Thursday, December 13, 2012

Color

A while back I read an article in the September issue of House Beautiful about color. There was a map of the US showing favorite colors in different parts of the country. 

I was surprised that orange was the favorite color of the Southeast. I would have thought orange would be the favorite color of the Southwest. I know orange is a hot color right now but I've never been an orange girl. 

Green won as the hot color of Louisiana. Anyone who lives in New Orleans and is old enough to remember the wood benches in City Park knows City Park Green. In the past 10 years or so the green that you see in the French Quarter has gotten lighter. 








Green is one of my favorite colors. To me the right shade of green is a neutral color. Think about Mother Nature...Green is all around us. There's so many shades to choose from. Green can either soothe or energize you.

Here are a few green combos. All photos are from Houzz.com 

Pink and Green...think nature...pink flowers, green leaves.
Perfect for a little girls room. 


Blue and Green...can be very clean and contemporary.


White and Green...this isn't your Grandma's kitchen but white and green is always in style.


How about Yellow and Green...


And yes...even Orange and Green...




Monday, December 10, 2012

Southern Girl

Had a getaway with the Hubs over the weekend. We spent the night at Nottoway Plantation. It's Louisiana's largest remaining antebellum mansion, 53,000 square feet, along the Mississippi River Road. It took 8 years to build the house. It was way ahead of it's time. There were 3 indoor bathrooms and they had their own gas well to heat their water. All of the wood in the house was cut from cypress trees from the property. You can't see from this picture but on the right side is a rotunda. The cypress was soaked in the Mississippi River for 4 years in order to get the curvature of the wood. 

This picture is the side of the home. See the balcony with the red ribbon. It's one of the 2 private balconies that we had with our room. 


Here's a picture of our front balcony. From our balconies we could see the river. My imagination went wild thinking of what life was like back in the day. Of course in my mind everything was beautiful, romantic and life was a piece of cake. NOT...

There was no air condition and the fireplace was the only heat in the house. I can't even imagine what the 
mosquitoes were like. 


Here are a few pics of the inside. 

This is our half tester bed. It's not original to the house but it's from the same time period. There are only a few original pieces of furniture in the home that were donated from family members. 



The camellia was the favorite flower of the original lady of the house. Here is the plaster and cypress moulding in the dining room. Notice the camellia's. 



Here I am in my favorite room in the house. The white ballroom. 5 of the daughters were married in this room. The windows would open up, the band would be on the balcony and you could dance in and out of the room onto the balcony.



Here's the Master Suite. Notice the bed warmer on the bed.  The door to the right is the master bath and closet. 


The dining room mantel and table. 




Night photos. 


Here you can see the rotunda. The restaurant is on the bottom floor, white ball room on second floor and family galley on third floor. 


The night ended with us sitting on our balcony watching the fireworks.