You may have noticed I didn’t post on Friday. That’s because Tim and I were busy, dawn until dusk, creating a set for a TV series called “American Heritage.” It is an informational show about the history of the United States.
Our challenge was turn a very contemporary looking set into a rich, warm, character-filled scene that spoke to the past of our great nation. For some of my research, I looked up photos of George Washington’s Mt. Vernon estate and watched the movie “The Patriot.”
Let’s look at the final result!. . .
BEFORE
And AFTER
The main thing we had to do in this section is get rid of all the light colored wood with silver strips. I wanted the whole look to have a very rich, colonial feel. The flower photos were replaced with the famous image of George Washington crossing the Delaware and plenty of gorgeous silk fabric frames the nook that houses the chesterfield sofa. An antique brass chandelier, an aged persian rug, and a gold leafed coffee table complete the look.
BEFORE
AFTER
The angular TV wall had to go, or rather be disguised. My solution was to frame a HUGE antique looking wall map. If your interested, I bought the map from mapsales.com. Beware the large ones are quite pricey, but beautiful!
In front of the map, I placed an old field desk from WWII!!! I found it at a local flea market. When not in use, the whole thing folds up to look like a shipping crate. I guess when troops set up base camp, they would assemble the desk for an instant office. Pretty cool, right?! There is even a diagram (you can see it on the front of the bottom drawer) that shows you how to put the piece together and is stamped with a date of 1942!
I used geographical maps, old oil lamps, and old postcards to decorate the desk.
BEFORE
AFTER
In this section we started with nothing. I came up with this “window wall” design and Tim did an incredible job building it from scratch! I LOVE how it turned out and really wish there was a place we could put it in our home after this is all over. 🙂 We stained the wainscoting a beautiful dark walnut color and added some softness with a extra full and fabulous curtains!
In front of the window wall I posed: a mannequin dressed in a Revolutionary War red coat, a leather trunk, and some historic relics from our own home! Remember when we found the WWII newspaper and sugar ration envelop in our wall? Well we finally get to show them off! If you missed that post- click here!
So, that is how we spent our Friday, and Saturday we celebrated Tim’s 26th birthday! Needless to say, it was a great weekend!
Oh yeah, by the way- HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
Wowzas! Such a transformation. You did an amazing job guys.
Thanks Shannon! We appreciate it! We are very happy with how things turned out. 🙂
That is super exciting to see- what a great job!
Wow! Awesome job! The wall with the big picture of Washington is really striking for a backdrop. And I saw that very same field desk a week and a half ago, so it’s cool to see who bought it and how it was used.
Valerie, I saw the field desk about 3 weeks ago but didn’t have the go ahead to purchase yet. I was so nervous it was going to be gone when I came back for it, but luckily it was still there! I felt very lucky to snag it. Pretty much the perfect piece for this set-up! 🙂
Kara and Tim are amazing to work with…and even better, they are amazing people!
Thanks, again, for all of your hard work. The transformation was incredible! I have one comment regarding your blog…you said at the top you worked from “dawn to dusk”, but I think it was more like “dawn to dawn”. I look forward to the next one we can work on together!