Part 2 - A New Orleans Traditional Home Is Updated

This week I am sharing another room in the New Orleans home I have been working on HERE

It is the room adjacent to the living room, a second parlor. Even in a grand townhouse such as this one, the shotgun floor plan is in evidence, that is one room flowing into another. The two living rooms are used for entertaining.

Before - This is the room as I found it on the first day I looked at the house
You can see a glimpse of the chandelier we moved to the living room

The client said she wanted to get rid of her "old" furniture, but I felt she had some lovely pieces that just needed updating. For this middle room, we did not purchase any new furniture, but rather reupholstered existing pieces.

I loved the rug when I saw it, and again it was a pivotal piece in choosing colors.

This is the room as it is today
You can clearly see the relationship of the two living rooms

The daybed before it was reupholstered
Too many frou frou pillows, and the art work needed to go elsewhere

I loved these pale blue leather chairs
The client wanted to get new ones because the cat has left her mark
But I convinced her to keep them,
and to consider the very minor marks as patina
We removed the antique table and replaced it with a zig zag glass table

The room with the daybed gone to the upholsterer
The pair of club chairs is waiting for the fabric we ordered to come in
Various paintings were tried in this spot
The client was attached to to the lovely French mirrors and sconces
So it was decided to would work with them
We also kept the antique side tables and glass lamps

A painting by Louis St. Lewis was a consideration

Ultimately this Ed Smith painting won out
The antique mirrors are back under the sconces
The daybed is back with the new fabric, a Fabricut velvet

Ed Smith painting

The two club chairs were covered in an embroidered linen

Closeup view of one of the club chairs

This is the drapery before - cream color linen with balloon shades

This is the new drapery after
I continued with the same apricot silk that was used in the living room
No more balloon shades!

Apricot silk drapes made by perch.
All fabrics were ordered through perch.
All upholstery by Leonels

Here's the room again as it is today. It's fresh, filled with beautiful color and using all the pretty things the lady of the house had lovingly collected over the last ten years. As I said no new furniture was purchased for this room. Editing and updating were all that were needed.

Updated and refreshed double parlors in New Orleans

Repeated elements such as the apricot silk drapery, and the colors in the rug unify the these two rooms.

There is a third connecting room, the dining room that I will show you soon. The Mouille chandelier we ordered is taking forever to come, but I think I'll show you the dining room without it, and then show the room again when it comes in.

Thanks again for your interest in my projects. I love sharing what I love to do with you!

Warm and Cozy With Brown Velvet

This is the front door to our house
The Union Jack armoire is our coat closet
This room is our dance studio

I had another old ratty vintage chair reupholstered. I bought it for $20. eleven years ago, and it was in such good shape, it stayed the way I found it, gold velvet with brown wood arms and legs.
The chair has good classic lines, so I decided I would re-up it.

Leonels has done all the upholstery in our home, and we use them at perch. the high end home furnishings shop I work in. They are simply the best for workmanship, and they are fair with pricing.

Leonels is the upholsterer to Visual Vamp
View from the living room into the dance studio

I meant the chair for the dance studio, placed by a window, a nice spot to just sit and gaze, or an handy place to change into dance shoes, or sit and teach from the chair ha ha.

Uh, no. Too "Mr. and Mrs."
So I broke up the romance, & moved Mrs. Brown Velvet Chair

But I got seduced by the "newness" and moved the chair into the living room. It didn't quite fit, and paired with the lime green wing chair, it looked a little too much like "Mr. and Mrs. Chair", too granny even for this granny.

Mrs. Brown Velvet does a tango in the dance studio

So Back to the dance studio it went.

I painted the arms and legs of the chair white, and distressed the paint a bit. The new fabric is brown velvet, purchased from Fabric.com. The old chair had nail heads, but for the new version I chose self-piping. I have nail heads on the couch and French settee, and my breakfast room chairs, and just thought, "enough with the nail heads already."

A place to gaze or change into dance shoes

Then I moved it back to the living room, and moved it this way and that way. Fuss and fidget, fuss and fidget. Oh the silly restless illness of a decor addict. Don't judge/laugh. I know you do the same thing.

