Image Map

Tuesday 10 February 2015

BY INVITATION ….. INTERIOR TRENDS ….. DO YOU FOLLOW THEM AND DO YOU REPEAT THEM ? …..




Our By Invitation topic for February is ' Do you follow trends when decorating your home ? ' and ' Do you have a look which you repeat often ? ' and was chosen by Penelope Bianchi 




I think that we all follow trends to a certain degree ….. or not …… some people have other interests and their home is a place to eat and to sleep and that is enough. 

 I have always had an interest in houses, old ones in particular. Our home before the one that we live in now was built in the 1640's. Charles 1st was on the throne and The Great Fire of London was still to come !!  In our deeds it said that anyone could knock on our door and had the right to graze their sheep on our lawn. We were paid £5.00 per year for the inconvenience ….. nobody ever did !!  



We have lived in our present house for nearly 30 years. 
In 1895, a Mr. W, Theatrical Costumier and master hairdresser, built a large house called ' Paradise House ', for himself and his wife Elizabeth. He dabbled in property, purchased houses in the east end of London which he rented out and built a few houses in Hertfordshire , including ours and two others either side. These three detached houses were called ' The Briars ', ' The Ivies ' and ours in the middle ' The Laurels '. ' The Ivies ' fell into disrepair and was knocked down and two houses built in it's place. ' The Briars ' is still there but all original features have been removed over the years although, the present owners are gradually putting them back. Our house however, had many original features remaining. Luckily, no one had removed the fireplaces, the original dresser, the sash windows or the stained glass windows and front door.


The above are some of the original fireplaces that we have in our home. When houses were being built in late Victorian England, the builder would go down to the ' fireplace shop ' and choose the fireplaces that he liked . Our house was built in 1895. The beginning of the Art Nouveau style started to be recognised in Britain during the 1880's and our Mr. W, being arty and theatrical, obviously favoured  this new Art Nouveau style and, when he popped down to the fireplace shop, he chose, for me, the most wonderful fireplaces.  
I just have to say that the arched fireplace in the middle of the photograph is the only one that isn't original. It's a reproduction one and is more Georgian than Victorian but, we like it !!












When we moved here in the mid 1980's, Victoriana was the way to go and, our house was a step back in time with festoon blinds, dark colours and Laura Ashley patterned wallpapers. Now, it's the neutral palette of Farrow and Ball, distressed furniture and a Scandinavian feel. 
But, to answer the original question, YES, I do repeat the style that I have chosen in all of the rooms. My personal preference is a neutral palette but, a good friend of mine who is an art teacher has colour everywhere and her home is eclectic and beautiful. Each to their own. I love the fact that we are all different ….. it would be pretty boring if everyone's house was the same wouldn't it ?




I really don't believe that there are any rules. Everyone should choose what they like and go for it ….. after all, it is your home and you have to live there. 
I'm sure that there will be many people who won't like my style and will wonder why I have old French shutters, letters and my Dad's 95 year old christening dress but, I like them !!

To see what other contributors of By Invitation think about interiors and decorating, Marsha has all of the links. 





image 1: via la bonne vie but with my words ! All other images via ME !!


Jackie

59 comments:

  1. Oh Jackie, how I loooooooooove the amazing pictures of your home.........what a magical place that you live! I don´t like "living trends", because our home should be something special, our own wonderful place to be..........not a trendy location ;). Hope to se some more pictures of your beautiful house.............it is such a magical world and a great inspiration! Have a wonderful week,

    with love and hugs, Jade

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jade …… I'm sure that I'll show a few more photographs of our home again.
      …. and, don't stop showing yours. It's beautiful. XXXX

      Delete
  2. Sorry for the mistake: I meant SEE not SE ;)

    Jade

    ReplyDelete
  3. Such beautiful fireplaces - do you have fires in them all? I always loved the idea of having a fire in the bedroom but the previous owners of our 1930's home removed them all. You have some lovely treasures that you have collected - in my mind I always thought your style would be more gothic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Elaine …. we love them but they are not to everyone's taste. We used to have more fires than we do now ….. I like an easy life !!!!
      …… I am a little Gothic when it comes to fashion but not in my home. More pale and interesting there !!!! haha. XXXX

      Delete
  4. Darling Jackie,

    It is clear from very thing you write and picture that you are a trend setter not a follower. Your eye for detail, your confidence with colour, your creative flair and refined taste shine through. Your house is a gem of understated elegance, personalised with the most delightful of things which have been collected, handed down and treasured over the years.

