Folding Screens

What's your take on folding screens?

As of late, they keep popping up in various spaces that catch my eye.

Folding screens, also known as room dividers, add height to any space and function both as furniture and as artwork.

When mirrored, folding screens can buoy the brightness in any room.

(via Apartment Therapy)

When upholstered, folding screens can soften the harshest of corners.

(Domino via Design Dump)

When lacquered, folding screens can mimic the glossiest fragment of sea glass.

(via Elle Decor)

When painted, folding screens can double as large-scale abstract artwork.

(via Interior Design)

When ribboned, folding screens can complement the existing upholstery in a room.

(Domino via The Lovely Lifestyle)

When caned, folding screens can recall the best of exotic vacations.

(via Elle Decor)

When paneled, folding screens can strike the ideal balance between Hollywood Regency and traditional styles.

(Kelly Wearstler's guest house)

When stenciled, folding screens can introduce a handmade element to a space.

(via Martha Stewart)

When patterned, folding screens can negate the need for wallpaper.

(via Apartment Therapy)

When decopauged, folding screens can fake an extensive book collection.

(via 1st Dibs)

And, when DIY'd, folding screens can be whatever you want them to be.

(via Elle Decor)

Folding screens can be a great many things; what function would you like one to serve in your home?

TGIF, 10/28/11 Edition

(via Martha Stewart)

Happy Halloween weekend, blog goblins!
As per usual, I am still unsure about my costume, but am hoping to finalize everything quickly tomorrow.
Do you have Halloween party plans?

Before I let you depart for ghoulish weekend shenanigans, I need your opinions:

Meet my new over-the-bar-cart mirror, which I picked up last weekend at Elephant's Trunk.

Love the mirror, but currently questioning the maple tone of the frame.
Should I paint it? If so, what color?
Black? Red? (Court, you're voting red lacquer, right?)

Wishing that all of your Halloween candy dreams come true.
'Til Monday, friends.

To Quote Liz Lemon

"I want to go to there."

--Elizabeth Miervaldis Lemon

(via Livingetc)

Want to come with?

Newest Obsession: Moroccan Side Tables

Betcha you were starting to wonder what to get me for Christmas, am I right?*

Lately, I've become obsessed with hunting down a small Moroccan-like side table for my living room.

It all started when my dear blog friend Kate highlighted Wisteria's take on the Moroccan table.

(via Wisteria)

This style feels like the best combination of a round and square table, and certainly adds a worldly charm to any room in which they appear. Like any small piece of furniture, these tables offer more surface area for lamps, books, or knick-knacks without consuming too much precious floor space. 

I've noticed this style of table popping up in many well-designed spaces, and almost always stealing the show. 

These six- or eight-sided tables can be...

Painted a solid color with limited decorative detail:

(Domino via Decorpad)

(Mona Ross Berman's beach house features 2 of these tables via House Beautiful)

(Katie Denham's revitalized table)

(via Casapinka)

or the Moroccan-style table can be

Decorated with engraved or inlaid accents:

(via Pinterest)

(via Habitually Chic)

(via Pinterest)
Which do you prefer: clean and unadored or flourished with detail?

For my living room, I'd like to keep the detail and color subtle, so that the table does not compete with the other elements in the space. During my quest for affordable options, I came across several tutorials to build your own Moroccan table (see here and here). This DIY option from Fresh Home Ideas seems doable and fits the "subtle" requirement. 

(via Fresh Home Ideas)

What do you make of this style: classic worldly design or passing trend?
Would you try your hand at constructing your own?

*Remember, only 59 days 'til Christmas. Start constructing this table now if you want it wrapped under my Christmas tree!*

Cyanotype Artwork

[Forgive me, friends, for not sharing this post last week like I promised I would...somehow time just slipped away from me!]

About a month ago, the building that I work in was wrapping up a few renovations, and decided to do away with some framed posters that decorated the hallways. While I wasn't interested in the actual poster, I was interested in the brightly-colored cobalt metal frame. It was free, and apparently I'm a scavenger.

Here the frame was, as I found it:

The oversized frame would have cost me a pretty penny if I went out and bought it. It was in great shape and the perfect color for my red-white-and-blue bedroom (inadvertent Americana, seriously).

Based on the color scheme of my bedroom and its perfect coordination, I knew exactly what piece of art would soon grace the frame: a set of cyanotypes.

If you're not familiar with the term cyanotype, it refers to a printing process that produces a cyan-blue image. The process was developed in the 1840's and used initially to reproduce notes and charts (i.e., "blueprints"); however the process was revolutionized when photographer Anna Atkins began using it capture images of her botanical specimens. The result was a unique blue and white silhouette effect.

