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Exotic Decor at Our Dallas store

Exotic Decor at Our Dallas store

We are fortunate enough to go on several trips a year to such exotic locations as India, China, and South America. During our journeys we stumble across unique items that might be vintage, antiques, or even the last one left. So, every trip, we're sure to bring our empty suitcases to fill with these rare finds so we can carry them back home.

Our Employee’s Home: Paige’s House

Decorative table accent

What is your role at Wisteria? I am the Senior Creative Manager, I manage all the photography for the catalog and web. I direct and edit the photography at the photo shoots and the styling on set.

Handmade Books in Jaipur, India

Making Books by Hand

This company was started when three young friends rented a booth at a trade fair 14 years ago to sell books and bags made of handmade paper. This Indian artisan has grown great lengths since then and now specializes in handmade paper, bags, books, and leather products. They are located in Jaipur, India and also have a small group of designers and workers from a small village outside of Jaipur.

Updating With Knobs

 Get This Look
Mar 292012
 

Different decorative knobs to update dressers and cabinets.

Image Courtesy of Southern Living. 

One of the easiest ways to update a piece of furniture is to change out the hardware. New knobs can change the look of your dresser or cabinets instantly. I recently added knobs to my plain dresser to update the look and add a little personality to it. This is one of the easiest DIY that I have ever done!

If your piece of furniture has knobs already then the only thing you need to do is remove the old knobs and screw in the ones. My dresser did not have existing knobs. So, I just measured on the drawers where I wanted to place them and drilled a hole (I did make sure that my drill bit was similar size to the screw attached to the knob). Once the hole was drilled, I just screwed in the knobs and within 5 minutes had an updated dresser!

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Nikki
 Posted by Nikki on March 29, 2012  No Responses »

Boozehound Diary

 Our Community
Mar 282012
 

Our famous Boozehound has been out and about. He was spotted recently enjoying the St. Patrick’s Day Parade out in Lakewood. Needless to say, Quinn is not quite sure what to think of him…Where will he show up next?

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Alice
 Posted by Alice on March 28, 2012  No Responses »

Born To Be Wild: Our Artist’s Birthday of the Month

 What Inspires Us
Mar 272012
 

In February’s Born To Be Wild, I described Constantin Brâncuşi as a modernist whose own personal art movement was ever and always away from the representational. And the very representationalism from which he distanced himself might be personified in the French realist Rosa Bonheur. Might be. If it weren’t for the fact that, even in Bonheur’s realism, the revolution was already brewing.

Born March 16, 1822, Rosa was doomed to art from the very start. She was the daughter of landscape and portrait painter, Raimond Bonheur, and sister to artists Auguste, Juliette and Isidore Jules Bonheur. By the time her music-teacher mother taught her to read and write (having Rosa draw a different animal for each letter of the alphabet), the crayon handwriting was on the wall, and she was destined to become what some believe the most famous female painter of the 1800s.

But despite her realist’s dedication to objectivity, I think Bonheur showed her true colors in how she painted. She was a dedicated animalière, or animal artist, and by romanticizing the subject she loved, she may have drawn a new line in the sand to mark art’s steady progression away from pictures of things to pictures of ideas, as Realism was followed by Impressionism followed by Photography followed by Picasso. In her massive The Horse Fair (1835-55, detail above), giant bobtails, their preeminence at the time threatened by horses of the iron variety, appear on the verge of rioting.

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Jim
 Posted by Jim on March 27, 2012  No Responses »

Terrariums For the Not-So-Green Thumb

 We Dig Flowers
Mar 262012
 

Something you should know about me before reading this post is that I am terrible with taking care of my things. All of my jeans have holes, my glassware is in broken sets (pun intended), and all of my CDs are scratched. This is the number one reason I decided to add a terrarium to my dining area. They are very easy to maintain and are simple to make. There isn’t a single living thing in my space except for my wonderful pup, Klaus, and with the spring in bloom I have felt inspired. Plus, have you seen all the great terrarium jars out there? I just want to start collecting terrarium containers now! And when I found a leather-strap hurricane at our Flea Market Grand Opening Sale last month, I knew it was serendipity.

The problem I’m faced with now: What type of terrarium? Here are a few DIY projects I’ve looked at. Which one do you like the most, dear readers?


Image Sources:

  1. Sweet Paul
  2. Design Sponge
  3. Curate This Space
  4. MSN Lifestyle
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Mister-Ry
 Posted by Mister Ry on March 26, 2012  No Responses »

Dog Blog: Maggie

 Our Furry Friends
Mar 232012
 

Introducing Maggie, lovable hound of our Product Manager, Emily.

What’s your favorite pastime?
Sleeping in the sun. I love when the sun shines through the balcony door. I just lay there all day!

What’s the one thing that really makes your hackles stand up?
Squirrels and bunnies! I love to chase squirrels up trees, but they make me mad cause they won’t come back down and my mom drags me back inside. Same thing with bunnies, they’re too darn fast! One day, when I am not on a leash…

What’s your favorite toy?
I love my colorful rope.

Who’s your favorite snuggle buddy?
My mommy.

Favorite treat?
Peanut Butter flavored rawhide.

What is your favorite kind of mischief to get into?
I love to chew up remotes, but I don’t know why I always get yelled at afterwards.

If you had to describe your perfect day, what would it be?
Going to my Uncle Johnny’s house because my best friend, Teemo lives there. We would run and play around the house and in the yard. We like to chase each other and play tug-of-war with our ropes.

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Mister-Ry
 Posted by Mister Ry on March 23, 2012  No Responses »

How to get Mid-Century Modern Style

 Get This Look
Mar 222012
 

I’ve never considered myself a minimalist. In fact, I have to practice a lot of restraint in junk stores. So, I’ve always admired those with more modern aesthetics, who can garner just a few things and make a house still feel like a home, specifically those who can incorporate mid-century modern design. When I see items from this style, they strike me as so distinct from other styles. I thought it would be interesting to find out how it came to be.