I moved the chair this way...

Then I moved the chair that way...

And then I finally moved it back to the studio where I wanted it to be in the first damn place! So now the chairs are all at rest for the moment, cozy on this winter day.

Striped doors in the dance studio adjoin the living room

Visual Vamp living room February 2011
Cozy - Do you see Cholo?

I have some exciting news. The Preservation Resource Center invited Alberto and I to be on the first Shotgun House Tour since Hurricane Katrina. We are so honored and excited. It's Saturday April 2 in case you are in New Orleans.

I needed to snap some photos, and I got a new camera from Alberto for Christmas, so I am experimenting with settings and exposures. I always shoot with natural light which is tricky, since even though our house doesn't feel gloomy, it's not exactly flooded with light.

So these photos are part of the learning curve, and since I had them I thought I'd share them, in hopes to give you something to look at during the MONSTER STORM OF THE CENTURY!

Visual Vamp living room looking into the dance studio - 2011

PS Thank you all for the great response to my project with the apricot silk drapes. Next week I will show you another room....

Mocca-chocolata ya ya

Mocca-chocolata ya ya
Sarah Dash, Nona Hendryx, Patti LaBelle
The original Ladies Marmalade in 1974

Been cleaning up the post holiday detritus, rearranging, revamping, the usual modus operandi of a fidgety decorator. Blasting some old LaBelle on the boom box to drown out the vacuum cleaner, when it dawned on me that the living color scheme is very "mocca-chocolata ya ya."

There are many shades of brown, from chocolate to mocha, to coffee. Even Cholo matches!
I recently moved the glam Hollywood Regency wheat sheaf coffee table back into the room. It had been banished for some time because I could never make it fit or look right. But since I "centered" the room with the shutters, it works.
I'm keeping the holiday gold leaves around the clock up for awhile. It's Carnival season. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! The little crown (from Julie Neill) helps support that Carnival story ha ha. (Thanks Julie for the fab Bunny Williams book - I'm looking forward to you posting about Bunny's lecture in New Orleans!)
The chaise came back into room. It had been relocated for the Holly Golightly Christmas tree. I put the television on a swivel stand so it can be moved for viewing from both the sofa and the chaise (nice when the hubs visits my inner sanctum ha ha).
I had this swivel thingee in my magic closet. I bought it at Home Depot some time ago to make a Lazy Susan for the table for a dinner party we had for Chinese New Years. So you don't have to spend big bucks on an official TV swivel stand when a $5.95 thingee will do!

Here's the Lazy Susan thingee - a 12 inch turnatable
You can find it at your local Home Depot, or on line HERE

I recovered a chair that had been living in our bedroom. I found this great Duralee fabric on line. I spy PVE Design's drawing over the etagere!
The chair had a tufted button back and was covered in granny damask. It was a $20. yard sale find. I asked that the chair be recovered without the buttons and tufting. I wanted a cleaner look.
I used five yards of fabric and you can order the it from these good people:

Anatol's Fabric Outlet LTD 235 E. Kirkham Rd. St. Louis, MO 63119 -
phone: 314-968-0090 www.housefabric.com

Leonel's did the upholstery job for me again. They are magicians, transforming the settee, the couch, my dining room chairs, and now this sweet little arm chair. I love them!

The knick knacks on the credenza stayed the same. I found another brown tray in the magic closet and used it on the opposite end. The little watercolor inserted in the frame of the Fornasetti was a gift from Jessica from her trip to Italy. She got it in Florence and thought it reminded her of my paste pot mural.

