A few weeks back Sean and I scooped this side table up at an auction, hoping that maybe we could find a spot for it around the house. I knew it was love at first sight for 2 reasons, the lovely french lines, and the beautiful marble surface. Of course, once it was painted and came inside I realized that we are already full to the rafters with furniture (at least until the upstairs office is finished). But I am holding out hope that if we rearrange the sectional in the family room to another wall it might make just enough space.

But until then it will go up on WhiteBerry because maybe someone out there will love it as much or more than me.

Another recent WhiteBerry addition was this lovely antique dresser.

We see nearly identical pieces every month or two, but they usually have homes lined up before the first coat of primer goes on. So this is only the second one to actually make it on here and WhiteBerry.

It has a fabulous new home with a design client I am currently working with, and I know it will be cherished.

Au revoir for now mes amis!

Give Away Winner

A BIG congratulations to Cami! And thanks to everyone who entered, we really wish we could pull off an Oprah-style giveaway for all 872 of you. But rest assured there will be more giveaways.

Another thank you goes out to Wren for counting all the way up to 13, leaving her mom and I to count the remaining several hundred ourselves.


Cami, drop us an email in the next few days and we will send along your winnings!

Music Skirt

We've seen skirts on sinks, tables and chairs, but we decided to try an age old idea, some old sheet music and make something new. It is a fast, easy project that can be done for little to nothing if you happen to have some music laying around or if you want to print out some music like we did here.

What you will need:

- 3 or 4 sheets of music (depending on what you are adding a skirt to)

- ruler

- pencil

- scissors

- painters tape

First we picked music we liked the look of.

Then we decided on a pattern for our folding. You could do a simple accordian fold, but we decided to try box-pleating the music. We used a ruler and pencil to mark exactly where the folds would line up since the paper is quite old and doesn't bend or fold easily without a straight edge.

After getting the first sheet sorted out the rest took no time at all.

To double the milage of our music we cut each sheet in half.

Then came the fun part, lining up and taping the paper to the bottom lip on the dresser.

We chose to use painters tape so that we could perhaps re-use the skirt on a coffee table or small table after we tire of it on this dresser. It isn't a permanent idea, just a fun, new look for a familiar piece of furniture!

And let's pretend the stair treads are finished for the complete look I am so excited to see someday soon!

We will be announcing our lucky giveaway winner tomorrow so pop by to see who it is (it may be you!).

Until then, please share any and all sheet music projects you have been blogging about!!

Friday Night Cookies!

After years of never seeing Sean on Friday or Saturday afternoons and evenings we have been having such a blast these last few weeks. Well, we actually didn't see him most evenings (I used to refer to myself as a restaurant widow) so every night has been a real treat to curl up with a movie or a book with Wren. We have spent the last month catching up on movies, both old and new, that we never went to see, TV shows we've never had a chance to enjoy and places we rarely go.

And we baked our first batch of family cookies tonight.

We had a few disagreements on the softness of our brown sugar, the heat of the oven and the speed of the mixing. But the final result was a batch of home-made fun!

TGIF!

The Reality.

I love playing with accessories and staging our furniture for photos. But one thing you've never seen before is me jumping for joy behind the camera when I finally get a clear shot... but it happens every time! It has started to feel like big game hunting, peering through the view finder, looking for that elusive shot.

A wild animal attacks mid-shot!

A mysterious breed of Mung Kee appears on set...

The one time I don't seem to have this problem is when we take Before shots.

And I can understand why! Until the paint has dried and new hardware is applied almost everything in our warehouse is pretty undesirable.

This one in particular feels so much better with just a little paint!

(I will be talking plants next week if you were curious about the fuzzy one on the table)

This dresser made it onto our production line just after Sean joined WhiteBerry, and while I make all the color and hardware choices, do the hand distressing and final finishes, he is now the main muscle and I forgot to remind him that we NEED before shots! So this guy and several to come are lacking evidence of their hideousness.

But now it has a new attitude (and paint and handles)!

I always love the mix of grey and gold and doubt this will be the last piece we mix the two on.

