Have a great day!!!

Cheers,

If you’d like help with your dream interior, contact us here.

Almost a shame that Sally and I are dismantling it and doing a new one on Thursday evening…

Cheers,

If you’d like us to design your dream interior, contact us here.

A closer shot of the entry. Check out the bell with the rope pull…

The terrace looking toward Ipswich Bay…

To my delight, oysters on the half shell were served as an accompaniment to the Champagne. (along with many other yummy treats and appetizers…) While we were there, we had a nice chat with the contractor who has worked on the house for the past 10 years, Rocky Neck Associates (Their work is impeccable!) and Katharine Pickering, manager of Beverly’s Coldwell Banker office, and her husband, Richard.

Sally with the guys from Rocky Neck.

The home’s interior was a feast for the eyes, particularly the great room, dining room and master bath. Originally built as a three season summer home, the views are to die for.

When the house was original built in the 1920′s, the dining room was designed around 16th Century English paneling imported from England.

A close up of the fireplace…

Isn’t it spectacular?

The wood trusses, doors and hardware were imported to the project site from England and Europe.

A detail shot of the fireplace… The tile as fantastic!

There is a tiny bay window room off the great room that is to die for.

Sally and I were so taken by the detailing and paint work in the room. Great stuff going on here!

Note the roping and the painted dentils.

And check out the antique doors. Mortise and tenon and pegged together. Chamfered door stiles. Mmmmm.

Awesome pull, yes?

One last shot of the ocean thru little port hole windows that were in the upstairs bedrooms…

Wouldn’t you, love to wake up here???

Cheers,

Oh… This weekend the Wenham Museum’s North Shore Design Show opens. We’re bringing a little Belgian Style to the show. On Tuesday the 15th and Thursday the 17th, the Museum will remain open until 7 PM. I will be there from about 5 – 7. Sally and I are hosting a Home Styling Seminar on the 17th at 6 PM, where we will completely change the look and feel of our vignette using rugs, accessories and artwork. Hope to see you there!

If you’d like us to bring a little Belgian Style into your home, contact us here.

18th Century elmwood doors from Shanxi Province

18th Century red lacquered yoke back armchairs

18th Century Elwood Barber Stool

Chinese Hollow Bricks, Hu Mask

Early Western Han Dynasty, 206 BC to 8 AD, Pair of Painted Pottery Attendants

19th Century Bamboo Red Lacquer Picnic Baskets

19th Century Temple Bells from Northern Thailand

These bells will somehow find their way in to one of our two vignettes…

It has been a real struggle to find, select, edit, etc. accessories for our vignettes. More difficult than I would have imagined. In the midst of it all, the finds and discoveries have been brilliant. They have kept me going. Jia Moderne is one of them.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this brief show room visit. Please visit their website here to see the full range of Betsy’s collection.

Cheers,

To visit Wilson Kelsey design’s website, see here.

First, a small side table that looks like it might scuttle off, absconding with what ever you happened to have placed on it.

Second, a chicken or the egg accessory. We all need a little whimsey now and then…

Then it’s on to Jia Moderne, which specialized in furniture and accessories from the Orient. Here I found several baskets and artifacts that we are considering using.

Aren’t they great?

And finally Charles Spada’s Antiques – the treasure trove of cool old European furniture and accessories. Don’t look for fine museum quality pieces here, rather, you will find pieces full of character and charm – that tell a story.

A small writing desk for the niche in the vignette. Take the lamp, basket, turtle shell and carved children’s chair and the niche is almost done!

I must have this on the console table!

These little gold trays could easily go on the console or coffee table…

How about this bell jar with the stone crystal inside?

Or this Swedish Armillary??? (the console is getting cluttered…)

Wax seals anyone? Such pattern and texture on a wall!

Candle sticks for the modern scheme we’re doing in the seminar. (It’s been much harder to fins modern accessories that I thought it would be.)

A wine tasting table we can’t use, but I love it anyway…

Nor is there a place for this Swedish day bed. Isn’t the detailing gorgeous?

That wraps it all up. I’m excited and inspired. I have sore feet and I need to sit down to rest for a little while… Hope you enjoyed tagging along.

