New Bedroom Layout

The rearranging continues! Yesterday, I reoriented the bed so that it faces the doorway. I love walking into a bedroom and seeing the front of the bed rather than the side, but with a small off-center window on the far wall, I didn't think it could work for our room.

Here's the "before" view walking into the room - the side of the bed. I've wanted to turn the bed for a while, but especially without a headboard, positioning a bed partially in front of a window with full length curtains can be tricky.

But it works! Even though the window is off-center, the height of the mirror and dresser on the opposite side of the bed helps to balance the room.

And I love, love, love that all of the layers of linens on the bed take center stage in the room now. And even though summer is fast approaching, I can't bring myself to put away the down-filled comforter with linen duvet cover. It's just too pretty... so it stays on the bed all year long!

 

I can now also put my antique trencher bowl at the foot of the bed... something I've always wanted to do, but never before had the space to do it.

One side of the bed gets a traditional bedside table with a lamp.

On the other side of the bed, the antique white dresser stands in place of a table. It makes for one less piece of furniture than before, which in a small room makes a big difference in space.

An antique full-lenth mirror and topiary sit on a chippy white bench right inside the door.

 

And after sleeping on it for one night, I declare the new bedroom layout a success!

One Little Gray Duck

I bought this sweet vintage duck decoy at an antique mall recently, fully intending to sell it in my etsy shop. But when I got home, this one little gray duck ended up inspiring a mini-makeover in the corner of my livingroom, complete with painting, furniture rearranging, and everything.

He has just the nicest weathered patina with so much wonderful texture. And the thing you'd never ever guess about my little gray duck? He looks just like a fine old wooden decoy... but he's made of plastic. What a clever little duck I have.

Above is what the corner of my livingroom looked like before. The dark table and iron chandelier didn't really stand out much, and it was a dark corner of the room to begin with so it needed a little brightness and color. Enter my little gray duck...

I started by swapping the dark stained desk for the white chippy table that was serving as my husbands computer desk on the other side of the room. I added a blue painted box, which was a plain wood box that I painted and antiqued in the same way I did my china cabinet.

I also painted a pair of my wooden lamps. I discovered these turned lamp bases a while ago at Target.com on clearance for under $20 and I ordered 4 of them! A couple coats of gray and off-white paint, dabbed and wiped off in just the right places, and Pottery Barn can eat it's pricey little heart out.

 The result is a lighter and brighter corner with simple antique details and a perfect touch of color. And it all started with one little gray (plastic) duck!

China Cabinet Makeover

I painted my white china cabinet blue - and I love it!

I've been debating about whether I should do this for a while now. Just a few posts ago, I redecorated my dining room with my beautiful new french chairs from TJ Maxx, and the room had a really sophisticated, neutral palette. And I liked it. But I couldn't help thinking... I wonder what it would look like if I painted that cupboard blue?

The answer? Even more lovely than before!

I started with a can of "French Gray" paint from Glidden that I had picked out for FREE from their website a couple months ago during their paint giveaway promotion. I love free paint! By itself, the color was a little brighter blue than I wanted. But I watered down a bit of black acrylic paint (the kind you buy in little squeeze bottles from a craft store), brushed it on, and then wiped off the extra with a damp rag. It ended up being even better than I expected.

And my white ironstone has never looked better...

I've been wanting to repaint my dining room table for a while, too, and the new blue cabinet gave me the motivation I needed to finally do it. I used a nice warm grey called "Cobblestone" from Olde Century Colors, with just a touch of distressing. It's a cooler tone than before, and the finish is a little less "faux" looking...

Before.... and after!

Not to mention that the last time I got the urge to paint my table, I didn't really have the right paint on hand, so... being the impatient decorator that I am... I used leftover wall paint from my kitchen. Flat wall paint. Not the best finish for a dining room table - take my word for it!

