chez nous

On our way home from a camping trip, we drove past a lovely old junk shop and found this antique fireplace leaning against a wall. We strapped it on top of all our camping equipment in the trailer and continued on home! The original fireplace in our home was not to our liking (crazy paving stone and ugly pine mantle), so we replaced it with our beautifully distressed antique fireplace. The old trunk was picked up on the side of the road in Cape Town, South Africa. The trophies on the mantelpiece have been collected over the years. One of them is inscribed with “Woman’s Netball Association won by P.Mills 1950,” which I found in a trash and treasure market last year — a bargain with my name on it! The little pink canvas is a painting of a peony I have done recently, and the pink star on the wall was from our Christmas decorations done with Japanese washi tape.

i love that their home decor is representative of their travels and tastes, without giving a bougie colonial travel vibe to it. adore the hands, the letterpress drawer, the mirrors! click the photo for more photos of paula mills’ home.