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A French-Inspired Garden and Home by Judith Stringham
Showing posts with label vignette. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vignette. Show all posts

Pine Chest Vignettes | Fall and Winter

Sunday, August 12, 2018


F A L L   &   W I N T E R  

PART 2 OF A 2-PART SERIES 


Pine Chest Vignette for Fall with Boo Boo Pumpkins
Last week you saw Part 1, Spring & Summer, vignettes on the pine chest that sits between my living room and kitchen. All with tips for how, where, and why to place items in arrangements. 

Here is Part 2, a collection of fall and winter vignettes. The collection is filled with easy to find, easy to do, and inexpensive items, and every arrangement has tips about how to create similar ones in your home.
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Pine Chest Vignette Tips | Spring and Summer

Sunday, August 5, 2018


S P R I N G   &   S U M M E R 

PART 1 OF A 2-PART SERIES 


As the seasons change, so does the vignette on the pine chest at the end of my stone fireplace. A few things stay the same year round. The lily print, the small lamp, and a varying stack of books anchor the chest's arrangements as seasons come and go. 



PIne Chest Vignette Tips Spring and Summer
As you look through the photos of how the pine chest vignettes changed during spring and summer of years past, watch the book stack go up and down in number and in change of titles. Notice also the changes in the base of the lamp. 

One of the ways I find ideas for new arrangements is by studying Instagram, Pinterest, and other blogs. Invariably something catches my eye and sparks a vision for the top of my pine chest. And, if the photographer/writer shares bits of her design process, I take note for ways to improve my own. Thank you, StoneGable,Home is Where the Boat Is, My French Country Home, . . . 

Then I dissect my mental notes for patterns, techniques, and principles. 

Just like attending interior design classes, but in my nightgown curled up in bed.  

You may find some of my insight for creating vignettes helpful to you in creating your own vignettes.  

. . . like a PRO. . . StoneGable, Home Is Where the Boat Is, My French Country Home . . .  
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Kitchen Island Spring Nesting | Design Challenge

Friday, April 6, 2018



Spring brings out the feather-my-nest instincts to create pretty arrangements on the kitchen island. Then over the course of several days I continue to fluff my nest by adding some elements, removing some items, and rearranging others. It reminds me of a saying my mother had, "Can't get your nest made?" 




kitchen island spring nesting arrangement design challenge
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French Script Bunny & Rustic Pots

Friday, March 18, 2016

Would you like a quick, easy Spring and Easter centerpiece idea? 
One that involves a French script bunny, rustic French rose pots, and flowers? 


Small simple arrangements do not take much time, space, or money. 
They can fit on a small dining table, a sideboard, or a kitchen island 
with plenty of room left for food and place settings. 



Begin with a collection of an odd number of small French rustic rose pots.  
Set some upright, set others lying on their sides at angles to one another, 
and stack a couple together. 


Add a 4-inch blooming bedding plant, like a lobelia, in a metal pot. 
Use a white sweet alyssum for a more neutral look, 
or use a multi-colored pansy for a bolder, brighter touch. 


I like the delicate look of blue lobelia that gracefully falls over the edge 
of its container when the plant gets bigger. 


Then add the star of the arrangement, 
a French script bunny wearing a rhinestone-studded white lace cummerbund around its body. 
Position at an angle across the rose pots and lean against the flowers. 


The overall shape creates movement, but never sends the 
eyes off into the wild blue yonder. 

Notice how the arrangement follows the shape of a triangle. 
The eyes begin on the lower left pots, follow the body of the bunny 
up to the flower tips at the peak, then back down to the stacked pots. 

The transition from the metal pot to the stacked pots on the right is gradual. 
If only one pot is positioned on the right, 
the jump from the height of the metal pot down to a single pot 
is not as fluid. 

The position of the bunny unifies the design. 



A simple, quick, easy, and versatile centerpiece 
makes everyday seem like a special holiday.  

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For more ideas about how to create interesting arrangements, see 
Vignette Design Series-1 Composition 
Vignetter Design Series-2 Theme 
Vignette Design Series-3 Texture 
Vignette Design Series-4 Color 
Vignette Design Series-5 Create 


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Please join me at these inspiring places for more joy of living. 
SUNDAY
Dishing It and Digging It @ Rustic and Refined

MONDAY
Amaze Me Mondays @ Dwellings, the Heart of Your Home
Make It Pretty Monday @ The Dedicated House

TUESDAY
Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home


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Baby Boo & French Bleu

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Just a little touch of Fall goes a long way for me.  Add just a little bit here and there, keep the existing basic arrangements and color schemes, and voilà, Fall decorating is complete.



