vintage, my own
Plans: blogged here

I thought to show you my work-in-progress guest bedroom. With a budget of nothing... big plans... things are moving slowly... but mighty different from the start!

Before:
A bland room with mirrored sliding built-ins (yuck). A nice large window looking out onto quite a few pretty bushes and ugly fencing with expensive blue drapes already there. We had no bed for it, so only a blow up double mattress for some months.

Before2:
Got a queen bed base from eBay for our own bedroom so ours is now in here along with another queen mattress. This was stuck like this for some time too.


Today:
Not quite what I had in mind... but again, with budget of nothing... I had to make do with things around the home. I collect calendars which attract me... got some cheap frames from Spotlight and framed up a few of my favourites from 2007. That green cupboard was my first DIY job in 2002 which I absolutely love.


Planned:

Image via Ghislaine Viñas

Via Flickr:Merrypics

One day... paint the walls green, get new bedding and pillows... update the lampshade... Add better accessories...

Decor vignettes

Just a few shots taken at Christmas 2008 of the decor at my in laws and relatives' places. While not all my taste, it does show good personal taste :)

My mother in law's (MIL) small but growing vintage perfume collection on a Matson gold plated vanity tray with birds and flowers


A shot of the guest bedroom. MIL has always had a more Australian country-fied decor sense. I went through a shabby chic phase about 4 years ago which has triggered the same in hers lately so she's been trying to move towards that too... it's a nice blend, I think, showcased in this bedroom.


Another shot of same bedroom. The side table with the Avon green perfume decanter, green Sylvac terrier dog and vintage clock. I don't know if you can spot this, but there are doll ballet shoes on either side of the Avon. Very cute. (No place to put one's glasses or cup etc, but not many sleep overnight in this room anyway!)


A shot of the guest bed. It's only a single bed, my sister in law's old bed. With vintage eiderdown and vintage black and beige hat. The pink one's not vintage, it's just there because I didn't want the dog, cat and my daughter getting near it!


MIL's sewing corner. She made that noticeboard above the machine herself! I love the result. Will be getting her to do one for me when I find the perfect vintage frame!


A boudoir and vanity scene at my aunt-in-law's place. She's got a beautiful house, completely redone in shabby chic sensibilities in pale greens and white. It's the last time we'll see this place like this: she's rented the place out and when she moves back in, she is going to redo everything in French gray-blue. This is her collection of expensive perfume bottles on a vintage-to-die-for vanity tray, sitting on top of a Carrera marble top she had cut for a ornate sideboard she's placed in her bathroom.


A green cane and seagrass settee in the living room with a kitcsh green and gold mantel mirror above. Austrian green vase at the top with that shot of brilliant green punctuates the green in this area. Both pieces are for sale.


A shot of her bedroom with the blue and grey bedspread and the upholstered bedhead. She has her hands on the most beautiful of items but she's always been great at editing her own work. The gold vintage clock on her bedside table is... well.. gold... but it's alone, not flanked with more kitcshy stuff... which I really liked.




A shot of the entry into her tiny kitchen. Her kitchen boasts white subway tiles, white everything with an oversized clock. I love the edited plates she's hung on the kitchen cabinet. Nothing expensive... just pretty.


Her small but growing collection of Mackenzies Child enamelware. I LOVE this stuff. Wish I could afford them!


I hope you enjoyed those few decor vignettes of my in-law-family :) How do your family decorate?

Art in my bedroom

I aluded to an unfinished project on the blue wall behind our bed.

It's growing and I just wanted to share with you the updates :)



I love quotes and have collected them since my teens... So I printed some of my favourites and a few Etsy buys. Painted some vintage frames white from charity shops for $1-3 each. I either mounted them plain or with some of my pretty paper. Also included some pretty special bits and pieces.



My husband got me that pretty pink French cafe setting card for my birthday one year and it's remained my favourite card from him. I bought some quotes letterpress from Etsy seller letterarypress and mounted the SUCCESS one with a pretty paper doily.



I got the tiniest and sweetest ACEO of a bird in its nest from Etsy seller CafeBaudelaire it's such a pretty artwork with a French saying A chaque oiseau son nid est (to each bird its own nest is beautiful).

I love the quote from where "there's no place like home" comes from:



'Course, this project never REALLY ends...

Have a good weekend!

Sherrill Canet Interiors

My previous post featured a green living room by Sherrill Canet Interiors. I clicked over to her site and I was drooling by the end of it. (Isn't it fantastic when interior designers are so confident of their work that the photos displayed are so large that we can really look at detail??)

New York designer Sherrill Canet has created such gorgeously elegant but sumptious rooms for her clients... man oh man. I especially love the mix of new and antiques, something that I myself strive for (not similar level of antiques, of course!!!!).

Sara Story Designs

I stumbled on Sara Story Design, New York and her work today while Flickr-ing. And her work on the Orchard Hill property stunned me...

Bold orange... I LOVE it! The burst of aliveness that orange brings... wow. I'm only now picking my jaw off the floor!





I love it when you can learn from an interior designer's work. Ms Story has purposely put no artwork, no frills on her sparsely decorated bedroom. Anything more would really disturb the senses and distract from that gorgeous vibrant wallpaper... so her furniture and accents are sharp and geometrically bold. Colours in black or white and blobs of orange in those Hermes boxes.





Does anyone know where this wallpaper is from? I'd love to wallpaper my little foyer area with it... (just one wall)...

Edit: Ms Story herself replied my email query. The wallpaper is from Gracie Wallpaper. You must have a look at rows and rows of beautiful Chinese handpainted wallpapers available in every colour combination (cost a VERY pretty penny though! Approx. $1200 PER ROLL.).

Thanks Ms Story!!

Photos from Sara Story Design