The Greek Key pattern is one of the most elegant designs in home decor and furniture. The pattern is a linear design that keeps folding back on itself in a pattern of right angles. The simplicity is very harmonious. It is very popular for any style of home, and it has remained popular for thousands of years!
The geometric pattern was frequently seen on ancient Greek architecture, tiles, vases and other objects - hence the name. The picture above shows the Greek Key in tiling on a contemporary bath in Los Angeles and the classic effect is lovely.
Greek Key Pattern: An International Style
But despite the name, this motif has actually been seen in many other places, even before the ancient Greeks adopted it! It's popped up in ancient Egypt and China as well as some older South American cultures.
People probably weren't reading home decor blogs back in those days! So it seems that the geometric design has a natural appeal for many different people in different ages.
The original name for the Greek Key is a meander pattern, inspired by the very winding River Maeander in Turkey. It is often used as a border for tiling, ceramics, curtains, rugs, cushions and other textiles. But it can also be a filled pattern covering a complete surface. And of course it looks great on traditional architecture, like this fireplace.
There is a lot of Greek Key design and its variations in this photo: in the fireplace, the cushions, the mirror frame. Some might find it a little too much, but it shows how the geometric element can be used and combined in multiple ways. Also, the bold pattern cleverly pulls together an otherwise simple design scheme with a neutral palette.
Greek Key Furniture
The Greek Key design also looks terrific on furniture. We have several pieces of Greek Key furniture in our online store, including this terrific new Greek Key console table with a rustic pecan finish. It is also available in white and an antiqued walnut finish.
Variations on the design often turn up in Hollywood Regency style interiors. I can easily imagine this stunning Chelsea House gold leaf console table with a dimpled glass top in a Hollywood Regency design scheme. The table is quite simple, but the Greek Key accents give it a chic and refined design twist.
Meander Motif
The meander motif is easy to add to your home with lighting or other smaller home accessories. This terrific new Currey & Company wall sconce offers an elegant interpretation of the design. With the sleek design and antiqued brass finish, a pair would look superb in a bathroom, powder room, bedroom or hallway.
The decorative and classic Greek Key design works for both more masculine or more feminine design schemes, whether contemporary or traditional. It is often seen in black on white, but any color combinations work, as do tone on tone variations like the sconce here where the raised key gives a textural effect.
What do you think of the Greek Key pattern? Do you have it in your home? Tell us about it in the comments box!
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.
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.
We sell quite a lot of new and antique marble furniture. A buffet or nightstand with a marble top is always popular but we also have a nice range of sink chests with marble tops. We love the marble effect in decor and it seems like we're in good company. Many design magazines and other decor media are saying that marble is very on trend right now.
Certainly this month's High Point Market - a huge and influential furniture market - showed a lot of marble finishes including marbled paper effects. We think marble never went out of fashion, it's been a design classic for centuries! But it's great to know that it's back in vogue again, whether it's genuine marble or marble looks on everything from wallpaper to textiles. Here are some ideas of how to enjoy this elegant material in your home, starting with the real thing!
This fantastic 1890 American mahogany antique vanity or dressing table in the Eastlake style that we have in stock right now is topped with rose or red colored marble. The marble is practical but it also gives an upscale look as well as a pretty burst of vintage color. You might also enjoy seeing this blog post about how our customer Kathleen made creative use of an antique French marble-top nightstand in her kitchen.
And this is even more creative - although of course it's not real marble. (Brr, that would be chilly!)
The white marble print duvet cover from Safe House USA looks incredibly convincing but it's really printed on a sanded poplin fabric.
The marble pattern looks fresh and airy and I think it could go with many traditional bedroom styles as well as with a more modern bedroom.
In the morning, you'll want to be woken up with a cup of tea sipped from this Dibbern Carrara teacup.
Carrara is the Italian city famous for the marble quarried there, and this cup is part of the Carrara range of fine bone china tableware with the subtle marble design. It's made in Germany and sold by Dibbern retailers in the United States.
You can even find faux marble wallpapers, although I think it's hard to beat this beautiful marble effect by Calico Wallpaper.
I'll keep looking out for marble finishes in home decor and if you spot the marble look cropping up somewhere unexpected, tell us in the comments box!
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 love it when our customers get creative with pieces they buy from us. This chest of drawers retrofit into a sink chest is a great example.
