Tea Sets by interior designer Amanda Burdge

One of my client's often goes to a local tea house, here in Brentwood, called World Cup of Tea. They are a tea house that offers premium and rare teas, along with various tea accessories, and teapots. I myself have never been a huge tea drinker. I am often admiring from afar, but because I love the tea pots, I play along, and buy ridiculous stock in pots, cups, and platters that I don't need, but love to collect! And I have to admit I will occasionally indulge in a lovely and exotic lipton peach tea in the winter!

Pottery Barn

How lovely is this set from Pottery Barn? I just want to sit down in my yellow summer dress, with friends, eat cucumber sandwiches and enjoy an afternoon of laughter, and giggles.

Molla Space

This set is so sweet! How great would this be as a wedding gift, or for your best friend? Or how about a romantic evening on the terrace with your better half watching the sunset?

Rock and Republic

Ok, so the set above is a little too sticky sweet for you? Well take a look at the terrorist teapot by Rocking Republic. A little sass, a little humor, and a whole lotta fun. Bring on the lipton tea!

Heres a few more of my favorites that I found, that would look very handsome in my teapot collection:

Abbot

Deer Silhouette

Don't you want to have some tea? Well, I think it's a bit hot, but I am sure I can make a pot of iced tea and any of these great pots would work beautifully for an afternoon of chilled, sweet tea, from the south.

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July Market Atlanta, 2010 with Amanda Burdge

Every Winter and Summer I make my way down to Atlanta, to visit Market. Those of you who are faithful followers ( Pssst....I adore you!), have seen me post about this so-called "market". Well as an industry designer for over 12 years, it never occurred to me that the layman has absolutely no clue what this is! Until I emailed Dayka Robinson over at Meditations on Life and style and asked her if she would like to accompany me.

"I keep hearing about this! Is that the gift/home market at the americas mart?  how is it??  I'm trying to figure out a way to get in this year!  let me know what (if anything) i need to know about this."

Dayka and I have exchanged several emails over the past few months, primarily because I'm stalking her about Atlanta, and all the great things the city has to offer.  I always go to Atlanta for business, and am enamored with Atlanta's southern charm and glamour. But I am always the outsider looking in, getting in the way on the road, driving too slow and getting all sorts of lost,  frustrating the local city dwellers. Boy can those locals get rowdy!

So this year I thought I would reach out to Dayka, bright eyed and bushy tailed, to convince her that I would now be her best gal July 15th-18th. We did a little horse trading, teeth pulling, and hard negotiating but we came up with a very fair swap. She shows me Atlanta, and I show her Market. Well, I feel like I have a V.I.P. access card to the coolest club in town, with the coolest kid on the block. I cannot wait!

Americas Mart

Colonial Mills

I think she will adore Market. One after another, like an indoor market place, vendors are lined up trying to persuade the buyers that their product is the best, and that they have something no one else does. Of course everyone knocks everyone else off, so that is not entirely true! But more than ever, I am excited to go this year. Her fresh faced enthusiasm to see this for the first time will be thrilling. And I of course will feel like a kid in a candy store (we all know how much I LOVE candy) given access to my favorite city.

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What everyone needs to know about building Libraries, by Amanda Burdge

I'm currently working on a home that is in need of a design solution. Off the main family room is a pass through, that leads to the laundry room. However, this pass through is 12x10. It is essentially a room but with only one half wall and one main wall. My suggestion to the client is to make it into a place of purpose.

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 Something that looks intended, instead of an after thought. My solution? A library with booze storage. What better a way to spend an afternoon, then pouring yourself into a good book, and getting sloshed?

This sketch, done by my awesome cabinet maker, Doug Lawler, is done for the main and longest wall, in our quasi room. This unit will provide much needed book storage, accessory storage, and will also provide great accent lighting.

This wall, which is the shorter wall, will provide the wine, booze and glass storage. It will also add sparkle with the reflection from the mirror, and add additional lighting. Sketch also done by Doug.

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Bookshelves in a home add sophistication, refinement, and exude culture and experience. It was not too long ago that an education was something that was considered very valuable, and a person who had a library was considered worldly, and rich. Books were expensive, and literacy was prized and esteemed. 

