Foreboding, Meet Charming

When we first bought our tudor house, the outside looked
 like this ------>

Kind of abandoned, a little sad, and very overgrown. The whole look was a bit foreboding and not at all welcoming.

We started with just clearing and cleaning it up. Bushes were trimmed back, grass was mown, and that horrid little bed in the forefront of this picture was torn out. It was surprisingly difficult. There was an odd metal stand, designed to hold some sort of plaque, that was super deep and almost impossible to remove. And some roots were very attached to the location and put up a serious fight.

 

Mid-way through, it looked like this. The ENORMOUS magnolia in the front yard helps. There are small concrete sections on either side of the door, so I put these pots with hibiscus on them instead of tearing up the concrete and planting something.

Then the door got a face lift. It's rosemary from Benjamin Moore. I painted the window box the same color. Now you can actually see the iron scroll-work and the doorway looks significantly less cave-like.










I also tore out the existing flower bed along the driveway and removed all the irises. I hate them. Other people love them, but I've never been able to stand them so they had to go. I planted seeds and they looked like this.

I find this significantly more cheerful.

I'd love to put a black wrought iron fence around the front and do some more landscaping. If I ever get that done, I'll take pictures and show you. :)

 This picture was taken in February of 2015 after it snowed.  Fun, huh?

White's Just Right

What makes a room the master bedroom? The size? The location in the house? The proximity to the bathroom? Having an ensuite? Is it the room with the best view, the biggest closet, or the fewest drafts?

When working with a monochromatic palette, texture is essential.
Think layers: something smooth, something fluffy, something velvety.
Thinking about how the light reflects helps, too. Satin gives a nice sheen,
and these lamps have a little sparkle in the shade and the glass
bases are super shiny.

I personally think it is a mark of distinction. It's the most sophisticated, the one with the nicest furniture, the most attention to detail. A person's room says a lot about who they are, and in the home, there's nothing more personal than your own bedroom, whether it's the master or not.

 All too often, parents put themselves last. The kids will each have their own bedroom covered in murals and custom curtains, their names spelled out on the walls in wooden letters hung by coordinating ribbons. The parents' room will be left to the last, and often not done at all. Maybe they ran out of energy, or time, or money. Maybe they thought they would do it, kept putting it off, and just never got around to it.

I have to say that I believe this is a mistake. The master bedroom is for the master of the house. The owner. The lease signer. The one who keeps the lights on and food on the table. That position deserves respect. And a nice place to lay your head down at night. Not a lumpy mattress on an old metal frame and crappy dressers with cheap blinds on the windows.

This is so sad! The bed is on the floor, the mirror over
 that dresser doesn't even begin to work,
and that poor painting doesn't even
 have a frame! For shame.

Since my very first apartment, I've always made the master bedroom (or the only bedroom) the first thing I decorate. There was one exception, when I moved into our first owned house with a 5-week old and 15-month old. I thought it would be easier to do the kids' room first since they were so small, which may have been a good idea, but we ended up spending the first few weeks in the guest room while we waited to paint our room, then it was a month before the curtains were hung, two months before the dresser was painted, then over a year before the nightstand (a super easy job) got painted. The bed itself never made it off the floor - it was just a box spring and a mattress. A nice, new, comfortable mattress, but still... I had such great intentions for that space, but they never came to fruition, not fully. It was too low on the priority list. Other spaces - kid spaces, public spaces - were more important.

So my feeling is that no matter how small your budget, there is something you can do to distinguish your own room, especially if it's the master. Something that says:  It's okay to do something for myself before I do something for my children. It's alright for my bedroom to be nicer than the guest room; in fact, that's how it should be.

I am an adult.

I have earned a nice place to call my own.

I am the master.

And hey, if you do a private bedroom first, peer pressure will make you finish the public rooms, so you don't have to worry that they won't get done.

Details: Floors are original hardwood discovered underneath carpet. Walls and trim are Marscapone by Benjamin Moore, that same as the trim in the bathroom. The painting with the umbrella is 'Open to Love' by Lydia Hejny. I won it in an online auction - it was very exciting! Bed details were in a former post, only that one had green accents and this has purple. One of the great things about white - it's easy to change up with accents.

Curtains and rods are from Ikea - hands down the cheapest place to get long curtains and inexpensive quality hardware. I prefer their curtain rods to any others I've ever used, and no lie, they cost a quarter of the others. Wall sconces are original to the house and work beautifully, though the one on the left has lost its knob.

I normally don't want beds in front of windows, but when there aren't any other good options and there's another large-ish window on the adjacent wall, make it work. It does make for nice star gazing if you feel so inclined.

