Settling Into Cottage Life

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.