It has been a hot minute since I’ve done a new blog post on Maple Hollow Cottage so I’m VERY excited to bring you the latest installment! Yesterday, Adam and I set to work finishing up our entry way. We’ve been collecting things over quite some time and they’ve been leaning against walls or hiding away in closets until we had everything ready to assemble and we figured it was time to go ahead and do the dang thing.

We’ve been teetering and tottering back and forth on whether or not we wanted to hang wallpaper on our main entry way wall. We’re still a little unsure. For now, we’re going with the clean white walls, contrasted by the deep blue we painted in our dining room (you’ll get a tiny glimpse of that). Yesterday we woke up and decided to have a fun and peaceful Sunday together, which means we skipped church (oops) and instead went straight down to our kitchen to make a brunch together. Adam scrambled up some fluffy eggs while I made cinnamon vanilla pancakes and cafe au laits. As we ate our brunch at our kitchen island table, my direct line of vision was to the entry way, messy and disassembled. It led to a conversation about that dang wallpaper conundrum. Will we or won’t we? For reference, this is the wallpaper we’ve 100% decided on, in the event that we do wallpaper the main wall:

Honestly, if I had it my way I’d probably wallpaper every crevice of our house and Adam likes clean white, uncluttered spaces. Usually we compromise and I wallpaper LOL, but this time we just keep being undecided. Finally we landed on, “let’s set up our entry way and if we decide to wallpaper later on, then okay.”

So, here we are. But we’ll move on and get to the reveal…And by the way, if you need a cozy soundtrack to listen to while you read through this, I suggest Edith Piaf. Mainly because that’s what I’m listening to while I write this (current song: La Foule) but also because you can never go wrong with Edith.

I want to start by saying (haha..as I’m 5 paragraphs in) that one of my very favorite things about my marriage with Adam is the treasure hunting we do together. So many things in our home have been curated through our travels, antiquing adventures, estate sale scouring, etc. I love that I can walk around our house and continually stare at art that makes me just as happy as the day we bought it or have something catch my eye that reminds me of a fun day spent with my love. So forgive me for taking liberties, but as I post shots of our entry, I’ll walk through anecdotal stories or particular meanings of things. Where possible, I’ll tell you where I found what’s pictured.

Brew your coffee, grab a blanket, turn on some Edith Piaf and please come on in to Maple Hollow Cottage!

This shot is taken standing in our living room. It’s the best vantage point to get the whole entry in one frame. We made a few small changes when we moved in. Here is how it looked when the previous owners lived in the house:

Pretty plain except for the main wall, which actually had a great table and a very Gray Malin-esque picture, which I dig.

When we moved in, we hated that the doors and shutters on the exterior were black, so we had them painted a gorgeous green color. For specifics on our color choices, check out this blog post I did with our color palette: https://downinthehollow.com/2019/04/23/color-me-happy/. Also, we kinda *hated* their lighting choice here. It was a dinky, plastic, ultra cheap looking “chandelier” light fixture which was removed faster than you could say “Ew” in your best Alexis Rose voice. We replaced it with the Bay Isle Home Tilden Wood Bead 3-Light Flush Mount in Golden Bronze from Wayfair (shop here: https://www.wayfair.com/lighting/pdp/bay-isle-home-tilden-3-light-flush-mount-byil4051.html).

Our rug is recycled from our old house. It’s a Safavieh runner rug that we bought online from Target (after our dog puked 3 times on the one we had prior to it, which we bought for $600…). I’d provide a link, but we bought this a few years ago now and I can’t for the life of me find the exact one. That little elephant plant stand is THE CUTEST one I’ve seen and if you’re familiar with chinoiserie decor, you probably know how expensive these can get. I’m talking upwards of $200 for very good ones on Chairish.com or through antique dealers. I got this guy for $40 at The Rink in Oklahoma City from a seller who clearly did not know what they had on their hands. We used to have a cute little cactus on him until, inevitably it died. I kill even cacti, people. I’m useless with plants. Maybe I’ll get a fake somethin-somethin to put on him now.

This is from our dining room looking in. I wanted to get just a little glimpse of the blue walls in our dining room to give you an idea of how that Plume wallpaper might look. Comment your opinion at the bottom of this post. What’s your vote – leave clean white walls or wallpaper the main wall with the Plume paper?

