Bunny Williams Collector's Edition

The Bunny Williams Collection

I was at HomeGoods over the weekend and spotted this wonderful find. A timeless design trilogy, beautifully boxed for collectors and gifting.

This luxurious boxed set brings together three of Bunny Williams's most beloved books - A House by the Sea, Point of View, and Love Affairs with Houses - in a stunning, gift-ready format.

I Spy

Mark D. Sikes

 

I love spying favorite pieces of mine in rooms done by interior designers I love. The silver cachepot on the cocktail table is a Bunny Williams design.

Bunny Williams Foyer - I Spy

Bunny Williams

I came across this picture of the foyer in the Connecticut home of Bunny Williams and John Rosselli. If you look closely you will see a white obelisk just inside the door. I have what looks to be the same one that I picked up years ago at a favorite vintage store in McLean, Virginia. 

Bunny Williams Style

Bunny Williams Home

I saw this on Bunny Williams' instagram account and I thought it was such pretty inspiration for a floral arrangement for Easter or Spring.

And I think I know where to get the chic container.

Bunny Williams' New Bedroom

Bunny Williams - Veranda

 

Wanting to stay in their Connecticut home forever, Bunny Williams and husband John Rosselli have added a first floor master bedroom to their Connecticut home.

Making the Perfect Bed

Bunny Williams NYC Apartment Bedroom

Bunny Williams has done a You Tube video on making the perfect bed that I wanted to share. It has some great tips on how to make "the Bunny Bed" including the deep turndown - I stripped my bed yesterday and made it using this tip and love it.

High/Low

Amanda Lindroth

I am a huge fan of the Bunny Williams Brushstroke Lamp. It is a stunning lamp and works beautifully with chinoiserie. It is adored by interior designers and often seen in show houses. But at $1,175, it is not in most budgets.

Changing Up the Chinese Lamp

Robert Kime and Piers von Westenholz

 

A patterned fabric lampshade is a wonderful way to change/refresh the look of your Chinese lamp. This is a very high end designer look that is really having a moment. Whether it's for a blue and white Chinese lamp or a solid color Chinese gourd lamp, it will really add a wow factor to a room. You will be surprised the impact it can have. Red looks wonderful with a blue and white lamp as shown here.

Chinoiserie & Gingham

Mark Sikes

I love the classic combination of blue and white gingham and chinoiserie. Here is some inspiration and sources for including gingham in your home and wardrobe. My go-to source for gingham home furnishings is Serena & Lily BTW.

Shell Collecting

Bunny Williams

 

I am totally inspired by this Bunny Williams vignette to get more serious about seashells. I find them so incredibly beautiful. The beaches here in Venice are famous for shark's teeth, but an hour away is Ana Maria Island with some of the best seashell collecting in the world. Especially prized that can be found there is the junonia. My favorite are conch shells that I already collect. I love the colors. I have a collection on my black and gold antique Chinese chest. Any shell collectors?

Junonia

Queen Conch

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The Chinoiserie Fireplace

Bunny Williams

 

A wonderful idea for a non working fireplace or for the fireplace during the summer - a hand painted board depicting blue and white Chinese porcelain. I also love the petite chair piled with books and the pups of course.

This is a little chair I found and had recovered in stried blue velvet. The needlepoint pillow is a limited edition Lacoste for Jonathan Adler - perfect for Florida.

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The Blue and White Dining Room

Bunny Williams

 A lovely dining room with robin's egg blue walls and blue and white Chinese porcelain. Lots of warm browns keep it sophisticated. I love the idea of a large ginger jar (here a blue and white Chinese porcelain vase) on a pedestal. I had resisted doing it because I was living with a very clumsy person. No more! I can do this. I like the idea of a lucite one with a huge blue and white ginger jar. I should have grabbed one when Wisteria was going out of business. Darn.

Beaded Pagodas

CCC Alexandria

Many of you commented on my beaded pagodas that I posted on the other day. They are Bunny Williams for Ballard Designs. Here are the smaller version I purchased several years back and are unfortunately no longer available. They are now in my master bedroom. I have enjoyed using things in the new house in different rooms and in different ways. It makes everything seem fresh instead of just a repeat of the previous house. These photos are from the dining room in my home in Alexandria. The diffuser and candle are from Charlotte Moss' long shuttered shop in Manhattan.

CCC Alexandria

 

The Chinoiserie Outdoor Dining Space

Bunny Williams and John Rosselli - Architectural Digest

 We have looked many times at the wonderful living room in the Punta Cana Dominican Republic home of Bunny Williams and John Rosselli. This is the outdoor dining area. In many homes in tropical locations, there is no formal dining room and meals and entertaining take place in the outdoor dining space.

I love the limestone dining table, wicker chairs, and antique wrought iron chandelier. I also love the tall leggy palms in blue and white Chinese fishbowls. They are elegant and beautiful and do not take up a lot of visual or actual space. I might borrow this idea for my lanai. All the blue and white Chinese porcelain looks great with the natural and organic elements. Note the elegant lettuce ware centerpiece. Do any of you collect lettuce ware? 

Tropical Chinoiserie

Genevieve Faure - Architectural Digest

This wonderful living room is in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Does it remind you of anything? To me, it is reminiscent of the Bunny Williams/John Rosselli home, also in Punta Cana. The walls and floors look virtually identical to mine. Note the blue and white ginger jars on pedestals and the large jar with tropical fronds. The pup is on an Oscar de la Renta collection trellis chair.