Our customer Edwin Miller of Edwin Miller Interiors found this new French style chest among our selection of new and antique chests of drawers and thought it would make an excellent sink chest!
The antique-inspired chest of drawers (item number BG-265) is crafted with a solid wood construction and toned brass French hardware. The curvy carved apron front and cabriole legs add to the French style charm and the gorgeous distressed finish gives the chest of drawers an authentic antique look.
Edwin had the three-drawer chest converted to a sink chest and it does look fantastic in his client's guest bathroom!
The vessel sink is a perfect match for the chest of drawers and you can really see the quality of the wood finish in this photo. Edwin Miller's website notes that he is known for his high quality "finish selections, attention to detail and expression of client individuality, emphasizing refined sophistication." We can see from this lovely retrofitted sink chest that he's done it again!
If you don't feel like converting a chest of drawers into a sink chest yourself, you might want to check out some of our beautifully crafted antique-inspired sink chests.
For example, this Ambella Home Augustine sink chest features detailed rope carving, a white porcelain sink and a beautiful Emperador marble top. The three-drawer petite sink chest has a rich mahogany finish.
We work with quite a few people who are building houses and the Ambella Home sink chests are always a big hit.
We can order sink chests of all sizes for our customers, from large double sinks to petite sink chests to tuck into a powder room.
This mini Ambella Home sink chest may be small - a slim 23.5 inches wide, to be exact - but what it lacks in size it makes up for in looks! The antique-inspired sink chest has a mahogany frame and an Imperial Beige marble top. Swirl mahogany veneers add to the decorative effect of the very pretty sink chest. I'd team it with a pair of sconces on the wall on either side of the sink for an elegant glow.
Thanks to interior designer Edwin Miller for sending us the photo of retrofitted sink chest - we hope his clients enjoy using it for many years!
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.
My last posts were about decorative ways to display a collection and ways to display a ceramics collection. I've saved the sparkliest till last! Today I'm sharing some fabulous ideas to organize and display your jewelry collection in vintage style. 
This idea from the Better Homes & Gardens blog is charming. It's also easy to do. The framed jewelry display at the back is just a vintage style picture frame. You can paint any decorative frame you find in a flea market or thrift store. The back could be metal mesh or chicken wire backed with toile fabric for a French Country look. Or perhaps choose a heavyweight canvas - anything you can use to hook your earrings to the backing and pin up your necklaces.
Find a pretty vintage cake stand, either a metal one or a ceramic cake stand or another kind of tiered tray to add the finishing touch to the dressing table tableau!
You can also make your own cake jewelry holder from vintage china. This tutorial on Houzz shows you how. It looks like a vintage cake stand with a twist! I think it would pair perfectly in the boudoir with our custom-made vintage tea service chandeliers.
For a more formal take on the picture frame idea, check out this Better Homes & Gardens suggestion. They've created a picture gallery of jewels! This would look at home in a Victorian bedroom. I guess the arrangement works best with a theme in each framed group. Put all your pearls in one frame, all your brooches in another, or perhaps group jewelry by color.
Or go completely crazy and deck a whole wall with baubles and beads! This jewelery display in a 1926 bungalow in Seattle looks just right for the space. It's also very practical as it's easy to spot the piece you want, then see how it looks in the ornate gilded mirror.
A dress form or mannequin is another vintage-inspired display idea that always looks pretty and romantic. Layer on necklaces of different lengths and a few brooches for maximum effect. You can also use a dress form to hold long silky scarves, or perhaps your favorite vintage hat of the moment.
If you have a collection of vintage brooches or earrings, cluster them closely together on a simple jewelry tree and let the jewelry itself do the talking... and the sparkling!
I can't finish this mini series about ways to display your collections without sharing this photo of Jake. He seems to be going with the "cluster everything together" theory to show off his collection of toys. I promise you that our real-life dog is in there somewhere!
If you have a collection featured in your home decor, we'd love to hear how you display it. You can also post a photo on 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 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.
My last post was about decorative ways to display a collection. That included vintage teapots, cameras, and model trains, amongst other collectibles. The Welsh Dresser style hutch that I showed in that post is a classic way to display china and ceramics - our antique buffets are great for this too! But today I'm sharing some other ways to display your ceramics collection.
