Monthly Archives: April 2014

2014 Neighborhoods of Newport House Tour Featuring Barclay Butera

18 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by in House Tours

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Neighborhoods of Newport House Tour, Newport House Tour

There is no doubt that we are a society that loves to ogle over homes and their decor. Our Pinterest pages more than prove that. But what’s better than scrolling through Pinterest for hours or flipping the pages of your favorite home magazines? Getting to go inside those homes and see the details up close, of course! And next Sunday, April 27th you can do just that at the Neighborhoods of Newport House Tour to benefit St. Michael’s Country Day School and the Martin Luther King Junior Center.

This year’s house tour includes seven homes in Newport and Middletown. They are the Commodore William Edgar House, Bellevue House, Ossory House, Hillside, the Isaac Bell House, Wind Shadows, and the newly renovated Paradise Farmhouse at the Norman Bird Sanctuary. The McKim, Mead & White designed Isaac Bell House (above) is architecturally significant and also features one of my favorite ceilings ever. Two words: gold leaf.

And the Peabody and Stearns designed Hillside (above) not only has a beautiful interior, but the grounds also feature more than 100,000 daffodils! However, I have to say that I am most excited to tour Wind Shadows (top). While I typically prefer historic homes, I know from the few pictures I’ve seen of it that this decade old custom home is going to have the balance of farmhouse meets nautical New England shingle style that is going to have me ready to move right in, and I can’t wait to see it in its entirety.

In addition to the homes on this year’s house tour, there will also be a special guest. Famed designer Barclay Butera will be on hand at Paradise Farmhouse from 2 to 5 p.m. for a cocktail reception (cash bar) and book signing of his new book, Getaways and Retreats. Hailing from the other Newport, Newport Beach, CA, Butera’s client list includes celebrities such as Renee Zellweger and Sharon Stone, and his designs are so sought after that he has built an extensive collection of products and partnered with manufactures such as Kravet and Nourison.

The Newport House Tour will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 27th. You can purchase tickets online, or if you prefer to pay cash or check, you can buy them here at Chateau & Bungalow in store. Tickets are $60 each through April 25 ($75 after) or get a group of four friends together to take advantage of the $50 group rate (it’s more fun to do these tours with friends anyway!). Butera’s new book along with his previous book, Living on the Coast, will be available for purchase as well.

Pretty Painted Easter Eggs

17 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by in Celebrations, D.I.Y., Holidays

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Easter, Easter Decor

I’ve always had fond memories of decorating Easter eggs as a kid, but I fear my own kids’ memories won’t be quite as pleasant. Decorating eggs with kids is a bit of an issue for control freaks like me that usually ends up in frustration on both sides. This year I tried a slightly different approach. I boiled , and I took half for me and split the other 18 amongst the three kids I was decorating with. (Does that make me sound like an egg hoarded? I wasn’t trying to be stingy, but I knew I wanted to use mine for store display!) I had planned on dying all of them, but in the midst of searching for vinegar in the basement (which I never found) for the dye, I came across a set of Martha Stewart pearl paint and an oil based gold paint Sharpie and decided I’d let the kids do the dying and I’d take a different approach. I figured this would also be helpful with my control issues since I wouldn’t have to worry about the kids mixing the dyes with their dirty spoons which was bound to happen and did.

And better yet, this approach allowed me to do mine on my own time instead of when I had the dye all mixed up for them. I simply used a flat edge brush to paint the eggs. I only used one color on each egg and opted not to cover the entire egg but go for a color block effect instead. After painting each one, I let it dry on a wire cooling rack. Once the eggs were dry, I took the Sharpie and drew a band along the painted edge to make it a bit more refined and add a touch of gold to it.

It’s pretty impossible to get an effect that doesn’t show some of the brush strokes, but I’m pleased with how they came out, and considering I was able to create them from simply what I found in my craft corner of the basement, I’m even more pleased. Oh, and the kids’ eggs came out well too. The dropped on the floor, marker over dye and topped with stickers look just wasn’t what I was going for myself!

What unique approach have you taken to decorating your eggs this year? Share in the comments!