Chippy Vintage Window Box Centerpiece

A few weeks ago, when we were in "unpack more boxes" mode, versus our current "let's get the camper ready" mode, I was able to find my old windowbox that I used for so long in my previous Dining Room.

Concrete Pedestal for the Dining Room

One thing I've learned in living in this new house, that's smaller and "Open Concept", is that keeping a sense of "flow" is very important. Having a Kitchen, Living Room, Entry Hall and Dining Room that are all one big space can present some challenges in decorating.

You're never too old for an Easter Basket...

I remember fixing Easter baskets for our girls even after they were married. I knew how much they enjoyed them, even when they weren't really candy fanatics any longer. They might be grown-ups, but they still wanted and expected, their baskets. So really...do we ever get too old for an Easter basket?

A French Country Inspired Spring Brunch Buffet

Hello Everyone, 

we're all so excited to start off this special week of our

 Share Your Style Spring Blog Hop!

This week all eight of us will be sharing some fresh new Spring Inspiration and we hope you'll share what you've been doing to transform your spaces for this brand new Season.

The Botanical Window Returns

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we started going through some of the many boxes we have in storage marked "PRINTS". We only made it through about half of the boxes before we called it an afternoon. We grabbed several prints that I thought I could use and brought the rest out of our storage space and into the main area of the lower level family room area. They're still wrapped in bubble and shrink wrap, waiting for me to figure out where they might go.

Poor Hubbs, he's the one that had the brunt of wrapping and boxing them all up. He did a great job, so good,  that it's hard to see through all that green cellophane to tell exactly what you're looking at. But one box that I knew I wanted to get into was extra long, and I was pretty sure this was inside!

A Temporary No-Sew Table Runner

...or the "I'm lazy 

and I don't want to sew this right now",

table runner.

Last week I was sharing with you all my love/hate relationship with my sewing machine. That I'm not too fond of sewing, but I find myself frequently needing a change-up in decor with pillows, table runners, curtains etc. And actually, my sewing machine is (a) over at the storage unit(s), (b) it's too cold to go hunting for it, (c) I'd have to bribe my hubby to go spend an hour or so messing with it. (Do any of these excuses sound reasonable?)

A "New" French Mirror for the Dining Room

As I was taking pics for the upcoming

  Christmas Open House Blog Hop

that will be starting on Wednesday, I realized that I haven't shown much of my Dining Room, and hadn't shared my buffet and "new" antique mirror at all. what's wrong with me? My big boy white turkey had been here on the buffet at Thanksgiving, but I never got around to letting him strut his stuff. So now it's Christmas and I finally finished the upstairs decorating, so here goes...

I'm just going to give you a little tease, 

since I'll be showing much more at the Blog Hop on Thursday.

I tried to keep things a little more subdued in here, 

so I thought I'd just use one of my ironstone tureens 

with some vintage Shiney Brites.

I'd been looking for a new antique mirror for the buffet for quite awhile.

When I saw the French plume design on top, I knew this was the one.

I'll be sharing a few more snippets this week,

so hope you'll come back.

All my birdies say "come see us Thursday"!

Joining in with these wonderful Christmas Parties:

The Scoop at Stonegable

Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Tweak it Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Mod Mix Monday at Mod Vintage Life

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

xoxo,

When you just have to decorate something...

This Friday is the big move, but we had furniture delivered from the storage units last week, and it was good to see a few of my things that had been packed away. I've been taking bits and pieces over to the new house, like baskets and pillows and some odd things that could fit in the back of my car. But a few days ago my deep inner need for some sort of a vignette took over, and I grabbed what few things that were within arm's reach and put together something (even if temporary) in the living room. I know I can do better, but bear with me...I'm ready to decorate this dang house!

This sofa table won't stay against this wall, but it was a flat surface (that wasn't being painted), so it was fair game. The lanterns made it, but no candles to be found. The basket and corbels from the baker's rack, one of my Autumn Trays, some bittersweet, pumpkins, and a wonderful soup tureen from a garage sale for a dollar. really. yes, a dollar. (and it's not even busted!)

You can see that the rug is rolled up while I'm working on the coffee and end tables. They're turning out great, but taking more time than I'd figured. It took me quite a while to mix the exact color, but I'll have pics soon. 

I'm not sure why the walls look blue, but trust me, there's is no blue in them. Just a great neutral taupe. (Benjamin Moore Smokey Taupe). I never knew there were so many grays, taupes, and whatevers. My advice if you're thinking of painting your walls...get sample pots of paint, lot's of samples, You won't know what color it really is until it's up on your wall.

