A while ago, I posted designer Cindy Hattersley's downsized master bedroom, as they had simplified and moved to a smaller fixer-upper, built in the 1930's.
Now she's posted her living room, which to me has the same relaxed comfort as the bedroom she showed.
I always like the classic paint color, Benjamin Moore's "White Dove" she uses, as it is not a bright white, but a soft, yet complex vanilla. Looks mellow with all her vintage things. She said she hasn't yet found the right area rug. This is looking from the entrance:
If you saw the master bedroom in this house before, you'll remember that it was in much worse shape than this living room when they started. Here's the bland, but perfectly decent "before" living room:
See those small shelves in the arch-top niches? This is so interesting-- she said she's not much for a lot of smaller objects, she knew she didn't want to fill those shelves with distracting bibelots, I guess! So she removed the shelves, and used the niches to display handsome old shutters from her previous house.
To me, this adaptation shows she really knows her own decorating style. Close-up on the niches below, which also shows another intriguing little arrangement of stacked boxes on the chest on the side. Chinoiserie chair was thrifted, and I love the two different fabrics she used on it:
Linen curtain panels are from Pottery Barn. Comparable bamboo bliinds available at Home Depot. As usual, she lists the origins of almost everything-- love that! That single-bench couch looks cozy.
They purchased no new furniture at all for this room-- the only new piece is the Pottery Barn fireplace screen. Another thing that I like that she does, is she salts vintage wood cutting boards in unexpected rooms-- here it's a "tray" for that bowl of coral. (I've used mine as a decorative tray too, but it doesn't look as good!)
The mantel: The mirror was a long-ago Horchow purchase. That charming little boy oil portrait was a thrifting find, and she combines it here with her antique lawn bowling pins, and terra cotta potted topiaries.
Old, faux grain-painted chests seem to be a theme with her-- I believe there was one in the bedroom too. Love her well-chosen vintage boxes scattered about.
She's more for exciting textures than she is for colors. (I tend to like both, but she's a master of this quiet "texturama".) Said she didn't want a lot of different colors in this corner cupboard, so is displaying her vintage and native baskets there instead. Love the paintings and old frames throughout. Always gives me very much the feeling of "Old California".
And this shot below gives a glimpse of the dining room through the graceful arched opening:
More texture, notably in that nubbly lamp and twig table.
From what I've seen on her blog, this new interation of a living room once again reflects her understated, yet confidently informed design style to a 'T".
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