Evolution of a Family Room AND The BROWN Giveaway Winners!!

 

I recently made a big change in my family room.   While I was lo0king at all the old pictures of this room through the years, it was just a tad embarrassing to see how much the room has changed.  But in my defense, I think most interior designers suffer from the same illness – the constant changing and updating of a space that never seems to end.

And, we have lived here almost 20 years so some change is inevitable and expected.  …..Sure it is…!!

I started out with taupe walls, white trim, and a gray and white ticking stripe sofa and chair bought from some long ago closed discount furniture store.  At some point, we got rid of that sofa and used a slipcovered khaki linen sofa – along with all red and black accessories and freshly painted yellow walls.  The khaki slips later became white slipcovers – which are the first pictures I have of the room, below. 

 

A long time ago – an old sofa with white pleated slips, yellow striped pillows, wicker chair, old coffee table.

 

And across the room – the small game table and French chairs. 

 

Several changes later – a new sofa and two wing chairs, along with an antique dough table from France. 

 

 

Les Indiennes and brown velvet pillows.

 

 

This suzani covered the wine tasting table that replaced the game table.

 

 

The next big changes: gray walls (Pratt & Lambert Feather Gray) replaced the yellow ones and new curtains were hung.  The curtains were made of a taupe and white ticking stripe, very neutral, with just a hint of color. 

 

 

 

The curtains ran from one end of the breakfast room to the family room.  You can see the pattern in the fabric here – just very muted and quiet.  Not sure why I just didn’t go with plain white linen which I love? 

 

 

 

Another big change came when I added the arched doors w/chicken wire over the bookshelves – which I think helped tone down all the accessories on the shelves.  The shelves made a big difference and, along with the curtains, helped quiet the room somewhat. 

 

 

The last big change was getting the two new side chairs.   Every time I showed this room on the blog – I would get so many negative comments about the furniture arrangement – “your wing chairs block the fireplace” or “the room is not balanced – you need to add something more on the right side” – and on and on.  And, yes, I knew it was all true – so I finally bit the bullet and moved the two wing chairs across from the sofa, flanking the French wine tasting table – and centered underneath the flatscreen.   The two new chairs I chose – from Hien Lam – were purposefully tall and narrow to create a variety of heights in the room.  Their top is arched, just as the sofa and wing chairs are, and they have pretty French wood (Os de Mouton) legs.  That’s sweet Tucker on the sofa!

 

 

Lucy, Tucker, and Micki!

 

But by far the biggest change in this room was the puppies.  For the past two years – we have had 4 puppies here.   First, we had Elisabeth’s Lucy, then our new puppy Micki and we also had two puppies who stayed here quite a bit – my nephew’s two puppies – Riley and Tucker.  And all four are Blenheim Cavalier King Charles Spaniels!  One of the puppies (not naming names!) chewed up the miniature wicker chair and the wicker dog bed, the zebra rug, and a host of wicker baskets, amongst other things.   Plus, we have had lots and lots of puppy “accidents.”  Thankfully seagrass is very price friendly, easy to clean and cheap to replace.  

 

 

But, the biggest problem became the curtains.  While I love a puddle on curtains of 3, 4 or 5 inches – so did the puppies.  Day after day I would find the puppies laying on the curtain puddles and no matter what I did – I couldn’t break them out of this habit.   After a while, it became a real problem – I had to have the curtains taken down and cleaned, more than once, which actually didn’t really help at all.   They would return “cleaned” with all the puppy spots intact.

 

In order to stop the problem, the curtains needed to be shortened and as long as I was making a change, of course I wanted to make a BIG change – more pattern and color.   Monica – from Custom Creations by Monica – whipped up new curtains in just a short three weeks – before I really even had time to think it all through!

And here is how the new shorter curtains came out:

 

I chose a brown/gray/white toile from Vervain.   I love the way the pattern is so vivid and it really warms up the room.  I was just craving some pattern and color in this room – and the curtains gave me the perfect opportunity to satisfy that itch.

