Since I posted pictures of the Queen's powder room it motivated me to get busy in my own. Powder rooms are such fun little spaces to decorate. Their small size alone allows you to be a bit more extravagant than you might be able to afford in a larger room and to use more color or pattern than you would in a room where you spend more time and may tire of all the busy decor.
The first project in fluffing up was to polish the silver which is a chore that I really enjoy because for just a bit of effort you get such instant gleaming results. Many people shy away from using silver because you do have to polish it or you end up with a very unkept appearance but with care it can add such sparkle to a dark spot that for me it's worth the effort.
This old print of a blond lady in a pretty blue dress holding a book is on a wall across from the mirror.
The water stains on this box didn't detour me from picking it up at Marshall's in the clearance section because I thought it would be useful to hold TP in tucked inside a cupboard.
All through our house we have a lot of found items that were bought for very little that we mix in with a few good pieces. This little needlepoint rug is one of those pieces.
If you read Life At Home often you have probably seen this little wall bracket that came from Franks Nursey's clearance section years ago and got a sprayed on coat of white paint. There are two of them on a wall by the sink that hold very inexpensive blue and white vases that have roses on them.
Another better quality piece that I got with my employees discount when I worked for Particia Wood is this hand made waste basket with the 3-D bow and hand painted plate with sprigs of lavender sitting on ivy and roses.
One of my most prized antique blue and white pieces is above the mirror with two smaller Asiatic Pheasant plates on either side of it. It might seem weird to have plates in a powder room but the pheasants on it kind of lend themselves to the bird and nest theme in there.
These three shallow bowls are from England but my old eyes can not make out the rest of the wording on the beautiful stamp of an urn with a bee skeep in it on the back of them. They are above the mosaic mirror below.
This mirror was a show gift from the Atlanta gift mart many years ago. The cost of having one made with mosaic all the way around was prohibitive so I asked them to just do the top and they kindly did a little painting around the rest. Unfortunately, I can not remember the show room where it came from. If you are a fan, like I am, of mosaic work Penny, at
Lavender Hill Studio, does the most beautiful pieces that one day I hope to commission a piece of, you might want to visit her lovely site.
Here is my old silver tray set up for the convenience of guests that visit with Lady Primrose's Tryst cologne and hand cream in the monogramed silver lidded pot. The other jar is another piece that the owners left from our old house that holds individually wrapped Life-Saver mints.
This lamp with birds in flight included in the toile frabric is lit at night for guests convenience also.
These Robin's Egg soaps in the jar with the nest and eggs on it make it easy for guests to grab a fresh egg of soap if they need one.
Finally, a couple of years ago when we were on a road trip with friends up the eastern coast of Michigan on our Harley's we spent some time in a cute resort town where I picked up this little bird bell with three robin's egg blue eggs in it. It caught my eye first because it had a bird on it but the real decission to get it came when I decided it would be just the piece to tie my navy blue pieces in the powder room to the more blue green in the background of the wall paper that was about to be installed in there.
I am not a real interior designer, as many of you can tell from the riot of outlandish colors and patterns that have found their way into the ever evolving Greenbrier, but several people have asked me to share decorating tips so I hope you don't find my tour to be anything other than what it was intended. Homes are personal to all of us and a way to express our love and concern for our families and friends. Blogs seem to have taken over as a place to get decorating ideas that was once held by magazines and so many of you have given me so many wonderful ideas for making our house our home that I thank you all and hope you enjoy visiting here at Life At Home. Not that I'm bashing magazines, I still have my favorites and many of the contributors are also bloggers that we all love to visit, I love you all.
Welcome to my first Blue Monday post. Thanks Sally for the invitation to participate. You can see other Blue Monday posts by visiting Sally's site at Smilingsally. She invites everyone to join in or visit her Blue Monday participants.
I love to decorate with plates. So many of them are little pieces of art on their own.
These are three English plates have Grecian stamped on the back.
