With school starting this coming Monday (ugh!) and almost 27 and 1/2 hours of driving over the next 3 days to pick up our son from his cooking internship in Rhode Island and bring him home, my husband and I worked as hard as we physically could to at least get the sunroom in some kind of order before coming home from the trip.
He worked on priming the room and dressing up the old built in bookcases with trim and moldings, installing electric for book lights, as well as building me stunning faux mantel and adding crown moulding around the room. We knew we couldn’t get the flooring done in time for our son’s late summer three week visit before the fall semester, but we at least wanted the main construction finished and freshly painted before he got home and we had to go back to work.
Everything was going fine as of last week. My husband had primed the room three times ( the walls are part of the former red brick exterior porch that had been converted to a sunroom sometime in the late 60’s) and then he started painting the room a custom off white we blended from various white paints. In this photo you can see how the old recessed bookshelves looked before we added more woodwork to make them look more like elegant bookcases.
(Trying out almost all my pillows to see if I liked ANYTHING with the white walls, which I didn’t!)
I wasn’t liking the brighter white at all behind our leather chesterfield sofa, which we hadn’t originally planned to use in the sunroom at all. It had been sitting in the sunroom since we sold the yellow birck home in last December just taking up sapce. We were going to purchase new slipcovered off white loveseats, but on a whim decided to see if the sofa would fit before putting such a nice and expensive piece of furniture in storage (we literally had no other spot for it in the house but wanted to keep it in case our son would need it for his first apartment.) Before moving to storage we just decided to play around with placement, and to our suprise it fit just fine! We loved that we could used it after all, but it sort of threw me for a loop with the direction I was going with the vibe room.
Farmhouse Living Blooming Ivy Lane
Then I got a whim to paint the room a moody green after seeing all of the gorgeous moody green, and blue rooms featuring built ins and fireplace walls on Pinterest and Instagram. I thought with the leather chesterfield, maybe we should go with more of a masculine, cozy or English garden green inspired sunroom and it would be so amazing!
So while my husband worked on building the faux fireplace and bookcases, I painted the whole room a deep green and even though I KNEW I hated it right away, for some reason I kept painting it, including all ELEVEN tedious windows until my finger joints were literally swelling. I also tried several colors behind the sofa to try to convince myself the room needed to be green, but I didn’t like any of the colors.
It was painting the brick around the faux fireplace that really turned my stomach to look at. We both realized that we associated the green brick with our college and also two schools I have taught at where green was the main color and the brick walls were green. It wasn’t relaxing at all to associate the room with school and work, even if green is my favorite color! Plus, no matter what shade of green I tried, all of my green accent pillows or faux greenery just seemed to clash.
As you can see, I brought home nearly every possible green sample from Sherwin Williams and then wasted a bunch of money on 3 or 4 more of Benjamin Moore and Magnolia green shades and nothing looked right. The colors wood read green, gray, mint or black on various walls of the room. I kept looking at the white brick walls above and I knew I had to paint it back!
So, we worked until midnight most evenings. In order to get the job finished we couldn’t stop working just to take daylight pictures for blogging, so I snapped what I could at night. I recently had a bit of an autoimmune relapse with bloodwork showing active Lupus, so I had no business pushing myself any harder than I already had. I ended up hiring my nephew and his friend to come and help us knock out the painting as fast as possible.
Bless their teenage hearts, they did a pretty good job but there were still a lot of areas I had to clean up. I completely forgot to tell them not to get paint on the original 1920’s back door hinges that were in excellent shape! Even after they painted for about 6 hours, we still had to hit most areas with another coat of paint the next day and the windows took about 3 additional coats to cover all the green.
The irony of this whole story is that I did a swatch section of Sherwin Williams Dover White last summer and liked it, but thought it might read too yellowish on a couple of the walls with the way the sunlight hit. That’s why we custom mixed a lighter white.
Well, after deciding to use the dark brown leather sofa, I knew the room needed to be a warmer, creamy white and after all that stress, wasted money and time, the room ended up Dover White!
Here is the gorgeous bookcase upgrade in progress! The bottom section is all faux. There was about 18 inches of brick below each of the recessed bookshelves, but I wanted it to look like cabinets underneath. My husband added faux doors and drawers, and beadboard to the back of the cabinets. He created shelves for each cabinet and I decided to warm them up by painting them to look like wood instead of white. (Pine doesn’t stain well.)
I used a the popular faux Pottery Barn paint finish technique on the shelves and my vintage pedestal table that needed some major tlc. The table and shelves turned out great! **More about the table makeover with the paint technique in future post.
And here is a sneak peak of how this whole gorgeous faux fireplace and built-ins wall is turning out. It is stunning! It may just be some of his best work. And that dreamy-creamy Sherwin Williams Dover White is MY style. This is why I just can’t follow major paint trends!
At certain times of the day the walls do look buttery yellow, but it’s really pretty, especially in the morning sunlight. There are still some touch ups to cover some green areas we missed around the windows, and I can’t wait to add the billowy sheer linen drapes to soften the space and create that light and airy sunroom feel, which the room NEEDS to have in order for me to feel at home there. We haven’t committed to a type of flooring but after all of this there is no way I am rushing that decision!
