Bedazzled: Calico Wallpaper

Calico may possibly evoke images of homespun goodness and demure florals, but Rachel Mosler and Nick Cope, the founders of the bespoke wallpaper company Calico Wallpaper have something considerably a lot more glamorous in mind. Their Brooklyn-based design studio (named, with no trace of irony, for the couple’s enviably photogenic calico cat) has rapidly created a name for itself as a purveyor of ravishing wall coverings which have their inception in the sorts of venerable art types and processes that resonate with creative types schooled in the joys of generating items with their hands—something about which an artist (Rachel) and the owner of a design/build firm (Nick) might know a issue or two.

Informed by two ancient paper marbling traditions—the Japanese art of Suminagashi and the Turkish art of Ebru—Calico Wallpaper has arrived at a laboriously exacting process for creating richly detailed, shimmering marbleized compositions that can pretty be described as art. Handmade cotton paper and carefully calibrated applications of metallic pigments that make each composition wholly unique—and no small dose of patience—comprise Calico Wallpaper’s recipe for “the largest marbled papers that exist nowadays.” Two signature motifs—the lustrous gold-flecked Wabi, inspired by “the landscapes of the ancient east,” and the satiny, silvery Lunaris series, channeling “moonscapes and uninhabited space”—are the heart of the Calico brand. And, my, what a dazzling heart.

Images: Calico Wallpaper

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My Answer To Hubby's Questions

Even though my hubby is wonderful, there are a few things that irritate me to no end. One of them is this: When he's away from home during the day, sometimes teaching a class and sometimes volunteering for something, he'll call me when he's on his way home. He's very good about keeping in contact so when he occasionally forgets, I get worried, but that's not common. Anyway, it's gotten to the point of this discussion verbatim.

He: I'm on my way home.
Me: Good. Drive carefully.
He: What's for dinner? (Can you hear my teeth grinding here now?)
Me: Not sure. But be prepared to travel. (Dine out, get it?)


Another thing is when we eat out he never, ever leaves enough food on his plate to bring home. For me, most dinners out at a restaurant are at least two dinners, not for th' hubs. He eats it all. Incomprehensible to me how someone can eat all that food on the plate.

Another thing is dessert. Usually I don't order dessert, but when I do, I don't share. I tell this to hubs beforehand. Invariably, he'll try to take a bite of my Black Tie Mousse Cake at Olive Garden. The last time he tried that I snatched it away so fast it almost flew over my shoulder into the wall! I said I don't share dessert. Of course, there have been times when we're trying to lost a bit of weight that we order dessert and eat it together but the waitress cuts it in half for us so there's no fight. (This one waitress at Olive Garden knows us well. ;-) ) When I'm as hungry as a painted cannibal coming off a fast, you do NOT want to mess with my food.

He graciously helps me make our bed now that he's retired. I never really asked him to do it but with the things I've gone through this past year he just does it or helps me. So, here's the conversation:
Me: Make sure you have enough blanket on your side.
He: I do.
Me: I think the quilted bedspread needs to come over to my side a bit. Get the 3rd ruffle even with the edge.
He: No, it's perfect.
Me: I'll tell you when it's perfect. ;-)


I think I'd better stop while I'm ahead here on this discussion. ;-)
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I was on the treadmill the other day and had the radio on out in the garage while walking. I couldn't believe it but I heard a commercial for borrowing money. It was pretty much the ones you hear with low or no interest if repaid by a certain time. It had a few more creative things, which I can't remember now. But when it gave out the name and phone number, I was stunned. It was an Indian Casino! Since Indian reservations are sovereign nations they don't pay taxes and can do pretty much what they want, but that was a new one for me.
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If you are ever in London, this is the place you want to visit for yummy cakes.

Clever idea using vintage wallpaper.

Beautiful vignette using perfume bottles.

I used this photo to do one of my own. I had all the basics and didn't have to buy a thing. I love mine! You can do this also.

