Some seriously happy chic suprises

The mystery of the missing blog posts has been solved. Thank You so much to all of you who e-mailed me with your suggestions and help. It was greatly appreciated! And THANK YOU to my new web guy Soumik Pal for figuring it all out! I’ll be adding most of the posts back this week, hopefully smoothly, and without clogging up anyone’s inbox!

Last week was a whirlwind of work starting out with a magazine shoot at the house.  I scrambled to get some designs completed, and to come up with solutions for what I knew wouldn’t be ready. It meant lots of packages arriving at my door step!  In this dreadfully depressing weather it was quite interesting to see this box arrive…

HAPPY CHIC in a box! Cheerful pillow delivery from Jonathan Adler arriving on a wet, rainy, icy, gray, dreary February day.  One for Luke’s room, which I’ll show you later, and one for the master bedroom.

The Helix pillow in yellow. The master bedroom needed one more accent color, and yellow was on my mind.

The bedside tables in the bedroom are still the old ones. Dark heavy, carved antique wood…so I added the white greyhound as well as the pillow, hoping it would help lighten the mood in here.

The pillow got moved around everywhere…it joined the two white shag pillows from West Elm. The couch at the end of the bed has a very angular shape, and will eventually have to go. But before I spend money on a new piece, I’m trying to see if I can make it work by concealing it with pillows.

Oh, and the fire place needed serious help!! I knew I wanted a gold starburst mirror, so I ordered one that we’ll carry on LiveLikeYou.

Thank You to Worlds-Away for rushing the order! I love the mirror, it’s like a pretty jewel! It’s modern but just with an antique enough edge to tie together the old and the new in the room. It will go over the fireplace that looked this not long ago:

(Sorry for the blurry before image, all I could find.)  An old fashioned ornate fire screen from Frontgate that ended up not working in the living room, got left in here.  The screen had completely the wrong feel for the new modern look. I wanted to switch it out with the one in the living room, when Jenny, my fantastic assistant said: “Let’s paint it turquoise! It would be very LiveLikeYou!!”

I hesitated knowing if we paint it, it’s unusable and I also can’t sell it. I also was not sure how a fire screen would take to paint. Would it look messy?  Would it look cheap? But Jenny was very persistent!! The shoot was a day away, it looked terrible the way it was…what did I have to loose? The fireplace in the bedroom doesn’t work so well anyway, and I had the turquoise paint from the lamp makeover in the garage….Heck, let’s go for it!  So we called Omar to see if he could come immediately.

This needed a professional. I’ve never painted a screen before.

Thank You Omar for coming so quickly!  The screen looked great in turquoise.

Great idea Jenny!

It’s not something I recommend for working fireplaces, it’s purely decorative! But it has inspired me to maybe add a line of brightly painted firescreens to the Marmalade Design products being planned. I love new ways of looking at old things. Why do firescreens always have to be a neutral color?

Here is a little sneak peak in the room…

It certainly made for a more interesting fireplace. A happy surprise.

It feels modern and is definitely a happy chic surprise!

The trouble is…that nudge got me a little crazy…..I fear for everything in this house now.  Nothing is safe from the paintbrush!!  I’m now having another BIG piece in the living room painted lacquered purple.  I’ll show you in a later post. But I draw the line at fine antiques…

…you have to have some respect for the past…

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!!!

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23 thoughts on “Some seriously happy chic suprises

  1. In the future, the fire screens can be powder-coated for fire safety, making them both unique and functional and most importantly FUN!

  2. You know what i love about you-you're fearless in your design and you love colour!:-). Such a fun and happy home you have. Love that you painted the fireplace screen turquoise too. That mirror is fabulous! XX

  3. A magazine photo shoot, how exciting!
    And, so happy you got your blog posts back. I can't beleive how calmly you took it — I would have been beside myself.
    By the way, have I mentioned yet how much I love your masthead? So bright and chic.

  4. Oh my. Your fireplace area is gorgeous. The bright screen (such a great idea), the beyond gorgeous mirror and happy pillow. Looking at those images made my cubicle a little less dreary 🙂

  5. I love your happy colours! Which magazine will you be in? How exciting. The white grey hound reminds me of Jonathan Adlers pooch by his front door in Miami. He puts his and Simon's hats on it. Cant' wait to see it when finished

    Amanda xxx

  6. It looks amazing in turquoise! So fun and perfect for the room. Love it.

    The pillow is also wonderful. Yellow is one of my favourite colours. Happy happy!

    Vad du ar gullig som gor sa stor affar over mina konstverk. Jag blir jatte glad forstas.
    Jag malar allt pa 'commission' och skapar efter mina kunders onskemal. Allt ar mojligt.
    De flesta arbeten ar gjorda pa kanvas eller direkt pa vaggen, men jag kan aven mala pa papper (blir billigare att skicka da).
    Kan du inte maila mig ([email protected]) sa pratar vi lite mer om hur du vill ga till vaga.

    Kram kram

    x Charlotta

  7. Gorgeous. Pillow love. Fire screen fun.
    I agree with other comment made….if you want to make the fireplace screen functional you can have it powder coated. You would be amazed at the colors and finishes that are available….
    PS: You can pretty much powder coat ANYTHING ! 🙂 start processing
    Looking good and as always looking forward to seeing what else you create.

  8. wow I am absolutely amazed at the transformation … your new fireplace looks FABULOUS!!! Great call with the turquoise screen … guess it shows that sometimes you can't think about it and must just go with your gut feeling!

    I am looking at stone fireplaces as well and am completely in love with yours .. do you mind sharing where you got it?

    Thanks!

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    I'll bookmark your blog and check again here regularly.
    I'm quite sure I will learn many new stuff right here!
    Best of luck for the next!

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