Saturday, February 25, 2012

Found treasures...

It's funny how a little "shopping" next door at my parents will always yield a treasure or two.

Look at this wonderful tole tray that belonged to my grandmother. I am SO loving blue these days. 


My mom had given me this brass-plated tin platter a while ago and I put it in the storage. Then, while watching an episode of "I Love Lucy" I noticed she had one in her Connecticut home on the mantle. Hmm. I remembered I had this one so I pulled it out. These were made in England so it does fit the English cottage style I have fallen into, but not sure where or how I will use it yet.


I found the measuring tape in the guest house. I can only assume my grandfather dropped it there when they were dismantling the old house around 1960. The colander and the other tin piece were in my parent's basement.


Finally, a trip to the Goodwill yielded this amber lamp for $5. It has a night light in the middle part, but not sure I will keep that when I rewire it. I love it! I'm thinking 1970s.  Not sure what form it will take after I take it apart for rewiring, but I can't wait to do something with it.


Today I will be cleaning, and also finishing a little painting with the gray paint I showed you last week. Happy that now I have found what to use on those glaring white french doors:-)

Anita


Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Antique wood in the bath...

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share some changes in one of our bathrooms.


Below are some before photos of a couple different looks I have tried...



This was several years ago before I replaced the faucet with a new one from Overstock.com.


So here's what we did. I found these tongue and groove boards from one of the old houses here stored away and really wanted to use them. According to my dad, because these have been painted, they were probably in the "little" house they stayed in in the winter. It was across from the "big" house and much smaller, which meant easier to heat in the cold, mountain winters. 


Luis put the boards up for me after installing a reclaimed baseboard from the "big" house. Using old wood is not that easy. It is usually not straight, or level or anything so it takes some planning and adjusting to make it work. Just ask my husband. I told him he should be glad he's not making these boards from a tree, like I have asked him to do in the past;-)


We then added some crown moulding also from the old house and a rail made from walnut, which he did make from a tree that my dad had cut many years ago. When I say I recycle and reclaim, I really mean that. After cleaning this wood, I finished it with a coat of light Minwax finishing wax. Oh how I love it. 


I then decided that the white doors and trim didn't work, so I painted the doors and the rest of the trim "Espresso" by American Accents. There are old doors stored away, but I cannot get to them -- yet. 


This was what we ended up with. I just added some artwork I had here. 


I made the shower curtain several weeks ago after making the ruffled sink curtain for the kitchen. I added another layer and a Waverly print to this one. It kind of has a Bohemian look to me. 


I used curtain hooks to hang it. You would think I could straighten out the hooks before taking a photo! I only gathered the second layer because it would have been huge at the bottom. This way it still has a ruffled look without so much fabric.


Then we trimmed out the bland mirror with wormy chestnut trim.



This is the only bathroom with satin nickel fixtures. I had planned on bronze, but after finding this faucet and then the light fixture with the same shape, I decided on this. Now that I have all the darker wood, I'm glad I have lighter, more modern fixtures. It kind of balances the old and dark elements. I love old, but not too much of it in one place. 


This is a small room but it feels so much larger now.




I thought I was finished. 

Then I kept imagining another window from the old house, so off to my dad's garage I went. He had actually gotten one ready for me several months ago that I had not used. Then I felt the call to go shopping in my parent's basement and found this chalk drawing from 1916.





 After doing some research, I found the artist, Louis Rowell, had been in Western NC mostly painting watercolors in the early 1900s. This chalk drawing was done near my great grandmother's house and is of Doubletop Mountain here. 



What makes me smile about this--I have this photo of my grandfather standing in the kitchen of the old house in front of one of these windows. 


It makes me smile, and it makes me feel like I am home.

Thanks for stopping by:-)

Anita

I'll be joining:

Wow us Wednesday
Treasure Hunt Thursday
Vintage Inspiration Friday
Inspiration Friday
Feathered Nest Friday
Home Sweet Home
Saturday Night Special
Metamorphosis Monday



Paint color...

Several people have asked about the paint color in my living room.  



It is called "Salt Fork," and it actually came from Walmart. Colorplace paint used to be made by Sherwin Williams, but I'm not sure if it still is. They recently changed all their paint colors, and I could not find this particular one. They have all the colors around it on different samples, but not this one for some reason. I am posting a photo of the formula below for anyone who wants to take it there for matching. You can tell this one has been carried around in my purse:-)



I do love this color because it is the perfect shade between gold and taupe, but leans more toward gold. If you can have both and not go too far either direction, this is the one.  It does appear more gold in the photos than it really is. In the photo below it looks a little less warm. 


I must say that I have used expensive paints in the past, and this lower-priced paint held up just as well as the expensive ones. 

I hope that answers your questions!

Anita

Monday, February 20, 2012

Shopping for old wood...

Happy Monday everyone! I mentioned that I have been "shopping" around here on the property for old wood and had found some tongue and groove boards I wanted to use. 


My wonderful husband cut them to size for me and we worked on this little bathroom project Friday, then I had some staining and painting to do to get it finished which turned into more painting. You're getting a sneak peek at the ruffled shower curtain I made too...