What I like about all white is how clean and fresh it looks and how easy it is to highlight the room with another color. Just swap pillows or throw blankets and you're done. White walls are clean and easy to work with. However, having had an all white room roughly 4 years now, I gotta say I'm over it. The next master I do will be colorful... I think.

Master Bath

This was originally a medium-sized hall bathroom and a small bedroom. The bathroom was the only full one in the house and the bedroom was smallish with no closet. After agonizing over how to fit two bathrooms (a master and a hall bath) and a closet into the space - which was made difficult by the proximity to the stairs and the existence of three windows - we decided to do one extra large bathroom and keep the door to the hall while adding a door to the master. 

The bathroom was gutted - no easy feat since it was COVERED in tile - and the wall between the rooms torn out. The carpet in the bedroom came up, as did the hardwood floor under that. We saved all of the hardwood and have used it to patch where necessary in the rest of the house, an unanticipated bonus. 

This room is over the kitchen, so while the ceiling was ripped out below, we sistered all of the joists, meaning we added another beam to all of the supports underneath the floor. Originally I wanted a claw-foot iron tub, which is why we had them done, even though after the fact a contractor told us that this house was so overbuilt (which is a good thing) that we could put the tub on the roof and there wouldn't be any problems. But still, you could teach an elephant to dance in here and it wouldn't hurt a thing.

This door we are looking through in this picture was originally a wall. 

This is the view from the bedroom. This is what you see when you are lying in bed and the door is open. The door on the left leads to the private WC.

I like that the WC has a window (that opens!). It makes the room feel less claustrophobic. It also has the typical high ceilings of the rest of the house and a transom over the door to allow light.

We put in laminate flooring because it would be impossible to match the hardwood, and we wanted it to be waterproof but aren't big fans of tile on the floor. (It's freezing cold and everything you drop on it breaks!) The floor was laid on an angle. The contractor said it makes it look fancier. ;)

I chose pedestals because my husband is messy. Yes, I like the sculptural element, yes, they are very pretty, but mostly, it's because if he has a flat surface available, he will cover it with something.  These have enough space to keep soap or set down a make-up bag, but not enough to hold clutter.

The mirrors pivot to accommodate any height, and there is a glass shelf beneath them to hold toothbrushes, moisturizer, etc. The basket between holds rolled up towels, which I'll admit I prefer to a closet (though there is a linen closet just outside the door).  I like using practical, usable elements in an artistic way.

The vent pictured is dead now, but I never closed up the hole entirely (it's closed inside the wall). The rerouted vent is just to the right behind the door. Added perk: if you hang towels on the back of the door or on a rack on the wall, the wall vent keeps them warm! 

Walls are Pike's Peak Grey by Benjamin Moore.

Here you can see the master bedroom through the open door and the transom window over the WC door. The wooden thing hanging over the tub is a printer's drawer I found in the attic of an old studio I worked at. 

The window behind the chair is new and not a perfect match, but it was here when we moved in and I couldn't justify replacing a new window just to get the color to match perfectly.

The tub is jetted and makes wicked high bubble baths. The base surround is beadboard, with tile around the tub. It is big enough to fit 2 adults comfortably, or 3 lanky children. The window over the tub overlooks the back yard but it doesn't open. Bummer. I want to put Roman shades on them, but I haven't found a fabric I like and since the house next door is vacant, it's not a huge issue right now.

If you're wondering why we have a chair in the bathroom, I'll tell you. 

Because it's pretty. 

Because it makes me feel frightfully decadent. 

And because it's nice to have somewhere to sit while you're talking to someone doing something in the bathroom while you do nothing. My kids sit here and talk to me while I put my make up on, I sit here and talk to my husband when he gets home late and goes through his flossing, brushing, shaving routine. I sit here and read while my three-year-old takes a bath - they can go for ages but if I left her alone, the house would be covered in bubbles. The match to this chair is in the master bedroom and both were in the study at our old house.

This is the best part. This is a double shower. Heads at either end, tiled ALL THE WAY TO THE CEILING, bench in the corner. This baby was built for tall people. Or for people who just hate bumping their hands into the showerhead when they wash their hair. 

The heads have removable centers so they can be handheld. You can also use the 'rain' portion, which encircles the removable bit, or turn on a combination of both. I like to turn on both sides and revel in the luxury of it all. 

(See comment about decadence above.)

This is the view from the shower. That's the door to the hall and the painting here is from Goodwill - I think it was $8 or somewhere around there. The little set of drawers (it's not really a dresser) has chalkboard on the front of the drawers, so they are labeled for easy organization: Hair, Make-up, Nails, etc. The jewelry box on top was purchased on our honeymoon in the Carpathian Mountains.

