Moving Right Along…

Tuesday was Day 2 of my “shake it up” house mission….but who’s counting?

 

LBE music room.

1. Cleaning:

After all the deep-cleaning basics, the biggest piece I cleaned was the fireplace mantel.

My favorite furniture cleaner/polish is Guardsman.  I love using it on antiques and it makes furniture look immediately better.

2. Organizing:

The only storage in this room is the French cabinet which I use for piano music.  I had let my sheet music and books get messy but it didn’t take long to re-organize them.

3. Décor:

I’m trying to pull out more blue in this room.  A teal blue at that.  My inspiration comes from the blue in the oriental rug and the trumeau mirror.   The leather bar chairs are many many years old and were custom ordered in High Point.  They are not going to be permanent in here.  They are only a temporary fix.  But in the meantime they add a bit of unexpected edgy flair.

The pair of chairs that I want for this room are the upholstered Ansley slipper chairs by Suzanne Kasler for Hickory Chair Co.  I have seen these chairs in person and they are to-die-for, but expensive.

 

I layered a couple of my vintage pie-crust mirrors in front of the trumeau and can’t decide if I want to use the matching shield shade lamp for symmetry.

The fireplace is non-working so I keep a French fireback against the slate.  I dug the tole table out of storage and might keep it in here….or not.

 

When I was shopping the house I realized I had this tole tray that I thought was an unusual blue and would work in here.  It’s a different hue but I like the variety of blues.

It’s a sunken room and the French doors behind the columns in the gallery lead to the balcony.

I turned the piano around and like it much better.  It had always been facing the other way towards the foyer.

I’d like to the replace the drop bowl chandy with this one from Wisteria.

 

Let me show you something funny.  I love my hardwood floors. They are Brazilian cherry by Bella Wood and they are unstained.  They are naturally a deep rich color and they do have polyurethane.  Unlike some floors that get lighter or bleached out when exposed to sunlight  these floors actually get darker with exposure.

See the line?

That’s where a rug has been for the past 5 years.  Don’t worry though.  It will darken like the rest of the floor over time and you won’t be able to tell the difference.   There were 3 circles where the piano had originally been!  I told you I was going to show you everything!

I still highly recommend these floors though.  They are beautiful and very easy to care for.  I think we’ve gotten more compliments on the floor than any other feature in the house since we built 7 years ago.

I moved the chairs around a bit but think they are better flanking the mantel.

 

Two rooms down, ?? more to go!

I didn’t say my house would be “finished” during this project.  I now have two lists of things I want to do in each room. Things I’m adding to my style file.  Whats’ a style file?  A file for YOUR Style!!!  I’ll talk more about that later.

I’ll let you in on a little secret.  I worked all day yesterday on the dreaded basement.  I’ll share that with you next week.  I’m headed to Lexington today for the annual Bluegrass Trust Antique & Garden Show going on all weekend at the KY Horse Park.  It’s one of my favorite events.  I’m so excited and can’t wait to share it with you when I get back.

Also, please look forward to an awesome guest post by my friend, Cat, who will share some incredible details about our accommodations in Normandy.

See you next week,

Kim