    We love the way that you appreciate and work with the sensitivities of your house. Original features are restored to their full glory whilst also keeping modern day convenience in mind. The perfect combination.

    And, there is a loving warmth about your house too. Never sterile, always warmly welcoming. A delight to live in, we are sure, and a privilege to be invited in!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Jane and Lance ….. I don't know about being a trend setter … I just like what I like.
      …. and, you are so right. Most things that we have are things that have been gathered over the years. That's why it takes time to make a house a home isn't it ?
      Thank you so much for your kind words. XXXX

      Delete
  5. I am definitely in the 'each to his own' category, but certainly have a style which I seem to repeat around my home. We too live in an old (1839) house and most of the origiinal fireplaces had been stripped out and replaced by 1959s ones when we moved in, there are still one ir two in the bedrooms which we love, we also started out trying to recreate the Victorian look, but the light is so poor that we have mostly replaces the dark colours with light neutrals with splashes of colour in the details and it has made such a difference. All our furniture is painted, distressed and recovered and we love anything old and full of memories, I don't suppose we will ever achieve your fabulous look but we love what we have, ' cos 'tis all our own'. Stunning pictures as usual. X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Isn't it a shame that so many original features have been lost …. they are works of art to me. But, I can understand that people wanted to update their homes with modern things. It's just the way of the world isn't it ?
      …. and, I'm sure that your look is wonderful and much better than all of my bits of tat !!!!! XXXX

      Delete
  6. Oh my . . . just as I imagined your home to be . . . history, mementoes, treasures, neutral shades of grey, whites, light tans . . . I can see it all and I would be charmed . . .
    I remember someone once said to me that they loved coming to my home because there were so many "stories to see." I think that was true . . . My home has always been my palette and I try t dress it "my" way . . .

    Loved all of your photos . . . thank you for the visit . . . I feel charmed, awwwwwwwwwww . . .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Lynne and, I can imagine that your home is very welcoming and full of treasured memories. That's what a home should be, shouldn't it ? XXXX

      Delete
    2. Oh, Lynne!

      My favorite line in all these essays and comments!!!

      "There are so many stories to see"!!!

      that is my complete philosophy. And every single thing in my house is a "story"! A scrapbook of life! Brava!!!!

      Delete
  7. Loving all your beautiful details Jackie... and I agree, if we like it... waht's not to love? :) xv

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Vicki …… but I love your beautiful details more !!!!!! XXXX

      Delete
  8. OH, LUCKY YOU living in an OLD house and in LONDON!Your STYLE goes with YOUR WORDS.................and YOUR falling SNOW, which I absolutely ADORE!THANK YOU for caring and keeping your old HOME in tact!YOUR style suits you............XX

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We just love old houses { although I love modern ones as well !! } We are quite lucky as we live in the countryside just outside of London but close enough to get into London within 25 minutes. { I love the falling snow too …. I was so pleased that I managed to put the snow on my blog last year that I left it on until well into the Summer !! } XXXX

      Delete
  9. Your home is very much you. And it's lovely!
    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much Pamela. I really value your opinion as I love the little glimpses that we have seen of your own home. XXXX

      Delete
  10. Your vignettes are beautifully assembled, Jacqueline, and so characteristic of you. That's what I like: when houses reflect their owners rather than looking as though they came in a lorry from one lifestyle shop.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. … and that's why I love your home too Mise …. there is so much of you in it.
      Trouble with my home is that, I have so many ' things ' it looks like a shop !!!! XXXX

      Delete
    2. Another wonderful description......"there is so much of you in it"!!

      Beautiful. Dream come true!!!

      Delete
  11. Absolutely beautiful, Jackie! I love all the original features esp the fireplaces, and although I would be afraid to do a neutral palette in our home (I hate to clean and dust), I adore how you decorate your gorgeous home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carol …. I hate to clean and dust too !!!! It gets a good going over on special occasions !! XXXX

      Delete
  12. So gorgeous! I love all the original details. They give such character! I love a neutral palette also. It just feels soothing to me and that's how I want to live! Great quote, "There are no rules"!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jennifer … I do love neutral but colour is good too as my artist friend always proves to me when I visit her home. Even the plants in our garden are quite pale whreas she has red's and oranges !!

