A blast of spring sunlight greeted this morning and encouraged me to snap a few scenes of simple beauty around the house.
Faux pears bought from Bernhart
Reflections on a bowl full of mirrorballs.
that wander into neighbouring rooms.
Muscari bulbs and planter both from IKEA. Stencilled tablecover.
sunlight through lace above a bath.
Roses from the supermarket. Meander stencil on the wall.
Kiwi fruit for breakfast...then off to the office.
Helen.
We are hosting a tour of our stencilled house this weekend and I felt that it was time to retire the silk flowers in my room. They have given me fifteen years good service and are falling apart.
They've been replaced with ivy plants from IKEA.
Stencils from Garden Room collection and Empire collection at stencil-library.co.uk
I'm now looking for suitable obelisks to provide a climbing frame for them. Maybe I should fashion topiary frames from wire coat hangers. Any suggestions?
I am undecorating the house this week and putting away the past year along with the baubles, gift wrap and Phil Spector's Christmas album. Well, Phil may stay around a little longer as I've not perfected harmonies for Frosty the Snowman yet.
These are a few pictures of the festive decorations around the house before I started demolishing and packing.
Yesterday I was asked to contribute to a list of new year resolutions submitted by members the International Decorative Artisans League. I hope that mine were suitably trivial. I am really rubbish at resolutions.
I found the blog Rummage this morning and enjoyed reading the resolutions of Nanette Louchart -Fletcher it's Australian based author. She has the same cereal bowl as me...so, kindred spirits already! She takes the kind of photos that I would like to. I am sure that there are many other entertaining resolvers out there. Do tell if you've found some.
This morning a visitor to our shop told me that he was there as a result of his decision to spend time creating 'lovely things'. An excellent resolution for a new year!
He bought the Stencil It book and a handful of stencil brushes which is potentially a good start.
Mine was to lose thirty pounds and take tap dancing lessons.
Have you made any resolutions that you can share with us?
Yes, it is that time of year again. When the pug angel clutches the holly branch and the festive tours of our stencilled home begin. This year I have been assisted by Dyane, Louise and Laura design students from Newcastle College. Over the next few posts I will show you what they have been creating. The tours are now booked but there is one cancellation for this Saturday morning (10th Dec) 10.00 am. Let me know if you want to buy the last ticket.
Helen.
I am now on YouTube chatting about the Stencil It book and showing how to use a stencil.
They are easy techniques to follow, one segment demonstrates free form stenciling and the other shows stencilling onto fabric.
I think I look like I need a good scrub... and a good nights sleep. However, the stencil demonstrations come across well, there is lots of variety and parts of the stencilled house are shown. The film was commissioned by Jacqui Small, the publishers of Stencil It.
Please visit and if you found the clip helpful or interesting maybe leave them a comment.
Even better, please pass the link to anyone who may be interested.
Thanks, Helen.
We have added an extra date for our festive event at The Stencilled Home at Stocksfield Hall this December.
The two dates are now Wed 7th Dec at 7pm and Sat 10th at 10.am. This may be the last time that we host the tours around our Home so if you have wanted to visit, book now! We can accomodate up to 30 visitors on the Wednesday but only fifteen on Saturday.
Tickets are £9.00 The event is expected to last around two and a half hours. It includes a tour of 12 rooms in The Stencilled Home with one of the resident artists.
This is followed by refreshments then I will give a demonstration of various stencil techniques.
Last year extra festive ornamentation was added to the rooms by design students from Newcastle College and we hope to welcome another team this year.
Call us 01661 844844, email or leave a comment to book tickets.
The pictures were from the festive house tour last December.
Helen Morris.
What do the following three images have in common?
A picture by Pam Hawkes sold through the Flying Colours Gallery in Chelsea, London. It appears to be painted onto copper leaf and was one of my favourite pieces from the recent Art London Fair.
A velvet kaftan that I stencilled around fourteen years ago ..and still wear when the weather gets chilly. It's a perfect outfit for a rural get together, one can wear wellie boots, woolens and thermal long johns under them and still look relatively glam in cold, country houses.
The floor in my reception room.
Answer. Gothic stencils. See our GMT43 from the Gothic, Medieval and Tudor stencil collection. Does it inspire you to create your own masterpiece?
And now for the other part of the room that I showed you last week.
I am calling this the dining room. We have a kitchen and formal dining room on the ground floor, but sometimes I like to take my meals upstairs with me and don't always want to sit with them on my lap so I created this space. I also like to have the occasional formal tea (with scones and cake of course) so this space is ideal for that.
I painted the walls in Farrow & Ball Estate Emulsion in Pink Ground. I needed to lighten up this area of the room as it is farthest away from the window. Because this space is part of the same room as the living room, the decor had to work with what I did there, although I did want it to be different so it was obvious there were two distinct spaces with different functions.
I chose another stencil from our new Vintage range, VN7 Chain Lightening. It is not too dissimilar from the chevron stencil used in the living area, but to create more of a contrast, I used VN7 on it's side, not that it makes any difference to the design at all, just changed the proportions. I stencilled this in two colours: the Black Blue Farrow & Ball paint used in the living area and ACR116 Alizarine Crimson paint. Because the walls are pale and the design quite open, I was able to take the pattern up and over the ceiling without it making the space too claustrophobic.
When Helen saw the space, she remarked that it looked like a London Underground tube train. She was not a million miles away actually. I was slightly influenced by a designer called Enid Marx, who among her many accomplishments, designed textile patterns used on the London Underground trains.
At the back of the room by the door, I have an old kitchenette, probably from the 1950's that is perfect for storing my mismatched collection of china and other kitchenware.