Also, y’all like that uber-outdated smoke detector and gross, dirty vent? Clearly, we have some things to still do/update in this area.

Hey Thessali, next time you take a picture of your door maybe make sure your wreath hanger is actually centered. Oof. That one hurts my OCD. Anyway, speaking of OCD, if you noticed in the other pictures that our entry table is not centered on the wall, here is why. We put it literally at the exact point the door would not hit it when opened. Does it bother me when the door is closed and the table doesn’t seem centered? Slightly. But, to be honest, I like leaving the door open since we have a lockable storm door. I like the extra light coming in since we don’t have glass on our front door like I’m used to.

The wreath hanger is a golden pineapple to signify the classic southern sign of hospitality. We get most of our wreaths at At Home because, well, they have about 3 rows of wreaths for every season. We switch up our wreath as the seasons change. Right now in our rotation we have this wheat wreath for Fall, orange tulips for Spring, a wicker Christmas stocking with a plaid bow and greenery for Winter and lemons for Summer.

Also…just look at that lovely green door. Honestly, it’s the perfect hue.

Ok, it’s finally time to go over the anchor and main focal point of our entry. This set up is so dreamy, I’m still sitting here swooning at it. For the longest time, I’d obsessed over the Andrews Console Table from Ballard Designs, which is $999 (see here: https://www.ballarddesigns.com/andrews-console-table/381824?listIndex=5) so I searched high and low for something that looked like it with a lower price tag and BINGO – found it. This is the “Gray Pedestal Console Table with Natural Tabletop” from Kirklands, $399. Winning. Casually saved $600 on that one. Shop here: https://www.kirklands.com/product/Furniture/Living-Room-Furniture/Console-Tables/Gray-Pedestal-Console-Table-with-Natural-Tabletop/pc/2285/c/3058/sc/2610/251048.uts.

Let’s talk about the mirror. This is one of those “One time with Adam” stories. Last year we went to New York City to celebrate New Year’s Eve in style and we were also dual celebrating since Adam was officially becoming a partner in his firm. I don’t think I’ll go over the specifics of that trip because now I’m thinking I’ll do a blog post on how to do it UP in NYC for NYE if you’re trying to ball out and make lifelong memories. But anyway, on this trip we blocked off an entire day to go antiquing and get some new treasures for our new house. We actually bought Maple Hollow Cottage in February, so at the time we didn’t know it would be this house, but we were looking at houses and planning a move so we just wanted to pick a few things to use wherever we went. We wound up finding a place called Olde Good Things and, like, I don’t know how to put this to accurately convey how I felt walking into this store. I was mesmerized. Enchanted. Exploding on the inside. In. My. Element. There were easily 500 things I wanted to purchase. But, in the end, we picked out two things. One was a beautiful sterling silver teapot from the Waldorf Astoria bought at auction right before they permanently closed their doors and the other was this yellow mirror. I found it in a stack in the basement, tucked away in a corner. It’s heavy yellow tin tiles with a raised design that makes a little bow pattern. I saw it and had to have it. Ya know…sometimes that just happens. And Adam, my loves-my-whims-and-spoils-me husband grabbed it up and took it up front to say, “This one is ours.” And you know what…it was delivered in a box and it stayed in that box for MONTHS until we were ready to unpack it and hang it. And I’m still so, so in love.

Let’s get to details.

Lamps: I chose Foo Dog lamps and I’m obsessed. Foo dogs are Chinese protection symbols of feng shui that typically “guard” the entrance ways to buildings and homes. So, appropriate. I got these online at Target (shop here: https://www.target.com/p/ceramic-foo-dog-table-lamp-set-of-2-safavieh/-/A-52899173)

Peacocks: Throughout history and lore, peacocks represent nobility, holiness, guidance, protection and watchfulness (their feathers look like they have eyes on them) and so I loved the idea of peacocks paired with foo dogs for our entrance. I got my pair at JC Penney (shop here: https://www.jcpenney.com/p/jcpenney-home-ceramic-peacock-figurine/ppr5007790649?pTmplType=regular)

I have absolutely no idea where I got that little Mail tray. I’ve had that since I was in college. The little miniature lion door knockers were found at an estate sale for $10 – score!

