Antiques Blog Archives - Letters from EuroLux

In my last blog post I gave you a roundup of the first of our top home decor and antiques blog posts of 2018. Here’s Part 2 with the remaining five of our favorite 10 posts from last year. It’s been fun to recall some of the things we talked about in 2018. I hope you enjoy seeing the highlights too!

6. Customer Spotlight: Cam Davis Mansion

We were thrilled to see a feature about our customer Tamra's home in Columbia Living Magazine. The article mentioned some of the antique furniture Tamra purchased from us and we found out more about Tamra’s house, this beautifully restored Greco-Roman mansion in Newberry, SC.

See the full story and more photos of the inside of the house in the blog post Customer’s Newberry Cam Davis Mansion and Antiques in Magazine.

2. How to Repurpose Antique Furniture

Some of our customers have been very creative in the way they’ve repurposed the antique furniture they bought from us. Lifestyles have changed over a century, so our home decor and storage needs have changed too. But our love for beautifully made and hand-carved furniture doesn’t change!

Perhaps a piece was first crafted as an armoire, nightstand or buffet, but there is no reason that you can’t use it for a very different purpose.This Repurposed Antique Furniture blog post shows how our clients have thought creatively to adapt an antique piece to their needs!

3. Meet Our New Dog, Ernie!

Last July a scared, lost pup turned up literally on our doorstep. He was terrified and seems to have been severely abused, with a large infected bite wound on his side. A trip to the vet revealed a very high fever of over 103 degrees. We guessed that he may have escaped a life as a bait dog.

Well, after a few weeks of TLC, he was all healed up.... and he'd also found himself a new home! While we REALLY didn't need another pet, how could we resist? See the full story and more photos, including his first introduction to Minkey the cat, in the blog post Meet Our New Dog, Ernie!

4. The Greek Key Pattern in Home Decor

The Greek Key pattern is one of the most elegant designs in home decor and furniture. The classic angular design is very harmonious and it has remained popular for thousands of years.

It works with all styles of interior design schemes too! So in my blog post Greek Key Pattern in Furniture and Decor I tell you a bit about the history of the design and also show lots of ways to incorporate the pattern into your home.

From textiles to tiles, from furniture to light fittings, the Greek Key pattern always looks chic and interesting.

5. Customer Spotlight: Antique Brittany Buffet and Jadeite

Our customer Debbie found a very beautiful antique Brittany buffet in our gallery that was on the smaller side and so it was the perfect fit for her kitchen. It was also the perfect piece to display Debbie's Jadeite Fire King collection. The Jadeite dishes were made by Anchor Hocking in the 1940s and Debbie started collecting them a few years ago because she loves the jade green color. It looks fabulous against the dark wood of the buffet!

In my blog post Antique French Brittany Buffet with Jadeite Fire King we take a look around Debbie's lovely home in Charleston, SC.

We are looking forward to another year exploring the best in antiques and home decor, and also taking tours of our customers' homes! We hope that you have a wonderful 2019 too!

If you missed Part 1 of our top 10 antiques and home decor blog posts of 2018, you can see the other five at the link.

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her husband and best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 8 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Find us on Facebook or connect with EuroLux on Google+. Or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.

As we head into the new year, it’s time for our annual round-up of our most popular antiques and home decor blog posts from 2018! Here is the first half of our Top 10 posts of the year…

1. Client Spotlight: Antique Chinese Wedding Bed

As part of our series of client spotlights, I wrote in May about this exquisite antique Chinese wedding bed that had been due for demolition before we rescued it! You will also enjoy the unusual story of how it found a new home with our customer in Greenville, SC. It had traveled a long way from its origins in the Zhejiang Province in Eastern China, and it was all thanks to our customer's daughter's craving for Arby's that it landed in Greenville! Read the whole story about the beautiful Late Qing Dynasty bed with its twist of fate in my blog post about the Antique Chinese Wedding Bed.

2. How to Fix Scratches on Antique Furniture

This year I made a video showing how to fix wood blemishes, watermarks and scratches on antique furniture using furniture crayons. It is an easy process to solve the problem we hear quite often from people who have antique furniture. Perhaps they've accidentally scratched the wood or maybe they've inherited an heirloom that needs some superficial dings tidied up. Along with the video in my How to Fix Scratches on Antique Furniture post I've also given a written summary of the simple process. This was part of our series on antique furniture restoration tips and tricks.