All in all I think I'm finally happy with the old living room ha ha. A small room with doors and windows on every wall, the furniture arrangement always a challenge. I love all the colors now, the Billy Baldwin inspired brown walls, the Ikat pillows, the exploded damask on the chaise, the negative print on the chair, the faux white leather on the French settee and the Camelback sofa, the tattered shutters, the big clock (where Joni told me to put it!), the Baker credenza, the over size lantern chandelier, the Ghost chair, the black and white stripe rug, the white accents - it all makes me happy. Mocca chocolata ya ya!
Maybe this Spring I'll be able to afford some ballgown drapes from Peyroux's.
But for now the old poison green velvet panels look very pretty. (Thanks Linda for the white vase behind the couch!)
And I'd love some yummy sconces from Julie Neill of course!!!
And just to keep it real, here are a few "before" pictures from my wall of shame ha ha!

Post Katrina madness!
eBay was my best friend and Jonathan Adler was my Bible (sorry Jonathan!)

I had the nerve to send this shot to domino for their home decorating contest last year -
they used it on their slideshow and Desire To Inspire actually used it too!

The cow hide crept in replacing the Jonathan Adler rug -
And yes that's the settee that got recovered in white faux leather

Then I hit the pink dye pot!!! I was always trying to make the yellow paint I inherited work -
I suffered for four years until I finally repainted the room!
What was I waiting for?

Cue Magazine did a nice little spread, but I wasn't finished yet!

The Eames chair was soon to go -
Notice the smaller table top on the gold wheat sheaf base

This was one of Joni's favorite versions - she suggested I hang the big clock on the shutters - genius!
I had just gotten the dining rooms chairs back from Leonels,
and I was playing musical chairs with them, moving them all over the house!

And here's the room today, nearly finished ha ha!

Kitchen Edit

The last delivery of chairs from the grand reupholstery project came today. Everything got covered with white faux leather, and French Natural nail head trim. The chairs were repaired and stabilized. but original paint finishes were not touched
These chairs came from Spain, and are well over a hundred years old. They're salon chairs, but we use them as our dining chairs. I bought them in New York City many years ago at an antique store on Houston Street called Cob Web. I used them "as is". They were upholstered in a raw yellow silk. As the years passed the chairs got more rickety, and the fabric got stained and dirty. There were six chairs, but two got lost along the way.
I loved the white faux leather fabric I found on eBay for a mere $3. per yard, and used it on the revamp of the sofa first. I have had white slip covered furniture in the past, but wanted something a little more updated and easy to keep clean.
I loved the job Leonels did for me on the old camel back sofa, so much so, that I decided to move on to doing an antique French settee that had an unusual and strangely beautiful old upholstery.
The frame of the settee was in sore need of repair, and Leonel said they could restore this 150 year old piece.
There was still some fabric left over, thus came the decision to re-do the dining room chairs too, which was a long overdue project. I got away with using them in all their yellow glory for so many years, without anyone falling on the floor (if one of the old chairs finally gave out and collapsed).
They are so stable and comfortable now, as well as being very beautiful. The nail heads were spaced a bit apart to give them a less traditional look. Also, the less nail heads used, the less money in labor costs.
Once again Leonel did a fabulous job, and I hope to get many, many more years of use from these chairs.
Of course I had to do a little revamping of the breakfast area to live up to all this new beauty! I had been wanting to try out the settee along with the chairs around the table.
I also took advantage of my house cleaning mood to edit, edit, edit. I removed an entire collection of Majolica plates from one wall, and also removed the two huge rooster plaques. The mantle was a jumble of a collection of Majolica pitchers and a pair of Dore style lamps, and the walls around the fireplace covered with odds and ends of Louisiana folk art.
I brought in a lovely painting done by the artist James Michalopoulos, on loan to me from Sabina and Joe until they finally have their own home again. It was one of their few possessions saved from the fatal damage that Katrina did to their home, and I am so lucky that they have entrusted it to me for the duration. I also chose the best of the Majolica plates to display on only one wall. I'm trying to sell the tole sconce, but in the meantime it can remain as it is.Also on the mantle, the best Majolica pitcher, just three plates on stands, a modern lamp, and a baguette basket.
I also removed all the folk art (except for one painting leaning against the wall while perched on the bar), and a cabinet that sat on top of the bar. I streamlined the bar, adding a couple of white ironstone platters to hold bottles and accoutrements.
So there you have it! The end of the great reupholstery project!