I have a small 1950's formica topped table with matching stools on one side of the area.
And on the other side, I have yet another armchair that I use for reading. It is an art deco chair from the 30's or 40's and the leather is stained pale blue. It is positioned at an angle so when you sit in it, you don't see the living space behind you.
This section of floor is covered with a linoleum meant to look like inlaid wood parquet flooring. When I bought it, the shopkeeper was a bit astounded as he reckoned it was ugly, but I knew it would be perfect for the retro look I was after. All the while he was cutting it for me, he kept muttering about how he hadn't sold any of that pattern in the 5 years he had been working there. Good news for me because it was on mega-sale. I found a piece of 1920's carpet on etsy to use as a rug.
Next up will be my bedroom, but you will have to wait a while for that as it is a big project and I probably won't be able to start it for at least a couple of months. I have 1920's Shanghai on the brain for that one.
Rachel
Welcome....
As I mentioned before, this is a room of two halves now (well actually 2/3rds and 1/3rd, but who's measuring). I shall start with the back part which is the living room. Do you remember from a previous post I showed you this image as my inspiration?
You can click on any photo to see a larger version of it or you might get a better idea of the layout from this angle:
I used Farrow & Ball Estate Emulsion in Black Blue on the walls as I wanted a really dark ink blue (in fact, it is tattoo ink blue colour). The carpet was from a friend's 1930's house. I asked if I could have it as she was redecorating and it is perfect. You don't see swirly patterned carpet like that much anymore. The room itself is my version of Art Deco. I have swapped the layout around a bit because as usual, space is an issue in my attic. I have a cocktail cabinet against the back wall with my collection of vintage floral oil paintings around it:
The stencil on the wall is VN47 Chevrons from our new Vintage range of stencils. I stencilled it with JL554 Sunset Gold paint from our gorgeous new range of metallic colours. It is the most wonderful bright orangey gold colour straight from the 1920's.
The stencilling goes up the straight bit of the wall only. It is a repeat pattern but easy to stop part way up the wall. It would have been too difficult to continue up the curves.
Most of the finds in the room are from charity shops or house clearance shops so were very reasonably priced. Furniture like this is quite easy to find if you look and usually in very good condition, if a little battered. I don't mind. That just adds character. The rest has been found at antiques shops. My favourite find was two art deco armchairs still covered in the original crushed velvet. I found these at Chic Antiques in Benton, just outside of Newcastle. They recline as well (all the better for enjoying that martini).
They sit either side of a dining room sideboard which is perfect for storing my many dvd's. If you read my previous post about my old scheme before I redecorated, I mentioned that one the many challenges I had was what to do with the extensive DVD collection I seemed to have amassed. This sideboard solves the problem well and still has plenty of storage for other items.
I also mentioned that I had a massive cushion collection. I still do, but most of them are stored away for the moment. I have kept a few and recovered them to fit in with this scheme.
I found these two pieces of fabric on etsy. They are original art deco stencilled fabric. They were listed as screen printed, but when they arrived I realised they were actually stencilled (you can see the brush marks). How fab is that?
I don't do "pure" style. I do like to mix and match. Although the room is redominantly art deco and most of the furniture is from the 20's and 30's or in that style. I do like to add the occasional modern touch.
This "e" was just such a modern touch. It was a gift to my boyfriend (who took these photos) and is an old letter (his last name begins with "e") from a pharmacy or diner sign. The internal lighting was no longer there so I took it to my local old style electrical shop and had them rewire it again. It was a simple case of inserting a small flourescent tube. It is from the 1950's so I suppose it isn't completely new, but it does look very modern (and quirky).
Of course I have to mention Ned the Octopus (VN160, also in Vintage Stencils) again (I had raved about him in a previous post). Due to the layout of the room, he is rather stuffed into a corner, but it was the only place for him to go.
Wherever he is, he does look fab.
When I mentioned that I wanted to paint the walls this really dark blue, people weren't sure, but most of the time spent in the living room is when it evening and dark outside. I wanted to create somewhere comfortable and cozy. I use lots of lamps dotted about the place and can turn on as many or as few as I want depending on the level of light I need.
I am very pleased with the way it turned out. A living room should be a lovely, relaxing room to spend time in and this is just that.
If you want a reminder of how the room looked before, click HERE for a link to the previous post.
Stay tuned for Part 2 The Dining Room, coming up next.
Rachel.
PS. From Helen. See part two of Rachel's new rooms next Thursday or visit on a tour of our stencilled home. See side bar for the dates and tickets. Next one is Oct 12th.
Wallington Hall near Cambo, Northumberland was once the home of the Trevelyan Family. It is now in the hands of The National Trust and open to the public. I try to visit every couple of years, I love the walled garden there. Another of my favourite bits of Wallington is the central hall.
The paintings of flowers that decorate it's walls gave me the design inspiration for my Gustavian style bedroom at Stocksfield Hall. At the National Trust gift shop I bought some notelets showing the floral panels
and Chips set about re drawing them as stencil designs.
Iris
poppy
and foxglove became
iris, poppy
and foxglove stencils.
Hollyhock and lupins also feature at Wallington so we made stencils of them. Sunflowers and bullrush stencils appear in our Garden Room collection, they were based on the Wallington panels too. I did not have a place for them in the bedroom because I chose to use just five, flower stencils and use them several times. I changed the colours to make it look as though there were more.
The 16 botanical wall panels at Wallington were painted mostly in the 1860's by Pauline Lady Trevelyan and her artist friends. Amongst them was William Bell Scottt, John Ruskin and Arthur Hughes of the British Pre-Raphaelites
Photos of Wallington by Stephen, all else by me.
Helen.
