A little Smile for Your New Year :)

We went over to the sea early New Year's morning to take Ollie for a long, well-deserved walk. Hadn't he sat through interminable holiday dinners and fetes and brunches and presents and giggling and laughing and toasting with barely a scrap thrown his way for nearly two weeks?

So we took him to the sea...his, and our, favorite place to just get away, breath the sparkling Pacific air and be surrounded by the mists and waves and sounds so unlike our living room, or office, or streets.

This picture of Ollie makes me laugh out loud!

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in the New Year, it's :

Kit Golson Design

for elegant, sustainable and pragmatic

Chic Provence Interior Design

The Gorgeous Reclaimed Floors of Chic Provence

If you are building a new home, or remodeling one, you have the perfect opportunity to create authentic Provencal ambience from the ground up (lucky you!). No, you do not have to settle for wood floors that merely look old and distressed, or tiles that try to capture the patina of hundreds of years of life.

You will be doing your part to go green, too, by using reclaimed flooring instead of wasting energy creating new. And the charm and elegance of these venerable old floors is undisputed.

antique French oak floorboards imprinted with

character from hundreds of years of use

reclaimed planks 6" 11" wide and 98" long

antique parquet de Versailles unfinished,

reclaimed from chateaux and farm houses

in Europe

antique French terra cotta floor tiles reclaimed

from Provence, each reflecting the color of

the region where made

18th & 19th C. reclaimed tomettes, or hexagonal tiles, named in honor of l'Hexe

(France herself looks like a hexagon on a map)

cut limestone floors

antique handmade terra cotta tiles are

charming and utterly practical

these very rustic antique handmade tiles are the perfect foil for

the elegant furniture and draperies

reclaimed flooring and

other architectural material at:

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in the new year, it's:

Kit Golson Design

for elegant, sustainable and pragmatic

Chic Provence Interior Design

The Elegant Old Doors of Chic Provence

If you can't quite make that trip to Provence just now, one look at these doors and you'll feel like you are strolling through a village perche in the Luberon. And that's a wonderful feeling to have!

The good news is that you can find authentic reclaimed Provencal doors and hardware here in America to grace your very own maison de reve. Check out the gorgeous selection of reclaimed architectural elements available at Authentic Provence.

Don't wait too long to find your doorway; these are obviously limited to what's available!

Cast Bronze Venus Dorknocker

Dauphine Doorknocker

Cast Bronze Figural

Cast Bronze Ring

la Medusa cast iron door knocker

Bienvenue chez nous!

Main entrance door, circa 1820,

painted oak with wrought iron grille

simple Directoire wood door, circa 1795

(hello.....this door dates from the time when my great- great- great- etc etc grandfather,

Capt. Lemuel Moody was captured by French pirates

in the Caribbean!)

I love this circa 1750 France cabinet door

painted oak with faceted mirrors!

Entrance door, circa 1820,

painted oak with wrought iron grille

Palace in Arles solid oak doors, circa 1740

main entrance door, circa 1852

painted oak with original hardware

Directoire double door, France, circa 1795

oak massir wood with original hardware

all items can be seen at

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in the new year, it's:

Kit Golson Design

for elegant, sustainable and pragmatic

Chic Provence Interior Design