caitlin hitchings.INTERIORS

Nautical and Nice

Caitlin — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:57:52 +0000

I love all things nautical and especially love decorating in this style. Here are a few ideas to help you along. Most of these items are made in the USA.

A have a few tips for not making your look so literal… try to include some neutrals to make your look more sophisticated. I love the image below but if you added too much blue upholstery, it could be really overdone. Including a neutral chair and pillows really creates balance. If you don’t live on the coast and have access to those great marine consignment shops, make a point to stop by one to find one of a kind objects and nautical maps. My husband and I love ones we’ve visited in Mystic, Connecticut and Portland, Maine. Check to see if there is one in the area on your next coastal vacation. Finally, this is a great opportunity to create your own custom art. I love the idea of making your own signal flags or using rope to create a custom piece. Have fun with it and always think, simple and sophisticated…whatever you do, don’t go “overboard”.

Love this look? Here a a few items to get you started.

Click on the images to buy…

Devon Table Lamp at Ballard Designs

Star Hook at Viva Terra

Portico Sofa at Crate and Barrell

Portico Collection Rug at Belacor

Emberton Side Chair at Ballard Designs

This crab pillow is hand blocked by artisans in Wisconsin. Also check out the other nautical block print pillows at Maine Cottage, they also have a large selection of made in the USA furniture.

Crab Pillow in Rhubarb at Maine Cottage

Here’s another image via Elle Decor of a nautical bedroom using signal flags. To find these made in the USA visit ib designUSA.

If you are looking for a nautical look that is a bit more sophisticated, perhaps for an a adult or teen bedroom or a guest room, the above image is a great way to achieve this. I love the idea of painting your own signal flag wall art and framing them in simple frames like the ones above.

Charles Nickel Floor Lamp at Crate and Barrell

Brahms Mount Ticking Stripe Blanket

Brahms Mount Motor Robe Blanket

Acorn Finial Chair from Shaker Shop Pennsylvania

Check out the Meriweather Bed at Maine Cottage. Also try looking at vintage markets, I honestly can’t get enough of them, especially if you live near some really good ones. They are really fun, try finding the lamp from the above image in a vintage shop or yard sale.

Monogramming

Caitlin — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:41:12 +0000

Monogramming is a great way to personalize your home and make it unique. You can find a variety of made in the USA products that offer monogramming. Here are a few that I found and love:

Filigree Monogram Hooks at Ballard Design

Banded Glassware Set @ West Elm

Monnogrammed Square Soap at Pottery Barn

Matouk Logotype Pillows

Hawaiian Quilt Collection

Caitlin — Sun, 06 May 2012 17:10:12 +0000

Aloha
On a recent trip to Hawaii, I discovered the Hawaiian Quilt Collection. This is a collection of intricately patterned quilts, wall hangings, pillow covers, and handbags made in Hawaii. Also, check out some of their boxes, which are also made in Hawaii. But not everything is made in the USA from their trinkets collection, so you just have to double check. Floral patterns are used to evoke the memory of loved ones and quilts were used to celebrate significant occasions, such as a marriage or birth of a child. Quilting was introduced to the Hawaiians by the missionaries in the 1800’s and they have since developed their own unique technique to reflect their culture and traditions.
These stores are everywhere in Hawaii and you can print a coupon for in store use online if you are planning a vacation there. Luckily, you can also order them through their website or phone and have them shipped.
The throw pillows are simply beautiful and are a great way to add natural elements and bold colors to any room. They range from 60$ for a 16” x 16” cover or 80$ for a 20” x20”. The quilts are also amazing but are a bigger financial investment and range from about 2-3,000’s. I suggest getting a couple of the throw pillow covers. There are different floral patterns to choose from and each one has significance. For example, the anthurium flower typifies the beauty of the islands and is the most popular flower of Hawaii. They have some really great colors to choose from and I definitely have to say that they are more amazing in person then they are online. Happy shopping!
Mahalo

Merging Decor With Your Spouse…Eeek!