A fascinating feature is that the sofas are on concrete bases.

Genevieve Faure - Architectural Digest

Here is the Bunny Williams and John Rosselli living room.

Bunny Williams/John Rosselli

 

Seashell Place Card Holders

Bunny Williams

 If you look closely at the seashells in this Bunny Williams drawer, they have slits in them because.....they are place card holders.

If you Google seashell place card holders, you will find lots of wedding and party websites selling them for beach weddings and the like. They are very reasonable - these at Party City are under $7 dollars for 6.

Seashell Place Card Holders

I have not ordered these and many websites offer them - this is just an example.

The ones that really intrigued me are the one with the silver slits, so I went down the rabbit hole and ended up with a neighbor - sort of - the business is Philmore USA based down the road in Naples. 

The owner has a fabulous background including John Hardy which forced me to get out my John Hardy jewelry and I wore a favorite piece yesterday.

The silver slots are sterling and he has a fantastic selection of these seashell place card holders. I am trying to choose my eight favorites and am having a difficult time narrowing it down. This is THE most elegant collection of seashell items imaginable and there are several pieces I would like in addition to the place card holders. Here are a few examples from his wonderful shop.

I have mentioned before wanting to add elegant seashell decor to my home and this is it in spades.

Setting the Tropical Chinoiserie Table

Caroline Gidiere

 I have been seeing these raffia placemats of late, and I like the way they are used here with bamboo flatware, leaf plates, Amanda Lindroth linens, and pink and green. I think I will research the placemats today and report back. These are Tory Burch and quite $$$.

Tory Burch

I have also sourced these wonderful seashell place card holders and yes, he is local and very nice. I am putting an order together. I like the ones with the sterling silver slits. I will include this in the planned raffia placemat post if anyone is interested. I will be all ready for my pretend dinner parties. Sad.

Bunny Williams

The Week of the Turtle

Gilded Tortoise/Turtle Shell

I posted a few days ago about the darling raffia turtle I found at HomeGoods for the lanai. Yesterday I found this gold tortoise or turtle shell on a lucite base - it is by Lamp Couture and retails for $260 and I got it for free with some T.J.Maxx rewards $ I had. I have been looking for something like this for ages.

Thanks for the input on the Dash & Albert rug. I am thinking about the Catamaran in the platinum and white stripes for the lanai - my lanai has a British Colonial vibe and is reminding me of my favorite Bunny Williams room just a tad so I was thinking about this rug similar to hers.

Bunny Williams 

Dash & Albert Catamaran Stripe

I'm still playing around with the sizing, but the colors would be perfect with my walls and floors. I do not want to cover up my beautiful floors in the house, but the lanai floor is not tiled and this would be a nice look.

Do any of you have blogs on Blogger? They are forcing everyone into a new interface that is absolutely dreadful with all sorts of glitches. It's like New Coke. If it ain't broke....

Saturday Inspiration

Jenny Keenan - Southern Living

I really like the mix of blue and white Chinese porcelain and blue and white ikat in this living room of a South Carolina beach house. Note the seashells in the acrylic trunk - that's a neat idea. I want to do more with seashells here. I have a lot, but haven't put most of them out yet. My ikat collection is growing - my new Schumacher ikat ginger jar and a few ikat caftans that I am literally living in.

Williams Sonoma Home Schumacher Ikat Ginger Jar

Maisonette Ikat Maxi Dress

Look at this collection of Bunny Williams seashells. That's what I need, a seashell drawer. LOL

House by the Sea - Bunny Williams

Here is lovely table styling of my Mercer dining table (but with the marble top). Who knows what the flowers are? The name is on the tip of my tongue but my perennials encyclopedia got left behind at guess where....

Williams Sonoma Home

Two more things. My wallpaper installation I had hoped for yesterday turned into a text from my installer that he broke his leg and is out of commission for two months. Do any of my local followers know a good wallpaper hanger? Help!!!!!!!

Lastly, I have a really neat idea for the lanai that involves a Dash & Albert polypropylene indoor/outdoor rug. They get great reviews, but are pretty pricey in the larger sizes I am thinking about. Any experiences you can share?

My beloved Alexandria, Virginia had flash flooding on Thursday with many homes flooded. The pictures are unbelievable. Weather is getting crazy everywhere.

Have a great day everyone.

The Library Dining Table

Bunny Williams

Yesterday I planned a lovely day with delivery of my new dining table and styling it. Unfortunately, my day began at 8 am with a series of phone calls from the police, and after the table arrived around noon, I needed to get out and decompress. I will provide more details when I can but there is an ongoing issue. So table styling got "tabled" until today. The table size and style are perfect for the space and I will take photos today.

Here are more great examples of library/dining tables with Chinoiserie to inspire me and perhaps you as well.

McCann Design Group

William McClure

Lance Jackson and David Ecton - Traditional Home

Miles Redd - House Beautiful

What styling elements to do you like? The lamps with the hidden cords are too weird and aren't practical with a glass table anyway so I'll pass on that. I have plenty of light and don't need to go the battery lamp route. I love lots of coffee table books. An orchid is a must. Blue and white Chinese porcelain of course. And the palm fronds are so dramatic. We'll see what progress I make today hopefully.