Pineapple Follies

John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, had his pineapple folly...

Above, Dunmore (who was the last governor of colonial Williamsburg, Virginia) built his pineapple folly in 1761, in Dunmore Park, Scotland. A larger scale version of the sailor's tradition of leaving a pineapple on the door stoop to mark a safe return home, Dunmore's pineapple measures 37 feet. Pineapples were indeed grown on the grounds, with heated hot-houses.

And so, I have mine...

Outdone by the Earl of Dunmore? Possibly. Rather unfortunately, my centerpiece is nowhere near 37 feet tall. Nor can I live inside of it. What I can assure you is that the painted mass of artichokes, pineapples, (nude) eggplants, flowers, and beaded ornaments will probably work its way onto the table as a centerpiece at some point during this holiday season!

OH! And before I forget, in a list of links for readers to check out, Eater cited (IN)DECOROUS TASTE'S jacquard chicken as "The nastiest looking (and fanciest) chicken of all time." Nastiest???!?! And the title of the post? I believe it involved the phrase "Ludicrous Chicken."

Image of Dunmore house, via Wikipedia Commons. Centerpiece, including chinoiserie bird motif backdrop and console, created, painted, and photographed by (IN)DECOROUS TASTE.

Dreaming of a White (and Pink) Christmas

It almost never snows around here on Christmas.  But a girl can dream. 

Most of the ornaments on this tree are vintage; I highly suggest scouring ebay if local thrift shops aren't turning up any gems. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you'll find the ones that are so worn, you can see right through them.  The pale peachy pinks and aquas are my favorite, but they're so delicate, they tend to get eaten up by the deep green traditional evergreen color.

Enter artificial tree. Thankfully, fakery picks up where nature leaves off!  Is this a holiday heresy? I'll let you in on a secret: THIS year, I resisted the urge to purchase a mini-tree in jelly bean lavender (they also had one in pepto pink).  Next year, you might not be so fortunate!

Mantel Worship

A few days ago, I was reading an article on the history of the mantel as a "family altar" in a 1985 Art & Antiques magazine. Fireplaces are magical, insisted the article, and so it's only natural that since the seventeenth century, the mantel has been used to display what we as a culture hold nearest and dearest. (In 1985, the past was all the rage, although I wonder just what it is we're worshiping today.)

What a lovely, romantic idea, I thought, especially with the onset of the holiday season. Yet, it occurred to me that sometimes, you've gotta work with what you've got, even when what you've got isn't really what you want.

Take, for instance, this extremely earthy looking fireplace. It imparts a very ski lodge-y feel to an entire room, even if a ski lodge isn't exactly the altar at which you'd like to worship.

So, in the interest of keeping alive the dream that we should all be able to choose where and what we'd like to worship, I painted, gilded, and distressed a canvas cloth to fit the fireplace. Put it on, take it off, hide the altar, change the scene...worship the altar of change, the ability to morph and be something new at the drop of a hat. How ideal is that?

The fireplace pre- transformation:

And after: