Teal

Part one of one of our bathroom restoration

While, to one of us, taupe is the only alternative to mushroom (which is only acceptable after beige), the other's favorite color is the blue-green favored on 18th and 19th century woodwork and in fine art of the 20's and 30's. You can imagine, as we've stripped the bathroom in NH down from baby blue shag carpeting and blue and olive paisley wallpaper to taupe-white floors and aqua milk paint, how thrilled we are. Here is the bathroom and some references we've been collecting:

Daniel Garber, Peonies, via the great blog, still life quick heart

Fernand Khnoppf, Jeanne Kefer via tbSMITH's photostream on Flickr

Billy and Hells, Arum via Curieuxdetrucs

Genius Jan Wittenberg still life via The Linosaurus

David Halliday, Shell and Oil Can via Carrie Haddad Gallery

Jeremy Lipking, Skylar in Black via Southwest Art

Carl Dobsky, Shop Fan via John Pence Gallery

From Ochre, we think

David Halliday, Concrete

On the Line

There's an old clothesline in the back of our NH house that we've been meaning to remove for quite some time. Lucky for us, we haven't gotten around to it and it came in handy the other day (after washing a coffee stain out of a table cloth). Seeing that cloth hang on the line made us think of the time when there was a clothespin factory along the river of our backyard, and all of the beauty it helped to create...along with the wind.

William Aiken Walker, Autumn Scene

Old clothesline against a peak of our house in NH

E. Saglio, La Buanderie

Stone foundation of the old clothespin factory along the Cold River

Carlo Cressini, La Stiratrici

Clothespins on the line, after a few years of inactivity

[1]

John Sloan, Woman's Work

[2]

John Sloan, Sun and Wind on the Roof

Leaves

A walk through our little forest by the river always leaves us marveling at the semi-transparent, cream colored leaves that have dotted the landscape since autumn. Tenaciously hanging onto their brown-black branches, we understand the perpetual inspiration in art and design:

The sun through the leaves, New Hampshire

Kathryn Johnson, Tobacco Leaf Quilt from The North Carolina Museum of History

Berry with pinecones on leaf, NH

Dark and Lavender Leaf Knit Pattern at Dawning Dreams

Seemingly fragile, strangely secure

Paul Klee, Illuminated Leaf

Eliot Hodgkin, Leaves at The Leicester Galleries

Elsa Rush hooked rug sold at Rago in 2007

Semi transparent

Elsa Traeger, Sight-Leaf

Our Foggy Spring Morning

We have to say, no matter what the season is, the mornings in New Hampshire are ridiculously pretty. Spring is no exception, so while the fog lingered in the fields and forest, we snapped a few shots from the yard. Here's what we saw:

The road less traveled

Dew drops in branches

The Grange Hall across the street

Walking to the river

The wet fir of a pine branch

The sun breaking through

Shooting Fish

Irving Penn for Vogue via The Village Voice

Anna Nemoy, Black and White #11 (Fish)

Sonya Percival, Still Life with Fish and Lemon via Fine Art America

David Halliday, Fish Heads and Pumpkin at Graficas

A Flor Garduno still life

Daido Moriyama, Untitled via Artnet

David Halliday, Sardines at Carrie Haddad

David Halliday, Five Fish at Arthur Roger Gallery

Happy Easter

To Sleep

We've been obsessed lately with beds for the house in NH. A bit tired of sleeping on a mattress on the floor and having our guests sleep on an air mattress, we've looked high and low for antique beds. We now have seven, a few of which have custom mattresses (thank you Norwalk Mattress Company) - here are two, with some inspiration:

1845 Knit night caps at Kerry Taylor Auctions, London

Andrew Wyeth, Marriage

19th c Rope bed with acorn finials we picked up in Vermont

School of Ivan Pavlovitch Pokhitonov, Cat Sleeping via Still Life Quick Heart

Shaker bedroom via Remodelista

The mattress is spectacular (rug too) at Howe, London

Homespun Mattress Tick at Cowan's

Albert Hadley room from House Beautiful 2009

1860's Sleeping gown at FID Museum, LA

Gorgeous 3/4 rope bed we found last week in Manhattan

Shaker bedroom at Pleasant Hill via Traveling Boy