decorating
Navy Blue Sunporch Reveal
One of the most charming exterior features of our Colonial Farmhouse is the sunporch. There’s just something about a sunporch that gives an old house some added character. It’s probably all the windows. Here’s a refresher on what the exterior of our Colonial Farmhouse looks like with the sunporch. Ignore the landscaping for now. This is an improvement from when we moved in. From the inside of the house, there is nothing charming about our sunporch. Zip. Zero. Nada. It has cracked windows. The windows that aren’t cracked look like someone let a toddler finger paint with window glazing. Some of the window grids are askew. There are rotting tongue…
My Thrifted James Peter Cost Art Is Worth How Much?
A few weekends ago I was browsing the art section at my local Habitat Restore. By art section I mean stacks of framed art haphazardly leaning against a wall. All art in this particular Restore is $2 unless otherwise marked. I found a large painting of a barn for $5 by an artist named James Peter Cost. I don’t know how long the painting had been there, but it was quite dusty. I stood there staring at it for several minutes trying to decide if I’d regret not buying it. I know $5 isn’t a lot, but I’m still intentional with how I spend my five bucks. It is less…
LED Candles for the Master Bedroom Fireplace
Our Colonial Farmhouse has three fireplaces and a wood stove. You’ve already seen the fireplace in our dining room and the one in the living room made an appearance in this post. We aren’t going to talk about the wood stove today because it is the bane of my decorating existence. Today I’m going to show you the fireplace in our master bedroom, which is located directly above the living room. The master bedroom fireplace is not working because our boiler is venting through that chimney. Honestly, we wouldn’t use it even if we could. Can you imagine carrying firewood all the way through the house, up the stairs, down a…
Magic Light Trick
Have you heard of the Magic Light Trick from Brooke at Nesting With Grace? It! Is! GENIUS! Almost every person has, at some point, a need or want for a light in a certain place in their home where they can’t have a light. At least, not without getting an electrician involved. Maybe there is no outlet. Maybe the light needs to be hard-wired in an area where there are no wires. In the case of my Colonial Farmhouse, both of those options are true – at the same time. Throw in some stone walls and it becomes the trifecta of major lighting headaches. Ibuprofen can’t solve this problem, but the…
I’m Keeping the Ruby Glass Chandelier
I had zero pleasant feelings about the ruby glass chandelier in our living room when we moved in. In fact, I loathed it. Have you ever heard of the red light district? Don’t worry! This isn’t a story about that. Unless you drove by our house at night when the ruby glass chandelier was turned on and saw the red glow emanating from our home. Then you might think it was about THAT. Our living room quite literally glowed red. It was almost comical. It wasn’t even helpful in terms of illuminating the space. The seller had tried to sell the ruby glass chandelier at an estate sale before closing.…
Music Room Before and After
I’m not sure if I’ve ever done a proper ‘before and after’ room post because that’s just not how I roll, but there’s a first time for everything! Today I’m going to show you pictures of our music room before and after because I’m at a stopping point in this space. Basically, I’ve called it ‘good enough’ for now. Or maybe ‘much better than before’ and I’ve moved on to other projects. Yes, there are still things to do in the music room. Will they get done? Definitely. Probably. Let’s not hold our breath. Last week I showed you my piano harp art. The piano harp art may be the…
Metal and Leather Rooster
Handy Husband and I were married for eight years before we had children. In those years, we worked hard. We played hard. Our lifestyle was not conducive to having a conventional, living, breathing pet. We did have a metal rooster though. We even named him and I’m not embarrassed to admit that. I should be, but I’m not. Meet Roddy. He’s from a little farm I like to call Pier 1. Maybe you’ve heard of it? I like Roddy. He’s a keeper. However, sometimes when I walk by Roddy his metal tail feathers rattle and then I don’t like him very much. No girl needs to be reminded that they…
Piano Harp Art
Every once in awhile an idea in my head, a wild hair, really, turns out even better than I hoped it would. And I’m SO EXCITED ABOUT IT going to play it cool and tell you how my idea to make piano harp art came to fruition. When we took apart the upright piano that had been left in our house when we moved in, I knew I could use the parts of the piano to make unique, statement-making art for our home. Of course, the pièce de résistance of piano parts is the harp and that was the hardest part to extract. Murphy’s Law. The piano harp is the part of…
The 1971 MLS Listing For Our Colonial Farmhouse
I rarely answer my phone for numbers I don’t recognize. Half the time I don’t answer my phone for numbers I DO recognize. Therefore, it must have been fate calling one sweltering summer night when my phone rang and I decided to answer. After all, every once in awhile I do need to make sure I remember how. The person who sold us our home was on the other end of the line. He had found the 1971 MLS Listing for our Colonial Farmhouse in some papers he was sorting through and called to see if I wanted it. Do I need air to breathe? Do I need shoes that are…
Our Colonial Farmhouse Dining Room
Today is an exciting day. You get to see where I eat breakfast! And lunch. And dinner. Sometimes a snack or…three. That’s right, it is Colonial Farmhouse Dining Room Day. If you are new here, two months ago we bought a really, really old house. Old houses are quirky. Ours is no exception. This house has no formal or informal foyer space, which would drive me nuts if I didn’t have a thousand other things that were already doing that. When you walk through the front door of our Colonial Farmhouse, you are walking into the original room of this house (circa late 1700s). The previous owners used it as…
