Copy Cat Dining Tables

The X base dining table via Cote de Texas

Joni from Cote de Texas said that the X base wood dining room table is one that young people want today. However the four figure price tag is daunting when you are starting out. The X base table looks great in so many decor schemes whether antique influenced as in Belgian or French or Swedish style, or mixing the Trad/Rad style together (modern, traditional, vintage, antique).

Ta da! My favorite knock-off artists of decor trends, or should I say interpreters of our favorite expensive looks, Home Decorators, has some new tables that I think you will love.

The copy cat from Home Decorators

First is the X base table HERE

It's very good looking and the price makes it possible to have it now. Granted it is not as grand as the expensive ones. It is solid oak, and styled up right, it could be very good looking.

X Base dining table from Home Decorators

X Base dining table in Elle Decor

I love zinc top tables. And the ones I love are again in the four figures. Ouch!

Zinc top table from Mecoxx Gardens - 4 figs 4 sure

Home decorators has one HERE for 399.!

It does need to get beat up to give it some zinc-y goodness and patina, but again, what a great place holder that would last you for a few years until you are able to upgrade.

Any of these tables could "grow" with you, versatile enough to be used as accent tables, or desks, when they have served their purpose as dining tables, when you are able make the bigger purchase.

Zinc top table from Home Decorators

And last but not least is this little French beauty, Louis style and distressed.
Again a big look for three figures instead of four from Home Decorators HERE

French style dining table from Home Decorators

I love getting the Home Decorator catalog. They always surprise me with something new, and I also love their power-to-the-people prices!

French Louis style dining table from Home Decorators

The Dining Room Reveal - Part 3 - A New Orleans Traditional Home Is Updated

If you have been following me along on this project, you know I have been updating a house in New Orleans HERE and HERE.

You've seen the two "parlors", and the third room in this shotgun floor plan is the dining room, which I am showing you today.

The dining room the day I came for my first interview September 2010

As before, the owner had a lovely collection of beautiful French and English antiques. She had done up the house ten years ago, and was ready for an update.

Chippendale chairs, with quilted slipcovers had to go
I wanted to keep the table

She gave me leeway to change the furnishings. I could "toss" it all. The wall color and floors had to remain.

I wanted to keep as much as possible, and add a mix of vintage and modern pieces, a mix I am adept at using.

The lamps were remodeled for the living room
The mirror and sideboard stayed, and the art was moved around
You can see in the reflection in the mirror the old balloon shade
It was changed to a clean tailored apricot silk Roman shade

The one huge issue in the dining room, was an off center crystal chandelier, an antique original to the house. We moved it to the living room.

The heavy Chippendale style chairs could have been painted a bright color, but I really felt that was drastic and would greatly detract from their value. They had quilted fabric slip covers that jut looked too gloomy. So the first thing we decided to change were the dining room chairs. The client loves Kartell so we started there.

Chair tryouts
The sea grass rug stayed - it plays back to the same one in the living room
Continuity in a shotgun house floor plan is imperative

We tried the Louis Ghost chair, The Victoria model first. The husband had a good laugh and wanted to know what doll house furniture was doing in his dining room. I had a good laugh too, and though the chair was a good starting point, I knew we could do better. Plus I like to keep the husbands happy too.

Set of vintage Milo Baughman chairs were the final chair choice
The chandelier was moved to the living room

I found a set of vintage Milo Baughman chairs. We had been playing with mixing metals, and the chrome just seemed right. And the chairs are very substantial and comfortable, so the husband loved them.

Originally I wanted to keep the antique dining table. The client proposed something modern, but everything we considered just didn't feel right. Then I saw a table in Elle Decor HERE, and it was major LOVE.

I wanted the antique table to stay until I found this one!
It was major LOVE for the client too
The zinc metal top with the bleached root base
is a perfect sculptuaral one-of a kind piece

I chose a Kelly Wearstler fabric to recover the Baughman chairs. It is so rich in look and feel, and has a bit of a throwback to the era the chairs came from. The color wove a story with the rug in the middle parlor, and with the apricot silk drapes.

Chairs at Leonels upholsterer with the new Kelly Weartsler fabric

The reupholstered chairs arrive!

