Quince Cottage: Decor

Showing posts with label Decor. Show all posts

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Spring to Summer - 6 Tips for Vignette Styling

Welcome to Quince Cottage!
When it comes to seasonal decor, which part of your home do you most enjoy styling? For Rhiann, it's the mantel.
Follow along as she creates vignettes for spring and summer. Oh, and by the way, some of the items pictured here are available in our brand new Etsy shop! Click here.

Tip 1: the "Power Of Three" is often employed when creating a new vignette. Vignettes work best using an odd number of elements. In other words, five is okay, four, not so much.

Tip 2-5: Mix heights, round shapes and angled shapes, organic with man-made, and if possible, throw in something that is a bit of a surprise!

If you weren't here a few months ago, here's where we were in late winter, sort of a combo of snow and green...

Tip 6: Old books are perfect for adding height, play around to decide exactly what looks best. You can have the leather or cloth spines showing, or the page side, or wrap the books in white or craft paper, all depending on what look you want.

In this vignette on our dining room sideboard, the three primary vignette elements are the wire cage, the plant, and the shell. Broken down further, the two brass quail and the tiny plant form a mini-vignette with the books (showing their leather spines) acting as a base. On a macro level, the windmill head, the mirror and the cage/shell/plant grouping also create a Power Of Three composition. By the way, that mirror? A $7 score at Willie's (aka Goodwill)!
And this is why I'm linking up to Dagmar's Home Blog because she kindly featured us on her IG account for this particular pic! Thank you, Dagmar! If you're a blogger, please consider joining the link party, it's a great way of making new friends.

Dagmar's Home Thrifty and Vintage Finds link party

Here you see a vignette that straddles the counter between our kitchen and dining. It's got the "unexpected" in the form of a vintage toy tractor (Ron collects those). The organic element is covered by the flowers and cotton. Don't you just love cotton?

Here's another one, this time from our gallery wall. Three. Round and not round. Organic elements.

But now back to the mantel. In April, the mood switched to romantic. The left side featured a shadow box Rhiann made from an old clock, if you're interested in learning more about that, click here. Technically there are four elements in this grouping, but the books and clock read as one. Note that the page sides are showing, to create a softer, lighter look.

©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

We have a nice collection of vintage floral plates that were just itching to be on display again.

©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

There's one behind the pink hobnail glass piece on the left and she used them on the right side of the mantel too. That ornate gold frame is completely empty by the way, and we like it that way. It's such a gorgeous piece in and of itself, it really doesn't need any art inside!

Then Rhiann found a little brass bowl, and wanted to see how that looked with some shells and rocks. Note the organic (shells and greenery).

Then Mother's Day rolled around and Rhiann had to add the lovely milk glass covered box she received! That milk glass bud vase is holding one of our first New Dawn roses of the year.

©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

She decided to turn the "pretty" to full volume on the left too.

Now that it's Memorial Day, Rhiann thought a summer-by-the-water vibe was in order. No, unfortunately we no longer live near the ocean, but it's still nice to remember those days. Here the three elements are the painting, the shell box, and the creamer with feathers. Aren't those feathers amazing? We found them on a walk with our dogs. They probably belonged to a turkey vulture. Those are both the "organic" element and the unexpected one. They add a little wildness to the composition that keeps it from looking too dull.

Here's the right side. Note that there's a bird here too. Have you noticed how brass is back in a BIG way? From knicknacks to lighting, brass is hot! Here we have five elements. The shell box, the brass crane, the books, the conch shell, and the mother of pearl necklace. There's that unexpected element again. Jewelry isn't normally part of mantel decor, but here it works because it's made of mother of pearl sourced from the ocean, and the color is harmonious.

Finally, here's the whole shebang...

This week there's no #MagpieMonday, but we hope you'll join us on Instagram June 6, when we'll be ready to see all your thingummies and gewgaws once again!

©Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

You can also play along with our #HometownCapture hashie any time. Follow us, post a pic of your hometown with the # in the text, and tag us!

Daisy and Buster have been enjoying the backyard. Literally. They both love eating grass. We don't love all the gacking that follows...

Daisy © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Buster © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Tell us how you like to decorate for spring and summer. We'd love to hear. Hope to see you again soon!

Quince Cottage Style is #agrarianchic - a mix of old and new, rustic and opulent.

Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful,

and as though it wasn't born yesterday!

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Transitioning the Mantel to Early Spring!

Hello there, welcome to Quince Cottage!
We love every season here in North Carolina and we try to savor each for its unique natural beauty. We do this not only through daily doggy walks, but in our decor as well.
Having said that, we're getting a teensy bit tired of the dull browns and grays of late winter. So when we received a beautiful gift from a dear friend, that was all the excuse we needed to tweak our mantel display with a sneak peek of spring.
If you didn't visit us during the winter, here is our holiday mantel.