Tell me what your favorite is.

Cheers,

To visit Wilson Kelsey Design’s website, see here.

From Brookline Village Antiques – Wonderful American, English and European Antiques.

Juggling pins and other cool wooden “things”…

Mortar and Pestal

Candle stick, one of a pair for the console table…

Small painting – maybe on the console table?

Mercury Glass Balls. These could even work in the modern vignette…

From Trianon Antiques – incredible 18th – early 20th Century French Antiques.

French Fabric Panel Screen…

Antique Botanical Prints

Cafe table and chairs. Morning coffee anyone???

Hope you enjoyed the eye candy…

Tomorrow, I’ll post a follow up on several other showrooms and antique dealers we visited, if the day doesn’t get the better of me…

Cheers,

To see our website, see here.

Our vignette will be the first space visitors will see upon entering the show gallery and this console, made from architectural salvage from the 18th and 19th century, has the wow I’m looking for.

I love how it relates to the brackets that Payne Bouchier is making for us. (Great residential builder!) And it will look fabulous in any photograph! However, I’m concerned it will make doing the modern feel very difficult because it is such a bold piece. The transformation has to be believable in the eyes of those attending…

What would you do?

Cheers,

If you’d like us to help you design a Belgian Style Interior, contact us here.

Visit our website here.

And I planted our little memorial Tomato Patch, in honor of our passed away tomato eating dogs – Rocco, Coco and Chipper. Some of you may remember my posting about Chipper’s love for tomatoes and how much we enjoyed his last months last fall as he would wander through the tomato vines, grazing as he went…

One fringe benefit of my rooting about in the flower beds and edges of the yard is I find all sorts of orphan plants, shrubs and trees. Seedlings from our mature plants. Sally is always terrified that I will scurry about and plant the little things in places that will mess up the Master Plan for the yard. For me, it’s actually more about the excitement of the find. Let’s see what I found.

A small boxwood under the yews…

A young Kousa Dogwood growing in the old dog run…

Another boxwood? I’m not sure. I’ll let it grow and see what it turns in to…

A variegated lilly of the valley (bottom center) I rescued form beneath the spreading branches of a shrub in the front yard, along with another small flowering plant from my Mom’s garden back in upstate New York. (She’ll know exactly what it is.)

On Sunday, I moved the last of the European Ginger from one end of the yard to the other… Sounds productive, doesn’t it? By the time I get that done, it was beginning to drizzle. It felt so good, I stayed out and put in the tomato garden.

I added several eggplants, too. Mmmmm. Please excuse the mess. I haven’t gotten to edging things.

By days end, I really could have taken a good long soak in one of these tubs made by Bath in Wood Maine…

Or maybe this one?

Cote Sud,February/March 2012, photo, Bernard Touillon; designer, Francois Champsaur

Everyone have a great week!

Cheers,

Visit our website here.

For interior design services, contact Wilson Kelsey Design can be contacted here.

Cheers,

John

BTW: If you’re in need of a great web designer or help with your blog and social media, we’ve been thrilled with our friends from Bartlett Interactive. They designed our website and helped us when we updated our blog format last year. Right now, they’re in the process of helping us add a Scrapbook Section to the Portfolio page and an improved Contact page. Soon to follow, Kitchen and Bath pages to the Portfolio page as well. Change is a constant in our industry…

I’ve always felt that the range/oven elevation is the focal point of the room, with the rest of the room being built off it. The next two sketches vary slightly from  the quick idea sketches. Neither one of them feels quite right… I’ll explain…

In this first sketch, I carried the pantries on either side of the range to the ceiling, rather than aligning them with the top of the cabinetry on the pantry wall and the refrigerator/sink wall, thinking that I needed tall vertical forms to frame and contain the tile and anchor the room.

My concern in this idea is that the pantries don’t relate to the strong horizontal line created by the head of the door openings and upper cabinets on the side walls and that horizontal line is the visual string holding the room together…  A quick overlay of trace and pencil produced the following…

Pulling the pantries down, didn’t reconcile my uneasiness with the design. In fact, the elevation felt weaker visually.

