Decorating with Seaside Finds

I absolutely love to decorate with seaside finds. I think as a final touch, it is beautiful to add shells and/or coral to bookcases, on top of books, etc. around the house. In quoting William Morris, "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be Beautiful."

Inspiration:

Beautiful table decor

Light seaside feel

Great contrast of the shells with the deep blue bookcase

I love to put shells in my bathroom

I always use a mix of natural elements to my table as decor

Rescue, Restore, Redecorate™

www.AmyHowardAtHome.com

Art Designs on Furniture

A great addition to a piece of furniture may be an art design. It really does depend on the piece that you are finishing but many pieces look beautiful with the addition of art designs. A good place to reference is classical antiques. 

As seen in this Before and After table, 

the customer was inspired by an art design on the floor. 

The art design work adds to the table 

as opposed to as if it was simply left painted Dunavant Green One Step Paint.

I am often inspired by classical antiques so I wanted to share pieces that I have been inspired by.

Inspiration:

Notice the detail on the column pedestal. 

The Greek Key detail on the floor is repeated on the column. 

The base of the column is completely gilded and then the urn and acanthus detail is painted on top of the gold leaf .

This design on this screen adds a whole new dimension to the piece

I love the gilded art detail painted onto the table legs and around the base

This beautiful classical antique truly shows how decorative pieces may be with art designs

The simple addition of the center design adds a focal point to this mantel

The large art painted design on this demilune is beautiful

The subtle use of tone on tone color works well here with the large geometric design on this bench.

Rescue, Restore, Redecorate™

www.AmyHowardAtHome.com

Beginning to decorate for Fall...

Fall is such a beautiful time of transition. With October coming next week, I wanted to share a few ideas for setting your table and decorating your front door for fall entertaining. These are two of the first things I do as the weather gets colder! 

I love to have my front porch and front door show the change of the season. 

Then I like to see how I will decorate my table for guests.

Rescue, Restore, Redecorate™

www.AmyHowardAtHome.com

Fall Decor Ideas

It is officially Fall as of yesterday! It is beginning to get cool in Memphis and I am looking forward to this beautiful season. ​I love Fall and things to decorate with....

Ideas:

The Gilding Supplies or Golden Egg Lacquer could be used on pumpkins along with the One Step Paint®

I love the simplicity of adding a golden wreath to the kitchen window.

Place your pumpkins in Zinc containers!

Decorate for Fall by adding seasonal touches to every room

Colorful antique glass jars are great for holding dried berries and other Fall foliage

Candlesticks topped with mini pumpkins creates a great Fall centerpiece

You can add Fall color with placing pumpkins or gourds as your centerpiece

Love the White Lacquered chairs!

"Add elements of nature's fall bounty to your home decor with these looks that span the entire season -- all the way through Thanksgiving!" - BHG

Even a gift may be embellished for the season!

Rescue, Restore, Redecorate™

www.AmyHowardAtHome.com

Fall Ideas for Decorating

If you can believe it, we are already past the middle of September! The weather in Memphis is starting to get cooler and I am starting to notice how it is getting darker earlier. In saying that, I wanted to share inspiration for Fall Decorations where you could easily use either the One Step Paint®, Lacquer®, Gilding Supplies, or Antique Mirror Kit to create great decor for your home.

Inspiration:

The Gilding Supplies could be used on pumpkins along with the One Step Paint®

You can spray the leaves with Golden Egg Lacquer®

You could use color to add an accent for your table top decor

I love the golden leaf used as a place card

The Silver adds such elegance

Fun pattern that you could do on a pumpkin but taping it off 

and using a couple different colors of the One Step Paint®

The One Step® works well on Fabric as well like here on this Burlap

You could paint pillows to use just for the season!

What drama this matte black pumpkin has

*You could get the same finish using the Black One Step Paint®

Urns are gorgeous especially when they have that beautiful crusty finish

*With using the antiquing supplies, paint your urn with the One Step Paint® and finish it off with the Light Wax, Dark Wax, and Dust of the Ages®

I love this Antique Mirror Tray perfect for your holiday parties!

Rescue, Restore, Redecorate™

www.AmyHowardAtHome.com

Scandinavian Decorative Painting

One of the styles that I go to for inspiration is Scandinavian painted furniture. Scandinavia includes the countries in Northern Europe: Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. As I researched about the history, I found a great article about the history of Scandinavian decorative painting.  The article indicated that, decorative painting is the work of artists who adorn objects rather than surfaces. It reflects profound beliefs and feelings through the incorporation of lettering and symbols. Many attempts have been made to explain the origin of decorative painting; decorative painting is as old as man often found in cave painting. The great influence has been the early Christian or church art and frescoes that were first found in Roman catacombs. Decorating walls with Bible stories was a way to share the bible with the illiterate masses. In Europe during the Middle Ages painters joined to form guilds and every guild had their own standards and reflected their beliefs. Individual expression was largely limited until the late 1600’s and early 1700’s that is when decorative painting could be enjoyed by the common folk. During this period every folk artist created their own style and taught others to paint. Towards the middle of 1800’s with industrialization and commercialism , people started buying more commercially produced art. In the 1940’s and 1950’s and the new artists began to paint to revive this old art of decorative painting.

Jocasta Innes Scandinavian Painted Furniture

The above image as well as that below are furniture pieces from 1stDibs

In going into further detail about the Scandinavians style, tole painting was one of their specialties. "Tole painting is the folk art of decorative painting on tin and wooden utensils, objects and furniture. Typical metal objects include utensils, coffee pots, and similar household items. Wooden objects include tables, chairs, and chests, including hope chests, toy-boxes and jewelry boxes. The practice began in 18th century New England, and was also extensively carried on among German immigrants in Pennsylvania. A separate, related tradition occurs in the Netherlands and among Scandinavian countries and immigrants, including Norwegians, Danes and Swedes. German tole painting may concentrate more on metal and tin objects, while Scandinavians and Netherlanders may concentrate more on wooden objects and furniture. Patterns in the two traditions vary slightly as well."

I hope you find such inspiration from Decorative Painting inspiration from this art history of Scandinavian design and painting.

Rescue, Restore, Redecorate.™

www.AmyHowardAtHome.com