The Process of The Mess That I Entered In The Domino Decorating Contest

These are more photos of the process of decorating my living room after Katrina. You can see more in the post before this one. Besides finding out about Jonathan Adler and Kelly Wearstler, and all about eBay, I also found out about Domino Magazine and blogs.
Domino had a little decorating contest last year, and I had the nerve to send in the one photo you were allowed to enter. I was thrilled that they chose it to be among the dozens that ended up on their web site. Of course I didn't come near to winning, but at least I added some color! To my great surprise and delight, this photo ended up on Desire To Inspire HERE
By now I had gotten some "new" things: an Eames lounge chair and ottoman; an antique French settee with crazy chenille fabric that looked very Colefax and Fowler; a cow hide rug; a very glam gilded wheat base coffee table; a slipper chair.
I ditched the Wassily chair and the red plastic hand chair. A couple of X-benches had come and gone. Also gone was the Jonathan Adler rug. A great vintage wing chair with a wonderful print, finally rotted to the point of no return, and the legs broke one too many times for repair, so out to the curb - somebody did pick it up, and I hope they get good use out of it!
I edited the art on the walls. I kept a great Carlo of Hollywood painting I got on eBay, and a Will Barnett print I got at a garage sale for $10., and of course the big clock. The mural on the door remained too, sort of becoming a piece of art work.
The couch had a couple of new white slip covers. One from Surefit, and a better one from Ikea (both purchased on eBay - there is no Ikea in New Orleans, the closet one is on Houston). Originally the sofa was a faded and worn out blue velvet, not chic enough to be shown in its shabby state. I also had a black and white toile slipcover, that I later over dyed pink.
The introduction of pink, orange, and turquoise blue accents where my crazy attempt to make something good come out of the yellow walls that I had inherited from the previous owner.
I liked the yellow, but still it wasn't really working, and I knew the day would come when I finally would repaint the room. In the meantime I beat that thing every which way, trying to make it look like a fabulous choice, rather then a make-do default.
Some little tables came in, and some little tables went out. I kept the Lucite table, and a very heavy metal one that looks like a piece of sculpture. Eventually the white two tier tea table left over from my Hamptons beach house days, went into the guest room. I swapped it out with the metal drinks cart.
I added a little black table from my friend Michael Pelkey, and eventually the two little yellow matching tables.
The drapes stayed, but got pink linen inserts to replace the taupe color theatrical scrim inserts. These green drapes came from our French Quarter apartment, our first in New Orleans, eight years ago. I purchased the fabric in New York, a whole bolt of it. It's a very fine velvet, with an odd kind of tie dye effect that somehow piqued my over active imagination into thinking it looked like an old Fortuny fabric.
Lamps have come and gone too, though not discarded, but rather moved from room to room. The two large glass lamps were found on the street after Katrina, right off of mansion row on St. Charles Avenue. They had huge ugly 1970's ripped plastic drum shades, and the bases were filthy and had paint drippings, but I cleaned them up and got new oval shape shades. I love the organic shape of the caged glass base. The white lamp with the Della Robbia fruit came from Ballard Designs many years ago when I was still living in New York. The blue shade came when I tried to copy Jonathan Adler's lamp on the cover of his book. No shades like his existed for sale, so I painted a white shade blue. It's also had the cream oval shade, and now it's changed again. The sweet little chandy was a gift from my friend Miss Anne's French Quarter attic, a treasure trove of 60 years worth of collecting. The pink lamps also came from Miss Anne, and have had black Pottery Barn shades. I acquired an oversize modern glass lamp with a turquoise and white and Lucite base; it's now on my desk.
The knick-knacks come and go too, though I always seem to keep shells and corals and fresh flowers. I had a fling with Fornasetti, and had about 60 coasters, a magazine rack and table (not real but great), a set of prints, and a huge out of print book. I've kept one print, and of course the Baker credenza is done in the manner of Fornasetti. The orange foo dog came with the jazzing up of the yellow color scheme. I only bought one, as the pair seemed too much. Yes, dear readers, even I think it's all too, too much!
Stay with me, the next post will be the reveal.