Summer Style

It's been a very looong time since I've shown you any changes we've made to our house so I thought today I would show you the new chairs we just bought for the sitting area off of our kitchen.

Truth be told we haven't really made very many changes to the house lately because I've been so busy working and I haven't been concentrating on things like making the house look nice.  But last week my in-laws were coming to town and having company is always a good excuse to spruce up your house!  Because we had given our son and daughter the blue checked chair and wooden rocker that used to occupy this space it was time we found some new chairs.

I knew what I wanted, but I was having trouble finding just the right chairs to go in this spot.  It's located right off of the kitchen and to the left is where our office is located which is open to the whole room.

The door to the back yard really prevents you from putting anything in the middle of the room,  and I knew I didn't want a couch or loveseat because I wanted people to be able to take advantage of the water views, be able to chat with Mr. Tide and me while we are working, and be able to converse with someone while they are busy in the kitchen...so swivel chairs seemed like the perfect solution.

Have you ever looked for pretty swivel chairs?!  Let's just say that the majority of them have those gawd awful bases that you can see below the chairs and they aren't what I would call attractive.  After searching for awhile I settled on a look from Lee Industries who makes beautiful high quality furniture which is still made in the USA.

And after visiting one of my favorite local stores, Traditions of Loveville, which just happens to be a distributor for Lee Industries in my area, I hit pay dirt!   I'm not known for being a big "plan ahead" sort of person, so it was serendipitous that Traditions had not one but two swivel rockers and in colors that matched my color scheme and the vision I had in my head just a few days before my in-laws arrived...score!  One of them was even on sale, so I ended up getting a great deal on these two chairs...thanks Becky!

These babies are not only comfy but they are also slipcovered so you can slide those puppies off and throw them in the washing machine in case another set of pups, ie. Misty Belle and Mr. Quinn bring a bit of their muddy fun inside and onto the furniture.  And if I decide to change the look of the room at some point I can always pick out new slips with different fabrics or colorways.

You may have noticed  Miss Misty in one of the photos above, she is the perfect photographer's assistant...and what you can't see in any of the photos is that Mr. Quinn is right beside her.  I think Misty was a stylist in another life, she's always right there helping me set up the shot.  Quinn must have been a male model in his former life, as he is always ready for his best shot!

After my in-laws left last Sunday I decided to do a little rearranging and I finally brought in an old Coca Cola cooler I had found in the attic at the farm property we own.  I cleaned it up and brought it inside to sit underneath the sofa table made from an old shutter that I've had for years.  That whitish swath you see on the cooler is actually an old hunk of masking tape that I'm sure bore our family's name on it once upon a time.  Growing up crabbing, boating, camping and picnicking meant having your name slapped on everything so that you could claim your stake if something fell overboard or wandered away.  I thought about trying to remove it, but I think it just adds to the piece, so I decided to leave it on.


 

I also decided to take down the license plates and horse pull and put up one of my images which is printed on metal and has a high gloss finish.  The seagull picture, which I took awhile ago at the beach in Chincoteague, has been sitting in a box for over a year and I just didn't know where I wanted to hang it until now.

Throw in a few summertime accessories like these old croquet balls from a set my parent's once owned, a pair of binoculars to help you see the herons, osprey, and eagles outside, and a few books about the Chesapeake Bay area and you are all set!

So here is the room before, last December complete with a blurry Mr. Quinn, the kitchen table which is now in the dining room, the old furniture, and previous wall decor...

 BEFORE

And after...ready for some summer fun!

AFTER

Hmm, now what other rooms can I rearrange and buy new furniture for... ;-)

I hope everyone is staying cool and if you are getting too much rain, please send some our way, we've been hotter than the hinges and dry as a bone!

Long Overdue

Broken lawnmowers, nails in tires, art appointments, industrial air purifiers, doctor's appointments, and dead computers, want to know what all of these things have in common...well they're all associated with moi!

