Not to shabby Chic, but Mediterranean Country Style

I am a fan of the Shabby Chic decor style.  Paskie hates it... The son of a custom furniture maker, he is perplexed at my love of chipped, peeling, distressed furniture.  That was a big no sir in his home growing up.  We have compromised over time.  I don't paint ALL the furniture anymore, and we have blended what I like to call the Mediterranean Country home style.  He says it reminds him of the old stuff at a grandparent's village home mixed with French Counrty and crossed with Shabby Chic.
I love the shades of white and cream with small hints of blue and pink. I love to photograph pieces I see out and about and keep them in a file on my computer for inspiration.  So help me spread the word on the Mediterranean Country style...  Imagine lazy times in country homes spent during the summer vacations around villages in France, Spain and Italy...  I am on the hunt for more Mediterranean Country decor, and will posting more pix regularly. 

I wanted this cabinet SO BAD...  Look at all those drawers... Freshly painted, not shabby but so damn cute.

antique tin tiles

love all the peeling distressed aqua tones

 

love these little tables

this would go perfect with the gold mirror my mom gave me.  This would classify as Mediterranean Country.

You can get these all day long at garage sales.  How cute it looks all painted like that.  Paint 4 different chairs in the same color for a  more unified look.  Just shabby chic, and adorable.

An iron dressing screen with lovely ivory paint peeling and rusty.  LOVE IT! Definately Mediterranean Country.

She was so cute.  I am looking for one made into a lamp like my friend Nancy has at Gilding the Lily.

Loving the luggage

I lovce this idea for a nightstand

I have always loved old suitcases.  I had a little blue Samsonite one when I was a kid.  I stupidly sold it at a garage sale when I moved from the Bay Area to OC... One of those things that in hindsight, you wish you had kept...  I drug that little blue case with me on summer trips to grandmas house in Bakersfield, many childhood sleepovers, color guard shows and overnights and Gramma's house.  I still have the little blue train case my mom gave me when I was a kid. My intention is to turn it into an art survival kit with lots of things you would need to do art if you were stranded on a desert island somewhere.  It is currently in storage.  I spray paint my luggage.  My friend Cindy Wood paints lovely scenes on hers.  Sometimes I stack them up for bedside tables and nightstands.  I have used them in the living room for end tables, and stored them in the studio full of art supplies.

Whatever I use them for now, I love the aura they project.  When I open an old case,  I love to imagine the life this case lead.  The places it has been, the hands that have held it.  The young bride on her honeymoon, the widow leaving home for the first time without her husband, the college student full of dreams of the future and adulthood, the pregnant mother packing her things in anticipation of the baby's arrival.  The little girl going to grandmas for the first time alone on the train.  Cruises, cross country trips, exotic locations around the world.  Sometimes I wish I could blink myself to the various places the case has been, just to take a peek.

I just can't resist them.  Of course I don't want to pay $30 for them.  I want to get them for a couple bucks at a garage sale...  but occasionally, you come across one you just can't resist.  I am currently on the hunt for one made out of aligator that is really beat up so I can spray paint it... I might just cover a beat up old one of mine with faux alligator paper and spray paint it aqua.  Here are some I saw out and about that made me drool recently.


I am in love with the aqua one in the middle.  I WOULD have paid $30 for it if I had the cash on me...

Blue Monday

Yesterday I went to the Alameda Flea Market.  I have not been to this market since 2008 and it has changed, for the better I must say.  It is bigger than last time I went.  I have never been to the Rose Bowl market. ( I can't believe I never went when I lived there).  From what I hear, this one is comparable in size.  It is packed with people, the aisles are full of buyers with flat carts and shopping carts full of goods.  Many shop owners use this market as a source for their inventory.  In the past I found this market to be too highly priced.  I always found things at my local drive in flea market for better prices.  However that has changed.  In comparing Alameda's prices to the LA area markets, I find it to be very comparable and cheaper in many ways.  There is a lot of furniture and bric a brac here as always, but I saw some really cool pieces that I would have loved to buy if I had a home to put them in.  We are in a teeny tiny apartment temporarily, so any buying of new stuff has to wait until we permanantly locate somewhere.

The weather was unusually cold and dismal for August, so in honor of that, I call today's post Blue Monday.  I am loving aqua and blue things lately, so I shopped with my camera and took pictures of a lor of blue things.  Here are a some photos of my favorites.