A gorgeous living room. Love just about everything about it. I'd put in pink of course.

Stunning winter display.

Vintage tins.

A magnetic tray.

Old doors set up in a garden. Lovin' it!

Pretty office in an old loft.

Beautiful ranunculaceous.

Pretty pink clock.

I fashioned the chandelier in my dining room after this one. A few differences but I couldn't find the chandelier shades like this one has. Had to adjust my thinking!

Darling, darling home office out of a closet.

Love these old trailers but don't want one or Love Bunny would insist I go camping and we all know how I feel about camping!

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Tidbit:
Walter Anderson's two claims to fame: inventing the hamburger bun and co-founding White Castle.
~*~

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Answering the Front Door

The flowers in this mosaic are all from my gardens.

The winner of the giveaway is Olivia of Olivia's Romantic Home. She's been notified and is very excited! Olivia, I've told you before that you have one of my favorite names. I also want to thank you for joining in. The ribbon tree, Living Beautifully book and coffee filter roses have truly found a darling home in which to live, Sugar!
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We have a security system in our home. We had one in California and after several years here, I decided to have one installed in our new house. Just a precaution after a bit of a scary experience once when hubs wasn't home. The security system was installed by a professional. We installed cameras where I can see who is on our property around the house. Very simple and easy to do. The significant fact here is that hubs is gregarious and I'm not. He chats up anybody!

Anyway, sitting here in my office/computer room or sitting in our living room are 2 small (by today's standards) 19" televisions I purchased at a thrift store for $10 and $15 a piece. I don't have to answer my door if I don't want to. And I don't if I don't recognize the person at the door. There's also a sign out front that says: 'Absolutely Positively No Soliciting of any kind!!!' You'd be astounded at the people who cannot read! I've been thinking of adding 'And we've found Jesus', but if they can't read the first part then why would I presume that they could read the second part either. Sigh.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, the doorbell rang. Hubs was in his office and can't hear the doorbell in there. I looked at the TV and it wasn't anyone I knew. I went in to ask th' hubs if he recognized the man out front with a clipboard (Does this not scream solicitor?!). He said no, but he was edging toward the door. I stopped him immediately because 1) He's a sucker for any sales pitch, especially if it's a woman. 2) He'd invite anyone in just to chat. He kept edging and I kept holding his arm to keep him from opening the door. In the end, I won, but I could tell he was itching to open that door and see what the guy wanted. I'm not so curious. ;-) However, next time, I may just have break his arm to keep him from answering the door.
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A quaint and pretty restaurant entrance in France.

I just thought this photo was so colorful and cute with that darling lamp and shade, wallpaper and table I had to share it with you.

A pretty gravel-strewn patio for resting and eating. Looks like a restaurant. Certainly, one I'd want to visit.

Colorful door and enchanting entrance, even if the photo is not very good.

Pretty roses-strewn vintage, rustic gate.

Probably a store with luxurious white goods, towels, sheets, gowns, pillows, etc.

More luxurious embroidered linens.

A dreamy sitting/living/music room.

Today I'm wishing I were here as I've been stuck in this house now for a week without going anywhere. Sigh...

Colorful quilts and linens. I must be on a linen kick here! ;-)

The minute I saw this patio with the red umbrellas I was enthralled. An old stone building that the resident in this apartment jazzed up with vibrant color.

Lamps are a weakness of mine and I change them more often than most people do. I truly believe they add one of the essential finishing touches to a room. Hubs agrees with me on this. And, trust me, he doesn't agree with much of what I do in the way of decorating but he lets me fly on my own wings. He loves me beyond any reason I can comprehend.

I have no clue where this mall is but a mall that has this gorgeous lighting is a place I'd love to shop.

A luxury bath I thought you'd like to see and dream about.

Just a bit of eye candy to leave you with today.

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 By creating beauty and order where you live and work, you will be controlling the private hours of your life.
~*~

Linking up with Mosaic Monday.

