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hard-working heirlooms

It’s wonderful to be given something that has sentimental family meaning. It’s a beautiful way to remember and honour people who have passed and to make your home unique and your decorating meaningful. However, we all know that many heirlooms don’t suit our current day interiors and often create clutter and well, ok, I hate to say it but simply collect dust and we find ourselves including them in our rooms out of feelings of obligation and sentiment while not enjoying the objects themselves.

Here are a few ideas on how to incorporate heirlooms into your interiors while creating beautiful rooms at the same time.

Use the heirloom as a jumping off point for decorating. Here, a few old pieces of red transfer-ware are made into a focal point by building on the look further with toile wallpaper in a pretty hutch. Clearly these pieces are treasured and enjoyed every day this way.

Photos go from average to amazing when massed together and framed in a collective way. They command attention when placed together and make a great conversation point for guests.

One heirloom can spark an entire collection and why not? If you love something you’ve been given, it may just be a collection in the waiting. Just don’t forget which one has the sentimental story behind it.

Don’t be a snob about pedigree - your home isn’t a museum - mingle special family pieces with new reproductions. They will be more apt to be used and enjoyed.

Turn something old into something new. Make a few adjustments with paint or in this case, hardware, and suddenly an old piece has a new lease on life. A solution that’s easy on the pocketbook too.

If you don’t have the room or desire to display something all the time, bring out heirlooms at holidays - they will make holiday decorating all the more special.

Decorate around an heirloom. If you love it - let it set the tone for an entire room. No decor theme could mean more than family history.

Change the function of an heirloom to suit your lifestyle. This silver tea service is allowed to tarnish without apologies - many people love the time-worn patina of tarnished silver - and it’s used to hold flowers rather than afternoon tea.

And these candy dishes hold shell collections and other natural finds.

Let family pieces work for you rather than just sit on display. Your tabletops and rooms will look much more unique for it.

I will be on Steven & Chris on the CBC this Friday at 2:00pm talking more about this very thing. Be sure to tune in!

silly love songs

This clever yet simple image from DesignSponge got me thinking about sentiments of love and how it’s fun to try other ways, beyond predictable phrases on a drugstore card, to say I love you.

When our kids were born, I wanted something in writing to mark the occasion. To me, something written in ink has a sense of permanence to it. I guess that shows my age.
Anyway, I’m not much of a poet and so I had song lyrics hand lettered by an artist I met through my work - Kathryn Klar of Tulip Press, click here to check out her website - and framed them as a gift to Bob.

When my son Aidan was born almost 15 years ago, I asked her to write out parts of “Beautiful Boy” by John Lennon (who wrote it when his son Sean was born). Notice the famous line near the end of the song…

Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)

Close your eyes,

Have no fear,

The monsters gone,

He’s on the run and your daddy’s here,

Beautiful, Beautiful, beautiful, Beautiful Boy,

Before you go to sleep,

Say a little prayer,

Every day in every way,

It’s getting better and better,

Beautiful,Beautiful, beautiful, Beautiful Boy,

Out on the ocean sailing away,

I can hardly wait,

To see you to come of age,

But I guess we’ll both,

Just have to be patient,

Yes it’s a long way to go,

But in the meantime,

Before you cross the street,

Take my hand,

Life is just what happens to you,

While your busy making other plans,

Beautiful, Beautiful, beautiful, Beautiful Boy,

And when Charlotte was born almost 12 years ago, I went back to Kathryn and asked her to write out “Isn’t She Lovely” by Stevie Wonder which he wrote when his daughter, Aisha, was born.

Isn’t she lovely

Isn’t she lovely

Isn’t she wonderful

Isn’t she precious

Less than one minute old

I never thought through love we’d be

Making one as lovely as she

But isn’t she lovely, made from love

Isn’t she pretty

Truly the angel’s best

Boy, I’m so happy

We have been heaven blessed

I can’t believe what God has done

Through us he’s given life to one

But isn’t she lovely, made from love

I thought of hanging the pictures in the kids rooms but instead we’ve proudly displayed them in our living room. Most visitors don’t even notice what’s written because they’re so subtly done, but our family knows the story and every so often when we look at them, we’re reminded of those tender years and how our love for each other was instantly multiplied on the days of each child’s birth.

open and shut case

Here’s a little idea that really works well at my house and you may have an application at yours…

Both me and my husband, Bob, work at home now, which is great on some levels and frustrating as all-get-out on others.

Because Bob moved his work home first, he got the main office. It’s a nice room at the front of the house but it’s also right in the middle of the after-school action most days.

We put new french doors on the room when we moved in, but they don’t always do the job. The glass is pretty and pebbly but still see-through and the noise factor can be an issue.

Since then, I’ve added this layer - it was instant - and although it doesn’t solve the situation, it definitely helps.

I bought a queen-size quilted coverlet, a bronze-look tension shower rod, and rings with clips (all in one afternoon) and I came home and put it up. I guess we’re lucky to have bookcases on either side of the door but I imagine many situations have deep door frames, a wall, or free standing bookcase to use.

The quilt muffles the sound and makes the room feel much more closed off from the rest of the house. It actually reminds me of a tiny 10-table restaurant we went to in Paris a few years back where the owners had hung a velvet curtain across the entry so that when the door opened, the draft wasn’t felt as much by the diners.

In our house, it isn’t about the draft, but when quiet is in need, the curtain pulls easily across and when papa is happy, we’re all happy.