Decorating Trends

I used to be an interior designer and I love to follow decorating trends and decorating styles. Personally, I have always NOT followed trends but designed timelessly. If you decorate English or French or Italian, stay true to the style and you will never go wrong or out of style.

That being said, I'm happy to find out that "Old Masters Paintings" are a hot trend right now.

Online store and blog VandM just released their trends for 2011-2012.

VandM officially publishes the year's main trend forecast every August. But what many don't know is that the studio prepares a report each month. We thought it would be fun to share an early peek at the main trend forecast as it is shaping up for late 2011 - early 2012.

IN	OUT
Dark Interiors	Light and all White Interiors (Unless black & white)
Old Masters Paintings	Too Many Contemporary Pieces of Art
Eclectic Clutter	Minimal Glam
Stuffed Taxidermy Birds	Antler Mounts
17th/18th Century Antiques	Danish Modern
Strong Patterned Flooring (especially animal print)	Simple Textured Flooring
Cameos/Indaglio	Framed Butterfly Taxidermy
Victorian Hair Art	Victorian Shell Art
Wallpaper	Paint
American Silver Tankards	Silver Trophies
Gold Gilt Elaborate Frames	Simple Modern Frames
Thrown-likeWood Chairs	Modern Plastic Furniture
Chip Wood Furniture	Chrome Furniture
Animal Pelts/Blankets	Chennile Throws
Goblets	Clear Stemware
Think Medieval/Darkages	Think White Minimal

One of our shorthand tricks to knowing what the culture is about to start to lean towards comes by way of HBO/Showtime. The number of shows relating to Medieval/Darkages is exponentially multipling. Everything from Robinhood, Merlin, Game of Thrones, cue the 1980's obsessions of Lady Hawk, Labryinth, etc

I think they are right. We are thirsting for comfort and history. I can't think of anything better than making history with a painting. Click on the link and see for yourself. Yay for paintings!

Why Get a Portrait?

Why get a portrait? First of all, they are wonderful precious family heirlooms.

Kathryn Ireland

And secondly, they are great to decorate with!

Ralph Lauren

Let's face it, art is just decoration after all. There is a new-ish trend to decorate with heirloom portraits. I say new-ish because portraits are always IN, it's just right now they are more IN. I mean this room in Ralph Lauren's house could have been decorated 20 years ago or last week.

But what if you don't have a family heirloom portrait? Well, have one painted!

Charlotte Moss

Decorators all across the country are decorating their own houses with antique portrait paintings. Don't they look gorgeous? Charlotte Moss is my favorite decorator.

Even old fashioned folk art portraits look amazing in a room.

Okay, yes this is the green room in the White House. And yeah, that is Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson...I think. But this Federal Style room looks totally timeless and, well, green.

You don't have to have traditional style to have a portrait painted. Love the modern abstract. Notice the traditional furniture to anchor the room. Seriously, the only thing modern in the room is the art and it makes the whole place look modern.

I love 17th Century Swedish Gustavian antiques.

You don't have to relegate portraits to the living room or the bedroom. I love it in a hallway. I have one in my hallway and every time I walk by it I love to see it.

Sometimes the portrait can dictate the style of the room. Sometimes you can get a portrait to fit your style. I wonder which came first, the portrait or the wallpaper?

A portrait can really personalize a room. Even if you don't know who it is.

A portrait can set the mood. What attitude! Such a manly man's room. No women allowed!

Darin Giese

You can never have too many portraits!

All these photos were from two decorating blogs I love, cotedetexas and tartanscot.

New Website!

I have a new website. Okay, not that I had an old one but saying that I just got a website sounded so amateur. Which I am, but shhhh...don't tell anyone. Here is a link to it. And there are some new paintings. Let me know what you think, unless it's bad then just keep those thoughts to yourself. Thank you.

www.morgenthruston.com

Yellow Rose of ...Ora

I can paint flowers. I just can't paint them like Christie Repasy. So, I decided to just paint the way I do and be myself. This is for my friend Ora. Her favorite color is yellow. When her son moved out she took his room and turned it into a yellow floral woman cave. Nothing manly is allowed. So for her birthday I painted this. Happy Birthday Ora!

I'm gonna have GORGEOUS grandchildren!

I asked my son in law if he would like to pose for a painting for me. Luckily, he said he would and with my daughter as stylist, we turned his normal "skater boy/college student" look into this Wall Street looking man. What a handsome cutie. I'm gonna have the most beautiful grand-babies!!!

This painting is my daughter's birthday gift. Happy B-day Married Girl!

What NOT to do in Business

My son sent an email inquiring about a product for sale on a website. The response was hilarious and I thought you would like to have a laugh. Clearly English was not his first language. And remember, Banana is never Apple!

hello friend

paypal also has scam,the buyer receive the parcel but he said he didnot on purpose.so paypal scam make selelrs worried about the money.these days business is not easy for anybody.

i hjope good buyer and good seller can do business together.although we use western union,but it doesnt mean we are bad seller and dont ship parcel;s. on the contract,we are are very serious in business and want to have longterm business with you, we can also email you some recent shipping every a couple days.

Trust is built as time goes by and not just for a time.you say i m not good ,does it mean we are bad people? we are not bad people and at lease so far we didnt any thing bad to you and we never do you bad.here we are doing business for benefiting both sides,hardly for scamming money.

Every penny you earn is important for you and we understand,so the price has been lowest for you so that you can enjoy a good profit at your market and good competition.


The qualtiy is guarranty bvecause only the original count in the market all the time,before and now and future as weell. we have been working hard to establish good relationship although it isn ot easy.the beginnigng is diffuclt but i think the result willl be very good.

if you think every body is bad people,then the world is over in the usa also there are bad people and good people. i m not them so i cannot stop them from stealing money.we are 100% responsible for our sales.Banana is Banana,Apple is Apple,Banana is never Apple.This has been a very serious thing when it comes to the business.

best regards,

matthew

Talent vs. Hard Work

When I was a baby, my dad taught me how to read. I seriously never knew what it was like to not read. I was also very bored in school because of it and I passed the time by discovering other talents. Drawing, school work, sports, music, sewing...you name it I was good at it. I just had loads of natural ability or talent.

Michael Naples

Then, in fourth grade I started to play the violin. I was so good that by the end of the school year I was playing second chair next to the sixth graders. First chair was 6th grader Stephanie Buckley. Who is now an opera singer in New York City, seriously. She was WAY ahead of me in ability. But by the end of my sixth grade year I was still playing second chair. Why? I didn't practice. The girl in first chair had a private teacher and she practiced EVERY DAY. Practice? What's that? I always just floated on my natural ability. Which gets me pretty far but not far enough. So what did I do? I quit the violin.

Casey Baugh

Now why do I tell you this story? Well, I have been teaching art to kids and adults. Each age group feels like they stink and they can't do it. The biggest tantrum I get is from a very talented little 7 year old who wants to paint like Michelangelo and she can't. And my sweet 70 year old student wants to quit every 5 minutes. Everyone has yucky work. Even Casey Baugh told me that he has a room full of paintings lined up against the wall that will never see the light of day.

James Christensen

I asked James Christensen one time if he ever had a hard time parting with some of his most beautiful work. He said, "A lot of my stuff doesn't really turn out the way I planned so I am glad to get rid of it."

James Christensen

He also says you need to put in ten thousand hours before you are very good.

TEN THOUSAND!

Talent can only get you so far. So, if you have been given a special talent, you better get to work!

-Morgen

p.s. If you know anyone (or yourself) who has a similar story, let me know!