During the Industrial Revolution, people were continually looking for ways to streamline processes. Mass production was evolving and replacing the furniture artisan and designer. With this, design aesthetics became less important. Among other shifts at the end of the 19th century, Art Nouveau arose, a separatist movement focusing on new thinking in art, which paved the way for more thoughtful designers. Scandinavian design and the Bauhaus movement also became popular. They emphasized simplicity and organic shapes ands bringing modern design into America’s post-war homes. The result was mid-century modern design, a time period (1933-1965) of well-known designs and designers (think Charles Eames, Mies van der Rohe, and Eero Saarinen).

Below, we’ve compiled some our products that remind us of this design style. Enjoy!

1. White Coffee Table   2. Wishbone Chair   3. Turned Round Mango Wood Lamp

4. Natural Wood and Chrome Coffee Table   5. Copper Colored Glass Vases

6. Woven Rattan Club Chair   7. Many Mirrors on the Wall

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Britt
 Posted by Britt on March 22, 2012  No Responses »

Inspiring Homes

 Living With Design
Mar 212012
 

Today’s inspiring home comes all the way from Marrakesh. It is the home and guesthouse of designer, author, and blogger Maryam Montague and her husband architect Chris Redecke. He designed their home from the ground up, and she decorated it with finds from the local souk and her travels around the world. The home has such a great contrast between the grand architecture and the cozy feeling of the living spaces and also between the stark white interior walls and the colorful and vibrant decor. This home inspired me when I was designing my own home. I love the global influences and accessible design.

 

all images via Peacock Pavilions 

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Paige
 Posted by Paige on March 21, 2012  1 Response »

Spring Has Sprung!

 We Dig Flowers
Mar 202012
 

The White House vegetable garden is one of my favorites.

Image of the White House Garden  Courtesy Of Associated Press  

Today is the first day of spring, although here in Texas it has felt like spring for the last couple of weeks! The beginning of spring means that it is gardening season; this past weekend I made a list of the vegetables and herbs I wanted to grow this year.  I am definitely planting some tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, and bell peppers.  I can’t wait until I get to make  fresh garden salsa!  A tip that I am going to try this year is to plant Marigolds around my garden; the roots of the Marigolds produce a chemical that repels certain types of beetles and other bugs.  What are you planting in your garden? Do you have any  gardening tips to share?

 

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Nikki
 Posted by Nikki on March 20, 2012  No Responses »

Ali in Wonderland

 From Our Home to Yours
Mar 192012
 

Maybe it was the title being so familiar and a play on words of my name, but whatever the reason, I am happy that I picked up Ali in Wonderland. Written by Ali Wentworth, wife of George Stephanopoulos and daughter of President Reagan’s White House social secretary she is anything but political or pretentious as some might assume. She is actually the very opposite. From her hilarious tales of childhood, boarding school (or psych ward), college, and living in Los Angeles as a sketch artist for In Living Color her book had me laughing out loud!

The book reminded me somewhat of Chelsea Handler’s books, but the one constant in Ali’s is her mother, Muffie, who offers up some of the best lines. We should all be so lucky to have a straightforward mom such as Muffie who thinks that checking into the Four Seasons Hotel will solve all problems (I agree)!

As summer approaches and you are looking for a quick read, be sure to pick up Ali in Wonderland…you will be happy you did!

About the Author:

Ali Wentworth made a name for herself on the comedy series In Living Color, and has appeared on such television shows as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno; Seinfeld (playing Schmoopie in “The Soup Nazi” episode); Head Case (which she created, wrote, and executive-produced); and The Oprah Winfrey Show, for which she was a correspondent. Her film credits include Jerry Maguire,The Real Blonde, Office Space, The Love Bug, and It’s Complicated with Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, and Alec Baldwin.

A native of Washington, D.C., Wentworth lives in New York City with her husband, George Stephanopoulos, and their two girls. Follow Ali on Twitter: @AliEWentworth.

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Alice
 Posted by Alice on March 19, 2012  No Responses »

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

 This Month's Holidays
Mar 162012
 

St. Patrick Day Traditions

  • On the Saturday morning before St. Patrick’s Day, 40 pounds of dye are poured into the Chicago River at 10:00 am. The tradition dates back to 1962 when city workers use to dye to trace illegal discharges. In 2009, in keeping with the Chicago St. Patrick’s Day tradition, at the request of First Lady Michelle Obama, who is a Chicago native, the White House fountains were dyed green to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
  • The three leaf shamrock was used by Saint Patrick to explain the Holy Trinity. Today it is a tradition to wear a shamrock in hopes that it will bring you good luck.
  • Green shirts, shoes, hats, glasses – anything goes on this day as long as it’s green.  But green wasn’t always the original color. An earlier colour associated with Saint Patrick was blue, but green grew in popularity after Saint Patrick was believed to have worn shamrock-inspired clothing. In the Irish Rebellion of 1798, soldiers wore full green uniforms as a political statement on March 17th.
  • Kiss me I’m Irish! It’s said that this saying comes from the belief that kissing the Blarney Stone, which is set in the wall of Blarney Castle in Ireland, will bring you good luck. Since most people can’t make it to kiss the stone in person, a tradition came about that kissing an Irishman or woman was the next best thing to bring good luck.
  • If you see people walking around with those big green hats, chances are they’re channelling their inner leprechaun. In Irish folklore, a fairy takes the form of an old man in a green coat that brings mischief to whoever he meets. If you’re lucky, maybe they’ll lead you to the pot of gold.
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Alice
 Posted by Alice on March 16, 2012  No Responses »
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