The Cheese Stands Alone...

Crazy title, I know...but you get the picture. Sometimes there is one dominant feature that jumps off the page when we look at a space. In the above photo, for me, it is the gorgeous drum shade. I wonder if the owners are okay with the fact that this little light is the real beauty in this picture, showing up even the expensive stone counter tops and the great use of textures in their kitchen?

Indeed, it is a lesson worth noting - it's not always how much you spend, but how you work the finishing details that matters. In the next kitchen, in all its fabulousness, the shimmering blue tile draws you in. That may possibly be the only wall tiled in those beauties but it doesn't matter: visitors to that space will remember those tiles and be instantly enamoured.

Mission accomplished. The table below is a silent victim of one-upmanship. Let's face it - it could be a coveted antique or a flea-market find - what guests will really notice is the charming blue tablecloth with its red detailing. Okay, maybe they'll notice the smart red/cream checked floor tiles... Still, it makes a serious case for the notion that maybe we all should invest in is a fancy new tablecloth to hide our less pedigreed tables.

The lamps below are some more show-stoppers. In fact, they are show-stoppers we can all make for next to nothing! Don't we all have awkward lamps like these crouching in our garages or basements? You know the kind: a bit bulbous, cheap, and missing a shade? A little spray paint, a cheap drum shade from Walmart or the like, and some great fabric applied with spray adhesive and we can all have lights this pretty. Then maybe we, too, can have that one jaw-dropping item that draws our guests eyes away from the other, more mundane elements in our rooms.


Besides, we could all use a little distraction from time to time, couldn't we?

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photo credits, from top to bottom:

Coastal Living.com
Southern Accents.com
Katrin Cargill.com

Garnet Hill.com