To all my dear readers, I hope you had a very Merry Christmas! Mine was splendid, we celebrated at home and invited all our relatives over. It was a double celebration as only a few days before Christmas my eldest son sat for his last exam at university and is now an engineer!
Tomorrow we'll be going to a summer place called Chapadmalal where we will have no access to the Internet so I won't be posting again until we come back on January 16th.
So, as I won't be seeing you before, I'd like to wish you all now a very Happy New Year, and thank you for this wonderful inspired year together giving me support through your comments and cheering along which makes all my time spent on blogging definitely worth while! Thanks to each and every one of you, Happy New Year once again and I'll be seeing you soon!

And, of course, before I leave, I give you this stunning house.

Nestled in the old village of Champagne Sézanne, this seventeenth century house belonged to the Marquise de Beauharnais, Marie-Francoise (whose brother married Josephine, the future empress), Pascale and her husband Oliver, bargain hunters and passionate decorators, created a family home that opens its doors to the public twice a year to display their items on sale. Every room has been lovingly staged creating a unique holiday atmoshphere.

A real feast for the eyes. Let's step in.
























Hope you enjoyed our last house tour of the year. See you soon dears!!!

All images from here.

How nice it is to be home to spend my holiday with my family. I still have lots of things to do before Christmas but I'd like to show you this apartment in Stockholm before I start my busy day.

Located in Östermalm, a large district in central Stockholm, Sweden, it is all ready for Christmas. Gustavian furniture, gilded mirrors and a soft palette of greys and whites define this lovely home.




















I'm sure I'll be able to make another post before Christmas. See you then!
Photographs: Joakim Bergström
All images from Skona hem.

I'm starting my holidays tomorrow so I will not be posting every day as usual. Maybe once or twice a week. However, remember there are more than 500 previous posts to look at while I'm gone, so you can catch up if you've missed any.

So, before I start packing I'm giving you a second post today. A lovely house located in the Barrio de las Letras, in Madrid, Spain. Decorated by Estefanía Carrero with a mixture of styles, from modern to classic with rustic touches and full of interesting details and textures.



























Hope you enjoyed this second tour. Now, I must rush and start packing! See you soon, dears, hopefully some time next week.

All images from here.

Good morning dear readers. Today we are going to visit interior designer Sara Lavoine's summer house in Gers countryside often called French Tuscany in the Southwest of France. She had this seventeenth century house restored keeping most of its original materials and then decorated it in a rustic country style but also adding some modern items.
Tour time, sweets. Have a blast!

































Photography Christine Soler and Henri del Olmo
All images from here.

Sited at the mouth of the Connecticut River in Essex, Connecticut, and with a wide view of Long Island Sound, this house was purchased and restored in the 1980s. Back then, interior designer Charles Spada took the historic Greek Revival house down to its roots and then built upon them stately columns, moldings and trim. Window casings were outfitted with broad-shouldered frames, leaving the views exposed. So, 20 years later the house only needed a refresher, like changing fabrics and wall colours and adding a back porch. Once again Charles Spada was called and brought the house into the twenty-first century.



A checkerboard-painted floor and sisal runner mix with a rococo demilune.

Elegant simplicity reigns in the living room under a George Bruestle painting and a host of green-hued fabrics.

On the opposite end of the room, framed intaglios float on wires hanging from picture molding rods behind a grand piano. Two flame-stitch-covered chairs from the Netherlands flank an eighteenth-century Italian commode with a mirror of the same era above it.

Charles Spada designed the intricate fireplace and window moldings during his first encounter with this house.

The library in its original colour from twenty years ago.

The breakfast room sits just off the kitchen and, like the living room, forgoes window treatments.

During the home’s original renovation, Spada gutted the warren of upstairs rooms to create an under-the-eaves master bath.

In the guest room, twin beds wear new layers of quilts and linen-covered headboards, sheer curtains hang at the windows, and a grasscloth rug for the floor. Mmilking stools were placed at the end of each bed. A range of pinks brings a rosy glow to a guest room

Custom bedding is key to the master suite’s comfort.

Photos: Bruce Buck
All images from here.