This is the wardrobe I had built in. It was supposed to go all the way to the ceiling, but there was a miscommunication with the contractor. And about the shaker cabinet doors that aren't shaker at all...
Don't even get me started on the light above that was supposed to be inside and that I now have no idea what to do with.

The best part is the shoe drawer on the bottom. Two individual drawers behind one giant cover. It holds 20 pairs of shoes!!! The out of season ones are stored. ;)

Stairway to Heaven

 Transition spaces are often neglected in terms of effort and style. Walls are often left a blank white or beige and pictures are hung haphazardly if at all. For the transition from the more formal lower floor to the more casual and intimate upper floor, I wanted it to be breezy and clean feeling. Stairs and halls easily accumulate dust, especially along the edges, and my kids bang into walls when they walk, either with themselves as they race around the corners, or with the stick pony/giant firetruck/random chair/baby stroller they are carrying.





We begin in the living room, where there is a small landing leading to the stairway. The color on the stair walls is a light blue called Ocean Air. It seemed like a good retreat from Sea Reflections in the living room.

Turn to the left and you see the stairs going straight up. The original treads are the same as the rest of the flooring and the riser (the white part) is painted the same color as the rest of the trim in the house, which is the original color that was in the house. If you ever have a color you love, chip a bit of it off and take it to the paint store. They can color match it for you.

Flowy white floral curtains are from Ikea.

At the top of the stairs you are in the hall, which I keep wanting to put a rug in but everyone just slips all over it and it's always out of place, so I am leaving it bare. It feels very English to me. Like the cottage in Sense and Sensibility.

To give you an idea of the floor plan, in the photo above, immediately to the right is the bathroom door, and the small door you can partially see is a linen closet. Straight ahead and to the right is the master, far left corner is a bedroom/family room, next to the ladder is another bedroom.

View from the other end of the hall. This is a custom ship's ladder with the treads closer together to make it easier for children to climb. Leads (obviously) to the attic. That's another post.

 Headed back down...

Moral of the story: When all else fails, stick to clean lines. You can't go wrong.

Scrub a dub dub!

When we moved into the house this was the only bathroom downstairs. It faced an outside door and was right next to the kitchen, technically where my refrigerator is now. The toilet is in what used to be a closet. See the framing? Our best guess was that because the couple who lived here was elderly and could no longer use the stairs, they rigged this for them. At least, I hope that's why they did it...

So it got gutted. Thankfully. But we didn't want guests (or ourselves - I'm a bit lazy) going upstairs to use the loo all the time, so we had to find space for a bathroom on the main level. The obvious (and really only) choice was the living room. We carved out a space in the corner by the stairs and put in a new bathroom.

Because of the shape of the room (a long-ish rectangle), it's hard to get it all in one picture.

I got tile at a discount place in Columbia - I don't know what it's called but I was told to find it by following the water tower, so there you go. 

I'm not sure if the green stripes were wise or not. Feel free to weigh in on that. Since I saved on the tile and tub, I went with a higher grade faucet and shower head - I HATE cheap bathrooms. The tile stretches higher than usual. Partially because I'm a little tall and I hate feeling like a giant in spaces, but mostly because the higher the tile goes, the less likely you are to have water damage to the drywall surrounding your tub.

That shower curtain is actually a big patchwork of pieces, almost like a finished quilt top, that I got at a yard sale 7 years ago for $2!!! It's been a tablecloth, curtain, and now shower curtain. Waste not, want not.

The sink is a table that I bought at a yard sale for $10 8 years ago. It had zebra painted legs and a giraffe spotted top. I painted it white and used it as a night stand for years. I was looking for something different for this bathroom, but I couldn't find a base I wanted, so I painted it green and had the contractor drill holes in this table. The bowl is an individual piece bought at Lowe's - $80, I think. The faucet was pricey at $125, but isn't it pretty? The cost of the entire vanity was only $215, and you can hardly find one cheaper than that, and definitely not a custom one that no one else has. There's a little bit of storage beneath for towels or a basket filled with random bathroom supplies. And the beauty of the green base is that it is solid wood so it can easily be repainted to change the color scheme.

The small shelf behind the faucet holds soap and candles and folded hand towels. It was made to hide the plumbing for the sink.

Both the walls and trim in here are white, Marscapone by Benjamin Moore. It's one of my favorite whites and is used in several places throughout the house. It's clean without being cold, simple but not bland, and somehow warm without actually becoming cream. I recommend it all the time and it hasn't failed me once.

The floors are wood, which is fine for a guest bath or simple powder room, but for a bathroom that gets a lot of wear, I wouldn't recommend it. Or maybe just not if the people using it aren't neat freaks. I always check it after anyone takes a shower to make sure there is not water on the floor. I am seriously considering painting it to give it another coat of water-proofing. The poly on it is pretty thick, but still...