3. Decorating with Pink

Sometimes people can be wary of decorating with pink because they fear it might look too young and girly or sugary sweet, but in fact pink is an incredibly versatile shade that can be used in lots of sophisticated ways.

I wrote two blog posts to give you some inspiration about how to work pink into your interior design scheme. The first one was Decorating with Light Pink and I followed up with Decorating with Bright Pink.

This shows lots of ways to bring a blush of pink into your home, from the subtlety of ballet slipper pink to the elegance of rose or a rich jolt of fuchsia.

4. What is the Renaissance Henry II Style of Antique Furniture?

Renaissance Henry II furniture is always in demand. In fact, this is one of the most popular styles of furniture in our EuroLuxHome.com online store. The noble Henry II style is very classic and beautifully carved, usually in oak or walnut wood. In my blog post What is the Renaissance Henry II Style of Antique Furniture? I tell you all about the history of the style and how to identify it.

I also share some photos of pieces of Henry II style furniture in our customers' homes so you can see for yourself just how handsome it looks! This is part of my series of posts on the history and styles of antique furniture.

5. Antique of the Week

We had a lot of fun this year with a new series of social media posts about our “Antique of the Week.”

The #AntiqueOfTheWeek hashtag is our way of showcasing some pieces that our customers might like to see because they are especially wonderful, unusual and interesting.

Sometimes we highlighted a piece of antique furniture or an antique decorative object because it tied into the season or topical events. For example, we chose this beautiful romantic French antique bed as our Antique of the Week to honor the royal wedding when Prince Harry married Meghan Markle.

We use the hashtag #AntiqueOfTheWeek on our accounts on on Pinterest, Facebook and Google+ so if you aren’t following those accounts already, you can search on that #AntiqueOfTheWeek hashtag.

Happy new year to everyone! If you enjoyed this, see the rest of our picks for the year at this link for the Part 2 of our top 10 decor and antiques blog posts of 2018.

We’ve had a lot of good news this year and shared some great photos of our antique furniture in our customers' homes. Now, as the year turns, it's time to remember our most popular antiques and home decor blog posts from 2017! Here is the first half of our Top 10 posts of the year...

1. Rare Goumain Antique French Buffet

Last year we sold the rarest antique piece we have ever had in stock! This rare 1919 antique French buffet is signed by Goumain on the buffet as well as on the original sculptures, and it is magnificently painted with a scene that shows the story of Saint Eustace. To see the full story of the soldier saint Saint Eustace as well as more detailed photos, see the Rare Goumain Painted St Eustace Antique French Buffet blog post.

2. Voted into the Top 30 Antique Blogs

We began 2017 with good news when Feedspot wrote to say that their panel had selected this Letters From EuroLux antiques blog as one of the Top 30 Antique Blogs on the web.

Greg and I were delighted, as we've been running the blog since 2011, talking about the antique furniture we buy in France and other parts of Europe and bring back to the USA. The blog reflects our motto “Fine antiques for regular folks!” and we also talk about general home decor.

In March, we heard that we were again named Best of Houzz Customer Service with our 100% customer satisfaction score, in addition to our Recommended badge given to the top-rated pros on Houzz. Next we celebrated when the new Hobbs Germany collection won an Honorable Mention in the European Product Design Award 2016. We’re thrilled to be U.S. distributors, and you can see the unique wine-inspired collection here.

3. Client Spotlight: Antique Brittany Buffet and Bed

As part of our series of client spotlights, I wrote in February about a delivery of antique furniture Greg and I made to our customer May in Pensacola Beach, FL.

It was one of our slowest deliveries ever as May lives on the 14th floor and we had to make many trips up and down in the elevator! But what a spectacular view she has from every room in her lovely home, which is filled with European antiques. May purchased this fine antique French Brittany bed from us as well as an antique Brittany buffet which we converted for her to accommodate a TV for viewing in her bedroom. See the full post here for more photos of May's home and the gorgeously carved 1880 antique bed and buffet.

