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House Progress: Front Door & Porch Ceiling

 

The next time we have to paint this house I will run screaming the other way. I thought this would be fun but exterior paint is a whole other beast. It took 5 different paint samples just to get the color right for the front door and porch ceiling. We tested Benjamin Moore Heavenly Blue, Hazy Blue, Covington Blue and Sherwin Williams Copen Blue. 

Lighter shades looked too washed out in the sun and then I over compensated by picking too deep/bright colors. I came home one day to a jarring neon blue door. I'm still cringing over that one.

On my last trip to the paint store I went back over all the colors I had passed on because I thought they might be too light or green. I narrowed my choice down to Benjamin Moore Wythe blue and it was exactly what I wanted.

A haint blue porch and door have been on my wish list for years. Not only is it one of my favorite colors but we liked the folklore behind it as well:

From Southern Living magazine, "The Gullah culture of the Lowcountry believes that spirits, known as “haints,” can’t cross water. Using light blue paint to symbolize water, the Gullah people applied the shade to porch ceilings and doors preventing evil spirits from entering."

There's still some work to be done—notice the orange cable in the front pic—but we are in the home stretch.

Photography: Moodboard

 

House Under Destruction

After going back and forth for months on what we were going to do about the dining room floor, we went nuts on it Saturday night. The good news? Our hardwood floors are still underneath. The bad news? There is 1970's linoleum glued to it. 

But I'm still happy, because the laminate flooring in our dining room was driving me nuts. Not only is it a different color than our hardwood but it runs in the opposite direction as well.

Rotting wood found in living room windows was a lovely surprise. And not in original budget. Oy!

Figured out my fingers were the best tool to fix hairline cracks in plaster.

After making it through various things breaking down and breaking into our house, we seem to finally be making progress. Slowly. We were told the work being done on the exterior and interior won't be finished until the end of month, which means the majority of decorating won't start until then.  

 So what is all getting done for the month of June?

1. Fixing cracks in plaster walls upstairs
2. Painting bedrooms and hallways
3. Taking up carpet from bedrooms
4. Taking up layers of flooring in dining room
5. Taking up layers of flooring in kitchen
6. Refinishing most of the wood floors
7. Scraping, repairing, and painting exterior wood siding

A little overwhelming, but at the same time I feel like I'm waking from a stupor. Things are finally moving forward, which always pushes you to get more things done. Hey, if Tiger can get his mojo back, so can I.

 

 

 

House Progress: Oh, Hey Lath

Did I mention that house progress is going slowly? Before we left to go out of town this weekend we attempted to remove the wallpaper—many layers—in the dining room. When we tried to remove one section part of the plaster wall came with it. We told our contractor to patch the hole and we would be back at it this week to remove the rest. 

Instead we came home to walls stripped to the lath. Aye-yi-yi. The positive is that it gives us some more time to decide on a dining room color. I was set on a something dark but now I'm tossing around the idea of Farrow & Ball's Hague Blue. It's such a beautiful color and I would love to use it somewhere in the house. 

As you can see every room in the house in in disarray as we have to move things in and out for projects. That behemoth of a chandelier might be getting a coating of gold paint. It was bought at a thrift store in Palm Springs and shipped home on a greyhound bus when we realized it couldn't fit it in the car. We are also trying decide if we want to paint the ceiling of the foyer back to white. I wanted the foyer to be cozy, but it might be a little too dark. But I'm really in love with how seamless it looks all one color, so not sure what to do yet.

We stripped the window treatments to see if it allowed more light, but it's also testing how comfortable we are with the lack of privacy. I do have to say that the big expanse of windows brings a smile to my face when I see all the gorgeous trees blooming outside.

So unfortunately not a lot of pretty right now, but hoping soon. Soon!

In Her Home: Vintage Blue Cups

I had my eye on some vintage arrows at the estate sale Saturday, but apparently I wasn't the only one. There was such a rush for them that the lady running the sale issued the crowd a stern warning. Maybe she was afraid we would start stabbing each other in a frenzy, which would be a whole other tale to tell.

So I didn't get any arrows, but I did find some vintage cups with a similar geometric design. $2 for the set, not a bad exchange.

 

 

On the Hunt

I want a vintage cabinet like this...

and a daybed like this... 

and a sofa like this...

and a sleek metal bench.

 I am so ready for this weekend to start. We are getting up bright and early for an estate sale tomorrow morning, and then heading out of town to go to the first flea market of the season—along with a side trip to Ikea. 

I have a wish list as long as my arm, but I have a habit of going rogue on shopping trips. But that is part of the fun isn't it? The possibility of finding something magical. 

Digital images created by Moodboard from print magazines Elle Decoration (Gaelle Le Boulicaut) and Elle Decor (William Waldron and Eric Piasecki)

In Her Home: Little Bits Here and There

The inspiration boards for the house are alternating between what I'm calling Eclectic Regency and Boho Disco. Yeah, just as weird as you are thinking.