The last few weeks have been a blur.  You know the kind, where even in your dreams you are behind the eight ball or atop the highest point in the universe with no visible way down...yeah that was last night's fun dream!  The kind of pace where the bullet train goes whizzing past you in a blur, but you're on one of those hand crank railway seesaw car thingies like they always had in the cartoons, pumping your heart out to try and catch up.  Phew, I need a vacation and there's none on the horizon, so the crazy train will have to keep chugging a few more months.

Yesterday, it dawned on me that I never showed you my friend Melissa's beautiful shop photos that I told you I would show you last month.  I made a promise to myself that today would be the day I would get the post done, and then like magic I saw Melissa at Panera last night...you gotta love how the universe works sometimes don't you?!  Like it was saying to me..."remember, you said today, this means you better do that post, you promised...see there she is!" 

So below is my LONG overdue post filled with lots of lovely photos from her amazing store.  But before we get to all the pretties, I'm also long overdue in thanking each and every one of you who commented on my last post.  I haven't returned a single email or comment from that post and I feel sick about it.  The fact is that I read them all and each one gave me a greater and greater sense of comfort regarding our empty nest, so thank you!  And thank Mr. Tide for fixing my dead computer so that I could come here to say what should have been said within just a few days of posting...THANKS, you guys rock!

And because I've blathered on enough for one post, I will let the pictures do most of the talking for The Right Mix, Antiques and Fine Art, owned by my dear friend Missy/Melissa Geimer!  Enjoy!

Beautiful antique oil paintings...check!

  Gorgeous silver serveware, including antique samovars...yup she has what you need!

 Beautiful antique furniture and rugs, including burl wood and a baby grand piano...whatever you need to tickle your fancy!

 In need of a little sparkle in your life, or maybe just an Aidan Gray fix...well you've come to the right place...or should I say The Right Mix! ;-)

And did I mention that she also carries accessories for yourself (she even sells antique jewelry), or your home, Missy has you covered, at her shop you'll find giftware too, including cards and napkins.

And because Missy understands that every well dressed home deserves a beautiful setting, she offers an array of beautiful garden accessories to boot.

I think you can see why I love this shop, and why I think the name The Right Mix is perfectly suited to it, it truly is a wonderful mix of must haves!  If you were to take a quick lap around my house right now you'd find one of her armillaries gracing my front flower bed, a beautiful antique blue and white creamer sitting on the tea cart in my dining room, and a gorgeous white German Shepard statue atop the Hepplewhite chest in my living room...not to mention some wonderful paper napkins in the drawer of my buffet waiting for guests, or to use as hostess gifts.  So not only do I love Missy's shop, but I love how her wonderful gifts and antiques have helped me create the right mix in my own home!  And the best part is that she's always finding new treasures so each time you visit her shop you're sure to find something new to bring home!

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of The Right Mix located in Leonardtown, Maryland, and I hope you'll have the opportunity to visit it yourself one day and meet Missy, who is one of the sweetest women on the planet, and I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that!

The shop isn't open every day, but you can always contact Missy/Melissa via email at missygeimer@yahoo.com or you can phone her at 480-365-8871 to schedule an appointment, and please tell her Kat says hello!

Thank you Missy for letting me invade your space and take photos of your beautiful shop!

The Right Mix 

25775 Point Lookout Rd

in the Nationwide Building

Suite 2

Leonardtown, MD 20650

480.365.8871

Hours:  Fridays and Saturdays from 11 am to 5 pm

 

Dining Room Sneak Peek

 

Thanks everyone for your comments on my last post.  I am struggling to keep up with work demands, so I'm way behind on replying to emails and comments, I apologize for that.

Normally I like to wait and show you a room once it is all finished, but I just couldn't wait this time.  I'm in love with a piece of furniture I just got, and I think I might need a 12 step program for it!  Sorry for the quick and dirty pictures, but I wanted to show it off right away.  See that bolt in the photo above?  It had me at hello, and it was one of the reasons I bought this piece, sight unseen from my friend Caroline.