And I finally got my "money shot" a little later in the shoot, in case you were wondering.

Happy Thursday!

Oops!

I just realized that we didn't put a closing date on our little giveaway! So why don't we say it will stay open until Friday evening at 8pm pacific time. I will edit the giveaway post to remind everyone there as well. And thanks so much for all your entries, I can't wait to see where this bundle is headed!

With the floors being a mess and the wall partially torn out in my favorite spot for WhiteBerry photos, not to mention that we had been focused on simply stopping the leakage, our WhiteBerry photoshoots had taken a temporary hiatus. So today we are in full-on photography mode! It is probably my favorite part of playing with furniture (although the actual painting is pretty fun too), but my brain just lights up when I am arranging accessories and playing with angles and lighting. Even if it is the most simplistic, minimalist shot. As we all know, neither of us come close to being knowledgable or consider ourselves "great" at photography but it is fun to challenge yourself to be as good as you can be. Maybe that's why it is such a joy for me in particular.

So brace yourselves for an onslaught of WhiteBerry photos in the days to come and pardon their absence until now!

One thing I am excited to share is a big blue china cabinet. I looked around for inspiration online but I am guessing that blue china cabinets must be a rare occurance because my search was pretty dry.

If you happen to have one please please pretty please (with a cherry on top) share the link with us!!!

An oldie, but goodie: LOVE garland

We are just heading out the door to spend an afternoon in the country visiting my Grandparents, and in the event we are talked into staying for dinner (not an uncommon occurance!) I thought I would share one of our first blog crafts! This is great for everyone who is too impatient to see if they won the sheet music, and the best part? You probably have all the necessary materials laying around.

It is a really easy and basically free craft, so it could easily be adapted to any holiday or party (gotta love free!). For the complete step by step instructions just click here or on any photo.

Just keep in mind that this project was pre-DSLR camera and mid-reno (pretty please!).

And we have another fun use for sheet music to share later this week as well, so stay tuned!

For You! (a giveaway)

Better late than never, I am so excited to share our little giveaway! We wanted to thank you all for your sweet thoughts, comments and emails since the beginning of December (when I had my appendix removed) until today (as we mop up water and lament all the hardwork our floors will need). I am hoping that our string of misadventures is at an end and we can finally get back to painting, hammering and planning our next move (let's hope it is the closet getting done!).

But amidst all this you have been patient, caring and helpful and this is the best way we can think of thanking you: sharing a collection of some of our favorite decor items.

The first item is our candle of the month. Not the 70% used one I have been burning all month just in case you were wondering, but a fresh, new Makassar Ebony & Peach candle by Voluspa.

The second item in the package is a framed book plate from 1857 depicting kelp and coral.

You may remember the other 15 plates hanging in our dining room until my giant mirror took their spot, but they will be making a comeback in the office!

The next item is geared toward all my fellow crafters! It is a 1940's book of French sheet music that has a few adorable illustrations like this one. I am a huge fan of paper wreaths and while I haven't had a chance to start on my own, hopefully someone can do this music proud! (we also have an alternative use for it in an upcoming post that is a little unique if you have enough wreaths already).

As you know, we love both plants and candles and one of our favorite ways to display either is in beautiful old soup tureens!

So of course we included a beautiful vintage tureen! But you have to promise to tell us how you use it.

And last but not least we have a 16x16 inch pillow cover from Sa-Sea boutique, identical to the one floating around our house (and currently residing on our bed). It is a whimsical touch that makes me smile everytime I look at it, and I hope you smile a little too when you find a spot for it.

So to sum it up, 1 lucky reader will win:

1 voluspa 3 wick candle tin

1 antique framed book plate

1 vintage soup tureen

1 book of 1940's French sheet music

1 16x16 inch crowned bee pillow cover

And all you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling us what your favorite item of the group is!

*** for an additional entry become a follower of our blog and leave an additional comment. If you are already a follower please leave another comment as well!***

Good luck!

EDITED TO ADD: The closing date will be Friday, January 28th at 8pm pacific.