I haven't found much in local shops, all I tend to come home with are vintage textiles and yet another lamp without a mate. 

Nothing I need, but hard to pass up brass, chevron print, and English wool, especially when I got everything for $10. The 70's chevron fabric has this great nubby texture and will be turned into seat cushions or throw pillows.  

I have a three day road trip planned in two weeks that includes the antique flea market, Ikea, and thrift store stops that I hope will fill in some blanks and provide fresh inspiration.

The dreamy swirls of our newly purchased vintage coffee table. This thing weighs a ton and we are trying to get a base made for it. The one it was attached to doesn't work for the 70's vibe I have going in the living room. 

 Photography: Moodboard 

 

 

Windows Inside the House?

We have a row of tilt windows on the wall that divides the dining room from the kitchen. I've tried doing some research on google, but unfortunately I just get page after page discussing windows on the outer walls of the house. 

Any smarties out there know the windows purpose if they were made to be inside? Heat/air transfer? Or any other thoughts on what you think happened?

When we first looked at the house we planned on removing that wall to expand the kitchen. Of course, it is the first thing that attracts guests when they walk into the dining room and they all say "no!" when we tell them our plans. We have to reassure them that we want to repurpose the windows later on. There's an attic that we hope to turn into a guest suite/storage room down the road.

I was advised to just live in the house as-is for a while and let IT dictate what you really need to change. I'm glad I listened to that advice. The kitchen remodel I wanted to start on immediately has been put off because we are quickly realizing that the upstairs bathroom just isn't working for us. All of a sudden that small kitchen became not so bad;) Wrestling with shower curtains every morning in a cumbersome clawfoot tub? Not so good.

(This is the staging furniture. Our dining set can be seen in this post)

 

House Progress: Closet Plans

Our house was built in 1900, and the closets are all placed in the corners of the bedrooms with space to hang like...five things. This is pretty standard for homes of this age, so I was thrilled that I could have a walk-in closet thanks to a small room upstairs with a cabinet.

This is my current wish list for updating the closet:

1. I would love for the cabinet to be stained or painted black, like in the inspiration pics above.

2. We live in the South, and as such almost every room in the house has a ceiling fan. I could go on a whole diatribe about ceiling fans, but I'll spare you. I'm hoping to replace the fan in this room with a sparkly chandelier. 

3. A full-length mirror that I did not buy from the dollar store. Though they always make me look 10 pounds thinner, which is hard to turn down.

4. While our house escaped a lot of the destruction that can come from being converted into a duplex (and then back into a single family), there are still many cheap fixes that we have to repair. Like painting wood the same color as...wood. So we need to strip the brown paint off the floor and look for a soft rug to stand on while dressing.

5. I'm planning on painting the walls white, but nude pink paint samples have been trying to work their way into the inspiration folder.

6. The closet is the only place that we are thinking about painting the wood trim white. I'm not going to make a decision until I paint the walls and finish the cabinet. 

 

In Her Home: A Glimpse or Two

We are just now starting to unpack our madness, and most things are right where the moving guys left them two weeks ago.  I've had some things in storage for several years, so it's been like Christmas opening the boxes and rediscovering lost treasures. The light was so beautiful today that I though I would snap a few pics so you could see the chaos that we are living in right now.

The white dishes were bought about four years ago from Anthropologie. The white chandelier is from West Elm (also about four years ago). I found the Paul McCobb set at a vintage store for $100 because one chair has a bad leg.

We still need to remove the old wallpaper in this room and take up the laminate floor that they put down over top of the original wood. *bangs head* 

We have six fireplaces, including one in the foyer. Thrifted desk lamp that I think is from the 30's with a great Art Deco design. At one point I thought about painting it, but I'll probably just leave it alone. What do you guys think?

A lot of crazy going on in this room, but I haven't had the energy to tackle it yet besides using it as an unloading zone. The vintage sofa is getting new fabric (something I'm hoping to tackle myself) and probably going upstairs into the guest room. I found it at a thrift stores years ago for $20. 

The floor-to-ceiling cabinet in the old library that I'm converting to a walk in closet. One of the selling points of the house for me;) I may have squealed for about 10 minutes.

Our vintage headboard in a lovely king size, I'm guessing from the 50's or 60's?  It's been in storage forever and now we are getting it restained and reupholstered (it will remain tufted). The vintage white glass lamps were found at Goodwill.

 

Delayed Celebrations

I was already excited for our delayed Valentine's dinner tonight and now our paint samples have arrived. Eek! We are trying to choose colors for the foyer, dining room, and living room. 

I'm also trying to choose what I'm wearing tonight. This is one possibility:

Thrifted vintage midnight blue leather skirt and bright blue suede top. I love how the boxy shape skims the body but has a plunging neckline in the back and front.

Photography: Moodboard