I met Caroline, and her husband Jon-Paul, when I did a photo shoot for Romantic Country Magazine at one of their amazing barn sales in 2010.  Through their business, Eskter Antiques, they import wonderful things from around the world and then sell them at their gorgeous property outside of Leesburg, Virginia during the barn sales they host several times a year.

Caroline is a native of the Netherlands, and her taste is beyond compare.  The home she and her husband share with their two beautiful daughters has been photographed for magazines, and has appeared in Fifi's wonderful book Romantic Prairie Style, and will also be in Fifi's new cookbook!

So I know that when Caroline posts photos of an upcoming sale, I will always find something to fall in love with.  Usually I just drool at her photos because I don't have room for some of her pieces, or I'm just not in the market for something new, but in December I lucked out!  Not only was I in the market for a new dining room cabinet to hold all of my china and crystal, but there, staring out from her website, was the cabinet that had been living inside my head, the one I'd been waiting for.  I knew right then and there that it was time to sell my grandparent's dark furniture and get what my heart was longing for.

So I sent Caroline an email, and then we had a few phone conversations, and I decided to just buy the cabinet without driving the 2 1/2 hours to see it.  It had cremone bolts for heaven's sake, how could it not be beautiful, I thought!  And it was nearly twice as wide and way taller than my old china cabinet, so that meant that the special stemware and dishes that had been living in boxes for 4 years would now finally have a home.  If I ever move or add on, I will make sure that every inch of space is devoted to storage, because this house is lacking in it, well at least for a plate addict like me!
 

My only hold back about the cabinet was that it looked a little too white in the photos, and in my head my ideal cabinet looked like an old piece of driftwood.  Then last Saturday, when Jon-Paul delivered the cabinet, my jaw just about hit the floor.  When I walked outside to see it in the back of his truck, it was not white, but a beautiful driftwood color, woohoo, luck be a lady tonight!  I was thrilled that it wasn't white, even though I would have been perfectly happy with something more white.  

Because Caroline imports much of what she sells, she often only gets one or two of any particular item and she may or may not be able to get more.  When I first contacted her about this cabinet there were 3 other people clamoring to own it, but one by one they couldn't take it.  So my first bit of luck was in being the one who got to buy it, and then when it was the color I wanted, had the right dimensions, and was in my price range, well I was over the moon happy!

The other good news is that I've sold my grandparent's table and chairs, which you see pictured, to a lovely young couple who contacted me through Craigslist.  Yay for no one killing us when they came to look at it!  They will be picking it up on Saturday, and I feel certain it will have a happy home.  When the guy came to look at it last night we ended up chatting for almost 2 hours, gotta love it when you like the people who buy your stuff!

So there will be some more rearranging around this place over the weekend.  I'll be in full on fluff mode until everything is the way I've been envisioning it in my head since we moved in here over 4 years ago.  I just love it when a plan comes together, and apparently patience really is a virtue!

I'll will be posting much better pictures of the finished room, when it is actually finished, and showing you another special item I got from Caroline and Jon-Paul.  And in case you are in love with this cabinet too, I happen to know that Caroline will be getting at least one more, most likely sometime in January, so if you are interested, you can contact her by clicking HERE.  You can tell her you want the special Kat Kabinet...I'm kidding people! ;-)

And I will be linking to Furniture Feature Friday with Miss Mustard Seed, because for the first time in a really long time, I have a new piece of furniture....YAY!

For Sale

I recently began selling some of my Kat W. Designs artwork at a few local stores, including Lola Belle Co. in Leonardtown,  Cecil's Country Store in Great Mills, and at The Vintage Source, also located in Leonardtown but only open once a month.

Because I love and shop at all of these wonderful stores, and because I consider the wonderful women who run these stores to be friends, I made sure that each shop had at least one item and sometimes more that was exclusive to their shop alone.  Each of my fine art prints are printed on high quality archival paper and framed in shabby chic inspired beautiful handmade wooden frames.

Over the next few weeks, I will be taking you to each shop and showing you not only my artwork, but all of the wonderful things these three shops have for sale this spring, but today I'll be taking you around The Vintage Source since this weekend they will be open for business on Saturday and Sunday!