Aren't they beautiful?

I purchased my cyanotype prints from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery. I wrote about the extensive collection of digital images offered by NYPL just about one year ago and, now with a perfect frame picked out, I was ready to select my prints!

I chose the Fucus vesiculosus var. linearis (left) and the Polyides rotundus (right), and proceeded to crop my image and select the size of the printed image. [Note: I decided to have my selected images printed by the NYPL printing company, Pictopia Collections, rather than saving the images on a flashdrive and bringing them to Kinko's to print. You certainly have the option to do either.]

About a week after placing my order, the prints arrived, were gorgeous, and were printed on quality photo paper.
Now they were ready to be matted and framed.

 I love the way the piece turned out, and it feels like a custom pair that are uniquely mine.

But that's not all, lovely readers:

I wanted to also share a special Discount Code for NYPL printing through Pictopia Collections.

Get 10% off your order by using the coupon code 123XYZ when checking out. 

Hope you'll all enjoy the vast selection of images the New York Public Libary Digital Gallery has to offer!

A Visit to Elephant's Trunk Flea Market

This weekend, Adam and I paid a visit to the large Elephant's Trunk Flea Market in western Connecticut on our way home from visiting my parents. This market opens nearly every Sunday between April and late November and always offers a great find! If you have heard of Elephant's Trunk, it's probably because you know it's one of Eddie Ross's favorite flea markets.

Sunday's trip to Elephant's Trunk was our fourth or fifth, and decidedly the gloomiest (weather-wise, that is).

Nonetheless, the lot was packed when we rolled in mid-morning. 

A mid-fall chill won't get in the way of dedicated shoppers, now will it?

Every time Adam and I have stopped at the flea market, we've always walked away with something that we love.

Today, I'll highlight some of the offerings that caught my eye on Sunday. Hope you enjoy!

Up first: the extensive selection of rugs. Clearly I have a thing for Persian and Turkish rugs because, had I the means, each of these would have been rolled up and carted back to Philly with us.

Many styles of furniture can be found at Elephant's Trunk, all for reasonable prices. 

The warm tone of this table, along with its delicious spool legs, stood out in the crowd. 

It was being sold for a fair price of $110.

Wouldn't this cabinet be a precious addition to a child's bedroom or playroom? 

I could see painting it a soft color and organizing baby's first book collection in it.

The traditional carved details of this pair of chairs would be the perfect unexpected combination for a modern, graphic print on the seat. Can you imagine it? They were less than $25 for the two.

 Certainly many mid-century pieces could be found at the market, including this pair of chairs, which look to be Paul McCobb (albeit covered in a hideous leopard-print fleece--seriously, what is that?).

A MCM log holder:

One dealer had a set of 8 tulip chairs (I didn't look to see if they were authentic) that were in excellent condition.

This set of 4 bentwood armchairs made me weak. Gorgeous. I hope they went to a good home.

 Like furniture, the many vendors of Elephant's Trunk offered a diverse selection of artwork, and I snapped a number of them that I think you'd all love to see.

Need a English hunting scene for your '30's-era smoking room or library? Voila:

 This oversized floral piece was spectacular, I swear! It appeared to be handpainted on silk and was approximately 4 feet x 2.5 feet.

 Still into the antler craze? 

Why not try this metal buck head ($110) for a spin on the trend.

 Portraits were also available at a number of great prices. 

This large painting was $15 and the colors were very soft in person.

Are you curious about what did make it home with us? 

A small oil seascape painting (which I didn't manage to take a photo of) and this mirror (which was $30).

Oh, and no trip to a fall fair is complete without some sugar-covered fried dough.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and had fun thrifting, crafting, painting, creating or flea marketing like I did. 

I highly recommend the Elephant's Trunk Flea Market and suggest you all go, as long as you leave some good finds for me!

TGIF, 10/21/11 Edition

The weekend is upon once more, friends, and this one is special because Adam and I are traveling to Connecticut to spend some time with my parents. I suppose I'll age myself when I say this, but I hope that the leaves have changed because I love just admiring the seasonal beauty of the New England area. 

If the autumn weather cooperates, Adam and I are planning to stop by the famous Elephant's Trunk Flea Market in western Connecticut on our way back to Philly. We've been several times and have always found some unique treasures at reasonable prices (including my surprisingly valuable Maurice Ascalon snail/ashtray).

For more on the Elephant's Trunk Flea Market, visit their website here. 

I'm also planning on sharing more on its offerings next week.

Wish me happy hunting!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. 

Toodle-loo, blog friends!