Settling Into Cottage Life

Settling Into Cottage Life

by | Sep 8, 2015 | Before and After, Just For Fun!

Tomorrow marks our one month anniversary of moving to our cozy little cottage in Vermont. Life here is beyond peaceful, filled with love, laughter, light, and great friendships. We’re settling in beautifully and Simmi has made the transition with very little emotional upset.

This past week I found a few must have pieces of furniture that were in my mind quite a steal. A trestle table with 8 ladder back chairs, and two Drexel Heritage wingback chairs upholstered in a stunning crewel. When I saw these two completely separate sets of furniture, I knew they would look stunning together.

We traveled to New Hampshire to pick them up, and they did not disappoint! I got the wingback chairs for $100.00 and the table and chairs for $150.00. Yes, it was insanely cheap, and since we are on a very tight budget, these were perfect for what we needed.

A few years ago I purchased two brass chandeliers for $25.00 with the intention of giving them a makeover, and since I couldn’t leave them behind when we moved from New Mexico, they have been sitting in my garage this whole month begging me to fix them up and use them. I painted the one chandelier, and the other one is awaiting its beauty treatment.

Dom hung the newly painted chandelier yesterday, but he hasn’t hooked it up yet. The dining room is a bit awkward in that it has a large wall space but no real place to put a hutch, and a large picture window set off to the side. The picture window is positioned in such a way that most window treatments won’t work or look right. I’m currently at a loss as to what would work for the large window. We unpacked and hung a few poster prints we had just to warm up the empty wall.

Last week I shared a photo of our dining room buffet and talked about how we are going to paint it red, but after getting the wingback chairs in the dining room, I decided that I wanted to go with a very bold and striking color that you don’t see often. I feel it would complement the chairs beautifully, and its the only time I’ll be using the color…at all. I’m not a fan of orange, and I think that’s why I think its the perfect color to complement our dining room set. I know, I’m weird!

Anyway, the color we’ve chosen is Inferno by Behr. It’s more of a red-orange, but it is orange nonetheless!

Dom will be painting the primer on the buffet this week, and I should have the piece finished by Sunday.

To complement the buffet, I’ve decided to do a charcoal and sepia drawing of a ewe, and frame it in an ornate gold leaf.

<——— This is the photo I’ll be drawing this week

Of course I’m not sure how long it will take me to finish the drawing, but it will be my first art piece in about 13 years. When we lost everything due to mold contamination and infestation in Maryland, I had to throw out all my original artwork. Nothing could be saved. I felt it was time to get new art up on the walls in celebration of our new lives.

The piece unframed will be 30″x40″ and I haven’t decided how large I want the frame to be.

As soon as I finish the stitch work on the lumbar pillow, the ewe will be next.

 

Dom has been in his glory working for GeoBarns. Here is a photo he sent me of the progress they’re making in Lyme, NH. Today the roof is going on!

Projects Underway

Projects Underway

by | Sep 1, 2015 | Before and After, Just For Fun!

Over the last few weeks we’ve been getting settled in and I’ve been working on a few projects. The first project was getting Simmi’s dresser repaired and painted. I finished that last week. I chose to paint it using chalk paint, a stencil in silver, and a top coat of urethane. It’s been curing for a little more than a week now, and soon will be ready to go up into her room.

Here are a few before and after photos:

While the dresser has been curing, I’ve been busy doing a little stitch work on some pillows for our chairs. I purchased two chairs for $25.00 from the salvation army back before we left New Mexico. When I sat in them I knew I had to have them and that some how we would be able to fit them into the trailer for the road trip. They suffered a little damage during the trip and the fabric got a little scuffed, but overall it wasn’t too bad.

I was in JoAnn Fabric and spotted this fabric on sale for $5.00 and knew it was meant for my super high priced set of salvation army chairs. Haha. The only thing missing was some colorful stitch work to really make the fabric pop.

Over the last week, a little time spent here and there, and yesterday I finished up the first lumbar pillow.

The top panel is with stitch work, and the bottom panel is what the fabric looks like without it.

Now the only things left to do with these chairs is to clean up the wood and find a few gorgeous Icelandic sheep pelts to drape over the white fabric and the look will be complete!

My next project while I’m working on the second lumbar pillow, is to paint Simmi’s new headboard. I’m still planning whether it will all be one color, or a few different colors and even a little upholstery added to the center of the headboard. There is a panel that unscrews at the center which would allow me to add some padding and fabric. I found beautiful fabric screaming for some stitch work at JoAnn that would be perfect for her room (and her). Anyway, Simmi already picked out the color she wants for her headboard when we were at Sherwin Williams.

Simmi chose the top color for her headboard.

After Simmi’s headboard is finished, I’ll be painting a buffet our friends purchased for us when we moved here. I was back and forth over whether to paint it or just leave it as it is, but because there is a bit of a musty smell coming from it, we decided it would be best for my health if Dom sealed it up with a mold blocking sealer, and then I could paint it. Being that I’m very allergic to mold, I can’t have contact with this piece of furniture until it has been completely coated and sealed up.

We chose to go with a red. I’m more partial to a Swedish blue color, but I think the piece was calling for something hot and heavy to go with its substantial presence. The photo doesn’t do justice as to the size of this buffet.

We chose Scarlet as the color.

So that’s a list of just some of the projects underway. There’s more, but I’ll save that for another time.

Thanks for reading!