Antique Organ

Hello everyone on this very snowy Saturday! I was tagged on Instagram to post a special furniture piece. I've been meaning to show you my organ so playing the hashtag gave me a reason to go ahead and do this post. 

As you can see I have a very lovely organ in my music office (I'm going be doing an official reveal post soon) which has been mine since I was about four years old. I am a music teacher and this piece is one of the earliest influences I had toward that career. 

My grandfather was a music major and taught me piano from an early age. He bought this organ in 1976, at the time it was almost 100 years old. When I took an interest in music my grandparents decided the organ would be mine one day. This picture is just one of many wonderful memories with my grandparents that took place right around the organ. And just look at their gorgeous carpet! I always loved it. My grandmother had pretty things and I can remember appreciating them at an early age. When she moved to assisted living this past spring she wanted me to bring the organ to our house but I wasn't really wanting it yet. We had just moved here last December and I already had a piano in the music office and we had intentions to add built in bookshelves on the remaining walls. Nevertheless,  I really didn't have any other space for the organ, so we moved it in.

Turns out it looks stunning in its new home, the dark wood perfectly matches the old trim in our home. The organ is a fun and interesting conversation piece for my students and guests, and it still plays well! It has never been refinished and not is still gorgeous!

Pretty but needs...

Vintage junk!

I've been blogging and posting a lot about incorporating shabby chic, romantic and Frenchy styles in our current house which has dark woodwork and traditional style. I "shabbied" the organ with lots of beautiful vintage pictures and trinkets and I just love it as a display piece. 

You will see a lot of lions in my post from time to time. Both my maiden and married names are Scottish and have a lion on the crests. Of course the Lyon name is traditionally associated with the lion as a symbol. Lions just give me something else to hunt for on my treasure hunts. 

Here's my parent's senior pictures. Love them.The little rose compact is in my Etsy shop if you fancy pretty things!

This organ is everything I love! Antique, a touch of medieval gothic style, music, and memories!

Can you even believe these pedals? Look at those roses and florals, not a rip or run and it's over 100 years old. And believe me, many times I played that thing and 

pedaled and pumped til I couldn't breath!

 I almost contemplated putting the organ in storage because I didn't think it would "go" with the house but my heart wouldn't let me. I can always find a way to make a piece work if I love it. In this case it fits my current decorating model "Unified simply by being old and beautiful." It's not so much about making your home fit a particular decor style but more about living with beautiful things you love. ❤️

 

Here are the Instagram hosts for the hashtag party. 

If you have an Instagram I invite you to follow me there along with these talented ladies. 

Have a great weekend!

Amber

Also playing at:

http://shabbyartboutique.com/2016/01/shabbilicious-friday-link-party-122.html

Winter Living Room Tour

Well I've un-decked the halls for what I call "phase one" of transitioning from Christmas into winter. I find it too depressing to remove all traces of Christmas at one time, and since many decorations can work well for winter decor, I leave a few things out through Valentine's Day. Once again I missed an opportunity to participate in the blog open house tours, but I thought I'd invite you in on this blustery, snowy KY morning. 

Welcome!

This spot on the couch is my favorite way to wake up and start my morning right in front of the fireplace while watching deer out my front window. This morning it's the cardinals who are entertaining me while the snow gently falls.

 We love our home but it doesn't photograph well due to lighting. The snow gave me a bit more light than usual so I started snapping.

In contrast to our previous home with all whites and feminine shabby decor, this house is much more masculine and rich with lots of dark, original woodwork. And even though it is quite larger than our last cottage, it is extremely warm and cozy.

. 

 I adore this bookshelf which belonged to my great, great Grandfather. It's had a recent makeover with chalk paint and no one can believe it's almost 100 years old. Standing beside is my favorite Santa who I think of as "Old Man Winter" after Christmas to give me a bit more time to enjoy him.

My adopted garden deer statue, old tarnished trophies and chalkboard vignette is out all year but it works especially well for winter.

The deer urn is one of my favorite yard sale finds. 

My mantel is decorated with an assortment of antique frames and mirrors as a permanent display, so I just change it up through the seasons for interest by adding little things. My bronze horse, a wintry German Santa and a vintage postcard of children playing in the snow are my early January touches. 

I haven't done many posts on this house yet. We just had our one year anniversary of living here and all the decor just started coming together in late fall, so this may be the first tour for some of my readers, and some may be surprised that I chose such bold wall color. Our living room color was chosen after researching period accurate colors for mid-1920's homes. So different from the neutral grays and greiges that are popular right now. I originally tried out several trendy colors but they did nothing for the house. I actually had to hand mix a few colors to get the color to look exactly like the historic color I wanted and it was the right choice for this house, it truly came alive with a historic feel once the walls were painted and I love how my shabby peices pop.

This old buffet is my favorite statement piece. Actually it's my favorite piece. I can't believe I've never posted about it before, but I digress. This year I displayed my German Belsnickles for Christmas along with vintage tinsel and shiny Brite ornaments in the garland but I replaced them with the large snowballs for winter and decided to keep the Santas out a bit longer.

Icicle ornaments, silver Mercury beads, woodsy greenery, rusty bells and rustic antlers evoke a winter feeling.

Love these sweet vintage deer wishing us all a Happy New Year!

One of my favorite gifts this year is this hand carved gnome door that my father-in-law made. Intended for outside but for now it makes a lovely addition to my winter woodland scene.

I also keep my greenery on the banister for winter. I just remove the ribbons and bulbs and anything that is too Christmasy. An old sled and skates are quintessential winter props in any vintage junk decorator's home.