 

The difference the new curtains make is huge – though it’s not as easy to see in the pictures – and the entire room seems cozier, warmer, and more alive.  It makes me want to use patterned curtains everywhere!   I’ve tended to shy away from busy patterns on curtains, but doing this in my own house gives me the confidence to go with more pattern, more color in clients’ houses.  So get ready!!!   Here – you can see how the curtains cover the entire back wall  - from the breakfast room to the family room.

 

Looking down from the stairs to the family room.  As always – I paired the curtains with shades – to hide the dead spot of drywall between the crown molding and the top of the windows.  Also, all the curtains are lined and interlined with blackout fabric – which keeps the sun from showing through the fabric, allowing you to see the pattern vividly.   Plus, the added weight of the blackout lining adds to the lushness of the curtains.   We puddled these curtains only 1/2 inch – so that the puppies can’t lie on the curtains, yet they aren’t too short or skimpy looking.  I don’t ever iron in pleats in curtains.  I like them unstructured and loose and full looking – rather than two stiff looking panels of ironed fabric. 

 

If I want to brighten up the room, I have hot pink linen pillows I could add, but I still like the brown velvet.  Maybe next summer I’ll try the pink pillows.   

 

The toile is Vervain:

 

 

The fabric is Vervain’s linen Doucette in Pewter HERE. 

 

And speaking of curtains paired with textured shades:

 

Mario Buatta’s 2nd Apartment from the early  60s. 

While perusing Mario Buatta’s new design book, this image really struck a chord with me.  It shows his second apartment for the early 1960s – done in all Rose Cummings chintz  and stripes – and antiques.  But, who wouldn’t want this as a sitting room today – with the gorgeous tea table, the beautiful antique chair, the silk covered skirted table, the plant stand?  I would add a rug, and call it a day.  Amazing that this photograph is now over 50 years old, and is it really that far off from something Miles Redd would do today?

Of course the curtain treatment really caught me eye – how perfectly Buatta executed them.  Notice he brought the rod up over the window and placed it right under the ceiling – thereby elongating the view and fooling the eye into believing the window is taller and grander.  He covered up the tell-tale drywall dead space with the ever-chic rattan shade.   And for even greater effect, he recreated the shape and size of the window with the aged mercury mirror behind the sofa.  By mimicking the window, he makes the tiny room look twice its size.

Antiques don’t date, and neither does good design.  And this image just goes to show the anonymous commenter is way off his mark  - who insisted that textured blinds are a product of the south, used only in Texas, by inexperienced designers like myself.  Had to laugh seeing the New York born and bred Mario Buatta using textured shades in the same exact way we do in Houston, Texas. 

Speaking of Mario, I mentioned that we interviewed him on the Skirted Roundtable last month – so be sure to give it a listen HERE. 

 

Buatta’s ageless and timeless look.  His book shows over 50 years of his designs – and it’s hard to say which is his new work versus his older work. 

To preorder Mario’s book – click on the book below.

double click the book to order!

 

And finally:

 

 

 

We have chosen the seven winners in the BROWN giveaway – after Labor Day Sale!!!

As you may recall, BROWN, that fabulous décor/lighting store in Houston hosted a large sale after Labor Day – and ran a contest searching for seven winners in honor of Cote De Texas’ 7th year of blogging.

Jill Brown – besides being so talented and creative – is also one of the sweetest, most giving human beings I’ve ever known.  Truly, she is a doll and a real mensch.

Jill hand picked ten items for the giveaway – and here are the pictures below.  The first place winner will pick the item she wants below, then the 2nd place winner will pick her item, then, the third place winner – and so on and so on until all seven winners have picked their prize.

The first place winner is :    Patsy Fox

Patsy has her pick of any of the ten gifts below.  Once Patsy picks, the 2nd place winner, Jeri Windrow gets to pick her gift – and so on, until all seven winners have picked.

Have I said how much I LOVE Jill Brown?

Here are the 10 prizes being offered by Brown – in no particular order:

 

A pair of cream table lamps with their shades, valued at $450.

 

 

A set of 4 white Palacek outdoor chairs, valued at $1100.

 

 

Black swan print valued at $750.

 

 

Glass cake plate with dome, valued at $235.

 

 

A pair of woven rattan side tables.

 

 

A large, geometric glass lantern.

