Bennison Lilac

Mid-Summer at the Shore

Sometimes you just need a full on vacation. For the first time in four years I took one – from the blog, from social media (well, there was a bit of instagramming), from the kitchen renovation that’s just not quite getting off the ground, from everything. I took a physical one as well, traveling out to Flathead Lake in Montana with 27 other members of our family for a week of kicking back, riding horses and extraordinary sunsets. But the net result of the relaxing is that here we are at mid-summer and there is much to do and much to fill you in on.

An absolutely brutal winter here on the East Coast left gardens decimated. Mine fared better than most, but everything still suffered, most importantly the hydrangeas which bloom on the previous years’ wood. Unlike some neighbors, mine survived, but had very few flowers – no comparison with last year or even the year before!

The new Aleppo (Leila) inlaid tables from Serena & Lily (which arrived after we had left last summer) look amazing in the master bedroom.

A few local finds and a change of vintage duvet have been keeping things fresh.

I tried out a beautiful silk lampshade made from a vintage sari – Robert Kime style – from Xenomania in the East Village, but it was too big and matchy-matchy. By luck, I stopped into Just Shades on Spring Street on the day I was bringing it back and walked out with the perfect simple green shade instead, for about a tenth of the cost.

With my mind on the move to Doha, I never shared a few of the things that got accomplished right at summer’s end last year. The Bennison ticking trimmed valances in my elder daughter’s room, for example, which came out more beautifully than I could have imagined…

…or the sweet art wall developing in the blue hall bathroom.

It’s more than a year later and I am still kicking myself for passing up a $15 wicker headboard at a garage sale for my younger daughter’s bedroom. That’s all she needs, along with something like this Maine style pine painted cottage dresser. If you see either on Craig’s list or at your favorite shop, be sure to let me know!

Local antique stores here haven’t been as rich with goodies as normal and many have gone under, their land being redeveloped into condos or strip malls. I find it depressing but the truth is that the house needs very little outside of these few specific pieces so it hasn’t been a personal tragedy. I have stumbled into a new shop I quite liked, finding a great pair of 1855 Morris Gull prints (which will probably be added to the blue bathroom art wall)…

…as well as an amazing antique lidded Seto porcelain dish (because of course, as one Instagram friend put it, I need MORE blue and white porcelain)…

…and a salvaged mantel shelf that might be perfect for over the stove in the upcoming kitchen renovation (which hopefully will get started).

At the end of the day, the house here is so tiny that even an extra chair can’t fit. Found this diminutive charmer at my Brooklyn favorite Fork & Pencil, but it is going to have to make its way to a client’s house. There is simply nowhere to put it!

And speaking of chairs, I’ve seen a pair of bergères her in New Jersey that look like they might be worth shipping back to Doha to replace the ones so unceremoniously taken from me.

On a negative note, my vintage sink in the downstairs bath developed a rust bubble over the winter. I am in desperate need of advice on how I might repair/reglaze it. If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

I’ll be looking for more input on upcoming posts, including major decisions needed on new exterior paint colors. I’ll also be having a giveaway for a beautiful book on ukiyo-e by Fred Harris. In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying your summer!

Jul 29, 2014 By tokyojinja in Furniture, Gardens, Interior Design, Renovation and Decoration Report 5 Comments Tags: art wall, Bennison, Bennison Lilac, blue and white porcelain, hydrangea, inlaid, inlaid furniture, inlay, Japanese porcelain, lampshade, Seto, ticking, wicker

A Match Made in Heaven…Bennison and Ticking

All this writing and talk of ticking has helped me to my own small personal epiphany. I have been stalling on making the window valances in my elder daughter’s room at the shore for a while now, but have finally found the right person to construct them.

I have quite a few yards of Bennison‘s gorgeous Lilac linen earmarked for the project as the room has six windows – two sets of bays. The windows and the incredible light are really the focal points of the space and I only want something simple to frame them. In general, I don’t use curtains in the bedrooms at the beach, preferring plain roller shades for light control hidden behind the valances during the day. The rooms are all so petite that curtains just take up space and seem heavy for the lightness of the environment. I never understand beach projects with yards and yards of heavy curtains! It is also a great way to use less yardage of beautiful and thus expensive fabrics. I have been searching for the right person to make these as sometimes the fabric is so dear – both emotionally and/or financially – that the expense of the fabricating is less important than the fabric itself. The thought of them coming out wrong is unbearable because I simply couldn’t buy the fabric again, either because it was one of a kind vintage or just plain old costly.

The ceiling in the front bay behind the headboards is quite easy to deal with because it is just straight, but the side bay has a complicated ceiling and the corners of the window molding are cut off. I can’t tell you how many people came through my door and couldn’t or weren’t willing to work with me on solving the problem of those cut corners, suggesting ridiculous things like having the molding show above the valence.

My plan for the valances has been simple scallops which mimic the curvature of the headboards and the clover shaped night table in between the twin beds. The valence below is in Cath Kidson‘s bedroom in another wonderful Bennison roses pattern called Daisy Chain (you already know how much I love their Faded Floral and I’ll be showing how I used their monochrome blue Roses on beige linen soon). Kidson’s window is flat, so she is able to run a single piece valence with small scallops. My bays require a bit of a different treatment, with each window having one single large scallop.

Luckily my lovely new curtain lady understood exactly what I want, where I want them to start from and how I want them to hang. She took some iPhone photos and created this rendering. While lovely, it is a bit too fancy for me (and my daughter) with the green ruffle in between the scallops – too “decorator-y” if you know what I mean. That said, without some kind of border or contrast the Lilac fabric might look diffused, without punctuation, and I think that issue was what she was trying to solve by adding the secondary fabric. If you look back at the Cath Kidson photo, you’ll see there is a contrasting edging.

So in all these recent posts on ticking fabric I keep coming up with examples that mix well with Bennison florals and scallops. And it got me thinking…

Don’t I have some great lilac ticking put away in my magic fabric closet? And ridiculous me, don’t I have a photograph of it stored somewhere in my files?

Yes!

I don’t remember how much I have but this is real vintage ticking. What if the scalloped Lilac fabric was piped or bordered in it? I think that might be just the bit of sporty casualness it needs while also defining the edge of the large print. What say you all? For a little visual assistance, here is a mock-up, but keep in mind the scale and color is off.

I really enjoy these great monthly newsletters from Bennison – its easy to sign up for them if you are interested. There are always prettily styled photographs, like this one featuring the Lilac in this post as well as the newest Bennison design information. The most recent newsletter features the same photo of a room with ticking plus a Bennison floral pattern that I just used in my ticking post!

Oct 8, 2012 By tokyojinja in Interior Design, Renovation and Decoration Report, Textiles 14 Comments Tags: beach house, bedroom, Bennison, Bennison Lilac, ticking, valence, window treatments