Have Your Centerpiece – and Eat It Too!

Next time you want to add some color to the dining or buffet table, shop your favorite grocery. First hit the floral department and select one or two bunches of colorful and long-lasting blooms. Alstomerias are ideal and carnations work nicely too. Then head for the produce aisle.

Green, of course, will go with any flowers, so head for broccoli, brussels, avocados, zucchini (baby ones are nice), artichokes, and any leafy greens. Then add veggies that accent your selected colors. For my example, it was radishes, beets, and red onions. Arrange these in a bowl rather than a vase to lay on as many as possible without any florist tools.

Before the event, take photos of your handiwork so you will remember how you did it. And as soon as the dinner or potluck is over, take it apart! Your produce will still be nice and fresh and you can wash almost all of it and use it in another meal – as part of the menu!

Pure Whimsy with Andy

Andy Warhol was a Pittsburgh native. And Andy was a colorful, imaginative, and whimsical icon. We love him and can’t resist celebrating his all-too-short life. Our 2021 holiday cards were folders with inserts that featured Andy’s Christmas-related art each accompanied by a quote from Andy. We annually decorate our foyer bannister with decorative shoes to complement the Andy Warhol shoe rug on the floor.

Shoes were one of the things that Andy drew over and over again. In fact, he noted that he was paid for his commercial drawings per shoe. Counting shoes allowed him to know how much money he had earned.

Our annual New Year’s Brunch carried the Andy theme into 2022! Although Andy and a friend had created a cookbook (Wild Raspberries), the recipes created by Suzie Frankfurt (and hand written by Andy’s mother) were satiric and not intended to be cooked and eaten.

To plan the menu, I turned to two other sources. First, The Serendipity Cookbook, a product of the owners and cooks of Serendipity 3, a cafe in New York frequented by Andy. The book even contains Andy’s “recipe” for his beloved Campbell’s Tomato Soup.

The second was an Eastern European cookbook that included recipes from Austria-Hungary, the area where his parents lived before they came to the United States. I found recipes that I imagined must have resembled the home cooking of Andy’s mother.

Maybe next holiday season, you can create a whimsical theme of your own to add a new dimension to old traditions. After all, as Andy said, “Everyone must have a fantasy.”

The La Bellitude Loo

How do you manage to bring together elegance, practicality, and whimsy in the smallest room of the house? It’s not really that difficult, and when you pull it off you have what I would call a La Bellitude Loo.

First, keep it simple. Too many bathrooms are victims of multiple patterns, styles, and surfaces. This one maintains a silver/gray color palette throughout, expands the stainless steel shower tiles to the adjoining wall, and uses a smooth battleship linoleum for the floor so as not to further eye clutter the space that there is.

We give it a feeling of space and light by hanging on to the tiny exterior window, choosing reflective tiles, glass shelving, putting a half wall with a glass top between the shower and the toilet, and using a sliding shower curtain a la IKEA rather than a glass door (which would have taken up every available inch of remaining space).

Simply framed photos and a table lamp help to make this loo feel more like a powder room. The table lamp is particularly nice, because, although you need bright light when you’re shaving or putting on make up, in the evening having a soft light on a small table or even the back of the toilet is much nicer. It can also serve as the night light.

Also on a shelf or a table, there should be a candle with matches at hand. You probably already know my attachment to candles, but in the bathroom it’s even more important. You know why.

Down to tiny details – get rid of the bright green, bright yellow, bright red, bright blue – you get the picture – bottles of hair products, soaps, tonics, rinses, medication, all of the things that make bathrooms look like you have just wandered into a small drugstore. Decant, decant, decant. Into things you recycle, things you buy, even things you find.

Label Them So You Know What You’re Using!

I found a good, lidded storage basket that fit on the narrow shelves and the back of the toilet so I bought four of them. Once again, a cohesive look and less eye clutter. And 3M hooks in the shower for a few necessaries keeps it tidy. And yes, they stay up in spite of all the water.

Finally, what is a La Bellitude Loo without a touch of whimsy? And this one is one you’ve seen if you read the ceiling blog. Andy and the geese need a day at the micro-spa too. Wouldn’t be La Bellitude without them!

Andy & the Geese in for a Day at the Micro-Spa

Instant Decor! (The secret life of scarves)

I have dozens of scarves, actually it might be over 100 but who’s counting. I bought some, inherited some, and was gifted some. I love them all, but they don’t all necessarily fit into my wardrobe. What to do with the ones that don’t? Oh, so many things!

Decorate with them – your home, your purse, your pet, and more. Start with an easy one – make a scarf into a table runner. The long, narrow scarves are naturals, but other shapes can be folded to work as well. It can be an easy way to change the color and feel of your home as the seasons change. Bright flowers for spring, autumnal colors in October, and a knitted “outdoor” scarf on the table for the holiday season.