Speaking of pillows, my two little squirrels made it to the new kitchen. 

The perfect time of year for them.

And my hat boxes and old hats are up on the hutch 

above my computer in my new office.

Here are a few pics from the Dining Room; it's snug in there. I've realized my chair slips are in "no man's land" somewhere in the depths of the last storage unit that was filled. I hope to have them located and in my possession before Christmas... hopefully that will be this Christmas.

My Staffordshire bowl with velvet pumpkins that I hand carried over. I think my table runners are all with my chair slips, so ditto for having some decor tablescapes on the big brown DR table.

The clock looks a little "white" and by itself, but with the chair slips and prints up, I think it will balance out.

And here's a sneak peek of my new antique mirror I found a few weeks ago in a great little shop in Ozark, Missouri. It will go above the buffet that you see here. It's my gold scroll-y French-y mirror that I had been looking for.

 

I'll be without email and the computer for a couple of days, while we get things transferred to the new house. Have a fun Halloween and weekend. I'll check back when the dust has settled!

xoxo,

Rugs, mirrors, shutters and more...

Hey Everyone...

things have been a little hectic around the new house this last week. Lot's of things going on, but not much that's interesting to share here on the blog. Cabinets were re-installed in the laundry, finished up the painting in the kitchen, painted the entire 3 car garage in one weekend (whew), carpet cleaning,...that kind of fun stuff...nothing very "pretty".

But I did want to share a quick couple of photos of the new Living Room rug "unrolled" temporarily, just to get an idea of how it will look. This is the 9x12 something. I also bought it in a smaller size for the Dining Room, and a runner for the main hallway. I spent lots of time searching the web for rugs, and found several that were contenders. I knew that it would be a pricey purchase, that's another reason I wanted to be sure of the colors. Trying to re pack this rug and return it would have been a real task. It's so heavy I can't even tug it around.

I wanted wool, and that's what these are. The quality is beautiful, and they are thick and look very well made. I found them on Overstock, which is a great source for rugs. I had originally wanted to go with a lighter color rug, but the more I thought about trying to match colors, fabrics and wall paint, the more paranoid I became. So this has a little of the neutrals, some grays, and some browns and gold along with the black. The black picks up the dark bronze metals, and I think the rug will "ground" the open space and pull it all together with the sofas and chairs. 

So, you know I have been complaining about the tv niches above the fireplace. This house is 10 years old, so it's right in they heyday of "lets make a cave above the fireplaces for our honkin' tvs to live". Yes, I've had a lot of angst over them to say the least. We discussed covering it up with sheetrock or cabinetry, but in the end I would only have had about 5 inches of mantel to decorate, as the mantel recesses in the middle. There would barely be room for a mirror or framed piece, let alone any seasonal decor or candles. It's hard to tell just how big this is, but I'm 5 foot even and the top of the mantel is several inches above my head.

A few weeks ago we found this Ethan Allen beveled mirror on consignment at Relics here in Springfield, and even though it's not what I envisioned, (all gilt and scrolly) I think it will compliment the larger wood finished pieces we will have going in here. Plus, it totally filled up the "hole" and has an arched piece on top that will match the shape of our tv armoire. We have it secured onto 2x4's attached to the back of the wall. I didn't want it sliding out if a door slammed, so I think it's pretty much there to stay for awhile. 

This week the old landscaping is being removed and the new is going in. I worked with our handy man/landscaper yesterday on placement of the shrubs, so hopefully it will get finished this week. The dead tree was cut down, so now we have to wait for the stump to be ground and a new maple put in.

The newly built shutters are up. (just what I wanted) They are bigger than the old ones by several inches, so they look more size appropriate. The door and shutters are Iron Mountain by Benjamin Moore. Love the color, it's just a nice charcoal gray. 

("before", with old shutters, shrubs, and green front door)

This isn't a good pic, but shows the color pretty well. It really picks up the grays of the brick. I'm super happy with how it turned out. So now I'm itching to get this done so some mums and pumpkins can be added. I've held off because of all the outside work being done, but I've about reached my limit of restraint in the Fall Decor Dept. I've been whiney each time I see a house with pumpkins on the porch. Poor Hubbs he just doesn't "get" my deepseated Fall Decor gene.

OK, that's about it for the update this week. Now that we can "officially" call it Fall, I hope you're having a great week and that you're enjoying all the fun of "Fallifying" your homes. I'll get there...

Be watching for a fun Give Away coming soon...