4. Woodbridge Table for Knight Kiplinger

Another client spotlight gave us a glimpse into the home of the celebrated economic journalist and author Knight Kiplinger. You have probably seen or heard him as a guest on many TV and radio shows like the Today Show, Charlie Rose, Diane Rehm Show, and CBS This Morning. He has ordered twice from us, once for a lovely mahogany Neoclassical Woodbridge console table for his home in Washington DC, and most recently for an elegant Woodbridge Marseilles console table for his second home in Maryland.

See the full story and more photos in my Woodbridge Table for Knight Kiplinger blog post.

5. French Country Farmhouse Style

Photo by Kim Nichols

French Country Farmhouse style continues to be popular, and for very good reasons! The comfortable look and timeless charm of the style works in many different types of home and it is a look that is easy to live with. My two posts Farmhouse Style Furniture and Home Decor and French Country Farmhouse Style: Elegant Comfort aim to provide some inspiration! They illustrate the style and explore the key elements to achieve the look in your own home.

Happy new year to everyone! If you enjoyed this, see the rest of our picks for the year at this link for the Part 2 of our top 10 decor and antiques blog posts of 2017.

Greg and I had a very nice start to the year when Feedspot wrote to say that their panel had selected our Letters From EuroLux antiques blog as one of the Top 30 Antique Blogs on the web.

We were happy to receive their congratulations! We have been running the Letters From EuroLux antiques blog since June 2011, talking about the antique furniture we buy in France and other parts of Europe and bring back to the USA. We also talk about general home decor.

Our motto is: "Fine antiques for regular folks!" We also sell antique-inspired new furniture by high-quality furniture makers at our EuroLuxHome.com online store, usually with a hand-crafted element.

If you are new to our blog, let me give you a little introductory tour.

(Click on any photo to go to the full blog post and more pictures!)
Our client spotlights are extremely popular with readers. They show photos of customer homes with the new or antique furniture the customer bought from us, and we often get a mini tour of the rest of the house too!

We also talk about our own Vintage Life : The Renovation of our 1920s vintage bungalow. This has been a HUGE job, transforming the house and the garden from top to toe. We've raised the roof, designed our dream vintage kitchen, laid penny tiles in the bathroom, created a cat porch for our fuzzy family and so much more!

To see how our vintage bungalow has evolved from a neglected mess with a wildly overgrown garden, just scroll back through the vintage bungalow renovation posts!

We love to help our readers who love antique furniture learn about furniture history and styles. For example, if you don't know how to tell the difference between Mechelen style furniture and antique Brittany style furniture, we've got you covered! Or perhaps you'd like to find out about Symbolism and Chinese Antique Furniture?

Use the search box (top right) to see if we have already written about a style of antique furniture. And if you have an antique furniture style that you'd like to understand better, tell us in the comments box below!

We know our customers and readers love to travel. Our antique-inspired travel blog posts focus on places to stay that have a historic interest, from magnificent castles to charming Victorian B&B inns, or hotels that are decorated with antique furniture.

We hope that you enjoy exploring our blog about antique furniture and home decor!

Although it's always my name that you see on our blog posts, I just do the more fun 'front of stage' stuff.
My clever husband Greg does all the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting on the blog, making sure that the technical stuff works right. And of course, our 8 cats and dogs like to "help" too when I am writing a blog post... 🙂

Thank you again to Feedspot for selecting our Letters From EuroLux antiques blog as one of the Top 30 Antique Blogs on the web. We appreciate it more than you know!

Please tell us in the comments box if there is a topic about antique furniture or home decor that you would like us to cover in future. Or sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.

In my last blog post I gave you a roundup of six of our favorite home decor and antiques blog posts of 2016. Here’s Part 2 with the remaining six of our top 12 posts from last year. It’s been interesting remembering all the things we talked about in 2016 – we hope you enjoy seeing the highlights too!

7. EuroLux is Exclusive US Distributor for Hobbs Germany

We ended the year with the terrific news that EuroLuxHome.com became a US distributor for a very cool new line of furniture, Hobbs Germany!
The wine-inspired Bordeaux collection from Hobbs Germany features genuine upcycled wine crates from the Bordeaux region of France. The stamps of the wine houses appear on the drawers so these are unique pieces of furniture.

We met the designer, British gentleman David Hobbs, and felt that his high-quality pieces with wooden tops made of European reclaimed oak and Italian granite tops for the kitchen islands were a great fit with our French antiques! See more about Hobbs Germany in our blog post, or browse the full Hobbs Germany collection here.