      Delete
  13. I think your style is magical!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What a lovely thing to say …… it's not quite so magical behind the furniture …. more dusty !! XXXX

      Delete
  14. Jackie.......like your style.....lovely...!!!..........you have a dutch design pillow from zuss with a dutch stamp...!!!!!............like it all....lovely week love Ria.......xxx!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Ria ….. Dutch interior shops are my favourite …… if I lived near you, I'd be buying things in your shop everyday !! XXXX

      Delete
  15. Lovely to have some glimpses into your home.
    I am headed down the Scandinavian style too now... having sanded the floor in the study it looks so light and I want to keep that feel.. especially in a cottage which as you know tend to be dark. Investigating liming.. It's quite oppressive in some rooms at the moment with the black beams. Let the stripping commence!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jessica …. because we have always lived in old houses, they have been very dark { I have light envy !! } so I know exactly what it's like.
      I love your cottage and always thinks that it looks light when you show photographs but that maybe your clever photography !! haha
      We had all of our trees cut today { an annual job } and the garden looks twice as big !!
      … oh and, our kitchen is limed and has lasted for 20 years and I still love it. XXXX

      Delete
  16. Wonderful post! I am like you love a neutral palette, it can be changed up so easily...your pictures are fabulous! Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much ….. I just love a neutral palette and, if you want to,you can change it with an injection of colour. This was a good BIO subject, wasn't it ? XXXX

      Delete
    2. I have been dying to "jump in" here! But now is my chance, since I picked the "bio subject"!

      I adore your post, adore your house, and you personify what my own personal philosophy is!

      Personal! Collected....no trends....no show-off decorating...no following fashion. Respecting the architecture; where it is, and who lives here!

      Beautiful! Your house and your comment!!
      Thank you!!

      Penelope

      Delete
  17. Jackie, I love the old letters and the stamps! My house is nothing like yours as you know from the little bits you have seen, my 17th century is just me and rugs from Morocco and France and four black cats and lots of happiness, and that part is the same as yours!! xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Rachel,
      Your home is like our 17th century cottage that we lived in before this house and we loved it.
      Lathe and plaster, beams, dust { we had three cats } more dust, draughts, listed regulations and a bit more dust !!! This house is just as dusty and has even more draughts but , as you know, it's all part of having an old house and we wouldn't have it any other way !! XXXX

      Delete
  18. First time visitor via Splendarosa and I just love hearing the history of your home! The oldest home I lived in was the 1905 brownstone in San Francisco in Presidio Heights, which was before the great fire of 1906. I still miss that beautiful place! My current home was built just as WWII was wrapping up and I truly wish I knew the history of those who have called it home. I have taken so many photos as we upgrade and renovate not only the house but the landscaping and I hope that someday I can pass it along to the new owner, so they will have a better understanding of what transpired here.

    Your style is beautiful…filled with special memories!
    xoxo Elizabeth

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Elizabeth,
      Thank you so much for popping in to see me and for your lovely comment. Your home in San Francisco sounds wonderful. We have been to San Francisco and visited Alamo Square and walked for miles and saw some beautiful houses.
      We can find out a great deal about the houses we live in by the deeds or looking it up in the Census which have been taken every 10 years since 1801. I love knowing who built my house and who lived here.
      Hope that you will visit again. XXXX

      Delete
  19. Jackie, your home is so gorgeous just as I should have known it would be! I am over the moon for the fireplaces and their history. I think that you have found a great way of being true both to yourself and the "bones" of your home as well. :)
    I am sorry that my response is so late...our internet service went caput last night just as I was starting to make the rounds!!! Is back on now so off I go to explore this fun theme...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Heather …… thanks for you kind words but, it's not so gorgeous when you find the dust behind the furniture !!! haha
      …. and, please don't worry about commenting late ……. Hope all's well for you now with the internet. It's so frustrating when that happens, isn't it ? XXXX

      Delete
  20. Your house sounds lovely Jackie! All that history! You showed us some lovely details too. Oh I wish I had a Victorian mantelpiece in every room :-)

    Wishing you a Happy Valentine's day!

