Simply with pillows. Granted Tessa’s living room was already very pretty with nice drapes and furniture but the colors were blah she felt. We simply added some pattern in pillows..it sounds like a decorating cliche but it worked!
BEFORE
AFTER
Fabrics used are bosporous toile (which yes I use a lot because it just looks great in any room and fabric combination) and the trellis is arden** in chocolate from Ballard. She used 26×26 down filled pillows from IKEA..what a great idea for inserts…the large size really makes a difference!
Tessa lives in the Midwest (just look out her window at the flag and lovely street) and has a reallly fun blog on family, home and cooking..I love her recent project using downloadable graphics and fabric to frame! Check more out on her project here!
I love the little car peeking out of the bottom of her photo! Thanks for sharing with us Tessa!
Oh, and last but not least, I have to say what we all know, LIFE IS NOT ABOUT PILLOWS, but life is about beauty and home and the LIFE that goes on inside our homes and families. Beautiful things, patterns that complement, colors that please… they just soothe our senses and enrich life. But we know they are just things. Today my family, particularly my mother, buried someone very special, and I am reminded of the backdrop beauty plays, whether its a fabric or a beautiful Texas park, to the real business of living and loving God and one another.
[**edited to say, the “Arden” fabric from Ballard is actually a Waverly fabric called Chippendale fretwork and is much less here and it comes in both an indoor and outdoor]
I’m so sorry your mother lost someone she cared for…and I totally empathize…one of my best friends is terminally ill and we are enjoying our last fall together…even though all these material things are small compared to the loss of a human being, my friend reminds me that she loved making her home “beautiful and happy”…a reflection of how she felt inside of that space living with the people she loved the most in this world…and I remember telling her that my home, though far from ideal, still makes me smile when I walk in the door…just the way the sound of the garage door opening makes me smile when I hear it, because it announces my husband, the love of my life, is home at the end of the day…what you do is not frivolous…it makes the comfort of a loving home TANGIBLE…NEVER underestimate the influence design has in our lives!
loving this ! love the ottoman too! 🙂
Beautiful! Love the new larger pillows and I can’t get enough of the toile. More importantly I love the thoughts about life and a beautiful home being a backdrop to real life. I’m sorry for your family’s loss.
Thank you for sharing the beauty of that home, but a bigger thank you for the last paragraph in your writing today. It spoke volumes. I especially loved the sentence with “the backdrop beauty plays” to our real business of living and loving. Here’s wishing for a big hug of comfort around your mother today.
So tickled seeing my home on your blog! You are amazing! So sorry about you Mom’s loss.
XO, Tessa
The larger pillows make all the difference.
Beautiful words spoken about what is most important in this life. Love and deep abiding peace to all. Love you.
What a pair you and Tessa are…such sweet spirits. I’m so glad she found me through you! And I’m so glad I found you through a total God thing! xo…Linsey