 

 

Set of Seagrass Baskets, valued at $100.

 

 

A pewter tea set, valued at $750.

 

 

An antique mirror, valued at $975.

 

Charming coil table lamp, valued at $125.

 

 

Six assorted hand-made candles, valued at $180.

 

So – as soon as I hear from the first place winner, we will then go onto the next six winners!

 

Visit BROWN HERE.

 

Decorating Updates at Cote de Texas

 

 

My client’s curtains that made me want some just like hers!

 

You know the old adage – don’t start redecorating unless you are ready to redo the whole place.   Updating one thing makes everything else look dated.   That’s exactly what happened when, on a whim, I decided to change out the tile countertops in my kitchen for white marble.  While the new gleaming marble looked great, everything else then looked … not so great.  At the time all my walls were painted a light, warm yellow with gray trim and my entire downstairs décor was designed around those yellowish walls.   Once the marble countertops arrived, everything else in the house was out of sync:  yellow paint and white marble doesn’t look all that great together.  It drove me crazy.   It’s been a slow process to rectify since I couldn’t afford to just redo everything all at once and truthfully, I wasn’t mentally ready to do that either.  I hadn’t a clue what I wanted or which direction to go, but, it was obvious the yellow paint had to go, immediately.   After testing about 15 gray samples, the downstairs and upstairs landing were painted a soft, taupe-ish gray (Pratt and Lambert Feathered Gray.)  Afterwards, the family room and kitchen looked a little better, but the living room and dining room with their yellow fabrics made no sense.   I’m still working on those front rooms, but I’ll show you what I’ve done to the back ones. 

 

 

 

The dog door:  for 17 years, the door was right next to the window, prohibiting any curtains which would have blocked it.

 

I finally had the brainstorm that in order to have curtains,  I would have to move the door to the breakfast room!   Took me 17 years to come to this conclusion. 

 

The new dog door:  Raul added the concrete stairs on which we carved out the dogs names.  Now, how do we keep possums and other critters out of the house?

Ever since I worked on my neighbor’s house last year and added curtains to her family room, I’ve been wanting to do the same to mine.  Our two rooms are similar with windows all along the back of our houses and seeing hers looking so good made me just a little jealous.     When we moved into our house about 17 years ago, I wasn’t as into curtains as I am now.  I installed them only in my bedroom upstairs and in the nursery.   For the rest of the house, we couldn’t afford wooden or even faux wooden shutters, which were so popular then, so we settled for the much cheaper faux wood blinds instead.   Truthfully, we couldn’t afford the faux blinds either and had to put the entire purchase on a credit card.    As time went by and I became a huge curtain fan, I added yellow silk ticking curtains to my dining room and living room.   Those curtains made a huge difference and even Ben liked them, which was shocking because he was so against getting them.    I eventually added more curtains upstairs and one by one, every single faux wooden blind was removed from the house.   I would have loved curtains along the family room’s back wall as well  , but there was the problem of the dog door.   The dog door was installed right next to the windows and any curtains placed there would have become filthy dirty with the two pups running in and out 24/7.   That misplaced dog door ruled my interior design!   While I was busy insisting all my clients get curtains, I made my own excuses not to get them because of that stupid dog door.   After lusting over my neighbor’s curtains, I finally admitted to myself that in order to move forward, I would have to find a new home for that dreaded dog door.  In the end, it was ridiculous how something that took just two days to rectify – had taken me years to act on!   In the breakfast room, my painter, Raul, expertly put a hole in our sheetrock through to the brick leading out to the back yard.  He even added two concrete steps for the dogs to be able to reach their new entry.   The pups quickly acclimated to their changed routine and, finally, after all this time, I was able to get curtains in my family and breakfast room.    Here’s how the room looked before  - with the yellow walls and no curtains:

 

 

Before:  yellow walls and no curtains.  The old dog door is hiding right behind the lamp table on the right side.

 

 

The new gray paint and the new curtains!  I used a Pindlar and Pindlar linen in white with a thin gray pinstripe.  The woven shades are pulled up to the molding to visually elongate the line.

