For the love of wallpaper, antiques, vintage photography, historic paint & deocrative arts --Nest by Tamara Home etsy shop debuts

Please meet 

Nest by Tamara Home 

etsy shop

Inspired by a love of wallpaper!

(above) Clarence House Bowmore Meringue

 Kravet & Clarence House
and, for the love of antique prints, vintage photographs 
& art

Farrow & Ball paper Peony with a vintage 
French fashion hand color print

 

lil' bit of historic paint colors thrown in for good measure...

I am fortunate to have been exposed through my job as an interior design to many beautifully made wares over the years.  I have oodles of left over remnants of wallpaper, rug and fabric pieces from various projects I've worked on, and they are  overflowing in my design office.  A few years ago I designed annually 200 pillows from these fabrics and sold them at sample sales to my friends.  Since I decoupaged a chair last year  for the IFDA NY charity auction, I have had a hankering to work on more of these kind of creative projects again.  Please stop over to see what I have "cooking" on my etsy shop.  First on the creative venture I combined gorgeous antique prints and frames with the plethora of amazing wallpaper and paint to create works of art. In each one of these antique prints, I add something new to the frame and matted them with gorgeous wallpapers.  I painted frames using Farrow & Ball historic paint colors, and I even hand colored some of the wallpaper with watercolor pencils.  I will add a few each week to the shop,offering these one of a kind pieces for sale.   

these beauties above will be for sale in my 

French-inspired seaside/lake dining room at NYC's 

Design On A Dime with Housingworks and Elle Decor magazine on April 24.  The seashell illustrations I found from a quirky, talented artist from the 18th century who traveled the globe discovering crustacean and sea life then drawing these creatures in detail for encyclopedias.  Ernst Haeckel's art has become popular in the art world.  I bought reproductions of his creations then cut them out and decoupaged them onto a pretty, new wallpaper collection from Farrow & Ball.  The paper is called Samphire and is inspired by a delicate English wild plant that grows on the British coastline. 

 I love historic botanical prints, ferns, seashells, horses and other encyclopedia art from the 19th and 20th centuries.  When I wrote the story about John Audubon prints and the artists of their time who meticulously hand paint these prints, I started to think about how I could work with these gorgeous works of art. But, I also appreciate tramp art, vintage Americana photography and iconic fashion images so look for some edgier stuff as well.

  In this collection, I married the paper with vintage drawings from Haekel and decoupaged them together.

Albert Hadley star paper, Farrow & Ball painted frame and vintage chicken print.  Ready to hang in a country kitchen.

Hermes paper mixed with a Brunschwig & Fils paper I hand colored and together with a vintage sepia tone photograph of an English dutchess. 

A vintage rendering of an agriculture horse print paired with the hippest equestrian-inspired Hermes paper!

Clarence House papers combined with vintage sepia tone fashion photograph.

In my etsy shop there will be only one of a kind pieces.


I am crazy for wallpaper, and not just because it is suddenly the new "it girl" in the decorating world, and I appreciate how wallpaper has the ability to transform a room.  I still pine away for the antique paper with the tiniest small pale pink rose buds that cascaded down the hallway of our Federal home growing up.  Many designers use one element to begin the decorating process--Bunny Williams proclaims she starts with the rug.  It does makes sense because a rug grounds the room.  However, for me, it's all about the color and patterns that usually gets me started.  I often carry a swatch of fabric around with me as I begin the design process.  It's just how I do it, and if there happens to be a wallpaper that works for the space to start with, I am over the moon--it sets the tone for all else.  
Why etsy?

I love etsy and the creative atmosphere is inspiring.  I could wile away hours checking out the artisans selling various projects from jewelry to art who hail from all over the world.  I like how the vendors combine vintage finds with the artisan world. It will be fun for me to mix modern day designs with antique pieces in  Nest by Tamara Home.  

using remnants of this gorgeous sepia wallpaper from Brunschwig & Fils, Rocaille Floral 

(I worked on a project years back where we swathed this paper in the entry hall of a townhouse on the upper east side), I filled in some of the leaves, branches and flowers with watercolor pencil just like they did in many of the French antique prints.  I then mounted it on black canvas and decoupaged an antique bird I bought at an antique shop in South Dakota on the top of the paper.  Framed in a natural grey wooden frame, this takes on a modern yet classic appeal. 

 I found a complete set of African animal prints in Boston at an antique shop on Beacon Hill over 20 years ago.  They were framed in burled wood and looked regal in Kelley Green mats.  However, when I dismantled them and arranged the rhinoceros onto this gorgeous, patterned wallpaper from the swanky Clarence House fabric house called Bamboo Grill, then decoupaged them and framed them in gilt wood frames, they look ready for a modern home, but with a little patina.  

 I picked up this paper cut out silhouette dated 1965 from the 26th Street antique fair and have had it in my shelves forever.  The paper was ripped and the frame broken so it sat on my bookshelf collecting dust.  When I paired it with this  new wallpaper from fashion house, Hermes and framed in an antique mahogany frame it looks fabulous.  
It's small but stylish.  

more in the works...

I will be tickled pink if you stay tuned!

 

XO Tamara
   Happy Nesting

 some of the art in my interiors and 
with the added charm of the app Waterlogue