With larger scarves, you don’t have to settle for a table runner. You can use them as an over cloth or as the actual tablecloth. You’ll probably want to use something as a table pad under the scarf, and if you don’t have a pad then a folded blanket will do. Just remember that if the table will be used for dining, the scarf may take a spill or two. I wouldn’t use the favorite or delicate ones for this.

Tie-backs for curtains or drapes is a good use for scarves, and so is a door knob. Square scarves can be tied to cover a square pillow to give it a new look without a stitch of sewing. And if you have a really large, artsy scarf you can hang it and use it as wall decor.

You can, by the way, still use them to decorate yourself but in different ways. They easily function as a casual belt, and smaller scarves can be tied to the handle of your purse a la the style of the 60s. It still looks pretty and playful!

The 60s place for a scarf is still cool.

A scarf for your puppy love instead of a bandana with bones on it can give her or him a real fashion-forward canine look.

And you know we’re in favor of reusable gift boxes, so we would also recommend using a scarf to tie/wrap small presents. The recipient can enjoy the gift and then use the scarf to gift another.

Try the mantel for the long narrow ones.

One more thing about scarves. If you don’t have a collection but would like to try some of these inexpensive decorating ideas, there are usually lovely scarves to be found at thrift stares, just waiting for you to take one or two home to brighten up a room.

I would love to hear your ideas for keeping the scarves in play. I still have a lot of them waiting to be used!

Heads Up! A Look at the Forgotten Ceiling

Each time I have moved into a house or apartment, I spend a fair amount of time fixing and decorating and making things my own. But rarely did I pay much attention to the ceilings. They were usually white. And they usually stayed that way. With not much in the way of enhancements.

But this time, I decided to take advantage of these literal blank slates and see if there were ways that they could add to the rooms. And of course, there are!

For starters, those white ceilings don’t have to be white. We have a bedroom with white walls, leaving us free to add some interest with a nice color on the ceiling. We went with a kind of goldenrod, which has the effect of feeling like it’s always sunny in that room. Rather a nice way to wake up.

Some rooms have (or should have!) ceiling fans, and you can use a little paint to pep those up, especially if they are the old sort of clunky ones. The one shown here started out with white blades, but it’s easy to remove the blades, paint them whatever color you want, and then reinstall them. For this one, I added some stencil flowers that spin away on warm nights.

Adding moldings or trim of some sort near the ceiling can not only enhance the decor but it can change the perceived dimensions of a room. The black ones here are peel-and-stick, but the small moldings were installed by a handy person.

And if you are really feeling adventurous, think about adding art to your ceiling. If you are artistically inclined and don’t mind painting or drawing upside down, you can create your own mural. But if you lack both of those skill as I do, you can add someone else’s art as we did in our second floor bathroom. Andy Warhol and the geese spend their days flying around up there, and making us smile every day thanks to a hanging system that allows safe ceiling mounts (and removal).

Andy & the Geese (Good Name for a Band!)

By the way, don’t forget adding some interest with light fixtures. I’m not big on using overhead lights, but in the areas where you need them you might as well make them interesting. This test tube “chandelier” is a perfect example. It graces the front hall, but I must admit it’s not unheard of for someone to bonk to a test tube with some tall object they are carrying. Fortunately they are easy enough to replace and refill.

I’d love to hear ways that you have looked up and made things more elegant, practical, or whimsical – or all three. That’s useful information for all of us!

Candle Culture

Almost everyone has at least a few candles. And they are often not used or lighted only on “special” occasions. But they are opportunities for La Bellitude. Let’s think about candles more carefully.

When shopping for chunky, pillar candles, make your selection for the container, quality, AND the fragrance. Graciously consider the tastes of others who will partake when selecting a fragrance. My kitchen candle is sometimes fresh cut grass (which I love), pine, or sunflower. Not too floral, not only because of my partner’s aroma tastes but because perfume and beef stew don’t really go that well together. And selecting a beautiful container means that you can spread that elegance into another use or place when the wax is gone. The perfect container can mean a decorative vessel that you will turn into a planter or nut dish, a simple glass that you can use for a storage purpose, or a bit of a smile that will hold cotton balls in the powder room. Just think when you choose.

Keep one special candle in the kitchen and one at your desk, studio. or other work space; light them when you are cooking, creating, or even laundry folding. They will calm you and keep you company. Use your candles. And buy candles with a high stearin content. They cost little more (and at IKEA, no more) than other candles and they last longer with no drips.

Buy a decorative box of 4” matches to light these companion candles. A decorative box that has something fun on it or that makes you happy when you look at it. They can be found at gift shops and online. Here are the pluses: 1) They will always make you smile. 2) You can buy refills for the 4” matches (in any color you like) on Etsy at a great price, enough to last for years. 3) The long stick can be held and burned down if you are in the mood for a wood fire smell, or it can be extinguished and used to spread glue in tiny places and other small craft needs. I have Frida Kahlo boxes in the kitchen and the studio, and they make me happy every single time I light the candle!

Where elegance, practicality, and whimsy come to play!

Category: Decorating