Thursday, October 8, 2015

Kay's Home Tour-Formal Living Room!


Earlier this year, I was featured in 76107 Magazine for a profile on Home Design Experts.
For those who didn't see the article, or for those that did and might be curious of what the room I'm sitting in looks like zoomed out, I thought it would be fun to do a photo tour of the room where I am in the picture---which just happens to be the formal living room at my house.

This is one of my favorite rooms in the house, both because so many memories have been made here each year as I entertain my family for Christmas and other holidays and because each piece in the room has it's own special story.


Here's the part of the room where I'm sitting in the photograph. The settee was my great-grandmother's on my father's side. I had it reupholstered in a Charles Faudree fabric and love that it was given a new life. I do this often for myself and for clients---upholstery with a history is often both sentimental and good quality and new upholstery gives it a whole new meaning.
I've even had client's cry when receiving their newly upholstered family heirlooms---it's wonderful to see them as they once were!


The English antique mahogany bookcase was a wedding present that my husband and I gave to each other. It was our first really nice piece of furniture 28 years ago. It was an antique I really loved and wanted and it housed my husband's prized civil war books. The little chair in the foreground are what our family jokingly refers to as a "useless chair"---basically a chair that has little use other than decorative.

A detail of the table that sits in front of the settee.



The painting over my mantle was a gift from my mother and grandmother the Christmas that we 
got engaged. I love that it has a special spot in the center of the room.


The blue chairs are antiques that came from Shreveport that were also a gift from my mother and grandmother that same Christmas. The blue velvet on them is original. I love the way that truly quality textiles look as they age---it is an understated elegance never quite repeated with a new fabric.


The piece to the right of the fireplace was my great grandfather's. It was an antique ship secretary manufactured in the 1800's in Michigan.



I've said before that I love collections of things, and these little porcelain dogs are no exception.


The settee in the background was found in an antique store here in Fort Worth in the early 1990's. I had it covered in a pale peach Coraggio mohair. The cocktail table was found by my Aunt Jan (mother's sister) at an antique store in Dallas in the late 1980's and she insisted that I go buy it!


This chair was found at an estate sale in Fort Worth and is covered in the same peach mohair.
The piece behind it is one of the most interesting stories in the room. It is called a child's secretary. 
I passed it every morning on my way to work at Bloomingdale's in New York. After a month of passing it, I finally decided to buy it---it cost me three weeks worth of pay at the time.


This little console is a radiator cover that came from Paris and the mirror above it I bought in Leon, France on a buying trip while I worked for The Market. If I like the girl that Harrison ends up marrying, they will get it as a wedding gift. If I don't like her they will get a bowl. You heard it here first. 


The paintings in the hallway just outside the living room are clockwise from the top an antique that was a gift from my mother and grandmother, the dog came came from The Market, the one at the bottom was a gift from one of my Pi Phi sisters that she bought in Germany, and the landscape also came from The Market and was painted in Europe. I have said before to buy art that really makes your heart sing---this does mean that it necessarily has to be expensive. Most of my art was relatively reasonable and I have had art connoisseurs that visited my house comment on how beautiful my collection is.





This song performed by Sasha Allen on the Voice is fabulous---I like her version even better than the original, sung by Heart.

Last night I went to an event, so I did not cook dinner for once!






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