Creating Bright Spots in the Home

A friend who has a historical home asked me to help her with a few areas to make them more attractive. She likes the old-world look,,with tapestry, reds, dark blues, gold, sparkling glass, and antiques, so we both had a good time creating an arrangement on the top of the piano with things she already had at home.

The piano top was our blank canvas. I did not think about turning on some lights to make the photographs come out better, so it all looks rather dark.

We added two red runners made from a shimmery fabric that seems to have other colors in it depending on which way you look at it. 

A pile of old books in the middle,

...then candle holders, some linen and a photograph and then we needed some fillers to put in empty spaces.

We tried different objects and finally settled on an old doll for one end of the piano.

She printed sheet music from the web (and played it) and tied the pages with jute rope.

Those pretty red glasses will look nice with led-lights in them.

We then thought about brightening up a bedroom that just needed something, so we clipped hydrangeas and put them in two interesting vases she had. The colors complimented a painting on the wall just above the bouquets.  I will try to add a photo of that later. Lavender is interspersed in one of the bouquets.

My hostess likes to use stemware for roses and I sure like the way it looks.

This apple looks positively porcelain but I picked it fresh from a tree.

Here is everything looking very antique on the piano. I will try to get brighter pictures later.