In the final installment of our basement remodel home tour (see also my craft room and the guest suite), I’m taking you around what we refer to as ‘The Cellar,’ as inspired by the 1920s vintage French wine rack and Champagne refrigerator we now have in our main living space. After the remodel, our basement […]
‘One part spooky, one park chic’ is how I like to approach Halloween décor. Inflatable ghosts need not apply. I like to mix it up from year to year to make new, eerie little vignettes around the house. I’ve had the same bag of tricks for the past several years consisting of black birds, glittery […]
October 26, 2020
Continuing on our basement remodeling tour (craft room here), we arrive at our mini Guest Suite. At the bottom of the basement stairs is a little bath and bedroom connected by a hallway that have all been completely refreshed with new drywall, flooring, trim and paint after our flood. I made an inspiration board for […]
Way back in January, pre-Covid and what feels like a lifetime ago, our basement flooded when our sump pump failed. I was home alone, and on a routine weeknight I had gone down to the basement to fit in an evening workout. It had been raining and at the bottom of the stairs, I was […]
October 16, 2020
My friend, Anya, shared with me her recipe for a classic Russian salad. And with the current profusion of garden tomatoes and cucumbers that have been flowing through the house the past few weeks, I can’t stop making it. Classic Russian Salad Ingredients 2 cups tomatoes, chopped 2 cups cucumbers, diced 1 cup sweet onion, […]
When you walk across the grounds of a château in the Loire Valley, or in any park in Paris, you will sense a common theme emerge. In French gardens, there is an undeniable passion for order over nature. The grandfather of the French garden aesthetic, Andre LeNotre, was gardener to nobility and kings in the […]
August 24, 2020
Whether you walk through the Historic District of Charleston, South Carolina or visit virtually admiring photo after photo scrolling through Pinterest and see beautiful, old buildings with painted black accents, you should look twice. The color you are seeing is likely actually a green so deep it appears black — Historic Charleston Green. While there […]
Ever inspired by the great castles, châteaux and estates of Europe, I love that these places all have names which personify their character and history. The same is true of many older homes in the European tradition, many of which even a plaque denoting house’s moniker to all who visit. Because I am so heavily […]
July 31, 2020
Nothing shines so brilliantly as a beautiful piece of silver. It feels extra luxurious to use, even in the most casual of settings. While we don’t have a set of real sterling silverware, we have a few pieces among which are small silver bowls and a tea set. The classic French onion dip and potato […]
One of my favorite pieces of advice from Miss Manners is that ‘adults entertain in their home.’ My sisters and I were trained young by the Greatest Generation on how to entertain. In high school, we had the good fortune to be the hired helpers of dear friends of our grandparents who would have us […]
July 24, 2020
I have a gorgeous set of cross-hatch crystal stemware from my grandmother that is decades old, but shines like new with easy cleaning. Instead of relegating the crystal to a storage box or basement shelf, I use it regularly — even a glass of water tastes better when sipped from a thin, glittering glass! For […]
This project to label my perennial garden is one that I have had on my to-do list for a while, and when I found these copper garden labels on Amazon, I was immediately inspired to get it done. This year has been a great one for gardening, and having just done a major plant edit, […]
