Heart Healthy for Valentine's Day

Muraglia Extra Virgin Olive Oil in Heart Bottle

 

With January being the month for New Year's resolutions like eating healthier, I just hosted a wine tasting featuring the wonderful Spanish Tempranillo wine - the only wine found in studies to reduce cholesterol and blood pressure. And in February in honor of Valentine's Day, I am featuring the wines and very healthy foods of the Mediterranean.

New Year's Projects 2022

Palm Beach Home Inspiration

 

I am not really a maker of New Year's Resolutions, but I always have home projects for the new year. I absolutely love the whole process of researching and implementing new plans for the house. For 2022, I have two big projects. 

Chinoiserie New Year's Resolutions

Pinterest

Resolve to bring even more blue and white Chinoiserie into your life in 2019 - bamboo pens, blue and white Chinoiserie pencils and blue and white Chinoiserie containers to hold them.

Resolutions 2015

I have two interior design new year's resolutions this year for my home.

The first is several projects on the outside of my house including a new roof, new gutters, and exterior painting. I will be exploring ways to incorporate my love for Chinoiserie outdoors. Perhaps a Chinese blue door, blue and white porcelain, or Chinese Chippendale woodwork?

Houzz.com

My second resolution is to upgrade a few things in my dining room, including a new table and chairs and new window treatments. I am dying to finally replace my traditional mahogany Queen Anne chairs with Chinese Chippendale ones and I am so excited. I am still quite undecided on a dining table, so you can follow along on my search for the perfect table to pair with Chinese Chippendale chairs.

I hope everyone has a fun New Year's Eve planned. Mine will include dinner, Champagne, singing, and dancing with lots of friends, ending in a pajama New Year's Day brunch tomorrow at a French restaurant.

Katie Rosenfeld

HomeGoods, Football, and Chinoiserie

Ming Circus Football

I hope everybody had a great weekend. Mine was fun. On Saturday morning, I had this feeling I should head off to HomeGoods even though it was pouring rain. When I got there, I instinctively headed to the furniture section and spotted a beautiful silver faux bois bar cart for $179.99. I wheeled it up to the cash register and the check out person was on the phone with a woman who had seen it at closing the night before and wanted it. The one thing I have learned about HomeGoods is to grab it. It probably won't be there if you go back. Pictures of it in my dressing room are below. It is just hanging out there temporarily - it's permanent home will be in the Chinoiserie Man Cave that I am planning for my husband. Every man cave needs a bar, right?

Speaking of man caves, after finding that, I took the rest of the weekend off and watched all four football games. Did you watch any football? I thought we would take a peek at football and Chinoiserie. I created these three hand-painted silk Chinoiserie football wallpapers for last year's Super Bowl post and nobody got it. Everybody was pinning them to their Chinoiserie Pinterest boards. So I thought I would try posting them again!

Also below is a photo of the bedroom Linda at Calling It Home did for a past One Room Challenge that had lots of great Chinoiserie. What cracked me up was that when I was looking for photos for this post, I found that somebody pinned it and put this comment -

Loverly that dresser. Not so into football and baseball books.

They actually took the time to read the book jackets and diss them.

This week will be the wrap-up and finale of my series on the Top Ten Chinoiserie Trends for 2014.

Chinoiserie Football in the Park

Singerie Touch Football

Linda's One Room Challenge master bedroom with sports books

My new HomeGoods bar cart

A close-up

Inspiration for the Chinoiserie man cave

New Year's Resolutions for 2014

I am super-excited to have decided on the two rooms in my home that will be getting makeovers in 2014. I have chosen to do a Chinoiserie Man Cave for my husband and an Elegant Garage for our cars.

For the Chinoiserie Man Cave, I am envisioning the styles of Michael Smith and Ralph Lauren - classic and masculine with Chinoiserie. I plan to include black, gray, abstract art, distressed leather, blue and white Chinese porcelain, and of course, lots of books and a flat screen TV. The photo above captures the style I would like. I should also mention that it needs to be very "guy friendly" with indestructible pieces impervious to red wine, newspaper print, and the like.

The garage is something I have had on my mind for a while. My garage has great bones - a wood ceiling, French doors, four windows, and antique brick. Since I have two large garden sheds and a lawn service, I don't need it to store lawn equipment. I would love it to be an elegant and sophisticated space to house our cars. Finding inspiration photos for garages is next to impossible, but this one below is perfect. I have a black Audi and my husband drives a gray BMW, and I love the idea of using black and gray with some black and white photos of classic cars.

So there you have it - my two interior decorating New Year's Resolutions for 2014.