Caitlin — Sun, 06 May 2012 16:56:37 +0000

When my husband and I moved to Pennsylvania from Boston, we combined all of our stuff from our past lives and decided what we should take and what we should toss. Actually, I was the one that did most of the tossing. If it had been up to my husband, we would have kept everything. In case you haven’t noticed by now, most men are very attached to all of their belongings and it probably doesn’t matter whether it has a sentimental value or not because to them, everything has a sentimental value. They can and will attach one to everything. If it was a white t-shirt with holes they were wearing when their team won the World Series or worse, the lumpy old bed pillows they had in their college dorm that they are still sleeping on (eek) it will probably be next to impossible to convince them to toss it. So, as you can imagine, I had to tread lightly in some cases and be downright cold hearted in others when it came to our merger.
Luckily, there are a lot of things you can do with your husband’s “junk” that will make you all happy, that doesn’t involve throwing it all away.
Furniture: It was a blessing and a curse to have inherited my husband’s furniture. First off, I didn’t have some of the major items, like a couch or arm chair, because those were all items my roommates had in the past, and never anything I needed to buy. However, these were all items that had been handed down to my husband from his family when they redecorated in what looked like, 1970?….just saying. Anyway, this all ended up being beneficial in the end, so ladies, don’t panic. …reupholster. There are many benefits to reupholstering furniture vs. buying new despite what you may hear about it costing more. First of all, that may not always be true and it certainly wasn’t in our case. Reupholstering a couch, in my case meant that I was holding onto the physical item that was part of my husband’s past, and not tossing it, where it may have ended up in a landfill. Let’s face it, it was so ugly, I’m not sure how much life it had left outside the dump. But, it was in wonderful physical shape, a very sturdy, well made couch like that can be hard to come by unless you plan on spending more. Things are made so cheaply these days and we consider everything to be disposable. When you buy a couch as a young couple, you are probably not considering that you may spend more for something good, but you will have it forever and probably be passing it on to your kids when they buy homes. Usually you are thinking of tossing it when it breaks, which you know will be soon, but hey, you got it for less money, so who cares right? So anyway, I did decide to keep our furniture and actually found an upholsterer in Pennsylvania, but first I looked for new furniture online to compare prices. What I found was that the upholsterer could do almost everything for cheaper, including the cost of fabric, or for the same price as buying new. The major benefits are that you can choose whatever fabric you want. In most cases you are limited depending on what company you are buying the piece from. You are also giving your business to your local upholsterer, in my case, I had just moved to a new town so it was nice to research and see what was around and meet new people. But best of all, we got to hold on to an older, nicely made piece of furniture that has lasted, and will last, for a very long time. I find that a good measure of quality furniture is that I can’t really move it myself. People should probably remember that furniture is meant to be heavy, if you can pick your couch up, and move it across the room in a few seconds, you probably bought a piece of junk.

Here are some of the before and after images of the furniture we had reupholstered.

Lampshades: This lamp was all gold with a green, metal shade. It came from my father in-law’s office and was not suitable for residential use unless you happen to be a British lord who smokes a pipe and loves to hunt fox, maybe. I spray painted it silver and bought a new shade, simple as that.

Wall hangings: I say always hang your own artwork or buy something you found from a local artist (if you can afford it). Attend local art sidewalk shows, step into galleries, or attend starving artist sales where you can get art for cheap. This is so much more personal than buying a reproduction piece from a chain home goods store. My husband and I love to take pictures, so it is pretty easy for us to go through our archives to find images suitable for framing. If you think you’re not good at photography, think again. These days with digital cameras, anyone can be a photographer. Maybe your strong point is setting up the shot more than it is playing with light, so just pick what you’re good at and go with it. If you absolutely feel you don’t have a great landscape or city scene to photograph, focus on close up pictures of objects and print them out in black and white. This invokes interest and brings people closer to your picture to see what it is and is a great way to get your company to interact with your interior space. If you have random frames lying around and you want to create a sense of unity, paint them all one color rather than buying all new ones. Yard sales, flea markets, and antique shops are fantastic places to find beautiful frames. You could also find someone in your area who has a frame shop and can do the job for a decent price, give your business to them instead of the larger retailers. Establishing a relationship with local business owners/employees is a great way to meet people and it makes you feel good about your community, this is so much better than just buying something cheaply made. If people who are more social are meant to live longer and be more healthy, consider your local business owners as preventative medicine. Know that you may spend more money for quality items and good customer service, but you will only be buying it once and not replacing something several times because you bought it cheap.
Here is some of our custom art made by us:

I took some close up shots and put them all together. The red tulip picture was taken by my husband and we had it transfered onto a canvas which is a fantastic way to make your own artwork, it actually did sort of end up looking like a painting and it is the first thing people comment on when they come over.

You can get canvases at any art store or just buy them at vintage shops or yard sales. A great tip is to buy an ugly piece of artwork at a yard sale for cheap and paint over it.

These frames were all different colors and I just spray painted them gold to make them more uniform. The pen etchings I did myself after I saw a series of them for sale in a catalogue. They are so easy to draw and they are sort of neat to look at. When you are browsing through catalogues and see modern art pieces that you like, they are usually so simple to replicate yourself.

Finding Made in the USA Products Using Catalogues

Caitlin — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:12:08 +0000

I finally discovered what to do with all those catalogues I get in the mail. These can be a great resource for finding companies and products that are made in the USA. Often times, the product description will either say Imported or Made in the USA at the very end. You can scan through your catalogues at home to find Made in the USA products and circle anything that relates to your design project or interest. Then view the website for that catalogue to possibly find even more. Usually the catalogue won’t give much information about the company because that prevents you from going directly to their website and ordering it straight from the source (often for a lesser price). But sometimes, if you are willing to play detective, you can use the clues they give you in the product description to find out more from a google search. Or you can try calling the customer service number to find out more.
Another way to find made in the USA products from your favorite companies is to simply go to their website (for example Crate and Barrell) and in the search bar just enter “made in the usa” and you will get a listing of products that have those words in their description. This is a great fast and easy way to find, say a table, for a client who is trying to go with local artisans. There may not be information about the artisan who designs or produces this table but you can certainly know it was made in the USA and attempt to get the information from the customer service department.