8. Client Spotlight: Renaissance Buffet in Historic South Carolina Home

We delivered a handsome antique Renaissance buffet to a lovely couple who live in this gorgeous historic home built in 1810 in Winnsboro, SC.

Check out the client spotlight blog post to see photographs of the interior including our intricately carved antique French Renaissance buffet in the lovely dining room and several of our vintage chandeliers in other spaces.

9. Vintage Life: My Dream Vintage Kitchen

Regular readers have been following the renovation of our 1920s vintage bungalow. One of the most exciting rooms to work on was the kitchen. I wanted a gorgeous and unique kitchen – unlike anything you would see in most homes. I wanted colorful, painted cabinets that looked vintage and had a great deal of character. We also had an awesome vintage double sink to put to good use. (The sink still has the original Sears catalogue sticker from 1952.)

You can see how it all came together, complete with vintage chandeliers, in my blog post: Vintage Life: My Dream Vintage Kitchen

10. Our Silver Spoon Chandelier in Consumer Reports

We were delighted to see that Consumer Reports featured one of our chandeliers in their Kitchen Planning and Buying Guide last spring.

They showed the Silver Spoon Pendant Chandelier Light Fixture, hand-made by an artisan right here in the United States and crafted with up to 80 vintage silver plate spoons. Some chandeliers also feature teacups or other vintage items. Each piece is custom made to order and each is unique. The upcycled light fixture collection is also very popular with our customers so we had fun showing a round-up of photos of the silver spoon chandeliers in our customers' homes.

11. Classic Art Deco Style

Last summer we received a container shipped from France with some beautiful antique Art Deco buffets. They were such fine examples of Art Deco, I took the opportunity to write a post about Classic Art Deco Style. The post was part of our series to help readers learn the history and identify styles of different types of antique furniture and decor.

Art Deco style was popular in the 1920s and 1930s, reflecting the Jazz Age and a new taste for sleek and streamlined furniture and architecture. Nearly a century on, it's still a popular and influential look today!

12. A Tale of Three Cats: Pumpkin grows up!

Pumpkin the cat blew in after Hurricane Joachim in October 2015. The little tiger cat showed up on our gallery doorstep all wet and bedraggled. When I opened the door she pranced right in as if she knew she’d found a family.

Pumpkin was right... however, there is a twist in the tale! Greg and I already had two dogs and six cats so we had our hands full, but Greg’s parents fell in love with Pumpkin and the feeling was mutual. A year after Pumpkin blew in, I updated the news about her and her two new siblings, Corkie and Harper.

From our family -- the humans AND all the fuzzy children -- to you and your family, we hope you enjoy a thriving 2017!

If you missed Part 1 of our top 12 blog posts of 2016, you can see the other six here.

As we step into 2017, it's time to remember our most popular antiques and home decor blog posts from 2016! We've had a lot of good news this year, and we've loved hearing from our customers too. Not only do many customers return to us time and again to buy antique, vintage, and new furniture and home decor accents, but they also send us photographs for our client spotlights so we can see how their purchases look in their home!

We'll start with the first of our favorite 12 antiques and home decor blog posts of 2016.

1. Antique Chairs & Aztec Calendar Stone Table

Our customer Bernard really caught our attention when he told us a story featuring antique French Renaissance chairs, the famous Aztec calendar stone and the singer Axl Rose, of the band Guns N’ Roses!

Bernard lives in Hawaii, so his house happens to enjoy fantastic views too. See more photos and read the whole story here.

2. Antique French Hunting Bed Converted in Size

When our customer Erin was moving from Arkansas to Colorado, she has us ship an antique French Hunting bed to her new home. She also needed the bed size converted from full size to queen size. We were happy to oblige!
The lavishly carved antique bed looks wonderful in Erin's new bedroom, as you can see in the full Antique French Hunting Bed story here.

3. Antique Furniture in the Kitchen

Most people don't think about the kitchen when they are looking for antique furniture, but there are many ways to enjoy antiques as part of your kitchen furniture. When I was writing about the renovation of our 1920s vintage bungalow kitchen, I was inspired to write about using antique furniture in the room that is for many the heart of a house.
The resulting Antique Furniture in the Kitchen blog post shows how some of our customers have done just that!