The finishing touch was a grey and blue chippy wood bench from the basement, and the antique grainsack pillow from my couch. Now, I am on the lookout for a matching 4 gallon crock to go next to the 3 gallon on top of the cupboard... I saw the perfect one at an antique shop in Ohio when we were home for Christmas and I was THIS CLOSE to buying it. But I didn't, and now I want to kick myself. Oh well, just keep looking!

A Chair with Potential

On Saturday, my husband and I took a spur-of-the-moment road trip to Walnut, Iowa for a day of antiquing. What a cool little town! About 1 hour and 45 minutes away from us, we heard that this tiny town has been dubbed the antique capitol of Iowa, and they sure weren't kidding. We drove home with a car-load of treasures, both the keep and to sell, but my favorite find of the day was this cane-back arm chair, scooped up for just $10.

I spied it in one of the many antique malls in Walnut, this one an old barn that has been converted to a multi-level antique shop. What was once the hay loft, high above the ground level and accessible by the original narrow open-tread stairway "bridge" across the main room of the barn, could now be called the "chair loft". Filled with row after row of antique wood chairs, in many different styles and various stages of disrepair, this cane-back beauty caught my eye. I held my breath as my husband skillfully maneuvered it down the treacherous stairs and even more skillfully managed to fit it into the backseat of our tiny car!

I love the 3 panel wing-back style, with the beautiful high curve at the top.

The original caning has one tear in it, but is otherwise nice and sturdy. The tear is fairly close to the bottom, so I think a small pillow nestled against the back will cover the tear perfectly.

A little bigger obstacle is the missing seat. The seat was originally also caned, as you can tell from the groove around the frame and the small round pattern that has been weathered into the wood along the front edge. What I'm going to do is cut a cardboard template to fit inside the seat, and then take it along on our road-trip to Ohio at the end of the month and have my dad cut a board to fit it. Then I'll add some foam and batting and upholster the seat in a natural linen fabric.

I like the dark wood, but it's not in great condition, so I think I'm going to paint the chair with the same creamy Buttermilk paint color that I've used on the trim and doors throughout the house.

I'll share pictures of the transformation as it happens! When it's finished, it will be the perfect chair for our bedroom, tucked along the wall between an east-facing window and my bookshelf of decorating magazines. It will be the perfect place to enjoy the morning sun as I drink coffee and read my Bible in the mornings, or to snuggle up and flip through a few magazines before bed.

I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Buttermilk Doors

It's here! It's here!

The UPS man delivered a new project to my house yesterday. A gallon of gorgeous paint from Olde Century Colors in "Buttermilk" - my favorite paint color. Buttermilk is a beautiful rich off-white with soft linen tones, not too yellow, not too pink, and not too gray. It's the perfect subtle color for vintage french farmhouse style. Against wood and other colors, buttermilk reads as a creamy off-white. Against pure white walls like in my house, it reads as a nice soft mid-tone neutral.

When we moved in to our place here in Nebraska, I painted all of the doors and trim in Buttermilk (after blanket "paint whatever you want" approval from the landlord, of course).

One wall in the livingroom also got a few coats of Buttermilk. Most walls throughout the house were white, but this one was painted a funny purplish tan off-white color... painted over wallpaper, as I've come to discover. Yikes! So it went Buttermilk, too.

Buttermilk paint looks great on the doors and trim in the bedroom, too. The only problem is...

I   R A N   O U T   O F   P A I N T ! !

While the outside of the bedroom door is painted, the inside is not. Neither is the closet door. 

And neither are a few of the doors in the little door-heavy hallway that separates the bedroom, bathroom, and livingroom. It's been driving me nuts for months!

But now that I finally have more paint, and I can't wait tackle the rest of those strawberry-blond wood doors. After pictures will be coming soon!

Olde Century Colors has a whole range of authentic, colonial paint colors that all work really well together. I also used their paint to redo my kitchen (see pictures here). The kitchen cabinets are "Thistle". You can find Olde Century paint in some specialty stores, but I ordered mine from their website.