A right proper set of guest rooms...

◼ ALL IS MERRY AND BRIGHT CHRISTMAS GUEST ROOM TOUR - Stone Gable

Who wouldn't want to stay here?

It's the HOW to in How-To.

HOW do you hang that curtain to get that effect. HOW do you solve that problem, which isn't explained in the how-to blurbs. These questions come up from time to time - they're things that might be self-evident, or often things which WERE known by our parents who actually MADE things, and were taught HOW to do things, build, sew, etc.

When I am faced with a particular example, I'll post it here. Feel free to add yours in the comments. I've had a few, over time, they can be very frustrating. Putting in a tetherball pole, for example....everyone had one in their yard growing up - HOW do you install one? You stick the pole in the ground, right? And how do you attach the ball, and how high do you put in the screw-eye? Do you put a slightly wider pipe in the ground to stick the pole into? Do you mount it in cement in an old tire? Where do you find the answers?

Inspiration day 2:

The embroidered shirt is JohnnyWas... blues and denims and pearls, embroidery and beads, embellishment...

Click to embiggen. (images found on Pinterest/Facebook, will link sources if I have them, they've been accumulated in an inspiration file over the years)

Inspirational pics

Click to embiggen. (images found on Pinterest/Facebook, will link sources if I have them, they've been accumulated in an inspiration file over the years) Red dining room. Also like the idea that the dining room is a library, so there's more than one reason to be in there, and it won't go unused.

HEIRLOOM TRADITIONS- FRENCH VANILLA

◼ Paint, and waxes via ◼ White Lace Cottage

How to Make Apple Hand Pies

Perfect kitchen...

Traditional Kitchen by Glen Ellyn Kitchen & Bath Designers Drury Design

Traditional Kitchen by Glen Ellyn Kitchen & Bath Designers Drury Design

Traditional Kitchen by Glen Ellyn Kitchen & Bath Designers Drury Design

I just bought one of those Wolf cooktops, now to design the kitchen for it to go in.

House Of Cards bone-white color palette

It's striking. From the opening sequence with the intensely white light on the capitol building, and others, contrasted with the dark. The interiors are cream (or bone), and black, dark, but light. Hard to explain, but very consistent.

Miami Vice, in it's day, had a color palette, no earth tones. It included the neons, turquoises and pinks of Florida, but no earth tones, and it was wildly successful at making its mark, too.

◼ Binge on the Design of ‘House of Cards’ On Houzz

These Diagrams Are Everything You Need To Decorate Your Home

◼ Interior design cheat sheets FTW - BUZZED

Inspiration:

Mill Stream

Washing all the china in the china-hutch. Somehow it gets dusty even in that contained environment. Some painting to do, and new lights to install...

Good greens

◼ Benjamin Moore paint, In Your Eyes, benjaminmoore.com, and Mint Julep, benjaminmoore.com.

The New Year's bountiful blessing:

Three hundred sixty-five
bright mornings and starlit evenings;
fifty-two promising weeks;
twelve transformative months
full of beautiful possibilities;
and four splendid seasons.
A simply abundant year
to be savored.

◼ Sarah Ban Breathnach: Simple Abundance

Guest rooms: Ideas and tips

◼ With the addition of a few niceties, your spare bedroom will be as inviting to visitors as a fine hotel room. - Martha Stewart

Set out essentials such as towels and an alarm clock, then provide little luxuries as well: bottles of water, foil-wrapped chocolates, and a few cut blooms in a vase.

Assemble a small personal library, including some magazines and a daily newspaper (useful for local listings like concerts). A radio for morning news and quiet evening listening is a thoughtful addition; you might also include a portable CD player with a selection of music.

And make certain there is a full-length mirror...

Compile a list of some favorite local places -- restaurants, cafes, museums, antiques shops, movie theaters -- and provide timetables, if appropriate, for buses, ferries, or trains.

Appliance Manual: Guests may be baffled by the nuances of your stereo, climate-control, and burglar-alarm systems. Provide them with a handy guide to using your keypads and remote controls: Type or write instructions, and collect them in a convenient book like the ring binder shown here. Mark sections with tabs for each piece of equipment....

On my list?
A big bed
Memory foam
The usual hotel-room staples
Local info: Here it could be the "Menu of Menus' restaurant listing, 101 ThingsToDo, and any other tourist guide things, maybe a local map.

Nice...