6th Street, New Orleans, Louisiana

Hello! This week it seemed appropriate to travel to New Orleans and embellish this house, in the heart of the Irish Channel. We're going to add a little patina and grace, to really make this house sing. 

This is the dining room:

First, I would replace the wooden door with something like this, designed by Eleanor Cummings, and finished by Segreto Finishes.

Here is the rest of the room, courtesy of designer John Saladino. 

I love the idea of an aged looking mural like this under the bulkhead, instead of the usual china cabinet. The cabinet would compete with the fireplace, but the mural would compliment it, with its chalky finish. That and the centerpiece of tall branches just make this room. (I suppose we would have to lose the ceiling fan, even though it would sort of go with the design. We don't want it messing up our tall branches.)

Now, let me just accessorize the fireplace mantel for a minute, with the help of House Beautiful.

The shapes of the candelabras echo the shapes of the trees in the mural. You know that makes me happy.

The dining room is off of this unusually shaped family room, that is open to the kitchen. 

I had some fun puzzling how to arrange furniture in this room. The back wall is prime real estate for a large flat screen tv over a narrow console, because it can be viewed from the kitchen. For seating, I thought of daybeds along each wall, even though I normally like to float the furniture a little bit. Designer Myra Hoefer can give you a better idea of what I'm picturing.

Just imagine a tv instead of the mirror. The mirror and the relief on the console would look lovely over the fireplace, instead. They have great patina.

Upstairs there appears to be a loft area that would be perfect as an library/lounge.

This (uncredited) room below would bring in our colors from downstairs, and continue with that collected-over-time look. 

This house has a lot of style, and it was fun to play up its character with some patina and charm.

Coming up, a house on an island! Who hasn't daydreamed about decorating one of those?

Thanks for reading!