Kelly Wearstler for Lee Jofa - Sora Velvet

The client saw a large antler on my dining table at home, and loved it, and we got a pair for her table to try out. Other accessories include a pair of vintage Murano lamps on the sideboard, and a portrait painted by Louis St. Lewis was added to the client's formidable art collection. We kept the antique sideboard, and trumeau.

Dining Room decor/styling by Valorie Hart

We also kept the impressive French armoire, and took all the leaves out of the dining table and used it as an accent table in the corner. A pair of Biedermeir style chairs got new seats, covered in a beautiful purple cut velvet to play off the Murano lamps.

The antique armoire stayed - it is gorgeous!
The dining table with the leaves removed is now an accent table

Issac Mizrahi for S. Harris, cut silk velvet on linen

I found a pair of antique metal sconces that actually felt quite modern, a good addition to the mix we had going on.

One of two antique metal sconces installed in the dining room

Then the key to solving the issue of the asymmetrical room proportions was delivered! We wanted to keep the ceiling medallion that the old chandelier hung under, and not do any serious rewiring for perhaps two chandeliers over the table.

Serge Mouille to the rescue!!!! With the client's love for Mid Century modern and my love for the mix, this was the only possible beautiful solution.

This odd looking package solved a major problem!

Frank, our electrician had never seen the lighting fixture before. I told him it was hand made for us in France, that a vintage one goes for around $35K. He was not amused, because he didn't know how to hang it. He talked about ripping out the ceiling medallion, and building a new electrical box, repainting the ceiling, etc. The client said absolutely not!

I bow down to Frank!!!

Visual Vamp to the rescue! It's not for nothing that I have been married to an electrical engineer for 16 years! So I talked Frank down from his chagrin, and gently suggested this in that, and voila! Frank installed the Mouille in record time. I love him. He crawled under the house to the sconces, and now this.

So take a peek into the dining room with the new lighting fixture... Also notice how the chairs, the Murano lamps, the art, all play back to the rug in the middle room, my color inspiration for all of the furnishings.

The lovely Oushak was the color inspiration

Mouille lighting fixture in the dining room

Interior decor/design/styling by Valorie Hart

Interior design Valorie Hart

The family (and their friends) are just loving all the updates and changes. I love coming into these rooms every time I have something to do in this house.

I have had a great time orchestrating this fabulous mix.

Next time, I have a sweet bar area to show you, and some upstairs bedrooms I have been working on.

Sources:

Milo Baughman chairs from David Katz 504 458-1196

Murano lamps, all fabrics, antlers, white bowl with chain detail on sideboard
from perch. 504 899-2122

Serge Mouille lighting fixture from Design Within Reach New Orleans 504.891.652

The French House Wife Dinner

One of my favorite fantasies is to be a French house wife. You know, live in France, shop the food markets, and cook like a French woman.




I have been this way for years and years after spending time in France, and then working in a French restaurant in New York for six years. So I schooled myself to cook French dishes, to think like a French house wife at the market, and to latch onto what I perceived as a more genteel lifestyle.

Visual Vamp table setting inspired by France

So for Christmas Eve dinner, I knew I wanted to do a classic French house wife supper, simple and fresh food, well prepared. I chose to do roast chicken with herbs, a medley of vegetables (baby beets, baby carrots, squash, shallots), and herb roasted potatoes. I asked Jack to make a chutney, and he obliged with one made from black berries, apples, and cherries. The wine choice was a festive sparkling rose.

Dessert (and a baguette for the dinner) was purchased from the local patisserie: A hazelnut Buche de Noel. Added to the dessert table: Miss Elaine's cashew toffee, a cranberry lemon cake in the shape of Christmas trees, Alberto's arroz con leche, a bowl of dark chocolates, and the star of the show, flaming Cafe Brulot.

Cafe Brulot cups and dessert plates on the sideboard

Classic New Orleans Cafe Brulot cups have a devilish jester on them

A special copper pot to flame the Cafe Brulot

Setting the table is as much fun as cooking for me. I knew I wanted to do red this year, so I raided the cupboards for all the red ornaments I could find.

Vintage ornaments, sugared fruit, sequin flowers, all in shades of red

I had two yards of a red damask print fabric, that I used for a tablecloth. The print is called Mairselles!