The toilet is in a little nook. It gives it a feeling of more privacy and creates more maneuverability around the tub. The commode is that new two-option low-flow kind, so it saves water and refills faster, etc. The switch on the left is for the fan.

Because this bathroom is next to the living room (I know, not an ideal location but options were limited), the walls are insulated. You can't even hear the shower running when the door is closed.

And of course what bathroom is complete without a little Audrey?

Living Room

So this living room is huge. 

Here's the situation: The front door opens into the living room in the far right corner. When you walk in, the room stretches to your left with the fireplace and the arch into the dining room adjacent to that. To the right is a smaller arch and two steps up onto a landing that has a coat closet and a window, then a quarter turn and the stairs lead to the second floor. That's what's pictured just below.

Sorry, kids just won't stay out of pictures!

In this before and after shot, you can see the archway to the stairs. Just behind my son, there is an air return on the floor. It is 2.5x2.5 and was covered very flimsily with wooden slats that had seen better days. My brother actually stepped right through it when he came over the first time. Oddly enough, he hasn't been back since... 

Anyway, I had bought 4 decorative iron plates/grids at a yard sale several years before. I had used them once or twice as over-sized trivets and had plans to hang them on the garage outside as a garden decoration when I had the idea to use them to create a new grate for the return. A local welder came and measured everything, took the iron pieces, and made a grid out of metal and welded the iron squares onto it. It's a bit over-sized for the hole and not done as neatly as I had wanted it, but I like it and I think it gives a nice flair to an otherwise ho-hum element.

As far as changes go, we ripped up the carpet and found hardwood underneath and patched where necessary. We sanded down and painted the doors on either side of the fireplace, removed the brass frame from the fireplace and gave it a good scrubbing. I actually scrubbed the hearth on my hands and knees with a brush and a bucket of water next to me. It was very 1870.

Now it looks like this. Curtains and rods are from IKEA, lamps a random collection from second hand stores. The red chair and loveseat both came from Goodwill, and the pair of chairs and ottoman are Ethan Allen that I got at a yard sale for $200 for all 3 pieces! They are slated to be recovered, but until I can find a fabric I like and decide where they will live forever, they remain like this... The table between is from my old study at our last house.  Rug was $40 at Home Depot in the clearance section.

The entire room got a fresh coat of paint, trim included, and whatever plaster-patching needed to be done. The walls are Sea Reflections from Benjamin Moore. That pin wheel over the mantle was from an antique store in downtown Franklin, bought back in 2003. 

The front door needed a lot of scraping and a few coats of paint. It's huge and heavy and I LOVE it!!!

This biggest change is the bathroom we added in next to the stairs and across from the front door - you can see the difference in the first set of pics on this post. Bathroom details are in another post.

 This little corner is to the right of the dining room doorway and next to the bathroom. The shelves are filled with personal books (work-related books are in the office) and the television and DVD player and WiFi, etc. are on the shelf. The white shelf is solid wood and was in my old study, as was the zebra rug. The black one is from Ikea - it's actually two pieces put together with a floating shelf on top to give the illusion of a built-in. I wanted a real built-in, but the contractor never could get a bid together or find the time to work it out, so I just did this. The perk is I can take it with me!

This little table was second-hand ($40) and we use it for puzzles, games, art, or a second dining table when we have company. In this picture, you can see how this nook fits into the rest of the room. The door on the right goes into the bathroom - which is very well insulated. :)

Ideally I wouldn't want my television that far away or that high - though both would be fine if it was bigger - but it looked too high and silly and small on the mantle. It would be best to not have a TV in here at all, given the way we use the room, but... Mostly I just use it for exercise videos and the kids occasionally watch a movie down here. I could lose the table and one of the bookshelves and do a different furniture arrangement and put the TV lower down but essentially in the same place. The problem is we just don't watch it enough to make that important to do. However, we do read - a lot.   

Next to the front door is the piano. Also formerly of my study in the last house. I don't like that chair with it, but I had to use something... 

I do love that lamp, though. 

<< This is the view from the front door, looking slightly left.

This is from the dining room looking into the living room. The black thing on the window is homemade stained glass that my daughter made in art class. This is not my favorite room in the house but I have made a sort of peace with it. I wanted to buy all new furniture for it and make it very English Country House, but I could never justify spending the money on furniture I didn't technically need when there were SO MANY THINGS that needed my attention and cash. Ah, well, c'est la vie.

I love this fireplace. Big. Impressive. Brick on the inside. Gorgeous wood molding surrounding. I can't imagine ever living without one again. I have become completely spoiled.