On the other side of the staircase is our office which I will show you in an upcoming post. My blogger app is acting up so this seems like a good place to stop for now. I hope you enjoyed the living room tour today! You can see a bit more of what we've done in other rooms in previous posts. I hope you'll check them out. Not only did I use a bold wall color in my living room, but I also used wallpaper in my dining room. No regrets!

Come back and visit soon!

Amber

Parties:

http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com/2016/01/whats-it-wednesday-199.html?m=1

http://www.adelightsomelife.com/2016/01/home-and-garden-thursday-131.html#comments

http://jannolson.blogspot.com/2016/01/share-your-cup-thursday-180.html?m=1

http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/2016/01/wow-us-wednesdays-256.html?m=1

http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net/2016/01/feathered-nest-friday_14.html?m=1

Happy Labor Day, Goodbye Summer!

Happy Labor Day everyone! I thought today would be perfect for showing my little patriotic vignette I created for the Fourth of July since I missed posting in July and red, white and blue is a Labor Day theme as well.

For summer I like to put out my Uncle Sam and patriotic touches to last though Labor Day. Although I love shabby-junky-chic, I always keep some primitive things around the house to create a welcome home-spun feel and it works so well with my ironstone and farmhouse items.

Vintage birthday candles to celebrate America's birthday on the Fourth.

Summer isn't summer without bubbles! Love this vintage jar with original contents.

I found this antique scrap at an estate sale. Someone long ago took the time to hand stitch a tribute to  one of the most famous hand-stitched pieces in history!

I used it to temporarily cover an old stool.

Farewell summer! Bring on the pumpkins!

Thanksgiving Mantel/Dining Room Tour Part 2

Welcome back for part two of my Thanksgiving tour! Today I am showing you my Thanksgiving mantel and buffet. I hope you will check out part one if you haven't already. You can see my farm table and some other little Thanksgiving touches I added around the dining room. Just click the link at the end of this post. Hope you enjoy the tours!

 

 This year I wanted to do something different on the mantel, but I had no clue what, so I started thinking about the junk I hoarded collected over the summer to get inspired. The idea really came together quite quickly once I remembered the old galvanized chick feeder out in my garden. I decided to simply fill it to overflowing with my favorite faux garland, some mini pumpkins and gourds, and some dollar store candles embellished with burlap and little Thanksgiving hang tags. I took a few deer antlers from the table and used them as well. I displayed my favorite prim turkey whose tail feathers are so long they got cropped out of the picture! For visual interest I used an arched mirror-less mirror, and layered an antique oval mirror to reflect the light of the candles. I like the contrast of the dark wood on the mirror against the shabby metal frame, as it adds just enough brown to balance out the mantel design.

At Halloween I created a "Queen of Halloween" vignette on my mantel using this vintage bronze trophy. (See it here: http://junkaholicsunanimous.blogspot.com/2013/11/best-of-halloween-2013.html) Once the Halloween was packed away, I decided to keep the trophy  on the mantel for Thanksgiving and fill it with a gorgeous variety of turkey feathers and a matching spray of florals and berries from the garland in the chick feeder. A winning combination, I think!

Yesterday I added the large acorn ornaments that I found in an old basket while cleaning. I didn't

remember them at all, and just got lucky that I was cleaning out baskets in time for Thanksgiving so I could use them.

 

I am so obsessive I almost went back and retook all of my mantel pictures because my red shirt is reflecting in the mirror and clashes! I should have worn white or ivory! I digress. Easily.

Anyway, I love, love, love this year's mantel! Our farm table may very well be the best $10 ever spent while junkin', and has inspired the use of more natural elements mixed with vintage junk, which I think it's the perfect style for our home.

 

A little blurry but you get a good view of the trophy.

 

Love the glow of the candles at night casting shadows, along with the cozy warm colors. I will miss the warmth of fall. I'm enjoying every last minute of it. 

 

Below is a picture I took with my iphone but I wanted to use it since it shows the most of the mantel from another angle. It's hard to get the full mantel in any shot because our farm table sits where you need to stand to get the whole thing.

 

Now that you've seen the mantel in the daytime and evening, let's move on around the dining room...

 

My buffet is one of my favorite things to decorate, but nearly impossible to photograph due to the large picture window behind it. I hope you can get an idea of how it looks in real life. I have enjoyed creating this chic and elegant display, where all I did was tweak a few of my everyday buffet vignettes for Thanksgiving.  The center features my vintage jewelry bust, "Grace." You may have seen her in my Halloween posts all decked out as the Belle of the Halloween ball. Now she is cozied up in a warm ivory scarf and looking dreamily ahead toward the upcoming Christmas holidays.

 

The buffet is packed with vintage pretties, amber goblets and salad plates, vintage amber glass bottles, loads of tarnished silver plate items, a few vintage turkeys, and my Johnson Brothers

"His Majesty" turkey teacups and saucers.

 

I am so in love with fall that I try to bring as much of it indoors as possible. To the right are some little ironstone leaf dishes filled with acorns my son picked from the yard. He and I went for a little drive to see what gifts nature could spare and we found these lovely orange and blue berries. I believe the orange is bittersweet. So pretty in the amber bottles!

 

 

 

 

Well dear readers, I am going to do my best to get part three of Thanksgiving up tomorrow, depending on whether or not my health cooperates. I still want to show you my corner cabinet, since that is where most of my favorite vintage Thanksgiving treasures are.

 

As for now, this last picture has inspired me to fix myself a cup of green tea and to check out some of your inspirational Thanksgiving and holiday décor. If you would like to see more of my dining room, click here: http://junkaholicsunanimous.blogspot.com/2013/11/thanksgiving-tablescape-and-dining-room.html

 

Have a great weekend!

Amber

 

Parties

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Be Inspired

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Time Travel Thursday

Fabulously Creative Friday

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