More Details

This is the fourth in a series of the Parlor Makeover in our 1848 home. If you've been a regular follower, you may remember when I purchased this settee. I've never been sorry and have loved just seeing in my home. In reality, it's not very comfortable unless you put your back in the corners of it and put your feet up on the seat. However, its original intent was not for comfort, but for sitting upon with your bum on the very edge and holding a cuppa tea. Ladies, back then, did not lean back in a chair or settee during a visit and would lounge on a chaise only at home.

Let's look at some details in this photo. Notice the underskirt on the corner table next to the settee on our right. Its pattern is not the same as the settee, but it goes very well because it has the same color family and background color. The table on the left is covered in the same light weight netting as the header scarf on the window above. Because the settee is high off the floor, I wanted something more grounded on each side of it.


Pillow details. I've talked before about how important pillows were/are in Victorian decorating. This was one of the ways that the ladies of the house could showcase her stitching talents. Here, I'm practicing to make the rosettes on the Victorian Lamp shades. I love how this turned out on the pillow. The under fabric is an ivory Dupioni silk and, as the Victorian's would do, I've made this a sham so I can change it out often with something new to showcase.


This little beauty is an antique find. It is made from a very fine netting with pieces of lace hand-stitched over it. It has a beautiful lace ruffle and an embroidered rose medallion. I suppose this to be from the 20s or 30s because of the machined lace. This is also a sham. I made a Dupioni Silk pillow to fit the sham. Back in the day, it would have been done the other way around.


Let's look in the corner to the right. The Victorians loved to decorate with plants so I've put a tall tree in the corner to draw the eye up to the ceiling and that wonderful crown molding. To the right, notice the empty frame. It is waiting for a canvas that I ordered and won't be here for about a month. The portrait is of a lovely woman in a black dress arranging flowers in a vase and duplicates many of the same colors in this room.


The lamp on this table was an antique store find for $20.00. I rarely spend that much on anything, but I just HAD to have this lamp! On this table, covered with a silk velvet burnout piano scarf, I've put some family photos. The Victorians LOVED to show off their ancestors in wonderful, ornate frames. These frame are available in Aunt May's Cottage, too. From left to right are my grandmother (and namesake) and grandfather Pease, his father, his mother-in-law (my great-great-grandmother) and his wife with her second husband. According to my cousin who has researched my family back to 1170 AD, my great-grandfather was "a bit of a scalawag, preferring adventure to fatherhood". Other items on the table include, a musical bronze egg, two silver boxes, a StereoViewer marked 1898, my grandmother's glasses and a popular woman's magazine dated 1896.


This is the fine net with embroidered roses scarf swag over the settee. In the center, I have fashioned a rosette that was popular in the 80s, made with a rubber band and some poking. This adds a little color at the ceiling and ties in with the covering on the little square table to the left of the settee and its pillow. This will be the summer window treatment for this room. The winter one will be much heavier and is still on my drawing board.

As I said earlier, the Vics loved their photos. If you have a current photo that you would like to showcase in your period room, just run it through your printer on a sepia tone or take out almost all of the color in the photo as I have done here with my great-grand girls.



This little corner cabinet was purchased at an antique store in Saint Joseph, MI for less than $25.00. Shown on the bottom shelf is a tiny tea set I purchased on eBay over an ivory, fringed piano scarf.


This painting is by my favorite rose painter of all time....Igor Levashov. There are two of his paintings in this room.


I purchased this little musical jewelery box at a porch sale in town recently. The graphic on the top is in silk and it plays "Somewhere My Love" (Laura's Theme). I use it on my desk to hold some hand painted stationary, note cards and my favorite pens. I won't tell you what I paid for it 'cause you might hit me........Oh well, OK....two bucks!



Don't forget to leave a comment for the drawing. Just a hint.......it will be for something in this room!! Every time you comment on this series, your name will go in the hat.

Stay tuned for more..........