Blue and white ceramics, especially antique Delftware, always look fantastic grouped together. This photo from my earlier post about Blue and White Delftware proves it! Remember that if you have three or more of any one type of item - or even three or more different objects in the same color - you immediately have a collection. Group them together for maximum impact.
This photo is also a good reminder to USE your ceramics collection whenever possible. Take your blue and white ginger jars and vases down off the shelf and flaunt them in a stunning table setting like this. Just add a few simple white flowers and wait for the admiring comments!
Usually you see blue and white vases and ginger jars displayed on a shelf or table, all on the same level. What I love about this photo is that the jars are clustered both on the console table and below it, creating more dimension in a double layer of visual interest. The tasteful blue and white looks crisp and elegant against the mellow wood table and flooring.
Create a gallery display of your collection of plates to add a beautiful dash of color to a room. This example blends traditional blue and white plates in all shapes and sizes with some punches of lively red. It's the perfect combination for the rustic beachy feel of this space, or for a breezy maritime look in an ocean cottage. Before hammering any nails in the wall to hang plates in a gallery display, it's best to get your layout arranged. Place the plates on a large table or on the floor for a test run!
Looking for a completely different way to display your collection of plates? The creative couple in this 1980s ranch style home used an antique picture frame to show off their plates. The picture frame is about four feet wide and the flourishing silhouette makes a focal point of the plates. I think this display would look fabulous with our vintage teacup and spoon chandeliers!
To finish up this mini-series about displaying your collections, I'll be back soon with a post about storing and displaying jewelry in creative ways to enhance your home decor.
If you've got any examples of great ways to display your ceramics, jewelry, or collections of anything else, send them my way! Tell us in the comments or on our EuroLux Home 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 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.
I love seeing how creative people are about displaying their collections of antiques, vintage pieces, or other collectibles. If you're looking for inspiration to display your own collections, take a look at these decorative ways to display! Let's start with a couple of traditional display options...
A classic Welsh Dresser or hutch makes any kitchen look cozy. In this VIctorian cottage kitchen the hutch is home to a collection of vintage teapots, teacups, and other ceramics and canisters. The teapots look especially charming grouped together on the top shelf. Although the shelves are very busy, that's part of the friendly appeal - inviting us to come in and relax over a cup of tea. Everything framing the dresser looks fairly clean-lined and clutter-free, so the dresser is the focal point here.
For a more formal living room, dining room or library, a display cabinet with glass doors is a traditional choice for displaying rare books and small antique objects and statues. This new Jonathan Charles cabinet from our antique and antique-inspired china and display cabinets is a handsome example. The Jonathan Charles Windsor cabinet is crafted with crotch walnut and starburst inlaid doors, as well as adjustable lighting to highlight your precious collectibles. The angled shape of the cabinet shows off every single piece within, while glass doors keep everything dust-free and safe from spills and knocks.
How about this for a fun way to display a collection of vintage model trains? The bright colors and varying lengths of the trains could have looked a bit messy, but the creative homeowner in California tamed and streamlined the look by perching the trains on symmetrical white floating shelves. The trains add a lovely dash of color and whimsy to the otherwise traditional decor.
Our customers Aly & Bruce in Oregon were also clever and creative about displaying their collection of vintage cameras. When I wrote a customer spotlight about the antique Chinese cabinet they bought from us (the Late Qing Dynasty cabinet front left of this photo) the story of how the couple bought it was romantic enough. But then we got a bonus with a glimpse of their gorgeous line-up of cameras. Can you spot the cameras, in the arched alcoves above the book shelves?
Here's a close-up (no pun intended!) of some of the cameras. They look wonderful arranged in simple rows about the books. Even this small space has been put to good use with lots of evocative visual impact, so it's always worth thinking about how you can make use of even a sliver of shelf space. Perhaps you have a ledge above a doorway or a plate rail in the dining room that would work perfectly for your collection of vintage apothecary bottles?
I've got some more ideas to share about displaying ceramics so I'll save those till next time. TIll then, I'd love to hear about your own decorative ways to display your collection. Tell us in the comments or on our EuroLux Home 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 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.
Last week, as the latest in our series of client decor spotlights, I showed you photos of Nellie V.'s home in San Diego, CA, with the Ambella Home mirrored accent table that she bought from us. Looking at the pictures of this elegant and dramatic table made me want to write more about the mirrored furniture trend!