And here is our post-holiday-but-still-winter mantel.

And now, here's a view of the right side of our mantel.

See those rose plates? They were in storage until Rhiann got them out for an IG post about collections for the MagpieMonday hashtag she cohosts.

Aren't they pretty?
Here's the left side of the mantel. That gorgeous pink hobnail covered compote is the gift we received from our friend Juls. She's an extremely creative and obviously generous person, with fabulous taste. Here's a link to her Instagram , she is definitely one to follow.

You might have spied our recent shadowbox project up above as well. Click here for the DIY if you're curious. And now for the whole shebang... We'd originally planned to take the crystal garland down along with the other winter decor, but it's just so pretty we're leaving it up for now.

Are you decorating for spring yet? What are your favorite spring themes?
We mentioned #MagpieMonday earlier. Follow us on IG here for more about that.

Now it wouldn't be right to leave you with no doggy pictures, so here here you go! Buster in front, Daisy being camera-shy.

Buster & Daisy © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Quince Cottage Style is #agrarianchic - a mix of old and new, rustic and opulent.

Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful,

and as though it wasn't born yesterday!

Sunday, January 17, 2016

DIY - Rustic Cabinet ReDo

Welcome to Quince Cottage!
As you may know, we like to go bargain-hunting. Thrifting, junkin', antiquing, call it whatever you want. Finding a diamond in the rough, or "buried treasure" is always exciting. Earlier we did a post about finding a shabby dresser and making it look all pretty again. Here is that post, if you're curious.
At the very same shop in Raleigh, we found a rustic cabinet. Now, please understand we weren't in the market for a cabinet of any kind. Our house isn't all that big, so impulse buys of large objects don't happen very often. To make it clear, the inside of our garage has never seen a car because storage is an issue here. But this cabinet had the "it" factor. It was clearly crafted by someone who didn't make furniture for a living, yet the curved detailing along the skirt and the walnut inset panels indicated that the maker was trying. Trying really hard to make this piece special. At least in the front - the back not so much. The other compelling feature was its price.

At the shop © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Here's a better picture of that fancy (in a naive way) skirt at the bottom.

After a bit of haggling, we became its new owners. The dear old thing was delivered to our home the following week.
Inside was a shelf and below it, a board with some hooks attached. Ron removed all that, along with the doors. He then gave everything a much-needed deep cleaning.

Removed the doors © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Did you notice in that photo above, taken in the garage aka workshop, that there are no cars to be seen? Told you.
We decided to paint the interior for contrast, and to make a more pleasing background to display whatever we ended up putting on the shelves. We had some leftover Valspar latex paint from an office redo a few years ago. The color is Blue Arrow. It's a perfect shade, not too "baby", just a little "dirty" (meaning it has some earthy warmth to it). This chip is a bit darker than the color is in real life.
Also because the cabinet's new purpose was to display pretty things, this old beasty needed some sturdy shelves. We bought pine boards from Lowe's and Ron cut them to the desired length. Using some leftover molding strips we had lying around, he created supports by cutting the strips to fit, then gluing and screwing them to the cabinet interior. These do a nice job while maintaining a low visual profile.

Painted interior © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Here's a close up of the support strips.

Support strips © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

After the painting, a coat of clear polyurethane was applied to the interior surfaces only, including the shelves
Ron waxed the au naturel wood exterior with paste wax. This provides protection and gives a lovely, warm glow.

We installed new knobs, but chose a style that looks antique. They're real glass.

Then we added some gimp along the edge of the shelves for a finished look. We got a good deal on some closeout trim at a fabric outlet. We took care to choose one that looked vintage and had a bit of blue in it. Hot glue worked just fine to adhere it to the shelf edges. We only burned ourselves once or twice.

Now the fun part! Styling!
You might have noticed this cabinet in our post about Christmas decor. If not here you go - we displayed our mercury glass collection, our white pitchers, and created a Winter Wonderland for our Snowbabies!

Fairy lights and white felt on stacked boxes make it pretty effective. Here's a closer look...

Now that the holidays are over, but it's still winter, the Snowbabies are hibernating. We've gone all white for a fresh, simple look with white ceramic pitchers and milk glass. There are some pillows and throws on the bottom shelf to contribute warm, soft textural elements.

Here's a photo of the cabinet in its new setting. Daisy dog for scale...

Now of course, it wouldn't be fair to deny you a cute Irish Jack Russell picture, right? Daisy looks suspicious, doesn't she?

