Friday, November 25, 2011

Vintage Charm

My parents still live in the house that I grew up in. They moved in shortly before I was born, and have lived there ever since. As the years go by, the 1986 style has certainly not been able to keep up with modern America. My mom has a wonderful eye for design and has slowly been updating every room in the house. The first room was our utility room which was converted into a computer room, then the den, then the dining room, then the foyer, and now all the bedrooms. It was definitely time for the lavender and flowery daybed from my room and the yellow and green daybed from Court's room to hit the dumpster. My mom bought "big girl" beds for the rooms and then got all new grown-up bedding. The rooms look fabulous! Every time I go over to my parents' house something has been added to the rooms: a lamp, new pillows, a night stand, etc. When I went over to their house for Thanksgiving I saw my two most favorite additions to my sisters' rooms. When my mom was cleaning out my Grandpa's house a few years ago there were these awesome vintage chairs in his attic that were not in any shape to be displayed.  One chair was ripped and the other chair didn't have a cushion at all. Given my mom's designer abilities, she had one of the chairs re-purposed and it is my favorite piece of furniture in their house by far! There is nothing better than something that is truly vintage.
The details on the wood are amazing, but hard to see.
Another cool accent piece my mom added to another room was a birdcage that she hung on the wall. The birdcage itself is pretty cool, but my mom took it beyond that. She added some old photos my grandparents' had taken on vacation, some hand written notes and envelopes, and even one of my grandmother's pearl necklaces. Such a cool and clever idea!
Love it!
Hopefully I will slowly take after my mom and be able to design my future house in ways that I learned from her.