French Eye Candy!

I promised eye candy and here it is! These are some of the things I've been working on for a custom order for a delightful French Chateau. Not only is it a beautiful dollhouse, but the owner is just the sweetest person and a joy to work with. I've had SO much fun with dressing this house because I got to work with some styles that I don't normally do. I love being diverse! Life is never boring when you get to try new things!

These are the living room drapes for the Chateau. That room has three single windows and I wanted to make the most of them without allowing them to over power the room. So I designed a harlequin style using blue gathered panels over ivory pleats and topping it with a pixie valance that gives the illusion the window is wider than it actually is.

The dining room has a double window on one side that was a lot of fun to play with. The walls in that room are done with a mural wallpaper in rich tones of blue, green and purple with touches of pink. The furniture is traditional victorian french in ivory with lots of gilt. The table is set with gorgeous pink china and pink napkins. I wanted to bring out the pink in the room, so I used semi-sheer pink silk panels in the middle of the drapes with heavier ivory silk panels pulled back on the sides. The valance is a combination of cascades and a turban wrap valance with a center jabot. I love the little gold tassels!

The dressing room is a small room just to the side of the bedroom and we wanted to make the most of that space. On the back wall, there's a window that takes up most of that wall space so I designed a faux closet door to go over it. From the outside, all you can see are pleated floral panels but from the inside it appears to be a doorway covered with drapes in the traditional victorian style. On the side of the room, there is a square entry cut frame in front of the bay alcove. The bay has one small window in the center. To create an optical illusion, I used pulled back drapes with a swag valance over the square entry and then made a small cascade curtain for the little window in the bay. It gives a telescoping effect to the space and makes it appear much larger than it actually is.

The bedroom has a large, open bay area with three windows in the bay and a fourth window just to the side. The bed will set inside the bay area so I wanted to make the curtains match the bed, yet not blend in too much. So each window received white silk panels trimmed in lace and tied back, topped with a lace valance that matches the lace on the bed. This arrangement allows the blue walls to peek thru between each window to make each window distinctive and allows a lot of light into the room. I used a very loose pleat on the silk panels to make them appear to be billowing in a slight breeze. Isn't it romantic looking?

This chaise lounge will also be in the bedroom. It's a Bespaq swan chaise and sooooooo delicate. The print in the upholstery fabric I used is a tiny lilac vine on white. I added a bolster pillow with a white tassel, a lace trimmed silk throw and a silk ribbon embroidered pillow that matches the bed. Every lady needs a fainting couch in her bedroom for napping during the day and this is so inviting that I had a hard time staying awake while I was making it! LOL

Here's the bed! I love doing silk ribbon embroidery on silk fabric! With just a teeny bit of a batt under the silk, the embroidery adds depth to the fabric. For this bed, I used lilac and mint ribbons and made pretty little lazy-daisy flower buds scattered over the bedspread. The same flowers are in full bloom on the lace edged pillow. The bedspread has layers of lace hand appliqued and fitted around the mattress so the corners don't stick out. It's funny to see these bedspreads before they get put on the mattress because the tucks and gathers in the lace makes them practically stand up on the ends!

Here's a close up of the pillows.

And a look at the lace on the sides as well as the silk throw draped over the footboard. The little bit of silk is arranged so one isn't quite sure if it's a nightgown, a shawl or a light throw.

I was having so much fun with the silk ribbon embroidery that I couldn't stop! The crib in the nursery has teeny little peach and green butterflies embroidered on the soft and fluffy silk blanket.

A peach silk blanket is draped over the side and matching silk ribbons accent the dust ruffle, the posts and the front and back of the crib.

The nursery has one teeny window in a gable almost at floor level so I gave it just a brush of the same lace and ribbons used on the crib.

I love the way this crib came out. It's just so sweet and demure. And soft! Oh my, it's so very, very soft!! The mattress is soft foam that sinks down about half an inch when you press on it with your finger and the batted blanket adds about another quarter inch of fluffiness to it. With silk sheets, pillows and blankets, it may be the ultimate in baby comfort. The best thing is that in our miniature world, babies can have cribs dressed like this because they never spit up or make other messes. LOL!

So that's the French side of my international mini journeys lately. I'll have Italian eye candy later this week so we'll go from bon-bons to tiramisu.