Keep it simple by adding a beautiful fall-inspired greeting card and a handful of Baby Boo white pumpkins to the French bleu flower pot.  These two small additions to the top of the pine chest definitely add a seasonal look, but an understated one.



Why not a more elaborate arrangement for Fall?

First, adding just a few things keeps the overall design of the space intact.  I like the way everything looks as it is, and I am slow to change.  It takes me a long time to choose new things for my house.  So, when I finally make a change like buying a new sofa, or adding a new lamp, or finding just the perfect French bleu flower pot, I enjoy seeing them.



This flower pot's color is my personal favorite bleu.  This bleu has a lot of red in it and can be very hard to find.  Several years ago this shade of bleu was available in fabrics, pottery, ribbons, lamp shades, bed linens, upholstery.... , but is much harder to find now.  You probably know that the design world chooses a focus color each year, and manufacturers make many things in that color. Then the next year there is a new focus color, and the old color-of-the-year is harder to find.  



Made popular by Laura Ashley, this color is called periwinkle blue and tends to look purple when paired with some other shades of blue.  I love this bleu, and buy it whenever I find it!  Don't the white pumpkins look great with this bleu? Remember one of the tips from the last post was to provide a royal setting? 



Second, adding just a couple of Fall touches allows each of the touches to be a focal point instead of them getting lost in a mix.  Using just one card showcases that card with its designer pumpkins, and the Baby Boos are eye-catching elevated in the flower pot.  



Third, adding only a few things makes it easier to clean.  Cleaning is not high on my list of things to do.  Since there are so many more things I had rather be doing, anything that makes the job go faster makes me happy. The card is easy to pick up and move around for dusting, and the little white pumpkins are inside an existing pot which means they do not add to the cleaning routine. 



Fourth, adding only a few Fall touches keeps my budget intact.  The small white pumpkins are inexpensive and by placing them in a shallow white bowl, only a few are needed.  The few sprigs of greenery are Bradford pear leaves and berries from the pear tree in the backyard.  The price doesn't get any better than free. 



Lastly, adding just a few inexpensive natural items does not require storage space once I change out the decor.  Organic items compost naturally in the woods and become soil instead of taking space in a landfill.

Even with minimal Fall decor, there is also a French touch.  See the embossed crown in the lip of the white bowl holding the pumpkins? Plus, using real pumpkins and pear twigs is très français.  Au naturel. 

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Thank you for stopping by to visit.  You are always welcome any season, 
and I will try to have at least a few special touches for you to enjoy. 
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Please join me at these inspiring sites...

MONDAY
Amaze Me Mondays @ Dwellings, the Heart of Your Home
Something To Talk About @ Karen's Up On the Hill

TUESDAY
Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home
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Can't Go to France? Bring a Little France to You

Thursday, April 16, 2015


Can't go to France,
but the longing for France dances in your mind daily? 

When you have friends going, hearing all their plans, 
but you can't go due to work, or family illnesses, or not in the budget.  



What to do when you can't go to France? 

  
Then... 
bring a little France to you. 


Here are suggestions for ways to 
bring a little France into a favorite spot in your house. 
Bring France to a place that you see every day, 
in full view from the kitchen and living room. 



Start with a French blue flower pot and add an old world live foxglove, 
one that takes center stage to add a touch of  
French country gardens and Parisian flower markets. 

Design tip:  Notice the multiple uses of blue... 
flower pot, large floral framed print on the stone wall, 
small picture on the chest, blue in the books, paperweight... 
The color bleu helps unify the grouping. 


Add another touch of greenery with preserved boxwood 
tucked into an empty glass candle holder 
that has golden scenes from Paris. 
The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, the Conciergerie... 
Scenes that bring Paris to you... 




Display books about France. 
The Heart of FRANCE and 
ONE HUNDRED & ONE BEAUTIFUL TOWNS in France 

Just seeing the books brings to mind France's beauty. 
Having them in sight invites you to browse 
through them to take a 30-minute tour while having coffee. 
You may not be there in person, 
but your mind and spirit can be there as you daydream 
looking through photos and reading about French scenery. 

Place the boxwood at the base of a small lamp atop the stack of books. 

Design tip: Once again color has been repeated. This time, gold. 
Gold spine of the top book, gold design on the glass candle jar, 
and gold picture frame in the background. 



Sometimes good things come from accidents. 
Or perhaps, realizing not all is lost when accidents happen. 

The small lamp once had a cherry wood base 
with a blue and white teacup filled with artificial pastel flowers. 
Oops! 
The lamp was knocked onto the floor shattering the saucer 
and breaking the handle of the teacup. 
Miraculously, the teacup was still intact. 

So many memories of good times traveling to Salado 
with a dear friend, now deceased, are tied to the little lamp. 
Both my friend and I bought this same lamp on one of those trips. 



In the French spirit of treasuring the imperfect as well as the perfect, 
the handle was glued together, but the teacup was not glued back to the lamp base.  
Painting the lamp base white gave it new life and an update. 
Had the lamp not been broken, it would have been unlikely 
that it would have been painted, and for certain, it would always 
have retained the blue and white teacup. 



Now the lamp can hold any number of small things on its base. 
At Christmas time there was a small white vase with the word Noel. 
The accident paved the way for changing the lamp's look 
with each new grouping on the chest of drawers. 



Bring a little more France to you... 

Add a small picture of French lavender like this one 
purchased in France while touring lavender fields in Provence. 



Souvenirs from previous trips to France 
bring vivid memories filled with details of authentic French life. 
When you cannot create a new travel experience, 
relive a favorite memory of a previous trip. 
Postcards make excellent small photos to frame, 
and the photos often are from a viewpoint not available to travelers. 

Design tips: The small picture's frame echoes the gold of the larger print's frame. 
The beading and corner accents in the wooden frame reflect French design. 



With flowers, French scenes, books about France, 
and a souvenir picture you can 

Bring a Little France to You

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What is your favorite way to bring a little France 
(or insert country of choice) to yourself? 

Food comes to mind, but it is hard to incorporate 
into an arrangement on a chest... 

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makes it easy to find for re-reading in the future. 

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Evolving Easter Vignette - When Is It Finished?

Friday, April 3, 2015

When creating a table top vignette, 
where do you begin, and where do you stop? 
When is the vignette the final version? 
Finishing a centerpiece is often the hardest part. 



What recently began in my mind as a white vignette 
turned into a purple one as seen in The Color of Easter. 
Yet, I still had a white centerpiece forming in my mind 
because white has been enticing me, calling to me as a siren.   



However, blue, beloved bleu, continues also to call to me.  
Since I've been collecting blue for many years, 
many beautiful blue things have found a home with me. 


B L U E 
symbolizes 
trust, 
loyalty, 
and
confidence. 

When I survey my mind trying to recognize 
what are the things I value, hold dear, and seek, 
trust and loyalty are at the top of the list. 
My deepest sorrows have been caused by people 
who broke their trust with me 
and who were not loyal. 

Yes, I love bleu for how beautiful it looks to me, 
but I also love bleu for its symbolism. 


So, as I rearranged the kitchen counter, 
a blue and white grouping took the place of the purple setting on the island. 
Not a hard thing to do, just move pretty blue things together like... 
the kitchen towel with the blue bunnies, 
a clear vase with blue speckled eggs, 
and a tiny little frosty blue bunny. 



The dear little bunny came from Goodwill 
and sits someplace visible all year, 
moving from spot to spot. 



As much as I enjoyed the blue and white, 
an all-white grouping kept nagging at me. 
The only way to quiet a nagging is 
to do something about the reason for the nagging. 



Out came the white pitcher, the white creamer, and 
a smiling white iron doorstop bunny holding a basket. 



The basket holds flowers, not eggs. 



Four-inch bedding plants surrounded by preserved moss 
add height and a touch of nature. 



A little touch of bleu speckled eggs just had to fill the creamer. 
A white cotton hand towel with embroidery rounds out the white grouping. 
Five items inside the white wicker basket. 

So, is it finished now? 


Not exactly. 
The redbud branches still have a few days of beauty left in them. 



The white vignette will truly become all white 
(almost white except blue eggs) 
when the redbud blooms die. 

Then, it will be finished. 

How did I know when to stop adding items to the grouping? 
The question is answered by what went into the grouping. 

1. Texture - White wicker basket, preserved moss, hand towel  
2. Movement - Tall flowers, medium height bunny, low creamer 
3. Theme - bunny, eggs for the season 
4. Color - shades of white, monochromatic scheme  
5. Number of items - an odd number 
6. Focal point - bunny: focus created by central place, 
pitchers pointing toward bunny, oblong flower vase 
angled behind bunny, towel leads to bunny  

Once I had all six of these elements, 
I knew the grouping was completed. 

See Vignette Designs Series #1 for the first 
in a series of five posts with detailed analyses 
of how to create vignettes. 

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