The Driving Force In My Home

The driving force in my home is the inspiration of old. Whether I am remodeling or decorating a home in my interior design business or just transforming an out-dated piece into a piece inspired from a Paris flea market. I create with what beauty I see around me, then inspiring the piece with brush in hand soulfully.

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The work-force behind my art is looking towards a famous region renowned for their French furniture designs that reflect their rich history. Reducing and reusing old cast offs is a rich part of who I am, even as a designer. This 1980's country thrift find in much need of some new beauty came to be with an idea of adding "Joie De Vivre" (Joy of Living) with a relaxed elegance that creates romance like none other.

I will be showing the before and after, and the brave move to rid the out-dated lead glass lighted doors to creating aged mirroring in place of them.

Before...


After...
This piece was a happy accident in a thrift shop finds waiting for me to give it a facelift, and now transformed with a new beauty for sale in my design shop. Take notice along with the removing of the out-dated to the buffet, and hutch I also changed the hardware to simple wood knobs, and metal drawer pulls along with adding a strip of wood that I had dinged, and dented with perfect distressing to the tops of all three doors. I felt this would add some body to the otherwise flat surface to each of the door faces, and it worked out nicely.





I wanted to capture a patina that felt as if the piece had been passed down for generations, one that tells its own history by taking out the dated and adding an aging technique of a lime wax process without wax, yet with my own twist to process giving it a white finish leaning towards a whitish-grey patina speaking pefect French. By adding the mirrors to the doors that I aged to look hauntingly beautiful this added useful storage cleverly hidden away.

From the inspiration of France I hand-painted and detailed this piece adding my own touch of history to it.
Une vision de toutes choses françaises (Having a vision of all things French)

You Can Have One Too...

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You can have one too...Just read on. A solid wood lamp salvaged in appearance with a look that it has acquired a patina from years of function and use, one giving this French chest individuality in a rural French country house. This lamp adds rural rustic elegance of ornamentation with a definite shape that one would enjoy looking at.


Treasured objects are arranged around it with a glow of light calming the design of the soulful depths of the room. A rustic lamp at home in my French rural style country sitting area.

I consider each piece that goes into a room separately, and then bringing them all together making them blend in with a less then forced way. Thank you Target for making this lamp an easy and natural blend in my French rustic country house for only $54.99 Shade not included. The bridge and harp I added to the lamp myself to better suit future lamp shades.

Inspiring Rustic French from unexpected places.

l'élégance rustique du

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Built by Dore Callaway (Me!) The rustic elegance of... My French kitchen

Bird house built from salvaged picture frames, candle stick columns, vintage iron curtain rod corbels and hooks used for their perches and salvaged woods from job site remodels that I will salvage from in my interior design work. A French kitchen is all about treasured objects, here one of my French style birdhouses added to the theme of all things much about handed down, French flea market collected and created with a rustic rural French jardin in mind.

The French are trendsetters, famous for their food, wine and décor. Decorators often borrow from the French and table settings are no exception. In creating a French look, whether elegant or country, a French table must have stemmed glasses even if the guests are drinking water (or any cold beverage), it is served in stemware. The French use several different sizes and shapes of stemmed and stemless glasses provided all are clear. A separate glass for water and wine is a necessity. When arranging the glasses, place them largest to smallest from left to right. The French often serve different wines (one with dinner, one with dessert) which requires more than one wine glass. The idea is to be sure there is a different stemmed glass for each wine or beverage entertaining your meal and desserts.

Cutlery recommendations on knives, forks and spoons lean more towards placement on the table than what to use. Photos of French tables usually feature silver cutlery. Place knives to the right of the plate with the blade facing the plate. Forks go to the left of the plate with a soup spoon on the outside of the fork (if soup is served). If a teaspoon or dessert fork are used, they belong above the plate. In my case I set my French table with silver toned flatware by (Lenox)I love the Fleur De Lis like motif at the ends of their handles.




Plates are the decoration demanding attention. The plates can have scalloped edges or other designs lending an understated elegance as I did here using a pale pattern in a patina that lends to the feel of my rustic rural French home. Stoneware is often a first choice when used on the French country table, a separate plate is a must for each course like salad, soup, dinner, bread, dessert. I used my (Noritake- Memorabilia)Gala Cuisine, and of course the sweet birds make for charming my French table when I am not using my all pale of whites.

