Decorating with Ginger Jars

Vintage Sadler jar from the 1950's

 When we bought our stone house last summer I couldn't stop thinking about decorating all of the deep windowsills of the house with ginger jars.

The sills themselves cry out for some sort of object to adorn them and take advantage of their depth, and by placing a ginger jar (or other decorative object) in a window there is an effect of tricking the eye.  When approached from the exterior the eye is drawn to the jar or object in the window, and doesn't necessarily focus on the scene contained within the room.  It offers some privacy in that it offers a distraction.

I also knew that I wanted to expose the original windows of the house fully, they are wooden windows with their original storms and many panes of glass are original as well (and they look so beautiful and wavy as old glass does).   The ginger jars needed to both create a distraction and provide some decoration to these old windows and sills.

Giant black and white dragon ginger jar, new reproduction.

If you yourself decide to get on the ginger jar bandwagon I have one word for you: Etsy.  I found many small vintage ginger jars on Etsy, most made in England by Sadler in the 1950's.   Typical prices for these smaller jars were between $15 and $25.

For the larger ginger jars?  I had no choice but to buy new reproductions.  I found some large antique ginger jars at various dealers but they were all several hundred dollars.  Reproduction jars can be found in beautiful large sizes for around a hundred dollars or so.

Not a ginger jar.
This large vase by Spode has a ginger jar shape but no lid.

A ginger jar is not a vase, though of course if you remove the lid you could use it as a vase.  The lids offer a great advantage however, in that they don't allow dust to gather inside.  One can simply dust the jar without having to haul it over to the kitchen sink to rid the inside of dust... a distinct advantage on housecleaning day.  

One of two ginger jars in the front window.

Small ginger jar on a fireplace mantel.
I love the colours on this one.

 I use the smaller ginger jars in our bedroom to store useful things like cotton balls and vitamins.

Ginger jar on a makeup table: cotton puffs inside.

Ginger jar full of magnesium pills.

 Like most people I find groupings of three dead-set attractive.  This new reproduction ginger jar and matching little vases are set on top of the pine armoire I use for storing clothes.

Reproduction ginger jar in a marble pink pattern, with matching vases.

Pine armoire with grouping of three.

I'm still looking for a large ginger jar as I have one bare windowsill in the upstairs hallway.
Are you also mad for ginger jars?  Do you have any decorating your furniture or windowsills?
xoxDani

Choosing a Whole Home Colour Palette

 After seeing Farrow & Ball colours paired with art and sculpture at a museum in Vienna last summer I made a vow to use these colours if I ever had another chance to choose a whole home palette.

The light and shadows of each room in that museum bounced off the pigments in the paint, creating different shades and feelings throughout the space.  It wasn't just that the colours had amazing depth, there was also a natural saturated tone to them, they were the perfect backdrop to all of the different artworks because they seemed an extension of the natural world.

When we bought our stone house I had an idea that these paints would play off the light and the stone of the property perfectly: the old windows, the cedar trees and the slightly amber tone of our local limestone could be subtly enhanced.

It would be choosing the colours that would be the trick!

 Fortunately F&B has a very limited colour palette: we all know choices are more difficult to make when there are thousands of options to choose from.

 I started with the largest spaces on the main floor, the rooms that really demanded more neutral tones due to the variety of wood tones, fabrics and art that would be filling them.

Joa's White for the Living Room

 Our living room is actually a huge space that also includes the dining room, as well as two fireplaces, large windows and a door to the outdoor courtyard.  Joa's White is a neutral with a red-base, making it warm, but it also has a bit of black pigment in it, which means it pairs well with the limestone exterior.

Dimity for the Entry and Hallways

 Dimity will cover a really large space: the entry and hallways in the house (which has a centre-hall plan... which means that it feeds into many of the rooms).  I wanted another red-based neutral but something very pale and almost vintage in feeling.

Wimborne White: All the Trim and Ceilings!

 Wimborne White is a really popular choice for trim and ceilings, it's a warm off-white (due to a yellow/amber pigment) and is very close to All White... just warmer, and more suitable to an older house I think.  We're using it in an eggshell (almost pearl) finish on the trim and in a dead flat formula for the ceilings.

Ball Green

 Ball Green is one of my favourite F&B colours.  It is described as an almost silvery green and I would say that's true.  As I write this it is already up on the walls of what will be our family room/den and the colour does change throughout the day, and it is surprisingly warm for a very natural green.

Even though we are not touching the kitchen or the powder room on the main floor I had to include the main colour of those spaces: it's very nearly identical to F&B's Cook's Blue!  How cheery is this colour?  It's so clean and pairs really well with white, with pottery and with copper... perfect for a kitchen.

Cook's Blue

Pairs well with Copper!

 The hallway off the kitchen leads into the back staircase, and another hallway space at the top of those stairs.  I thought it would be a good opportunity to use Green Blue, another favourite shade of mine.