Red Le Cadeaux plates from perch.

I used a white under plate, and a red dinner plate from a company called Le Cadeaux. It's Melamine, and we sell this line at perch. The plates come in many classic French colors and patterns, and you have to touch them to realize they are not china, and even then you aren't completely sure.

Mix and match glassware

I mixed and matched glassware, one glass for champagne, and one glass for water. I used red linen napkins with tiny a twig wreath as a napkin ring. A place card was tucked into the napkin ring. White ironstone butter pats were used to hold individual servings of sea salt and cracked pepper.

White under plate, red dinner plate, red linen napkin
White ironstone butter pat for salt and pepper

Antique flatware - we use it everyday

Chairs were mixed and matched too. The dining room is tiny, and the table unopened holds a snug eight.

Visual Vamp dining room - dinner for eight on Christmas Eve

You can see a couple of videos Alberto made of the night HERE and HERE.

The table was set with L*O*V*E

We are totally enjoying the holidays, and I love when Alberto films our good times so we can share them with you.

Paper white narcissus plant on the white lacquer bar tray

Other little touches included a paper white narcissus plant on the bar tray, and some baubles added to the chandelier.

More baubles on the chandelier

The candles were lighted, the music was playing, the dinner was ready, and ding-dong there's the door bell!

Visual Vamp Christmas Eve table setting by candlelight

Hope you enjoyed this last Visual Vamp Tablescape Thursday. Stop by Susan's Between Naps On The Porch HERE to see what everyone else did to close out 2010.

Pink Monogram Plates

French chest with gilt mirror

It's been crazy since we got back from New York a couple of weeks ago. I have jury duty for the entire month of August, which has stalled the kitchen project.

Visual Vamp Greige Dining Room
Read more about Greige at Cote de Texas HERE

I've had a change of heart about retro fitting the "Wisteria" French chest as a base kitchen cabinet. After I painted the existing kitchen furniture HERE, another painted piece of furniture is just too much. So it ended up in the dining room, and I guess it's staying since I raised the mirror and styled the top of the chest with a lamp, a globe, and a drinks tray.

I seem to have amassed a collection of various curiosities: charts, specimens, bugs, birds, botanicals, a vintage globe, shells, and other nature inspired stuff. I plan another post about this later.

Pink Melamine plate with my name on it

This week I am showing you a set of plates I got for my birthday from Caroline the owner of perch. in New Orleans, the shop I work in. I also got the darling owl salt and pepper shakers from my do-worker Jack that he purchased from our friends Bryan and Tom's shop Hazelnut.

Melamine plates from perch.
Owl salt and pepper shaker from Hazelnut

perch. sells these wonderful plates. They are Melamine, and you can get them in dozens of colors, patterns, and monogram choices. You have to come into the shop to choose and order them, and it takes about a week to get them to you.

Pink Melamine plate with a monogram

Caroline got me four plates with my first name on them, and four plates with my first initial and Alberto' s first initial. I joked that at my age it's good to have a plate with my name on it in front of me to remind me of who I am.

Silver owl salt and pepper shakers
Glassware from the Williamsburg catalog

The table is set with a white cowhide for a table cloth, and white metal antlers as the centerpiece.

Mariposa napkin ring

Vintage Edwardian silverware is used, with linen napkins in a pale paisley pattern gathered up with a silver butterfly napkin ring. My tango nickname is La Mariposa (the butterfly), and I have gotten alot of butterfly gifts over the years (I love you all, but you can all stop now).

Metal antler centerpiece

A white ceramic charger made in Italy is the under plate, and the glassware is reproduction from the Williamsburg catalog.




You might think pink plates with an orange monogram are an odd choice, but I think they add whimsy, fun, and energy to the table setting.

Curiosities seem to be the accessory of choice

Even though my hair and my dining room and kitchen have gone greige, I still love color, and in fact consider greige very much a color.



Color creeps in with the addition of everyday objects like bottles and paper umbrellas for the cocktails.

Bowl of paper umbrellas

Checkl out Tablescape Thursday, so hop on over to Susan at Between Naps On The Porch to see some beautiful table settings done by hundreds of you guys!



PS This is my thank you note to Caroline and Jack! You made my birthday so special!