Buster & Daisy © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Don't forget, if you're on Instagram, please follow us here and join us for #MagpieMonday ! We want to see your decor collections! There are four co-hosts and we each choose our weekly favorite to feature in our gallery and in the following week's meme.

Quince Cottage Style mixes old and new, rustic and opulent.

Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful,

and as though it wasn't born yesterday!

Friday, January 1, 2016

DIY Restyling the Mantel Post-Holiday

Hello, and welcome to Quince Cottage!
First of all, we'd like to wish you a 2016 full of love, peace, and inspiration!

As we see it, there are two ways to view the post-holiday winter season.
1. Now that all the excitement is over, winter is dull and colorless (depending on where you live of course).
2. Now that all the excitement is over, winter is a peaceful time for reflection and simplification.
Let's go with 2, shall we?
Now, as you may already know, Rhiann's favorite part of the home to style is the mantel, so it makes sense that's where she headed first, once the holidays were over.
If you weren't around for Christmas, here's what the mantel looked like then.

Now, with the goals of simplifying and honoring the bare, frosty, beauty of winter, she started with one of our Chinese porcelain vases, which is icy blue, gray, and white. An IG potter friend let us know this is a crystalline glaze and actual crystals form during an extra slow cooling cycle or a long hold time.

Rhiann filled the vase with branches, some of which already had little faux ice crystals stuck to them. The others were the branches we painted to look like birch and stuck in our Christmas tree. The real branches have glass icicles wired to them.

She strung a garland of crystal prisms across the mantel. Finally she worked on the right side, using her favorite empty Victorian frame and a small watercolor we bought long ago in New England. It's a snow scene at sunset and reminds us of the years we lived in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. We miss the beauty of snow, but not the shoveling, or the bad driving! Finally she tucked in a sprig of faux juniper and added a real jumbo pine cone. We bought a bunch of these pine cones in an antique store and they had a good time laughing at us for buying things they picked up in their yards. They were only fifty cents a piece and unfortunately we don't have sturdy, supersized pine cones anywhere near us, so...

That shot above gives you a nice clear look at the great job Ron did creating an old, distressed finish on our brand new mantel. If you're curious, click here for the DIY.
Now here's a photo of the whole thing.

We'll be sharing other areas of the house that have transitioned from holiday to winter season in an upcoming post. Tell us what part of your home you like restyling seasonally in Comments. We'd love to hear from you!
And of course, it wouldn't be a Quince Cottage post without a cute doggy pic. This was how Daisy and Buster spent most of New Year's Eve. Party animals...

We'll leave you with a beautiful North Carolina sunset to start the year off right. The beauty of Nature is just one of the many things we hope you'll enjoy in 2016.

Quince Cottage Style mixes old and new, rustic and opulent.

Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful,

and as though it wasn't born yesterday!

Friday, November 6, 2015

Non-Traditional DIY Autumn Porch Decor

Hey there, welcome back to Quince Cottage!
Today we're talking autumn plaids. Everyone is mad about plaid this year, right? Well, we decided to take a slightly off-the-beaten-path approach.
Maybe we were inspired by some of the brilliant things Nature does in North Carolina this time of year.

That passion flower was growing in the weeds between our house and the one behind us. It also inspired another project we'll show you in an upcoming post. Pretty amazing flower isn't it?

As we've said before, we like to pinch pennies when we can, and by sewing your own pillow covers, you can too. It's pretty fast and easy if you've got a sewing machine, even if you hate sewing like Rhiann does. This time around we wanted to make a matching throw too. We bought the fabric at Joann Fabrics.

Being able to reverse the pillows by using a different fabric on each side gives even more options in terms of look. You can use snaps or velcro dots or just a basting stitch to close up the open side of your pillow casing.

There's the throw in the photo below. Super easy to make using the leftover fabric from the pillows. On either end of the length of the berry plaid, Rhiann sewed a strip of the green plaid. Then she hemmed all the edges. Ta-daaaah! Done! Now we're not saying this throw will keep you warm on a frosty evening, but it adds a splash of color and continues the theme without breaking the bank.

What do you think? Yes, we know, the porch floor needs to be stained. We're currently debating colors.

Of course it wouldn't be a Quince Cottage blog post without some doggy cuteness, so here you go...

Quince Cottage Style mixes old and new, rustic and opulent. Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful, and as though it wasn't born yesterday.

Quince Cottage

Design. Create. Decorate.

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Spring to Summer - 6 Tips for Vignette Styling

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Transitioning the Mantel to Early Spring!

Sunday, January 17, 2016

DIY - Rustic Cabinet ReDo

Friday, January 1, 2016

DIY Restyling the Mantel Post-Holiday

Friday, November 6, 2015

Non-Traditional DIY Autumn Porch Decor

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