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Roses Wallpaper Border and a Surprise

When I took down the curtain rods a few years ago and put up these new white ones I had a few rips in the wallpaper border. Now, you have to understand I bought this wallpaper border many years ago and can not find it anywhere now. It is most stunning. AND it was very expensive. I bought it when we lived in California and knew it would be in my forever house someday. When we moved to Idaho I just knew that first house was not destined to be my "forever" house so I just kept it, along with another gorgeous wallpaper I had found at Home Depot many years ago. That wallpaper I used just a fraction of but I kept it because it was the most luscious shade of jewel-tone green with grapes and ivy in it. But nonetheless, this flowered border went into this house. (Oh, yes, I almost forgot. I have another gorgeous Italian border I found and bought but it hasn't been used yet either. That one is an Italian villa view and quite stunning also but I just may use it someday somewhere in this house.

So with that being said I just recently went about the task of finding 3 small strips of it left over from this family room. All 3 strips are of the same bouquet. There are only 2 bouquets in this border so that the repeat is 2 bouquets. And wouldn't you know that the 2 left over are not the one which was damaged. So, being certain of some things, I proceeded to just apply the 2 leftover pieces to the damaged pieces certain that nobody will see the difference. I know this with 99.9% certainty! You all probably wouldn't have noticed unless I point it out to you.

These first 2 photos I took at night so the lighting is atrocious but it is just closeup so you can see the pattern repeat: far left is big rose pointing down to the right and the next one is big rose pointing down to the left and then it repeats again.


So in these 2 photos taken during the afternoon you can see the patched border just to the right of the white molding. See the 2 roses pointing down to the left? Hardly noticeable.

This patch is the one just to the left of the white molding. Hardly noticeable at all unless I'd purposely point it out. I don't care because at least now you can't see the pink wall visible through the rips. This was my fault for putting up the border after putting up the curtain rods and cutting around the rod. Try not to make the same mistake I did. But I was saved by finding the 3 extra bouquets quite by accident.

Oh, and one more thing.

I'm having a giveaway for Pink Saturday. Actually, I'll be having 12 of them over the next couple of months because there are some things I just couldn't give to the thrift store. It will all be explained on Pink Saturday, which I'll post on Friday afternoon. ;-) You're getting a "heads up" here, chicks!
~*~

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Wallpaper Design by Otto Eckmann

Illustration: Otto Eckmann. Wallpaper design, c1899

Otto Eckmann can be counted as one of the most interesting and diverse designers of his period. When he took up a second career in design at the end of 1894, he put a symbolic end to his first career as a fine art painter by auctioning off his entire collection of work, so as to start anew and fresh as a decorative artist.

Eckmann was involved in the design work of textiles and in particular embroidery and tugs, ceramics, metal, furniture, wallpaper and graphics. It is with wallpaper design that we are concerned with in this particular article. All of the wallpapers featured here were produced by Eckmann in around 1899. They are a stunning display of an individual's approach to wallpaper design and shows that Eckmann was neither overly influenced nor cowed or intimidated by the long history and traditions of the wallpaper industry, particularly by an individual who was approaching commercial design from a fine art background.

Illustration: Otto Eckmann. Wallpaper design, c1899

It could be said that it was actually Eckmann's artistic experience that gave him a particular edge over some of his rivals. It was the individual approach to both styling and composition that made his work appealing for both its novelty and its decorative potential. It was this external attitude that often produced work by artists and designers that stood out when they approached another and relatively unfamiliar discipline, achieving results of unexpected and unusual directions. However, this was not always the case and there were some spectacularly dire results of cross-discipline experiments. These failed ventures have proved to be of a serial nature and have dogged the decorative arts world down to our own contemporary era, mostly in the form of celebrity design launches.