Green Blue

 The large main bathroom is filled with light due to three large windows, and has a very traditional feel with an old claw-foot tub and matching antique sinks.
Oval Room Blue really has a vintage look, this due to the fact that it is a blackened blue, it's not that it looks grey exactly, rather it's almost stormy looking.

Oval Room Blue in the Main Bathroom

 We have a few closets that needed paint and for these I chose Dix Blue, a blue that is very green and has a slight bit of black in it.  It pairs well with the other colours in the palette even though it is quite distinctive.  It even pairs well with very different wallpaper accent walls I'm using in the bedroom closets.

Dix Blue
A relaxed blue which plays well with others.

 Okay the next colour may actually be my favourite: Breakfast Room Green!

Breakfast Room Green

 It is a stunning, vibrant green that is recommended for east-facing rooms and so this is where we have used it, on the lower walls (chair rail and below) of the guest room.
This room is really fun because it is the one space (besides a couple of closets) where we are using wallpaper.

Breakfast Room Green on the lower walls.
Wallpaper will go above!

 I am so looking forward to seeing the Master Bedroom colour go up: Pale Powder, which is actually a very light aqua.  We'll be putting it on the ceiling as well as the walls.

Pale Powder

 The other bedroom will have perhaps the most beautifully named paint in the whole range: Elephant's Breath.

Elephant's Breath: warm with a bit of lilac!

 My daughter had a special request for the ensuite and closet to this bedroom: a colour that veered towards lilac or lavender.  We went with something a bit subtle, Peignoir, which is a pink base darkened with grey.  It looks quite lilac when paired with Elephant's Breath.

Peignoir, such a pretty colour.

So there you have it, a whole home palette consisting of a dozen colours.  You can see that greens and blues are favourites, and in choosing neutrals I tried to find colours with lots of warmth to them.

Stay tuned for progress as the rooms get completed one by one.  First up will be the guest room!
xoxDani

The Small Stone House: A Massive Update

The Small Stone House
Courtyard Entrance

Way back in May I decided to switch my blog format so that posting and maintaining the blog would become easier.
Well, it's been a big disaster.  The new platform wasn't user friendly in the slightest, I couldn't get it to do anything I wanted.  It made the problems I had on blogspot, like controlling spam in the comments and my wonky email subscription feed, seem like a walk in the park.

Then we went into summer and I can honestly say it was our busiest summer ever.  At the end of May, while looking around at some local real estate for a larger office space, I happened upon the most enchanting small stone house for sale, not quite in our neighbourhood but just across the river.  I was done for.  When I brought MrBP to see it he was also done for.

We thought about buying it but it was such an impulse move that I lost my nerve:  I couldn't see how we would make the process go smoothly in any way.  I was about to leave for Atlanta to visit my father, then coming home to prepare for our three week family trip to Austria.  I was having work done on our house this summer, kind of boring but fairly major and essential things like replacing the eavestrough and the furnace.

Our house was not ready to be put on the market at all, I couldn't see how I could manage all of it.
Yet...while I was visiting my Dad I couldn't stop thinking about moving.  There is no one better in the world to talk over pros and cons with than my father, my Dad is the guy.  We discussed the concept of moving at length, and we looked at houses online.  I'd pretty much given up on the beautiful small stone house because I thought for sure it would sell while I was in Georgia.

Then on the Friday of my flight home I had an email from Rob, our real estate agent:  the house was in fact still for sale and the price had been lowered.

As this was Father's Day weekend and all of our Dear Rascals would be home I asked Rob if he could show us the house on the Sunday evening.
Even though the two oldest Rascals live in Toronto and very much have their own apartments and lives, I wanted their approval for the move.  There is nothing better than having them home for a weekend or a holiday, and the stone house has only three bedrooms, meaning that one of the Rascals will have to bunk in the family room on visits home.

On the Sunday evening after dinner we walked across the footbridge over the river and arrived at the stone house, and the Rascals were equally enchanted.
The next morning we bought the house.

So I had 2.5 weeks to prepare our current home for sale, it was madness!
I can honestly say that when I hopped in the car for the airport the night we left for Austria I was completely exhausted, but I knew I had done absolutely everything I could do to sell our house.

While we were away it sold, and I have to say it was a great relief to come home to a sold sign in the front garden.
If anyone is interested in the prep process I went through I'd be happy to write a post.  We did not use home stagers, which saved us money for sure.  It was more a matter of decluttering and subtle styling.

I've missed writing the blog and as we prepare to move into the stone house there are so many posts I'd like to write, we'll be decorating a new space with everything we already own and with the exception of about 40 cans of paint (and a sleeper sofa for the family room) we won't have to buy much for the new house.

So that's what I've been up to... of course there have been other things on the go as well.  Anyone else have a daughter in her teen years?  Heaven help us.

Of course I also miss writing posts about clothes and colour stories, and de-cluttering closets.  As I prepare to move I've decided to keep clothes rather than pare down, I'm not sure I'm in the mind space to make good decisions on what to edit.

I hope you've had a good summer and that you'll follow me here on the old space.
I've missed you,
xoxDani