 

We made one long rod from left to right by connecting five smaller ones.  The discounted brown shades were ordered and installed by Monica who does all my curtains, bedding and installations for clients.  For details on the shades, email her at custcrea@sbcglobal.net

 

 

And a view of the entire room.  It’s so much quieter now with the curtains.  It’s like all the sound is muffled.

 

So, did you notice I haven’t shown the breakfast room yet?    Well…remember my obsession with Koobo wicker chairs? 

 

 

I’ve been debating back and forth whether I wanted to get the Koobo chairs for my breakfast room.   While I love the French chairs I got from Tara Shaw, I just really wanted to try the wicker ones.  I thought that if they didn’t work out, I needed some for my backyard anyway….so….

 

I ended up getting the Koobo chairs and loving them.  But, it’s a long story from there to here, and maybe you can learn from my HUGE mistakes.

 

Originally, I couldn’t decide between the Koobo chairs from Pottery Barn or from Cost Plus World Market.   My thinking was that I should order the Pottery Barn chairs since they were a little bit bigger than the Cost Plus World Market chairs, plus PB delivers and I didn’t want to schlep the chairs back to my house.  So many things were wrong with my thinking.  First, the PB chairs are three times more expensive at $349. versus Cost Plus at $129.00 (on sale.)  Second, yes the PB chairs are bigger, but I needed smaller ones for my space!  I have no idea what I was thinking!!!!  Comparing the two chairs – the PB chair does have a nicer, thicker woven trim than the Cost Plus chair, BUT their seats are unfinished!  You have to use cushions with the PB chairs, while with the Cost Plus you either can or not use the cushions, your decision.   Plus, I waited over four weeks to get my PB chairs – while I could have had the Cost Plus chairs that same day.  

 

This is what the PB chair looks like under the cushion.  I know – shocking!  At three times the price, too!!!!  Why did they leave the seat unfinished?   It’s ridiculous.

 

 

These are the Pottery Barn chairs.  You can see the trim is somewhat nicer and thicker, but this is the only visible difference.  They are a tad bit bigger than the Cost Plus, but it’s not that noticeable at all.  And, of course their bottoms are not finished out.  Plus they are three times the price of the Cost Plus chairs.   IMO, there is absolutely NO reason to buy these chairs over the Cost Plus chairs.   I just wish I knew all this, then.

 

 

In the end, I lived the too big PB chairs for a week and then went to Cost Plus to check out their chairs.  I  ended up schlepping the four chairs home, something I had tried to avoid in the beginning.  These chairs fit around the table much better than the PB ones.  Two of the extra PB chairs went outside where I needed them, and the other two went into my guest room and office.  

 

 

 

 

Here’s a view of the curtains from the breakfast room looking towards the family room.  I can’t tell you how much better the back of the house looks now with the curtains.  They add so much warmth and coziness, it’s a huge difference.  Even Ben was stunned when he came home.   I probably should have never told him of the change before hand because he was so negative about me adding the curtains.   It would have saved me a lot of grief to just surprise him!!!

 

 

Here’s a close up of the P&P linen – you can see the pinstripe here.  Looking at the fabric from afar, the stripe is really too subtle to make out.   It took me months to decide on this fabric.  I couldn’t make up my mind if I wanted a pattern or a solid.   I was hooked on an ikat and then a damask for awhile.  I even considered a toile.   But, I kept coming back to this fabric, so I decided I must really like it.    We used a black out lining to keep the sun from shining through the fabric and fading out the stripe.   We also used two widths per panel for fullness.  There are no ironed in pleats and the drape is  puddled just an inch or two on the floor.

 

The cushions that come with the Cost Plus chairs are adequate, but one day I will need to make covers for them so that I can keep them clean looking.

 

 

Looking at the row of windows towards the breakfast room.

 

 

I’m really happy with the results and there are just a few things on my wish list that will probably never happene.  I would love to add doors to my shelves just like Jill Brinson’s HERE.    And one day, I would love to get a stone mantel.  I still need to refinish my wood floors, or paint them, something I am dreading and keep putting off.    As for the living room and dining room, those changes are coming along and hopefully I’ll show their modest updates in the next few months.

 

Coming soon – three really great giveaways – so be sure and watch for them!!