The Center (piece) of Attention
Centerpieces add awe to any table. A simple bunch of flowers in a stoneware pitcher is all a French table needs. On my table I used an old vintage bucket filled with ice keeping the French lemonade cooled. The dents and chips added to its worn distressed French flea market brocante feel. The idea is simplicity with the tables design while keeping all things French in its uncomplicated theme.


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For a casual French slip-covered feel to an odd chair you can cover them with a thrift find or a borrowed white long sleeved shirt from his closet. Then button the shirt onto the chair bringing the arms to the back side tying them in a lose knot with a handmade tag marking your guest seating place along with a snipping of lavender as I did here. You may also fill his front pocket with dried lavender for a calming scent replacing the lack of a floral table arrangement.



Hand painted signs by Dore (me!)
Inspiring the rustic poetry in this French setting.

A Gentle Touch Feeds The Soul

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I am reposting this piece inspiring the awakening of life gently touched.

THIS ART WAS CREATED BY ME! "Dore Callaway" for her. I want to thank my daughter Hannah Bailey Callaway for holding my hand in all that she inspires...
I continue to marvel at the ability my daughter Hannah has in celebrating and capturing her passion with beauty in an artful life, as well as her heart. She moves you to tears, laughter and will take you to a place of wanting to feed the soul. Ephemera book and mixed media art left me with the feeling of needing to place our hands on this piece of art by using tattered poetic book pages, you will soon understand why I had to place these hands to this special piece of paper art. Myself being an interior designer, and also an artist who works in mixed-media, altered art, paper and paint I found the need to create around my daughters artful words in the likeness and style of this art piece. Her words as a child inspired me to create something with my hand and the hand of my daughter placing them to poetic work with paper.

WHO CAN EXPLAIN the nurturing, sustaining role art plays in all our lives? Perhaps it is the dream-like quality of art, and its ability to engender ideas that makes art so important. I hope my art shows a celebration of love.

The left hand is mine, the right hand is my daughter Hannah's, the bird was hers from the wild.

In 2010 when I created this piece for my daughter she was entering college I was inspired to do this art piece when thoughts of her leaving my nest brought back a dear memory of my daughter Hannah when she was 4 years old and how amazed I was at her heart and her fond love of caring for her wild birds. They were hers because they were loved with her heart while making sure they all ate more than their fair share of the pounds of seed we bought monthly. One afternoon one of her birds had flown into the glass door and fell to the ground, she cried yelling for my help and ran right out to care for it, as she picked it up stroking its head with her tiny 4 year old fingers she told it to sing and fly, you can only imagine what that did to my heart. The little bird was soon out of shock from it's near fatal crash into the glass door and flew from her soft grip. She really believed it was her love that helped it to sing and fly. So now you can see why I had to do this poetic paper art and how the words Sing and fly were perfect for this piece.


The paper art is now framed under glass and has been hanging over our storage buffet in our kitchen reminding us everyday to "Sing And Fly"

Confortable élégance française...Hint of grey

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Up date on guestroom and still working on its rustic elegance...Pretty and Old soothes our soul. This vintage over sized chest of drawers that measures 72" in length x 31” in height works grandly in this small space it adds the right kind of rightness that soothes our soul in creating an intimate space that embraces honest history with beauty…”Beauty that can be found on any budget.”
This French chest was another thrift shop find. Loving the mix of rustic with the refined elegance adds interest to a French brocante home with “objects not quite valuable yet not quite worthless." If a piece of flea market rustic or a thrift shop elegant bargain has potential then all it needs is a coat of paint as I have created here.

When coming across a piece like this you wonder why you would ever buy retail or from a design event. With a shocking tag price for this 6 drawer chest at $71.24 I could not purchase this chest fast enough. That very day I stated to get to work on it intending on taking the piece to my shop space, as the sanding down took place bringing it to a nude enough finish and the paint treatment progressed with painting the past out of it I stood back to admire its evenness taking in its beauty telling myself in an excited whisper this is a chest of drawers to love, and it is my new crush.



My goal was to paint a barely there patina of grey to my white. I painted the heavily carved faces and the chest of drawers with a lime washed technique, a romantic old-world with Parisian elegance giving it a finish that stands out rather than a piece that blends in. I did not want this piece to be cute, but rustic and relaxed with a finish that added gracious results to personal spaces.




An aged patina preserves its history fitting for many uses; a chest of drawers should not be over looked for its use in a bedroom, but a piece like this could be used comfortably as a dining room buffet server with plenty of linen and silver storage. Perhaps used in a formal living space as a sofa table of grandeur grouped with family photos and lamps.




Inspiring a desire to design around old cast offs where the past completes a French rustic home.