Joining in on these weekly parties:

Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Show and Share at Coastal Charm

The Scoop at Cedar Hill Farmhouse

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Treasure Hunt at From My Front Porch to Yours

xoxo,

Faux Painted Chandelier...

Honey, I shrunk the chandelier,
and painted it too!

Seems like all I've had to share lately is lighting (and I have one more exciting one coming up soon). But having the painting done and the chandies installed have been two of the bigger things that we needed to accomplish first. The painting is completed except for that one wall of the kitchen that needed dry wall patching.(where the cabinets and desk counter were removed). Hubbs, Aly, and myself did about 2/3 of the house and our contractor/handy guy and his brother did the rest. You can see below how the Ben Moore Smokey Taupe turned out. I'm so happy I stuck with it, it does change color with the lighting during the day, but all in all it's just the perfect light gray/beige, and I think it will "go" with everything we have.

So when we moved we took down and crated up my "in your face" frenchy chandelier from the Dining Room. It seemed enormous due to the low ceiling height and ended up feeling like it was right on top of the table. But...I love it and even though it was big, it had just the right Country French feel I was going for.

previous home last Fall

I loved the twigs and vines wrapped around it from last Fall and Christmas. I packed away the little linen shades, so I'm hoping to find those soon.

(This is a photo from that time that shows the canvas print 

someone was asking me about a couple of weeks ago.)

So the jest of this blog post is that even though I love that hunky chandy, once it was installed at the new house, it just wasn't the right color any longer. The gold and platinum paint finish was just too bright and stuck out like a sore thumb. Our new house has most of the metals in black and dark bronze, so a gold chandy in the open Dining Room just wasn't going with the flow.

Here's the new space when we first got the keys. This is the old fixture and old wall color.

So I wanted to try to tone the chandy down a notch or two and make it blend in more with the rest of the metals. This black railing (which I'm NOT in love with) is staying for now. The gold was just too noticable. I headed to Michael's and grabbed these supplies to make the transformation...

The bronzing paste wasn't quite dark enough, so I added a little black to take it to a darker bronze. I found the black at Lowe's. The bronzing paste and enamel are both oil based so they mixed up well, and went on easy.

Hubbs fixed me a "paint station" alongside the ladder, so I didn't have to keep getting off to add more paint to the sponge. That saved a bunch of time and effort.

I worked in layers, putting on a darker coat first, then sponging in the antique gold paint on top. It's just a trial and error process. I'd have to have someone come and look at it with me at intervals, just to make sure it was looking right.

I can't say I like it "more" or "less", it just needed to be different. So please don't tell me it was better all bright gold and platinum. It just wasn't working for the new space. That's one of the things you have to consider when you have an open floor plan. You can see more of the gold at night when the bulbs are lit, otherwise in the daylight it looks dark bronze.

All in all I'm pretty happy with how it turned out; it looks like a real antique to me now. The lower luster of the darker metal paint finish looks like oxidation. But it did shrink in size. What seemed huge at the other house, seems a lot smaller here. I know it's the height of the ceilings, because the Dining Room area itself is smaller. With my big furniture I'm sure I won't be able to get much else in there. The little shades may not make it back on, I think it looks a little more elegant without the shades. hmmmm...

I'm giving you a peek at my new entry lantern. That's another reason why the chandy had to go a darker bronze. I'm going to tell you all about it soon, It's from a new sponsor and I'm totally crushing on it!

The carpet stretching will be done tomorrow, the carpet cleaned next week, then some things can start coming over from the storage units. Our guys can hopefully start on the outside later this week. The landsaping has to have areas redone and new plantings, plus building new shutters and door paint. Things are rolling along, and it's exciting to see it all come together. I'm so glad we've had time to get these things done ahead of time. As hard as it was to move to a lease house, it's proven to be a life saver, literally.

On a side note, the flu had me down for almost a week. Such poor timing. It's all a blur. I coughed and/or was in a Nyquil induced sleep coma for most of it. This last Saturday I MADE myself get up and over to the new house. Once I was there I got a few things done, but that stuff really took it out of me. I'm so glad Hubbs didn't catch it. It was a bad week. you all take care of yourselves...

I'll be joining in on these great weekly parties:

Show and Share at Coastal Charm

The Scoop at Cedar Hill Farmhouse

Amaze Me Monday at Dwellings

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Tweak it Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Daily Cup at Mrs. Olson

Treasure Hunt at From My Front Porch to Yours

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Hope you all are off to a good week, 

now I have to play catch-up on everything else...

xoxo,