Hi friends, welcome back to Design Crisis for my latest installment in the One Room Challenge! If you'd like to catch up on previous weeks, please click HERE. If you're already caught up, then you know that last week hammered nails into the coffin of my marble Saarinen dinette dreams. Keywords: fire, brimstone, inferno. I was pretty bummed, but you fine people left so many kind comments and suggestions that I just want to thank you from the bottom of tired and overwhelmed heart. Know that I am cooking up multiple scenarios and basically decorating three rooms simultaneously until I know for sure what will work out in time, but rest assured that the finale will include a table... or perhaps just a Moroccan style pile of floor cushions. I kid, I kid. Or do I??? Let's not talk about my dumb table, or lack thereof. Let's talk about art. Let's talk about how I have 26 pictures worth of stuff to show you, and that's AFTER I edited the selections down. I need to edit again, and obviously I really need to clean out my garage.
While other things are busy falling into place (I hope), I decided to browse my ginormous collection of art to find the best and brightest selections for the room. This lady is one of my favorites. The frame weighs at least 500 pounds and the vintage needlepoint is magical in its softness and coloring.
I just wish it were bigger... It doesn't fill the space as well as I'd like, but the mix of old and dirty with new and crisp does it for me.
So pretty. So sweet. I so do not have a daughter, and I bet my two sons are jealous of this beatific mother who does not look the least bit haggard or unkempt. I suspect she dares not feed her child cereal for dinner, either. There are words for moms like this.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, I have this vintage Vasarely poster in dire need of reframing. Acid trip acid wasp, for sure.
Yeah, baby. I can feel my brain getting all swirly and I like it.
Meanwhile, how j'adorable is my vintage Mark Sabin print with that nutty Robert Allen fabric?
I think at the very least I need to reframe so it doesn't infringe on the curtains... also not loving the horizontal on a vertical wall.
Then again, I'm not loving this vertical abstract painting either. It veers a little too Palm Beach against that wall color.
Old dirty prints. I'm down with ODP (yeah, you know me), but maybe these are a trifle too old and dirty to command such a central space.
These on the other hand... these are cray. I bought a set of vintage Alan Davie lithographs off ebay for a song, and they're pretty awesome. The framing would be tricky, though.
But are they too cray? Will that flying, ahem, object disturb the digestion of my more delicate dinner guests?
Speaking of, is this too much? I do think that a grouping of small pieces provides a nice foil to the low hanging blobbiness of the chandelier.
Another random ebay purchase, this portfolio of prints from the 1962 Seattle World's Fair shows depicts the evolution of science over the ages. These prints are WEIRD. The print quality is superb, though.
And finally, I have this behemoth of a mirror designed by Gio Ponti. It goes with my Italian Sciolari chandelier and Italian chairs, but is it too... Italian?
That's not even possible, right? This sucker is very large and very heavy, though. Securing it to the wall would be a challenge. And is a mirror the best way to finish the space? Do I go for more light or more color? Does the pretty arched panel of the mirror look weird with the ugly arched panel of the door?
Also, I have two other stellar mirrors (LaBarge!) and tons more art. Anything could happen, and everything is dependent on the dreaded table and seating and fabric choices. It's the decorating domino effect.
Out of curiosity I'd love to know your thoughts, but please don't be offended if I don't take your advice. If our government is any indication of speed and efficacy, then decorating should not be a democratic sport. I aim to run something more of a benevolent dictatorship. It's for the greater good.
So that's what I've been working on for the week. Please stop by my fellow challengers to see where their projects stand. There are only two more weeks left to go...