Then it dawned on me, the high pantry was the solution, but they needed more strength. Pulling the pantries forward  to so that they “support” the wood beam that crosses the kitchen provides the right balance of strength and lift to the elevation. The very first elevation had simply been too static!

The rest was easy. The following are two versions of the same scheme – traditional and modern. I’m actually torn as to which version I like more…

TRADITIONAL BELGIAN STYLE KITCHEN

Range Elevation – The lattice on the pantry doors is woven oak lattice. At the conclusion of the post, I will be posting a few pictures, including images of the woven lattice. Range exhaust is concealed behind the wood beam and fascia. I can’t seem to get away from the Cornue range/oven. Wood is white oak. Walls are plaster.

Elevation to Left of Range – Pantry and Storage : A pair of 2′-0″ doors to the dinning room. Hard to see, but there are little pull out shelves sitting between the counter top and the cabinets in the base cabinets. In my mind, I couldn’t decide on whether the doors on the upper cabs should be sliders or standard out-swing doors. Finally decided, out-swing doors with simple clean pulls and hinges.

Elevation to Right of Range – Refrigerator, Sink, Dishwasher, etc… I tried closed upper cabins over the sink and they felt clausrophobic. Sink is the same material as the counter, custom made. The scale of the paneling changes on the fridge to match the scale of the lower panels in the french doors on the other side of the room. One large split panel covers the freezer drawers. The upper panels extend beyond the top of the fridge to align with the jamb to the right. Again, splitting the panel at the top of the fridge. the upper cab opens with touch latches, avoiding any exposed door pulls.

MODERN BELGIAN STYLE KITCHEN

Range Elevation – I kept the Cornue range/oven. Love the contrast with the clean uncluttered lines of the cabinets. It becomes a piece of sculpture. Lattice and modern didn’t go together, so the pantry/storage area becomes open shelves with closed cabinets below the line of the counter top. I’m still torn about a pot filler… Lighting is now surface mounted mono-point halogen fixtures throughout. I’d zone the switching and put it all on dimmers. I had recessed down lights in my mind for the traditional scheme, but as I think about it, maybe not… The hi-tech blend of strategically placed mono-points is feeling pretty good in the traditional scheme.

Elevation to Left of Range – Pantry and Storage – The doors are now modern with large panes of glass. I pictured the upper cabinets having frameless glass doors, frosted and with a slight tint of warm gray. Juxtapose a small rustic table on the other side of the door… Note the horizontal direction of the grain of the oak veneer on the base cabinet doors sweeping around the entire kitchen.

Elevation to Right of Range – Refrigerator, Sink, Dishwasher, etc. Same treatment here, with the frameless frosted/tinted glass doors above the sink. Added a modern Stainless steel rod for hanging cooking utensils. Changed the direction of the wood grain on the upper fridge doors.

And so the concept comes to a close. Almost…

I thought I’d add a few inspirational pictures of details and materials.

Remember the lattice pantry doors? My blogging friend and very talented interior designer, Greet Lefevre, knows about this detail, too…
I want to shout out a big Thank You! to Greet for so graciously letting me use her photographs in this post.

Interior Designer: Greet Lefevre, Photographer: Claude Smekens

The original shutters on the 1804 Federal Period home Sally and I worked on were woven lattice. I’ve never seen them elsewhere.

HABS photo of lattice shutter on 1804 Federal Period Home, Manchester, MA

Other inspirational images courtesy of Greet Lefevre and Claude Smekens…

Frameless door on the right.

Paint tones, millwork and door details and finish.

Source, Belgian Pearls; Photographer, Claude Smekens – Mix and match furniture and base cabinet details. Funky chandelier…

Source, Belgian Pearls; Photographer, Claude Smekens – Mix and match furniture, millwork detailing and more lattice doors!!!

Source, Belgian Pearls; Photographer, Claude Smekens – door and millwork details. Lovely floor pattern, too!

To visit Greet’s blog, see here. To visit Lefevre Interiors, see here. To visit Claude Smekens website, see here.

Aren’t Claude’s photographs spectacular?

Hope you’ve enjoyed the journey as much as I have enjoyed creating the design.

Cheers,

John

If you like help designing your dream Belgian Style Kitchen, please contact John or Sally here.