    Madelief x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's one of the reasons why we bought this house Madelief …… there is a fireplace in nearly every room and every bedroom…. but, that means lots of draughts and dust !!!! XXXX

      Delete
  21. I find these magnificent photos with these colors which are all in harmony !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Christelle although, in real life, it's not quite as pale. XXXX

      Delete
  22. I agree, Jackie...no rules...that is style and you have it in abundance...love it!
    Happy Valentine's Day ;) xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Catherine,
      Hope your Valentine's Day was filled with love. XXXX

      Delete
  23. What a history! To live in such a house would be a dream come true to me Jackie. I love every beautiful detail of your home and I see you in them all. I can see the thinks you love to live with and your amazing style in each photo. What a treat this post is for me today.
    sending love....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is what I love about old houses …. the thought of all the people who have lived in it and their stories …. I do love a bit of history June !!
      …. but, I don't think that my home comes close to the beauty of yours. Lots of love. XXXX

      Delete
  24. You would despair at our house; clutter, clutter, clutter. I do subscribe to Coté Sud magazine (on behalf of Lady M), but nothing rubs off.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No Cro, I wouldn't despair at all …… I love your French home. It always looks so welcoming and homely and, I know for a fact, that you would feed me so well { and always a drop of red to be had !! } Those photographs of our home are a little misleading …… they don't show the copious amounts of dust and many other faults !!
      I always buy a copy of Cote Sud when we get on the ferry when returning from France. XXXX

      Delete
  25. Utterly gorgeous.....your home certainly is where your heart is!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do enjoy our home ….. I guess it's a bit of a hobby but, if you were to pop round for a cuppa, you would realise that I've just shown you little bits and not the dust etc. !! XXXX

      Delete
  26. Dear Jackie, a lovely blogpost - and a lovely home you have! And the fireplaces still there: such a luck! (We bought our Art Noveau house in Hildesheim, it was built in 1902 - and most things are still there, but they smashed the beautiful fireplaces to install central heating - nothing against that, but they could have kept the fireplaces, which were in the inner parts of the rooms...) Now our house - and the whole street, singled out to have outlived the hell of war fire, is under monumental protection (not easy either...). As to furbishing rooms: I don't follow any trends - I love "lots of free room", but then in the tinier things there is a lot to look at - though everything is in use, we are both no collectors.

    ReplyDelete
  27. 'ecckie thump'...I missed your birthday!!! Shame on me! :( But a very heartfelt Happy Belated 64 Birthday Jackie darling!

    Oh it was so interesting to read about your houses. Imagine living in a house that survived the Great Fire of London, was there a ghost?

    And your present home looks lovely, I love those pastel-hues of Scandinavia and fabulous fire-places. And for it to be called 'The Laurels', it sounds like a house from Anne of Green Gables a book I still love! The house must attract theatricals and artistic people to it I think, because YOU live there, and your son did as well and he's major talented.

    Our house is full of 'tat' as my own son puts it. Never the less he goes about mentally putting blue dots on things marking as his for when we're pushing up the daisies! ;):) The house is in dire need of re-decoration which is difficult when you have M.E. so I've filled it up with all sorts of things to feast my eyes upon so I disguise the faults. And when the sun shines I have to wear blinkers so as not notice the tumbleweeds of dust.

    Much love dear Jackie, stay warm,
    Huggings,
    Jane x

    ReplyDelete
  28. Jackie, I don't buy much anymore, but what I have purchased I have loved.
    If I love it trends and styles don't matter so much. I do love some of the white wash looks.
    Very sick, sneezing, dry cough, cotton mouth,water pouring out of my nose.
    Will be out of pocket for a while. yvonne

    ReplyDelete
  29. What I would REALLY love is pictures of the ROOMS! From the walls opposite! Beautiful pics of close up things1

    I can't really get a sense of the rooms! Please!!

    Vignettes can only go so far!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Such a lovely home! I read blogs like yours just to inspire myself and to open my mind for all these beautiful interior decisions. Thanks for sharing!
    Chelsea moving out cleaning

    ReplyDelete
  31. What a beautiful collection of photos. Each unique and inspiring.

    Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete