Designer Ideas To Take Outdoors

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Pier 1 for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Summer is nearly here, and it's time to get serious about fixing up your deck or patio or balcony.

Pier 1 is the go-to destination for pieces that have a high end designer look at affordable prices. Here's a round up of some designer spaces, along with some Pier 1 pieces that you could use to get the designer look.

I went into my clipping file to show you some images. The first one is a terrific bed on a patio. This is the epitome of the indoor/outdoor concept. You might try a modification of this with a bench or a platform, and fill it with colorful pillows.

Pier 1 has a very cool bench with a canopy over it that would look amazing. They have an incredible pillow and cushion collection. Just pile them on for the high end designer look.

This bench with a canopy from Pier 1 echos the idea of the bed


Designer cushions on a platform

Start with this large Pier 1 cushion

Add a few of these orange pillows from Pier 1

Add another blue pillow or two from Pier 1 - love the button detail

This cute print would add another layer - get it at Pier 1

Designers love to use woven furniture, and it looks fabulous outside and inside. While you are on a Pier 1 shopping spree for your patio, why not pick up a couple of woven chairs to refresh your living room, or den.

The woven arm chair looks great outdoors and indoors


This Pier 1 chair is woven from banana leaves

Dining "alfresco". It sounds so romantic. We love to eat outdoors as much as we can once Summer rolls around. Think about getting a table and chairs that you can use outdoors and indoors.

These cheery yellow chairs just scream "dining alfresco"

This rustic dining table from Pier 1 would work outdoors



This is the best yellow chair from Pier 1

This outdoor table from Pier 1 would work inside as well

The high end designer look of modular furniture for outdoor use can now be ours!
Pier 1 has a great line of sleek pieces that you can put together to get that magazine worthy look.

High end designer look

Party-O on the Patio!
This is the sleek modular outdoor furniture at Pier 1!

Rocking chairs on the porch! Is there any other image that says Summer more than a rocking chair on the porch, or on the patio? Pier 1 has the cutest wicker rocking chair in three colors. This is another piece I would bring inside. It would be precious in a nursery.

These darling wicker rocking chairs are from Pier 1

Who doesn't want or need a cute bar cart? Pier 1 has a rolling cart that would rock the patio, and I would definitely use it inside of the house too.

LOVE this bar cart from Pier 1

Hope you enjoyed this round up of Summer decorating ideas, and the arm chair shopping trip to Pier 1. Get on out to your local Pier 1 and grab a few of these pieces.

Go to Pier 1
And check out the Pier 1 Tweetups

They Urned It Too!

Jaithan Kochar & Eddie Ross have urned it HERE and HERE

Stylists and designers and decorators have been putting Christmas trees in urns for as long as I have been in the business, which is like forever in dinosaur dog stylist years, and I reckon long before the word stylist was even bandied about.

I've gathered a bunch of images for you pinched from Google, a round up for your enjoyment and inspiration. Feel free to credit them for me.


It makes sense since chopping down a tree and bringing it into the house, is perhaps the most basic expression of using something from nature or the garden as the unexpected element being used in the house, the house being the expected element. Back in the 1990's the whole inside/out trend was in it's heyday. Decorators loved using the word juxtaposition.


Decorators were schlepping moss, twigs, birch trees and branches, dirt, sand, river rocks, autumn leaves, Galax and lemon leaves, dried flowers, rose petals, grapevine, and curly willow into house. Floral designers would throw it on dining tables as centerpieces, the idea of dining in close proximity of dirt seemed edgy and radical and beautiful. And it was. Just like an indoor picnic without living bugs.


Using containers meant for planting and potting flowers outdoors also became en vogue. The more moss covered they were the better, and Martha Stewart advised us to use a concoction of dirt and buttermilk to turn our pots into petri dishes to cultivate the green stuff. Tricksters like me simply hot glued moss to everything. I covered a Chanel bag with moss with a white gardenia adhered to the clasp for a bridal photo shoot, and covered another one entirely in hot pink decapitated rose heads.


The fiberglass urn was a godsend. A collection of them (and the coordinating pedestals and plinths) became the tools of the event designers trade. Concrete and plaster were still used, and terra cotta too, but nothing beat the ease of hauling fiberglass up and down freight elevators. The art of faux finishing flourished, and those urns and such would shock and awe as this petite stylist would hoist one on her shoulder, filled to the brim with flowering branches or baroque hedonistic bouquets heady with opulence. Some teamster type working in the hotel would stop dead in his tracks to marvel at the strong girl carrying a huge urn.