Those of you who have been visiting my blog for awhile know how much I love The Vintage Source and their wonderful array of reasonably priced furniture and vintage accessories.

And it's always a treat to see how they have everything displayed in the shop.  Today when I was there, the girls were all frantically arranging, painting, and getting everything ready for their big weekend.

Some of these scenes will look beautifully pulled together and ready for customers, who line up early in the morning in anticipation of their doors opening, but others will show you how crazy the shop can be right before a sale.

As the VS girls rushed around moving large pieces of furniture, fluffing, and organizing as I snapped away today, they reminded me how much still needed to be done before they were ready to greet their customers on Saturday.  But they indulged me none the less and let me capture some of the chaos that comes before the beauty that we as clamoring buyers get to see after all of their hard behind the scenes work is done.

It's always a treat to see what new treasures they have found from month to month, like the beautiful transferware bowls pictured above.

And the way they create such a homey and inviting atmosphere with their appealing mix of vintage, antique, and funky accessories.

The picture above is a great example of what a massive undertaking these sales are each month.  Not only do they find the furniture they sell, but they also refinish, repaint, and even reupholster much of it.  In the final days before each sale, they are busy prettying up the place.  But before everything is made beautiful, there is a whole lot of rearranging, moving, and jumble going on.  Then, like clockwork, it's all magically done by the time they open.

I say magically, but I was just tired from being there for a short while today watching them scurry around painting, and hauling heavy furniture from one place to another until it looked just the way they wanted it to.  Imagine moving and redecorating your house every single month...yeah it's kind of like that!  I told the girls today that I'm WAY too lazy to own a shop like this, but I'm really glad they aren't!

Because they are so full of energy, lazy people like me get to come in and buy the fruits of their labor, like this beautiful piece.

Or this one...look at the beautiful detailing on the legs and the side!  And trust me when I tell you that it won't last long.  These sales have people lined up around the block and you better get there early if you see something you love on their New Arrivals page!

You never know what you'll find, like a beautiful botanical print in a gorgeous frame...

Or a to die for cupboard that would look oh so good in my house if only I had a little spare room!

There are vintage dishes, glassware, and wonderful serving pieces.

Something for nearly everyone.  Wouldn't these vintage purses be perfect for a wedding or the prom?!

And here is a find I spotted today.  It's a wonderful piece of artwork by the famed American folk artist Nancy Thomas.  Nancy Thomas' artwork is prized by collectors around the world and her artwork has appeared in numerous magazines, movies, and museums.  Her artwork has even found it's way into the White House!

The one above is a large metal piece from her original calendar series and is no longer in production in this large size.  When it was available in this large format it sold for almost $300.00, but today I saw it priced at The Vintage Source for only $150.00!!  Someone will be very lucky to get their hands on one of her wonderful pieces for such a low price, and I'm sure the collectors will be fighting for this one!

 That's what the girls at The Vintage Source do, they find great deals and then pass them along to you!

They also just find cool stuff, like this little guy above...

And if I had my new patio already, this set of 4 metal lawn chairs would have been mine!

 

Let me tell you, it was hard to stay focused today while I was there, with all of the great things they have for sale it's easy to want to walk out with everything they have.  But then I settled myself down and remembered what I was there for...to drop off some of my cards and artwork for them to sell.

Sorry for the lousy picture above, I was so busy looking around and jabbering that I waited until the light was low and didn't have my tripod with me so the picture of my artwork isn't the best.  But that's ok, it just means you'll have to visit The Vintage Source this weekend yourself to see my artwork and the other wonderful things they have for sale this month.  The iris piece above is exclusive to The Vintage Source, and I have a few other pieces there as well.  To see more of what's available for this sale, click HERE!

If you are in the area, and even if you aren't, you won't want to miss this sale...happy shopping!  And a special thanks to Sheryl for letting me sell my artwork through The Vintage Source!

And Happy Birthday to my handsome boy, he's 3 years old today!  Love you Quinnie!