Pre-holiday Spruce-Up: The Vintage Blue Tile Bathroom

This week marks the official start of the holiday season (though, according to malls and big box stores, it's perfectly appropriate to start celebrating and shopping in September!). As such, I had the itch to get a jumpstart prepping for holiday guests; the first place I wanted to start: our vintage blue bathroom. 

I shared the photo above on Instagram one morning last week, as I could hardly wait to show off this work-with-what-you've-got spruce-up, which required little more than incorporating items I already had into an otherwise-ignored space. In the spirit of Thanksgiving gratitude and contentment, I challenged myself to work within the limits of what I had rather than undertaking a full (and completely unnecessary) renovation and, in doing so, I proved to myself that the smallest changes could turn one of my least favorite spaces into one of my favorites.

Antoinette Poisson Printed Pillow + Vintage Bamboo Armchairs

There's been a flurry of activity around these parts since I last posted. I could spend the next week or so recounting all of the activity that's been stealing my attention from this blog, but instead of wasting too much time looking backward I figured I'd choose the most "blogworthy" happenings to share...like this pillow.

Back in early October, Adam and I spent a whirlwind weekend in Brooklyn with two of our dearest friends. Though the real purpose of the trip was to celebrate our friend's thirtieth birthday, I certainly couldn't miss the opportunity to do a little shopping. Adam was a great sport, and hardly seemed bothered when I dragged him into John Derian's trio of stores is in the East Village.

I was on a mission, and one of my objectives was to check out the printed pillows from Antoinette Poisson, a Paris-based design firm specializing in textiles and hand-painted papers based on 19th century French patterns. The company had recently been written up in Architectural Digest, and its offerings are not widely available in the U.S. except for Derian's shop so I had to take advantage of being in the city to look at them up close.

Aren't the prints lovely?

(via Architectural Digest)

(all via Antoinette Poisson)

Back to the pillow. I couldn't resist when I spotted it at one of Derian's East Second Street shops--the only trouble was selecting only one pattern. I hardly settled, though, as the pattern I picked suits the existing colors of our den nicely, don't you think?

 In other acquisition news, this set of 4 vintage bamboo arm chairs came home with us from an estate sale this weekend. They're sturdy, they're navy and I couldn't bear to leave the sale without them. I just have to find the perfect spot for them...

(all via Meet Me in Philadelphia unless otherwise noted)

Have the shopping gods shined down on you lately the way they have for me?