I kept alot of my props and equipment when I left New York and my design business there. And as things always do, stuff that was once special and hard to get, comes mainstream, and volia there's Martha at K-Mart offering urns and containers to the garden variety home decorator. We pros bought them too, because the price point was far better than the prices we paid at the wholesale prop vendors, florist supply shops, and garden centers. We scoured flea markets and antiques shows like Brimfield too searching for that just-perfect awesome urn with just the right amount of patina and crustiness.


I love the way a Christmas tree looks in an urn. Using a faux-fake-artificial tree is alot easier than using a heavy real tree. Table top size works best if you are intent on having a real tree.
Eddie Ross and Martha have great tips on their web sites in the how-to department.
Moi? This year I just shoved my tree in the urn and let the lower branches hold it in place. Of course I don't have children or a tree climbing pet to bother it. King Charles Spaniels rarely mess with decor, except to enhance a chair, a sofa, a bed, a bench, a throw, or a cushion with some artful lounging and poses.



When a tree is elevated in an urn you get the extra bonus of hanging space for the ornaments on the lower branches. Even when I don't use an urn, I tend to elevate a Christmas tree to get this extra display real estate.

Visual Vamp tree sans urn but still elevated on Tiffany boxes

Table top trees in urns are a good way to start. and yes every big box store and catalog sell a tree already lighted and already in an urn. Just fluff, and add ornaments. Antique style feather trees look swell in urns, and retro style tinsel or aluminum trees look wonderful in urns or placed in big retro style pots. Huge flower pots work well to, gilded or painted your favorite color, or if a terra cotta is your thing, use as is. Even a huge box would work, and you could always gift wrap it, or use the iconic darlings like the Tiffany box or the coveted orange Hermes box.

Visual Vamp Christmas tree in an urn HERE

I am sure none of this is news to you, so if anyone has potted their Christmas tree in an urn, tell us about it, and/or send me a photo because you know I love to show off readers homes and projects.

Would You Like To Come Inside This French House?

Expat Australian writers in France. Where have I heard that before? Well of course the writer most of us decor bloggers know and love is Vicki Archer.

Well I found another one. Would you like to go inside and see her 19th century house?
It's in the Lot Valley in the south west of France.

The beautiful stone house belongs to Australian writer Susan Fraser and her husband Jean-Pierre Grousset.

Susan Fraser says: "We virtually stumbled upon the house, after turning down a side path next to the village church. There is was - this beautiful maison de maitre for sale. With the front door set smack in the middle, hydrangeas and blue gray shuttered windows on either side, it was like a child's drawing".

Inside, we'll start with the all white living room which is perfection from the painted beams to the painted floor. There is an 18th century gilt clock on the mantle.

Susan says: "Everything has its place in the old house... all the funny little objects we've found over the years, from different parts of the world from various periods".


The chandelier peeking out in the corner in 19th century brass, as is the candelabrum on the floor by the stairs. I love the curving staircase. There are many of these in the older houses in New Orleans, especially in the French Quarter. This is one of three sets of stairs in the house.
The chair nestled in the nook under the stairs was found on a Paris street, and refreshed with a canvas cover.


Here's the double page spread of the whole living room. The loft like open floor plan is so expansive in feeling. I love the contrast of the dark wood tones against all the white.


Up the dark and winding stairway we go to the bedrooms on the top floor.
The bed in this guest room belonged to Jean-Pierre's grandfather. The window is fabulous!


In this collage of images, look hard so you can see the bathroom with a baignoire sabot (a French bathtub) found in a junk yard in the town they live in.

Other details include their attic bedroom with its beautiful crooked beams, which the owners say remind them of an upside down boat.

Brick has been exposed throughout the interior of the house.


Another stairway coming down from the living room has industrial looking railings that have been painted white. It leads to the lower level and the kitchen. I love the stacked firewood under the stairs, especially when it's stacked with the ends out.


The stone walls of the house are revealed in the kitchen. This room was the pigsty - literally. Pigs used to live here!

Niches have been created for storage. The farm house sink, dark counter tops, open shelving, muslin canvas sink skirt, all add up to a kitchen that is crave worthy.


There's a walk out from the kitchen into the garden. I love the iron and glass French doors! They were designed by Susan's father Vic Fraser who is an architect.


All of this French gorgeousness is the the March/April 2010 issue of Inside Out, an Australian shelter magazine.

Our neighbors Julie and Larry just got home from a two week holiday in Australia, and Julie brought me a couple of magazines for which I sincerely thank her for!

I thought I'd share some of the images with all of you too. You just have to suffer the scans!