Could this little chinoiserie planter pot be any more adorable than it is? Let me answer that: no. I plan on keeping it stocked with fresh hydrangeas, but wanted to take these pictures with it empty so you could see the little koi fish detail on the inside. Gosh am I a sucker for details. Adam and I found this at an antique mall outside of Springfield, MO just down the road from Lambert’s! Also another “see it, love it, must have it, snatch and grab” moment of mine. But ALSO I saw it and within .5 seconds I thought to myself how knockdown dragout gorgeous it would look underneath our yellow tin mirror on an entry table. And here it is months and months later. I love when I have a vision of something in my head and when I put it all together in real life it’s exactly as I saw it in my mind’s eye.

If you know me well, you know I have a handful of “signature” candle scents that I don’t really vary from unless I’m just wanting to try out something I saw that intrigued me. Usually those variations are let-downs and I’m reminded to go back to my standard candles. The Malin + Goetz Vetiver candle is one of those. I can’t explain the smell of this candle other than if a beautiful home library with leather furniture, carved cedar wood and shelves of old weathered books could be cooked and sauteed in butter with some herbs. Yep. That’s what it smells like. Shop here: https://www.malinandgoetz.com/vetiver-candle-9oz-e260g

Oh, look, another foo dog. This little guy is stone-colored. I bought him at Tuesday Morning, which honestly is super underrated. I have found some real treasures there! He’s sitting on top of the Kate Spade “Place to go, People to see” book and the Williams Sonoma book on Entertaining.

The little elephant candle holders are from Mockingbird Manor, an antique and homeware store in Oklahoma City (a fave of mine). And the Cabernet jug was $12 at Home Goods. A woman asked if she could take it out of my cart and have it..true story. Nah, girl. Finders keepers. Hands off my Cab Jug.

Ok we’re finally moving on to the last little space in our entry.

Our umbrella stand was found at The Rink (just like the elephant plant stand) and was an incredible price compared to other chinoiserie umbrella stands. I got this one for $35!! ALSO!!! This rotary phone was found at The Rink. Y’all seriously need to get out and start tracking down treasures in antique stores where you live. So worth it. This is a Hollywood Regency hotel lobby rotary phone from the 1920’s. And it still works. And I bought it for $98 LOL if I ever resold this thing it would be worth so much. But..not likely that I’ll ever get rid of it. Sorry.

Now..this painting. Like I’ve said before, Adam and I love collecting art from our travels. We’ve been to NYC a few times together and every time, we block out an afternoon to stroll through Central Park. Last time we went, we started with brunch at the Russian Tea Room (highly recommend), which is just a few blocks away from Central Park so we made our way there to walk off our caviar and champagne. We bought this piece from a vendor in the park. It’s a couple walking through the park and every time I look at it, it takes me back to New York with my love.

And we’ve come to the end. Who would’ve thought I’d have so much to say about an entry way? Oh, me. I did. Perpetual rambler and sentimentalist. Honestly, I love these blog posts. I love being able to virtually open my home to you and walk you through stories and memories of beautiful things. I truly hope these posts inspire you to see the world in a more unique way. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with decorating your home wholesale with Hobby Lobby 50% off items, but I am saying that it’s not my style and I am saying that I think there’s a lost art of falling in love with classic beauty and meaningful pieces. You’ll never see me storming techy gadget stores on Black Friday. You’ll never see me buying dishes from boxed sets at Target. You *will* see me strolling through empty, forgotten antique malls and audibly gasping when I find a Staffordshire dog in pristine condition. You *will* see me honoring my family’s dishes that have been passed down through generations and now reside where they can be seen, admired, used and loved in my home. You *will* see me grabbing Adam’s hand and dragging him into a boutique in Quebec because I caught sight of a flower vase I just had to have at that very minute.

There’s conversation starters in shops all over the place; they’re tucked in corners, under piles of other things, in the basements, in the attics, in the neighborhood across the street at an estate sale…they’re there. Go find them. Fill your home with stories. And memories. And conversations. And beauty. But more than anything, fill it with things that make you feel safe, secure and happy. Fill it with warmth and love.

XOXO, Thessali

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