Often you'll see mirrored furniture in a Hollywood Regency style room, evoking Hollywood's glamorous golden era of the 1920s and 1930s. Shiny finishes, including lacquer, gilding and (yes!) mirrors are typical of the luxurious Hollywood Regency look.
For example, this new Currey & Co mirrored console table features a traditional Greek key pattern on the legs, but the streamlined geometry also reminds me of Art Deco. The wrought iron table has a gleaming silver leaf and antique mirror finish and the simple lines let the shine do the talking!
Why decorate with mirrored furniture? Well, a room full of mirrored pieces would be too much dazzle (Hello, Liberace!) but a single accent piece creates a stunning focal point.
The mirror also adds light to the room, or makes the most of every speck of light that you have. In daylight, it makes the room look brighter. If you enjoy candlelight, then the mirroring will reflect the warm glow for a romantic atmosphere. This Currey & Co credenza boasts antiqued mirroring on the doors - perfect with the faded walnut and gold highlights.
A piece of mirrored furniture also creates the illusion of more space as it reflects the room back to you. If carefully placed, it can conjure up quite a magical effect! A mirrored chest of drawers against a wall makes a small room look bigger as it tricks the eye into thinking that the floor extends further than it does. The Morrocan style of this Ambella Home mirrored chest of drawers proves the point and also shows that mirrored furniture doesn't have to be a Bling Fest!
For another subtle mirrored accent, this Kramer drinks table by Currey & Co combines modernity with classical symmetry. The antiqued mirror top sits sleekly on the warm bronze gold finished tapered pedestal.
As a general tip, I've talked before about the research on the value of buying better quality furniture. When you're buying mirrored pieces it's even more important to buy high quality furniture. Solid pieces with a decent weight and high-quality mirrored detail creates a look of luxe. But a mirrored accent piece that is cheap, tinny, and poorly made can appear more garish than glitzy.
Finally, this Solana mirrored bed made by Hooker Furniture shows that mirrored accents can really work with any style. The refined rustic bed features a decorative mirrored panel headboard with curvy, almost Art Nouveau detail. It would be the focal point of any bedroom.
Have you taken a shine to mirrored furniture? Tell us about it here on this blog or on our 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 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.
Mixed metals are "particularly hot right now" according to an article I read in the Wall Street Journal on the Top 5 Interior Design Trends for 2015. LA designer Jamie Bush thinks it looks "too staged" to match every metal finish in a space. London Designer Kelly Hoppen especially likes mixing warm-toned metals with cool ones.
I agree that mixing metal tones can make a room more interesting and personal. I've never been a fan of matchy-matchy furniture, as I said in my blog post on Eclectic Decor. Many of our customers feel the same way - which is why they are such fun to chat with. Our vintage home accents show that people have always mixed metals happily, like this 1950 French vintage coal bucket which blends brass and copper beautifully - plus Delft ceramic handles!
This tasteful house in Boston mixes metals elegantly with various gold and silver tones. The generally neutral furniture and walls (painted with Benjamin Moore Tapestry Beige, 975) create a subtle canvas for the metal elements to shine. The old re-gilded mantel mirror is traditional for 19th century homes in the area.
Our client Natalya S. also mixed metallic tones in her kitchen to create great visual texture. Natalya bought the carved antique buffet from us and you can read more about her kitchen furniture and decor in my Antique Renaissance Buffet in California Client Spotlight.
This Florida house built in 1926 is on the Historic Register. It was renovated, right down to the bathroom with mixed metal finishes. The gold-framed mirrors look wonderfully opulent against the chrome/silver faucets, cabinet hardware, and what looks like a silver-toned chandelier. If the entire bathroom were gold... it could be a bit over the top! Too much silver or chrome might make it too cold. The gold mirrors warm it up. These gilded mirrors were custom made but they look similar to some of our gilded antique-inspired mirrors.
The layering of different metal tones can create many different effects from a welcoming glow to sophisticated chic. Play with the cool metal tones of silver, pewter, chrome, nickel, aluminum and steel, and mix in the warmer metal tones of gold, copper, bronze and brass. Black wrought iron works neutrally to befriend any metals. I hope you enjoy mixing your metals, whether it's a trend or not!
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.