Beautiful Interiors from Downton Abbey

Irwin Weiner ASID - If you love beautiful interiors, Downton Abbey on PBS is giving you some early 1900s British decorating inspiration - the Library has a secret door that leads to the Music Room (above) and Cora's bedroom has beautiful 18th Century silk bed hangings (below). This hotly watched episodic mini-series shows the upstairs-downstairs world of an earl's estate - the real-life Highclere Castle - and we're swept away with the titled family's life, the intrigues of the serving class, and how both are swept up in the turmoil of World War I. 

Get a good story of the real Downton Abbey here, and click here to see Linda Merrill's fantastic survey of the rooms and set decorations in her Downton Abbey feature on Silver Screen Surroundings. And if you're not familiar with the television series, watch the following video trailers for the first two seasons of the show ... and be swept away.

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Home Decorating Video - Color Tips

Irwin Weiner ASID - You know that color is one of the most feared concepts in all of home decorating. There's nothing worse than selecting a wall color that turns out to be something you can't live with. 

Photo: Simon Upton / TIA Digital Ltd

Fresh Home Magazine editor Neil Wertheimer was interviewed by Better TV and he gives us some practical tips for using color in today's featured video (see below). Let me summarize and editorialize. 

• For a DIY room makeover - go knock yourself out! - it's most logical to bring together all the furnishings and accessories in the room and then select a paint color(s) that unify all these more expensive elements ... like pulling a paint color from a sofa. I would add that you don't have to be afraid of ceiling colors. Don't leave them white by default. Consider ceilings just another wall, but since it's at the top of your room, add the illusion of height by having your wall paint hue mixed a few shades lighter. Paint the same lighter hue for the wall surfaces above wainscoting or picture moldings, too.

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4 Favorite Brad Michael Vintage Lights

Irwin Weiner ASID - In our local Bucks County, PA weekly newspaper this weekend, we read about a Doylestown property management professional who decided to follow his hobby more seriously and open up a vintage lighting store Lucent Lampworks on Etsy. Brad Michael thought there was an absence of good handmade lighting options on the crafts-and-handmade online marketplace, and he's filling a great niche there.

His first sales were to customers in Paris and San Juan and now a full 40% of his sales are outside the United States. Visit his Etsy shop before his work is shown on an upcoming episode of ABC's Extreme Makeover Home Edition - I predict a rush to buy his often one-of-a-kind lights. Brad uses vintage and new glass, flea market and yard sale finds, reproduction wire, and other repurposed and recycled objects that unite the old and new. Click on the photos of 4 of my favorite lights (above and below) from his current collection to learn more about each piece.

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Valentine's Day Design: 5 Great Heart Chairs

Irwin Weiner ASID - You'll really get in a romantic mood with these heart-inspired chairs. The vintage chair in the top photo has been refinished with some funky hand-printed cotton-linen upholstery, Grand Hearts from Umbrella Prints (see top photo). Click on each heart chair for more information and some heart-felt sitting.

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