It was right out of the history books... the French (interior designer) abandoned the project and the British (yours truly) stepped in to save the day.

A Dicken's House - specifically Scrooge's Nephew's House - of course. it was snowing that day...

....or is that a halo? <rude snort>

Yes, the only work surface WAS the garbage bin! Isn't this the cutest thing? It's done in Maplewood, NJ - a Dicken's Village set up in the little town square. Each house is a different bit of the story. We start with Scrooge's Nephew, the one next to us is the Counting House where they all work. Then there's Fezziwig's place, Scrooge's bedroom, the Crachetts' House, etc. etc. and then The Conservatory. This is not in the story, of course, but it give the Garden Club a way to participate. The best one is Scrooge's Bedroom, which is done to death and quite magnificently by the lady who runs the local magazine.

We used the furniture from the French Woman, but added all the Victorian elements from stuff we both had. (We're both English from the kinds of families that keep everything!) Keeping Victoria style from going over the top takes some doing, doesn't it? I was very proud of us for eschewing lace doilies everywhere!

Naturally, we used authentic staging techniques ---

1. all the furniture was placed on an angle, but for the tree which was round.

2. the color palette was strictly limited to 2 colors (blue and red - green counts as a natural element at Christmas.)

3. texture was brought in with rich fabrics (actually, we got those from the designer woman, who's really very nice. I don't suppose she can help being French.)

4. it's all about the table setting -- in our case, a child's Spode set (yup! Willow pattern) and Tudor crystal port glasses, and Waterford oil and vinegar decanters as candlesticks.

Cute, eh?

The slide show is at http://www.juliet.phanfare. I'm not wild about the other shots and will redo them when I'm next in Maplewood for something else. Such fun to do this kind of thing, though,no?

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Juliet Johnson Staging provides temporary design services for merchandising homes going to market in suburbs of New Jersey. Based in Short Hills, NJ we serve the luxury real estate market in Essex and Union counties.