Illustration: Otto Eckmann. Wallpaper design, c1899

Eckmann himself was not of this ilk and the wallpaper design work that he produced from the 1890s until his death in 1902 at the incredibly early age of thirty seven, show a clear definition of his approach to the decorative arts. It has been said by many that the artist turned designer was heavily influenced by the Japanese artistic and decorative format, and while this is true to a certain extent, it can only ever be classed as one thread of the creative work of Eckmann, not the only one.

It is the graphic work produced during the last years of his life that tended to influence the rest of his work through the various disciplines. This is an interesting development as many of the decorative arts had come to rely on the defined graphic quality of flat design. This came to be particularly true at the end of the nineteenth century when considering the textile and wallpaper disciplines for example. A number of illustrators and graphic artists became involved in wallpaper design at the turn of the century and there was a relatively busy and productive cross-pollination of ideas and theories that was to include the whole world of poster art, text, book illustration and wallpaper design.

Illustration: Otto Eckmann. Margueriten wallpaper design, c1899

It was this fruitful period that coincided with the general European Art Nouveau movement, known more specifically in Germany as the Jugendstil of which Eckmann became one of the leading lights. It was with the help of the individual styling of Eckmann's work along with that of others in Germany, that the Jugendstil made its own unique contribution to that of Art Nouveau, often countering to a certain extent, the inbuilt and often overly conscious flamboyance of the French and Belgian versions of the movement.

As with so many scenarios of the early death of a talented individual, it would have been interesting to have known how Eckmann had he lived past 1902, would have affected and influenced not only the dynamics of German decorative arts under the Jugendstil, but much further a field towards that of German Modernism. How his own personal career would have faired during the first and most important half of the twentieth century, we will never know.

Illustration: Otto Eckmann. Self Portrait

Reference links:
Modern Style: Jugendstil/Art Nouveau 1899-1905
Jugendstil, Graphik und Druckkunst
Art nouveau in Munich: Masters of Jugendstil from the Stadtmuseum, Munich, and other public and private collections
Jugendstil Art Nouveau
Ornament und Illustration um 1900: Handbuch fur Bild- und Textdokumente bekannter und unbekannter Kunstler aus der Zeit des Jugendstil (Asthetik der Alltagswelt) (German Edition)

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Family Room Redo

It all started with these famous words: Honeeeeeeeeeeey, I have an idea. Get the picture here? As I've said before I have hated this color on my walls since we moved in. Hubs says then why did you select this color and I reply because I was in a hurry and clueless (this will calm them down, puff up their chests and get the testosterone flowing when you freely admit you are "clueless"!). So now we've been going through the process of re-painting the rooms inside the house pink. A soft pink but very definitely pink. It's Home Depot's Behr paint called Cupid's Arrow. And I feel like I like in a cake box with white frosting or even a confectionery store because of the pink walls and white woodwork. I love it.

But anyway, we have the family room, master bedroom, laundry, master bath, hubs' office (which is actually one of the 4 bedrooms) and our walk-in closet. I took off the die cut wallpaper border in the laundry the other day so the painter could paint. I have 2 more rolls to go back up when he finished in there. He got the family room done in one afternoon. It looks great and wonderful! Here is a picture of what it looked like in our living room and dining room with all the "stuff" from family room spread about the house.

Here are pictures of the room just before and after we pushed the furniture back against the walls. I think I'll take my time re-hanging the pictures and stuff for the walls though. I was in such a hurry when we moved in and the few times I've changed things due to the new faux mantel focal point that I wasn't really happy with it.

How many times have I told you chicks that I "shop" in my own house many times? Hmmmm??? I have so much stuff that I don't "see" it sometimes. Well, I "rediscovered" a little vase with tulips IN it and ON it so I thought it would look much better than the OXO utensil holder in a romantic shabby rose cottage so I transferred the taller things to it. It's a bit tall but I'll make do until I find just the perfect utensil holder vase somewhere. This will necessitate a shopping trip I'm sure. :-) So here is the before and after for now. Looks like I'm going to need 2 utensil holders I think.

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