{"id":30181,"date":"2016-02-16T19:00:27","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T00:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=30181"},"modified":"2016-02-16T15:56:57","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T20:56:57","slug":"english-colonial-looks-for-your-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=30181","title":{"rendered":"English Colonial Looks for Your Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have done our share of traveling, and I love it when we arrive at a beautiful hotel and get inspired by their decorating choices.\u00a0 This happened at three different hotels on our trip to Africa.\u00a0 We only stayed at one of those hotels.\u00a0 We had drinks at one and afternoon tea at another.\u00a0 Each hotel was in a different country, but each incorporated its beautiful surroundings into the furniture and accessories collections.\u00a0 The look that they used is called English Colonial, and it would be easy to get the look in your own home.<\/h3>\n

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First up is the five-star Royal Livingstone Hotel<\/a> in Zambia.\u00a0 We went there for drinks one evening so we could enjoy watching the sun set over Victoria Falls.\u00a0 This hotel is nine years old, and I would best describe it as “new money.”\u00a0 The decorating style has a definite “Ralph Lauren was here” look.\u00a0 It’s one of my all-time favorite decorating styles.<\/h3>\n

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This is the view we went to see.\u00a0 That smoke you are seeing in the distance is the mist created by Victoria Falls which is one of the natural wonders of the world.\u00a0 We sat on a veranda built over the water.<\/h3>\n

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\u00a0\"Copper<\/p>\n

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We loved the look of these copper sinks in the outdoor bar’s rest room. We also like their mix of tiles on the wall and the pretty sconces.\u00a0 A sink like this would be so cute in a powder room.<\/h3>\n

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We love the alcove created by the book shelves that are built around the sofa.\u00a0 We also love the dark paint on the book shelves and walls, the books grouped by color, and the framed vintage map hanging over the sofa.\u00a0 One more thing is the layered oriental rug over the grass cloth rug.\u00a0 This would all be so easy to recreate in our own homes.<\/h3>\n

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We have a lamp built out of books, and so it was nice to see one in the Royal Livingstone.\u00a0 Notice that the lampshades are covered in feathers, which would be an easy DIY with feathers and a glue gun.<\/h3>\n

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\u00a0\"English<\/p>\n

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The bar was a real show-stopper.\u00a0 First off, take a look at the thatched roof and dark beams.\u00a0 I LOVE this look.\u00a0 It could be achieved by using grass cloth wallpaper on the ceiling along with faux dark wooden beams.\u00a0 The heavy dark woods of the bar are softened by the vintage luggage on top.\u00a0 I’m going to put our vintage luggage on top of a cabinet in our great room today.\u00a0 The heavy black wrought iron light and leather chairs add some more interest.<\/h3>\n

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Another great decorating trick we all use or can use in our homes is mixing contemporary with traditional.\u00a0 These ikat chairs are somewhat contemporary, but they mixed right in with the English colonial vibe.\u00a0 I tried to get these chairs in my luggage, but they wouldn’t fit.\u00a0 Bummer.\u00a0 Those are the colors we use around here, and I just am crazy about those chairs.\u00a0 They were in the main lobby, by the way.<\/h3>\n

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\"English<\/p>\n

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When we arrived, some people were enjoying afternoon tea in another lobby.\u00a0 Look how the zebra rug softens the concrete floor.\u00a0 Also, the mixed woods add texture.\u00a0 I am determined to get a zebra rug to layer over our grass cloth rug in the great room.\u00a0 I could have bought one in Africa but didn’t want to deal with getting it home.<\/h3>\n

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There was a mixture of beautiful sconces throughout the hotel.\u00a0 This one had the shape of a closed umbrella.\u00a0 We don’t have a lot of sconces in our home because they are too permanent for me.\u00a0 I like to have the freedom to move things around, and I’m afraid sconces would put a damper on that.\u00a0 How do you feel about sconces?<\/h3>\n

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Two days later we had afternoon tea at the five-star Victoria Falls Hotel<\/a> in Zimbabwe.\u00a0 This hotel was built in 1903 and is definitely “old money.”\u00a0 It’s my favorite hotel ever.\u00a0 Oh, and it also had a thick Ralph Lauren look.<\/h3>\n

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\"English<\/p>\n

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As you enter the hotel, there’s a beautiful courtyard with a reflecting pool.\u00a0 This is a great way to have a water feature without the commitment of a pool.<\/h3>\n

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\"English<\/p>\n

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The lobbies of this hotel were loaded with a mixture of worn leather chesterfields, fabric furniture, old botanical prints, oil paintings, taxidermy,\u00a0 antlers, white walls, and dark wood floors.<\/h3>\n

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\"English<\/p>\n

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There were also zebra rugs hanging on the walls along with the taxidermy.<\/h3>\n

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\"English<\/p>\n

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The veranda overlooked the Victoria Falls from the other side since we were in another country.\u00a0 They mixed wicker, wood, and rattan to add color, texture.\u00a0 There was a patina here that could only come from age and use.<\/h3>\n

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\"Afternoon<\/p>\n

This is totally off-topic, but here’s a peek at our afternoon tea.\u00a0 It was delish.<\/h3>\n

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Now, in the intro, I mentioned that the decor of three hotels.\u00a0 I’ll share the third hotel with you when I do a recap of our week in Namibia.\u00a0 If you are still reading this, thank you for hanging in there.<\/h3>\n

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Take care.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have done our share of traveling, and I love it when we arrive at a beautiful hotel and get inspired by their decorating choices.\u00a0 This happened at three different hotels on our trip to Africa.\u00a0 We only stayed at one of those hotels.\u00a0 We had drinks at one and afternoon tea at another.\u00a0 Each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[13,9,19,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30181"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30181"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30224,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30181\/revisions\/30224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}