4. Leather Furniture Care and Top-Grain vs. Split-Grain Leather

Leather sofas, chairs, stools and benches are among our top sellers in our new furniture collections. People love the high-quality, traditional look and the durability of leather in everyday use. One of the leather furniture makers we work with is a small family business, and they gave me some great info for my blog post about different types of leather and leather care.
We got lots of good feedback on this post!

5. EuroLux In the News

EuroLux Home got quite a lot of media coverage in 2016. This included two articles in the Newberry Observer about how Greg and I fell in love – and at the same time fell in love with antique furniture! – and then how we started our antique furniture business.

We also appeared on TWC News when “Around Carolina” filmed in our antiques gallery in Newberry, SC, to highlight us as one of the places to visit in our historic town. My blog post about EuroLux in the News and Newberry Attractions including Newberry Oktoberfest gives links to the video and the articles.

6. Charming Victorian Inns

Our blog readers and customers love antiques and beautiful interior design, but they also love to travel! Greg and I love to travel too, so I often write about places to stay that have a historical aspect or inns and hotels that are furnished with antiques. My blog post about Charming Victorian Inns for a Cozy Getaway was a favorite this year. Even if you can't visit these destinations, you can take inspiration from the photos!

Happy new year to everyone! If you enjoyed this, see the rest of our picks for the year! Here’s the link for the Part 2 final six of our top 12 decor and antiques blog posts of 2016.

On this Leap Day 2016, a glance back over our home decor and antiques blog for February proves that the shortest month still gave us plenty to talk about. Here are our favorite blog posts from fabulous February!

First, let's start with our fabulous floor! As part of our 1920s vintage bungalow renovation our next job was to tackle the floor. We put the new flooring down in the living room, dining room and other rooms. It went quite quickly, using a realistic-looking laminate to replace the rotted hardwood floor. This is the bedroom when we finished, with the antique headboard ready to have the bed attached. See the full Vintage Life New Floor story at the link.

I also wrote about three of our most popular items on Houzz - at least as far as our recent sales go! The bestsellers in recent months have been:
1) Leather chairs and sofas
2) Aubusson hand-crafted throw pillows
3) Console tables in all kinds of designs.
It's interesting to see the items that design-savvy Houzz fans choose. It shows the 'essentials' that people want in their homes. Console tables and leather chairs and sofas are classic pieces that always have a beautiful and useful place in a house, and a hand-made throw pillow is also a wonderful investment.

Soft whites have been chosen by several paint companies as Paint Colors of the Year for 2016 so I took a look at decorating with white to show how to keep white looking elegant and welcoming rather than cold and clinical. I hope you enjoy the tips, including layering whites, exploring textures and contrasting with warm wood.

The final favorite of the month was a travel post. A lot of us can see spring is coming just around the corner, and after this long and cold winter we're ready to dream of trips to new places! This lead to my post about Graceful Getaways in New England.

The three hotels I highlighted have historic stories to tell or they are decorated with antique furniture and art. This is the Mayflower Grace Hotel in Connecticut, featuring antique rugs and antique four-poster beds as well as 18th and 19th century art on the walls. Who'd want to leave their hotel room?

Join me again next month to read about great home decor ideas and info on antique furniture. I’m always happy to hear from you with questions about vintage or antique furniture or lighting, home accents and accessories. Send me an email or comment on this blog or our EuroLux Facebook page.

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her husband and best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 9 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Find us on Facebook or connect with EuroLux on Google+. Or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.

We jumped into 2016 in a very busy way, unpacking a new container of antique furniture that arrived from France just before Christmas! We were busy on our Letters from EuroLux antiques and home decor blog too, admiring our customer's houses, exploring the new color trends for the year, and cooking up some traditional soups to keep us all warm!

Here's a round-up of our January blog posts in case you were too busy to see them at the time. You can turn the year back a few notches already and check them out now!

We started January by glancing back at our top 12 antiques and decor blog posts of 2015.

It was hard to choose just a few of our tours of customers’ homes and posts about antiques, home decor and other things that interest us like antiques-inspired travel and elegant entertaining, We hope you like the ones that we thought were the cream of the crop!