I am so in love with this color, that seems to be everywhere in the old house, that I took one of the boards to Walmart (it's the only thing close) and actually found the exact color. What are the chances of that? It's kind of between gray, green and blue.  It's a Walmart Colorplace paint and oddly enough called, "Grand Smoky Mountain." Considering where we live, that works for me. These boards are around 100 years old, and have not been repainted at all so I am really excited to have a historical color to use. I did not paint these boards, but am using them in their "reclaimed" state. I did, however buy a gallon of the paint to use as I think I have found the color to paint over the white trim and french doors.



Stay tuned for the whole bath makeover...

Anita

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Old windows and architectural finds...

Hi everyone! I wanted to share some changes/additions I have made using some reclaimed items from my great grandfather's house...


Just a reminder, here is my English inspiration photo from Charles Edwards HERE...



I put this old window up right before Christmas and I had also hung up an old print and an architectural find in this configuration below:


But I decided I wanted to try hanging the print over the window, and I really like it this way. I also found several more of these wooden squares and decided to hang them diagonally.


My dad said they were in an upstairs room in this house that he grew up in, which was covered floor to ceiling in wormy chestnut bead board.


If you have been by here much, you will remember that my grandfather took all of the wood in this house, bundled it and stored it here in the little guest house that once stood behind the main house. This is my favorite place to "shop."


Gotta figure out what to do with this bed. See the light blue/grey color?? You will be seeing that in several different places as spring approaches. I have antique tongue and groove bead board wainscoting in that color just waiting to be put up. Funny, but that same color is on the window trim in my inspiration photo above.


So here is the old window and an old print that I found in my parent's basement. This print is an English cottage by R. Weber, and ironically, the original painting is listed on ebay right now. 


I love these pieces hanging here, and happy that they are together. There are a couple more of these to use somewhere else. 




It's a nice place to practice! 



In case you noticed my new chandelier...it was a steal on ebay for $19.99! 


This is how I'm using some of the reclaimed wood, windows, etc., I have found. There are so many more things in the old house I want to use when we get time. I'm about to put some tongue and groove wainscoting in one of the bathrooms, and waiting for Luis to trim out the mirror with some chestnut trim. I'm really hoping to change out the white baseboards for the 8 inch chestnut baseboards, but only if I can talk Luis into it! There is a lot more work using old wood because it is usually not straight and fitting together odd pieces is a bit like a huge puzzle. It is always worth it in the end though.

And did I mention that this was all free????!?!? I think I need to go on one of those penny pincher shows where people compete to do things with the least amount of money. 

Thanks so very much for stopping by!! 

Anita

I'll be joining:

Wild Wednesday
Wow Us Wednesdays
Treasure Hunt Thursday
Inspiration Friday
Home Sweet Home
Vintage Inspiration Friday

Friday, February 10, 2012

The pink washstand

I am excited to finally be showing some photos of the antique washstand that I painted for my daughter! 


If you remember, the girl's room was the worst room in the house. Mostly because they are crammed in there like sardines. I added an armoire, computer desk, painted and a few other things last summer but never got around to showing the room because it was never really finished. I started to strip this washstand because I wanted to refinish it in natural wood. 


However, the wood was not that great and it didn't all match. There was veneer on the drawers, but the door was oak and not great.  So I just left it alone trying to figure out what to do.


I really did love all these old colors that I found underneath the white. There was a blue/green and a peach/pink color--all of which I have found on different pieces of wood from the old house. Apparently those were big colors in the 1930s-1940s.



I decided that I would paint it pink since that was my grandmother's favorite color, and also my daughter, Evelyn's. BTW...it's pronounced the "English" way like "Eve" with a long E. She is actually named for my great grandmother, Emma Evelyn Edwards Knight.


So I went with pink and sanded it to let the old colors show through. 



Then, I added a mocha glaze, which takes forever to dry. And I went crazy with the glaze. I really wanted it to look distressed.


Glass knobs...


And Evelyn got this for Christmas. She was really excited because she kept saying I had forgotten about it and was never going to finish it.



I found my grandmother's mirror in my parent's basement with the same shade of green/blue, and put that above the washstand. Oddly enough, that is the way it was hanging because that's how the hanging hardware is attached to the back. It also had to be that high so she can see into it. I found an old bottle lamp my grandmother had made and recycled that also for her. I added new electrical work, and a new shade which I added flowers and trim to.  The rug also belonged to my grandmother. 




When I originally put it in the room, the bunk beds were turned this way, but I have since moved them so the girls at least have a side to call their own! 


I realize that it would stand out so much better if the walls were not also pink, but they are so we'll be living with it. She loves it anyway. 



Finally, I painted a piece of furniture! I know. It's just that I grew up with white painted furniture, had white furniture all through the 1990s, and realized that I really like love beautiful wood. The darker the better. Maybe Evelyn will strip this one down to the bare wood one day. 

Anita

I'll be joining 

Pink Saturday
Furniture Feature Friday
Metamorphosis Monday
Tabletop Tuesday