This Old House

By My Calculations Our House is About 90 Years Old!

That is OLD by anybody's standards!

Living in an old house has definite advantages. The character and charm cannot be duplicated in a new home very easily. You cannot pay for the mature landscaping and the memories of raising our family here are priceless. There are also disadvantages; smaller, less functional rooms and closets, the repairing, replacing, remodeling can be costly and a big hassle too. But I guess you have that in most houses to some degree.

One of the things we have done is tired to keep the house as true to the era as we could without sacrificing comfort and conveniences. What that translates to is getting what you can for cheap, fixing it up and taking care of it in case it needs to last a life time!

Even though my tastes have changed a lot over the years and if I could just go out and buy all new furniture it would be totally different~ for this time and place in our lives the furniture is just fine. What I do try to do is keep it updated with fun accessories, art, etc. What that translates to is sometimes what you have determines your style more that what you love best. I am OK with that, are you?

Happiness is wanting what you have, not having what you want.

Sometimes I trade when I work on someone's house for either services or like last week, I traded my friend, Barbara, for some furniture. I got the fun of helping her pick out all her new furniture (vicarious thrills for free) and at the same time was able to enhance our home with something from hers. We are so happy to have this table because it holds lots of wonderful memories of our family and theirs getting together for dinners through the years.

I got to receive and arrange the new furniture for Barb and decorate her home while she was busy working this past week. It was so much fun and, ladies, this is the only way to fly. By coordinating all the things she loves in her living room, dining room and family room we were able to make one great room out of her L- shaped open floor plan. I will have pictures after we finish everything probably after the first of the year as we need to do window treatments and she is getting her flat screen mounted above her fireplace, etc.

Barb purchased a new gorgeous dining table and hutch. Very Pottery Barn looking and, to die for, I must add. Her old one needed a new home and so it has come to live with us. We are quite happy with it and it looks like it belongs with all our other outdated, but beloved oak furniture. Although the mighty oak has lost face in the market place, our saving grace has always been that our house is a cottage. Something very contemporary and modern would not fit in our setting. Our next house is going to be bigger, newer and a total turn key but, for now we are very cozy here.

So here is our new table and chairs.

It is pretty amazing how it matches our china cabinet,
hutch and small, lighted curio cabinet. With a leaf it can seat 10.

Looking into the library and office

And then we have the beautiful original random
plank oak floors with the wooden pegs.

As you can see this room is very "Oaky" which is one of the reasons we decided to custom paint it with three shades of green and lots of glossy white trim. With all the wood a traditional neutral would not work here. What I want to buy next is a really nice area rug for this dining room. Unless of course you want to make a trade. I am always open to that if you have one that is just right for this room? I am looking for one that will add color, pattern and softness to all the hard surfaces in this room. Fabric usually does the trick. I love that the table is round as that really helps to soften it out quite a bit already. Next big job I get..hopefully you'll be seeing the new area rug! That is unless something else needs to be repaired, replaced or remodeled first in this old house we call home. Fingers crossed~ it is all good.... for the moment.

Second Hand Rose

Second Hand Rose

By request here a few of the great finds I got at a moving sale this week that I can use for the business.

I like to use these types of florals in staging. I put them in a larger pot with moss and they look really great. It is impractical to stage with real greenery and florals as many of the houses are vacant and we do not run a plant service business...sooo we use the "everlasting" flowers and greenery.

Partner to the Above

The first picture made its way into our guest room temporarily while the one I normally have here is "in service" at one of our houses. Love the colors and that there are two of them.


This is a great rose bush for a patio room, porch, etc. It adds a lot of color and is definitely a carefree piece. And at $5.00 it won't break the bank if someone steals it off a front porch. New these are probably close to $45.00. It helps when the moving sale is being held by your sister-in-law! :-) Thanks, Gail!

Here's a fun one for a bathroom!

Beautiful Bedrooms

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The colors are so warm and soothing.

This is the bedroom of one of my new clients. I love it. This client is just moving in and I am going to help her just work on refining her accessories and furniture placement and help her purchase some new things as needed. Her home is just gorgeous already. She inherited some amazing furnishings and art work that are easily museum quality. She has moved here from a 10,000 square foot home in the mid-west. Her new house is quite a bit smaller and so the challenge is making the over-sized furnishings work.

~Check out the scale of the large display cabinet on the wall~
It is immense and takes up the entire wall. The whole front is beveled and really commands your attention as the focal point in this room.

What I love about this project is having all the fabulous things to work with. Actually there is not a lot that I can do to improve this home. But there are some details...which are always very important in creating just the right feeling in the various areas of the home.

I have always loved beautiful bedrooms and this one is one of my favorites. This lady is into her linens and bedding in a big way, this bedding is all custom made (some of it by the homeowner herself) and this bed does not photograph as beautifully as it should. The bedding is so thick and luxurious and just is the most inviting, lovely bed. The style is very formal and although it is way too fancy for most homes...for her it couldn't be better. Here I will concentrate on the other furniture accessorizing and switch out the lamps. One thing that a formal setting needs is symmetry and this requires taller identical lamps to look its very best. The symmetry adds to the formality with its duplicates and the height is needed because the bed is raised up so high. Fortunately, I saw the perfect lamps in the entry way on their way to the storage unit. These projects are so enjoyable. I wish you could all come with me and enjoy a look into how people surround themselves with things they love and live their lives. It is an amazing privilege really.