Then we gave you a mini tour of this lovely house in Georgia that has the look of a French chateau. We delivered a Regency style vintage French games table and chairs set here to our customers Nita and Walter and we took the opportunity to admire the house inside and out! The courtyard pictured left has a charming lion's head fountain on the attractive brick wall. Step inside and see the rest!

Our second client spotlight this month took us to the historic Pella Victorian Villa in Iowa.

We sold two antique tables and some handsome antique French Hunting chairs to the homeowner Stan and we took the time to find out more about the interesting history of the house. We also learned about Pella Historical Village, which (true to its Dutch heritage) is home of the annual Tulip Time tulip festival. Read all about it in the Pella Victorian Villa Client Spotlight.

I always like to write about home decor trends but especially at the beginning of the year it's fun to look at the latest ideas for the year ahead. In my series of posts on color trends I took a look at the Pantone pink and blue colors of the year for 2016 and the interesting ways you can use these tranquil tones in home decor.

We also welcomed two new collections of furniture and home accents to our online store so I introduced you to the Stunning Home Decor from Scarborough House and Cyan Design.

These exceptional collections include hand-crafted and antique-inspired furniture with the finest veneers, plus spectacular lighting that has been featured in Elle Decor magazine!

Finally, as part of the country braced against winter storms and much of the country settled in to enjoy the final season of Downton Abbey, we took the advice of the Dowager Countess of Grantham who famously said, "Every good lady’s maid should know how to make a restorative broth.” No, I didn't get myself a lady's maid, but I did blog about some traditional Old Country soups from Europe to warm everyone up! Try Cock-A-Leekie, Beef and Barley, hearty Flemish Waterzooi and more in the Traditional European Soups post.

I hope 2016 will be a wonderful year for you - keep checking back to read more about traditional decor and fine antiques for regular folks!

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her husband and best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 9 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Find us on Facebook or connect with EuroLux on Google+. Or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.

Last week I gave you a roundup of six of our most popular home decor and antiques blog posts of 2015. Here’s Part 2 with the remaining six of our (and your) favorite 12 posts from last year. It’s been fun seeing all the things we talked about in 2015 - we hope you enjoy seeing the highlights too. Happy new year!

7. Romantic Teacup and Spoon Chandelier

Everyone loved seeing our customer Marie-Louise's romantic vintage kitchen in Haute-Normandie, France. Marie-Louise bought a new, custom-made vintage teacup and spoon chandelier from us. (It's one of our many upcycled chandeliers, hand-crafted for us by an artisan from vintage components.)

See the photos of her characterful French kitchen in the story about The Vintage Teacup Chandelier.

Kelley in Houston, TX, was another customer who bought one of the whimsical chandeliers, but as this story shows, she changed out the vintage tea cups for large double espresso coffee cups!

8. Charming Cottage style

This charming old cottage next to a babbling brook is owned by our customers Lenore and John. They only bought it recently and they picked several pieces of antique furniture from us to furnish it. Their selection included a beautifully carved antique French Henry II buffet, vintage French Renaissance dining chairs, and a pretty Louis XVI buffet for the bedroom suite.

It all looks very impressive -- as well as very cozy -- against the exposed logs in the mountain cabin, as you can see from the photos in the Cottage Style with Antique Furniture post.

9. Choosing Antique-Inspired Furniture

I've written before about how to buy antique furniture online, but sometimes people need advice on buying high-quality reproduction or antique-inspired furniture too. It can be overwhelming to know what to look for as a sign of good quality. My post on Choosing Antique-Inspired Furniture describes three important elements to consider when you are shopping!

10. Beach Style Decor

This summer I was inspired to write a series of posts about Beach Style Decor from sea shell decor to coastal cottage accents. This breezy series is full of ideas to create your nautical home, or perhaps just a single room that feels like a vacation... with a refreshing dash of casual chic and a sunny atmosphere to cheer even the coldest day!

11. English Castle Hotels

Speaking of vacations, I had a great time (and spent a lot of imaginary travel dollars) writing about English Castle Hotels. These unique locations are full of English history, lore and legends for a very special overnight stay. Everyone feels like royalty! I also wrote about ways to stay at Leeds Castle in England. This incredible castle, sometimes called “The Loveliest Castle in the World,” needed a whole post to itself to do it justice!

12. Yard Yoga at our Vintage Bungalow

Back in the U.S.A., our own vintage 1920s bungalow in historic Newberry, South Carolina is our castle! We're pleased with all our progress on our "new" old home, as you can see in our series on The Vintage Life. Blog readers and friends of our page on Facebook have been very encouraging, making positive comments on everything from our tiling adventures to the cat porch we built.

But as it's the middle of winter, I'm going to pick out a summery landscaping post: April Showers bring May Flowers to show off just how lovely the garden has grown! Greg and I love puttering in the garden – it's so relaxing to be outside, digging in the dirt. I like to call it yard yoga. We're looking forward to this year's yard yoga and this year's flowers... we hope you have a flourishing 2016 too!

If you missed Part 1 of our top 12 blog posts of 2015, you can see the other six here.

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her husband and best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 9 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Find us on Facebook or connect with EuroLux on Google+. Or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.

It's that time again! We're reviewing our antiques and home decor blog posts from 2015 and it's very hard to pick just a dozen of the most popular stories of the year.

Before we start, we're grateful for all our good news this year. We received many honors from Houzz.com including a Best of Houzz 2015 award for customer satisfaction and service. Our upcycled vintage spoon chandeliers were featured on a TV show and we expanded and beautified our booth at the Antique Tobacco Barn in Asheville, NC.

There's more good news too, but let's look at the first six of our favorite 12 antiques and home decor blog posts of 2015. We’ll share the rest in our next post welcoming the new year.

1. Antique French Furniture in Newberry Mansion

We always appreciate customers who return to us to buy antique, vintage, and new furniture and home decor accents, and then send us photos for our series of client spotlights so we can see how their purchases look in their home!

Of the many that stand out from 2015, one is this gorgeous mansion filled with antique furniture chosen by our customer Tamra. In the blog post about the Newberry Mansion you'll see the inside tour with pieces Tamra bought from us including a French Country table, antique Hunting chairs and antique Mechelen buffets.

2. The Search for the Perfect Vintage French Sheepbone Chairs

The story about the 1950 vintage French Sheepbone chairs in Veritta's home in California was also a happy one for us because Veritta said she bought her dining table 10 years ago but she has been waiting all this time to find the perfect chairs!
See for yourself how right she was to wait for the perfect match, and also find out about the carved sheepbone style and why it's named that way!

3. Vintage Life Cat Porch: Build It and The Cats Will Come

In our ongoing saga about the renovation of our 1920s vintage bungalow, we made sure we created a special space for the cats too! Our story and photos about our cat porch was one of the most popular posts this year. Everyone enjoys sitting in this “cat paradise” screened porch.

Since then we also adopted a new little tiger cat, Pumpkin to join our family of (now) 9 cats and dogs. Meet her and read about how Pumpkin arrived during Hurricane Joachim.

4. Romantic Victorian Inns

Just in time for Valentine's Day I took a virtual trip to Romantic Victorian Inns around the country. These four inns are great for a romantic getaway at any time of the year. The inns are decorated with period Victorian or Victorian style decor, adding to the charm of your stay!

5. Decorating with Mirrored Furniture

Tying in with the Hollywood Regency trend and the always-popular Art Deco look, I took the opportunity to shine a light on Decorating with Mirrored Furniture.

As you'll see in the story, mirrored furniture can be subtle, it doesn't have to be a bling-fest. Sophisticated new or antique mirrored furniture not only looks sleek and luxurious, it can also create clever illusions to brighten and expand a room.

6. How to Display a Collection

Pic: Other Metro Media/Bloggers Go Make Me

I enjoyed putting together this series on how to display a collection. It gave me the chance to explore the very creative ways different people organize and display their ceramics, jewelry, and other collections from vintage model trains to classic cameras.

Later, we also had a chance to show off my mother-in-law Kathy's huge collection of pilgrims and other Thanksgiving-themed objects. You can see Kathy's impressive collection of more than 700 pieces at the link.

I hope these highlights of the year provide you with some inspiration or just a little fun as you browse through.

Happy new year everyone! If you enjoyed this, see the rest of our picks for the year! Here’s the link for the Part 2 final six of our top 12 decor and antiques blog posts of 2015.

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her husband and best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 9 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Find us on Facebook or connect with EuroLux on Google+. Or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.