Thursday, April 11, 2013

WHAT WE WON IN THE DIVORCE SETTLEMENT......and a Clydesdale.

Let me make that statement clearer.....
the piano is on loan....
A gift to daughter while she was married....... she got to keep
it in the divorce settlement....NYC apartments not
being size appropriate for such a large
instrument........ it was confiscated by the gift-giving parents...
Which would be us....
Daughter thought it would be carefully stored in our
basement.....Wrong.....first it cost a small fortune to have the thing delivered to Georgia and they charge according to
how many steps they have to carry it up or down....so there way no way
it was going down 18 steps....
Plus it's beautiful....I wasn't about to put it in the
basement....
When it resided at the Princeton Homestead the ex-sil
refused to have the top raised up....dust? I don't know his
reasoning.....It's meant to have the top raised...
That is what a feather duster was made for....
When deciding where it was going to go we agonized for the
two months it was in transit..........
It was the Boss who suggested the entrance foyer....
Who knew he had a flair for decorating.....
I thought about it but just couldn't decide....I even sent off an
e-mail to Savvy Southern Kim asking her advise.....
When she said she had never decorated with a piano before and
then asked...."Isn't your sofa in the Great Room very casual from Pottery Barn"
Why yes it is....and not only that But let's not
forget the American Buffalo Head and the 2 Deer heads....
She might have been on to something....How do you put a
elegant Baby Grand Piano....in a house with Taxidermy
and odd other items that we can only characterize as
"Kitchy"
or maybe a bit eccentric....

I'm one of those people that ask opinions but then do
what I like....I like this....A Lot.....
We did move the hunt table and the lamp that you see to the left
in the picture so it's just the piano....
It fit perfectly on top of the Persian Rug....

 Then taking his new found decorating skills to an all
time low..... I knew the piano placement idea was a fluke....
The Boss decided we needed something special over
the English Bench.....
I saw a Union Jack Flag framed in a nice black shadow box
but it was too small for above the bench....
But it did match all my black framed pictures that now
Hang going up our staircase...
I suggested we buy it and add maybe a clock of some kind along with it.......
The Italian Version of "Vern Yip"
vetoed that idea.....
 
I must have been having a weak moment or I just
wasn't paying attention while wandering through Englishman's.....So Please spare me the jokes and
the insults....Don't say "why would you add big ornate gold
frames in the same room as the Buffalo and the Deers...."
And what in the Hell.....is that a horse?
No Not one horse.....but two....and a rider....
Just realize that someday your husband could also go nuts and
lose all sense of what goes with what....
You just have to go with the flow and hope that one day
you will quietly move them away (Like I did with the bad Steve McQueen Print) and hope he doesn't notice
that they are gone....In the meantime he is in love with
these damn pictures......
As for me.....when I come down the stairs every morning
All I can think of is.....
"Oh My God I have a miniature paint-by-number of a
Clydesdale in my house...."

22 comments:

Chatty Crone said...

I love the piano in the entrance way - it is gorgeous there!!! You know a person's home is his castle. So put up what you like - that is what is important. Your home is beautiful. sandie

Babs said...

Your baby grand looks great in the foyer. It definitely makes a statement with the taxidermy. :) Your house is beautiful, and so "you".

Pondside said...

I really believe a piano belongs in the room with the best acoustics, and I'll be your grand foyer has wonderful acoustics.
The horses - I'll be they'll grow on you!

Marigene said...

The piano looks wonderful in the foyer...sorry I can't say the same for the horse pictures :( Why do men think they know best...I shudder to think what the house would look like if I let my husband be the decorator...it is bad enough with my lack of decorating skills!
Have a great weekend, Sue...

Peg said...

The piano is so beautiful and so is the rug underneath. If you don't like the horses, well... you have two pretty frames for photos of Miss B and a smitten grandpa who might allow you to change the clydesdale for her cute face!

Barbara F. said...

That piano looks fabulous right where it is! I see you had a fun breakfast with my blogging bud Linda from a la Csarte! xo

Sarah said...

I think the piano looks fantastic in the foyer. I gave my husband a grand for his 60 birthday. We wish we had room in our living room, but unfortunately it is downstairs in what we now lovingly call the music room. A piano gives a home a special charm. '-)

Mimi Sue said...

I do like that piano in the foyer. Lucky you to have so much room. Looks like you had lots of fun in NYC. Mimi

Cindy (Applestone Cottage) said...

Beautiful home Sue~
And the piano, amazing and looks perfect there.
The horse pics could grown on you..hehe.
I take it you don't care for your ex son in law.
Cindy

Linda @ A La Carte said...

Sue I love the piano in the foyer! It really is 'grand'! The pictures, ummm not so much. So the Italian 'Vern Yip' now thinks he's a decorator. OH the things you live with my dear friend!
hugs, Linda

The Quintessential Magpie said...

Sue, I really like the piano in the foyer. One of my best friends has a huge foyer, and that's where she put hers and where it remains to this day.

I don't have a problem mixing taxidermy with fine things. Think, "Out of Africa". That house had chintz and fine French china mixed with spears and heads. Much like our home growing up. Our living room had African critters mounted (water bucks, impalas, giselles... that sort of thing) mixed with a chippendale sofa, chairs from the 1850's, and shelves with books and horns and bronzes and a Royal Vienna Chocolate set, etc. It all worked. Oh, and a marble top coffee table whose base was the massive leg of a grand piano in a house that belonged to my mother's best friend, a house that had fallen into rack and ruin after the Civil War. They also scavenged a mantle from there that was gorgeous. I still think it's my favorite living room I ever saw, including ones in magazines. I just wish I had my parents' ability to mix. It was so wonderfully layered with family things from years past. I see it in my mind's eye still.

XO,

Sheila

Cheri said...

As with everyone's else's comments on the piano and foyer...I agree.

The pictures...it doesn't look bad, you can mix it up a bit which is what your Italian Vern did...gotta pick and choose your battles, Sue. So just remind yourself of that every morning when you come down. LOL

Sue said...

Sheila thanks for the encouraging words about mixing styles and things that are crazy with more formal pieces...that made me feel better...The house is an extension of me and I'm crazy so why can't you mix a Buffalo with a shiny baby grand...I'm just sad that the Moose head was damaged or he would be hanging right there on the wall in front of the piano....and Cheri your right...I have to let him have his way sometimes....not very often though...

Ellen said...

I love your perspective on things - always with a twist of humor. You certainly know how to make lemonade out of lemons.

Love the piano there. And I love the horse prints. And the fact that you have taxidermy in your house is just too fun.

Anonymous said...

Honey, that piano would look beautiful anywhere. If you don't play, I hope you've signed up for piano lessons. There in the foyer, you don't want the keys to stick. Play that sucker!

I'm so glad you have it. Your granddaughter will love having it there.

Anonymous said...

I should have said that your Baby Grand will love seeing the baby grand at your house. :)

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Salmagundi said...

Love the piano - every pianist's dream!! As a child I wanted one, had a spinet until I was an adult, then inherited the family's 1927 Steinway, but it is just an upright but a wonderful piano. Now I have none - have to go to son's to play, as he turned out to be the real pianist and I gave him the Steinway. Yes we have lots of snow; but, of course, I love it!!!! Sally

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Susie Q said...

That piano is a dream! I once played but where would I put one...*sigh*. So I live vicariously through yours! I LOVE the idea of it in the foyer but I also have no problem mixing the finer, more lux things with rougher pieces (ala the buffalo head!)I am a big believer in mixing! Just love your style, always have, always will!
Love,
Sue