And yes, booze has been around since the dawn of time, and probably not considered worldly, but it sure is nice to sip on a lovely vino while curled up to a classic Jane Austen! 

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Install day, afters Nashville Interior designer Amanda Burdge

Ok, so earlier today I put up a post of before pics on the job we installed today. Here are the afters!

Before: (look at the fireplace)

After:

Before:

After: 

(sorry about the quality, the lighting was bad, and I did not snap a pic with the room completed with the pics on the wall!)

Install day Franklin Tennessee Interior Designer, Amanda Burdge

So we are loading up the van, and heading out to a clients house this afternoon for the install. It was a pretty tall order, for not a lot of money. The client needed new paint (expensive), new fireplace surround (expensive) and he wanted furniture for his family room, living room, and dining room. And he wanted ALL of this done for 15k. Well I am one hell of a designer, but I can't make miracles happen. Especially when we started with all NEW furniture. Here are the befores

Family room before

Family room before

Living room before

Living room before

Now I know these pics are bad, took them with my phone, but you get the idea. I will have the after photos up this afternoon. Is the anticipation killing you? I know right? Me too. Stay tuned!

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Colorful Friends and Colorful Conversation, by Nashville Interior designer, Amanda burdge

Today Lori Sawaya, from Color Budz, Kelly Berg, from Arte Styling and myself did a podcast on lighting, and how it effects color! I want to thank both of them for being so gracious, and allowing me to BLAB on and on about the new and exciting technology's in LED lighting. 

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As we transition into the next decade we are going to see a huge push in energy conservation, and recycling of materials. But what does that mean for our homes and interiors? Well with new research and development in LED lighting, we will no longer have to sacrifice quality of light to appease sustainability demands.

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The lighting we have in our homes effects everything from mood, color and atmosphere. And when you are selecting a wall color, you are not just picking paint. Selecting the right color is a science, and a skillful art. Many factors come into play when selecting the right one. If you get all the components right, you have design magic. But mess it up, just one thing, and you have design disorder.

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We touched on several exciting things in the world of lighting. Most importantly the way to buy a bulb. There is a lot of info on the bulb box, and trying to decipher it can be perplexing. We broke down key things to look for, terminology, and why buying smart will effect the way you purchase today so you free up your tomorrows. 

For more info on the hosts, and color pods, click here.

Thanks again for letting me hang out with y'all today. I cannot wait to hear Lori work her magic on the editing, and as soon as it goes live, I will let all of you know!

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Goofing off, acting out, and playing hooky, by Amanda Burdge

As I have mentioned before, blogging is definitely a winter sport. I am finding myself easily distracted by simple shiny things like S-U-N, 85 degrees, floaties, and booze...I mean a nice cool beverage. Now I should be doing VERY important things (like pushing papers from one side of my desk to other side) but instead I am straining like a naughty Jedi to keep my cool and refraining from lewd acts of acting out, goofing off, and just being plain irresponsible!

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Now I know that this is an intelligent (who are we fooling?) blog of important topics, great design tips, and encouraging photos of pretty, marvelous things. The idea is to be motivated and inspired, right? As a "creative" blogger I strive for this goal everyday. Bringing you, my faithful followers, inspiration and imagination.....until the sun comes out, and I'd rather be goofing off, acting out and playing hooky.

Apparently, these Nashville Target shoppers are so energized by the sun, they have forgotten their manners, caught the H.D.A.D.D bug and forgot what their mamas told them about putting their stuff away! For those of you unaware about HDADD, it's a new form of A.D.D, that I myself have invented, and it's A.D.D in it's clearest form.

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So in an effort to appear professional, accomplished, and most importantly competent, I will leave you with a few pics of beautiful pools, because after all this is a blog about great tips, imagination and pretty things. I can at least attempt to bring you this blog's purpose, even if it is a half witted effort, right?

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Ohhhhhhhh!!!!

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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

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P-R-E-T-T-Y!!!!!

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Lovely!!!!

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And when we are done goofing off, (which should be around the end of August) dancing like no body's watchin, and the iTunes has repeated itself a few hundred times,

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We will curl up for a good long nap with friends, to prepare for winter blogging. Ha!! Phew! 

God, I love summer! 

Hope everyone is having a fantastic day, and don't forget the sunscreen and floaties!