Do I still love the moody wall colors and would I every consider using them in my home? Yes, if I already had textiles and artwork and things to pull a room together. But not on any room with with 11 windows!!!!
The moral of the story is to always follow your own heart in decorating and create spaces you and your family will want to live in! We are taking the next three weeks off from working on the house to spend the precious time with our son who we haven’t seen since May before he heads back to Culinary school in New York in September. I will certainly be tweaking some things and messing around with decorating ideas in the room and I do have some additional bookcase and door makeover to share this week, so check back for more updates.
So, tell me if you have ever had any kind of major painting or decorating fiascos, and if so what did you do about it? I love hearing from you!
Thanks for visiting!
Amber
Hello friends! I am really excited about my latest diy! I can finally check off ” rusty, chippy, French Vintage garden urn” from my junkin’ and thrifting wish list! Well, sort of. I didn’t find a genuine antique urn, but I did create the look of one using a store bought urn and an easy paint technique. *This post contains affiliate links. See my full affiliate disclosure policy for details.
Happy SUMMER my friends, and welcome to another fun monthly Pinterest Challenge! After being overwhelmed for the past year by a massive home move and renovation to our new (old) red brick home, I am THRILLED to once again be able to join some of my dear blogging friends for this month’s Pinterest challenge, which has helped inpsire my some of my patriotic porch decor for the Fourth of July.
No large yard? No problem! Today I am sharing how you can take any small space and transform it into a lush garden area using containers, and just about anything can be used as a container with a little creativity!
I am excited to once again be joining several blogging friends for another fun Pinterest challenge! This month’s theme is container gardens which is something I love! If you are coming over from South House Designs or if you are just dropping by today, then welcome!!!!
Our gorgeous inspiration photo for this month’s challenge comes from Organized Clutter. A special thanks goes out to Cindy of County Road 407 for hosting this challenge. You will find links to all of the beautiful container garden ideas posts at the end of this post.
If you don’t have a large yard or if you have health issues or lack of time that prevent you from large scale gardening, you can still create a garden area that is easy to maintain and looks lush and full using a variety of traditional pots and planters as well as unique containers for interest.
Let’s start by taking a look at this blank wall by the side door entry at the yellow brick home. Here it looked rather boring and sad, but by adding some beautiful urns, containers, and planters filled with a mix of evergreen and seasonal plants, the eyesore of an entry easily transformed into something special.
For several years I kept a vintage plant etagere by the back door and kept it styled with pretty pots, containers and garden elements.
I like using a mix of traditional garden pots as well as fun, unexpected thrifted items as containers, such a a vintage, tarnished silverplate creamer as a succulent planter.
The plant stand was always evolving through the various seasons.
I later moved the plant stand to my backyard cottage garden area and just used an old garden trellis and beautiful containers for interest in this area.
One year for Mother’s Day my husband surprised me with hundreds of tulip bulbs. He then planted them all for me in November as part of the gift. That was THE YEAR of the most beautiful spring container garden!
Another blank wall along the sidewalk to the side entry became a lush garden with a raised cedar bed filled with all kinds of herbs, flowers and vegetables and surrounded on the bottom and sides by container plantings.
I really became entrhalled with the idea of concentrating on container gardens after discovering Claus Dalby on instagram. His beautiful book, Containers in The Garden (affiliate link) really inspired the design of my own container gardens.
Container gardens are perfect for those of us with chronic health issues, back pain or lack of time and space. Really they are perfect for anyone!
The last couple of years at the yellow brick home I wanted something in this spot that would look great year found, so I used a large urn with an evergreen arborvite as the focal point. Notice the bird bath in the foreground is also a “container” for succulents.
I purchased this French wooden box with forced spring daffodils at Home Depot a few years ago and it has always been one of my favorite spring containers to plant up ever since! Once the daffodils were spent, I planted them in the yard and they bloomed beautifully the following spring.
*Home Depot once again has these in stock this year! Some are filled with hyacinths and tulips!
The next year I created a mixed spring container planting using tulips, tete e tete daffodils and pansies.
Another plant etagere on the front porch at the yellow brick home was a favorite spot for small container plantings and seasonal accents.
A simple hanging basket from the dollar store looks beautiful and elegant filled with simple pansies.
I always keep my eyes open for rustic, european style pots and containers when I am thrifting. Just about any combination of plants looks beautiful in them, as long as the water and light requirements are similar.
Of course fall is a wonderful time to create beautiful containers!
Thrifted vintage buckets or old coffee cans make fun and interesting containers in a junk-lover’s garden!
Another tried and true trick for the impatient gardener (like me!) is to use pots and containers to fill negative space and gaps in the garden, either while waiting for plants to grow or to place on top of difficult to garden areas such as those with lots of roots or poor soil.
My dad’s tricycle from the 1950’s made a fun garden accent “container” with a basket filled with succulents on the front and a big galvanized bucket of fountain grass in the back. As a bonus the tricyle filled a lot of blank space.
Don’t be afraid to mix rustic country or vintage containers such as an old galvanized bucket with new pots or more elegant planters and urns. They can all work together to create interest in a container garden.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of my container garden ideas and that it has inspired you! This summer I plan to transform our small backyard and deck using mostly containers, and I will be sharing lots of posts on this subject in the weeks and months ahead so please do plan to stop back by often.
Next up on today’s challenge is Barb at French Ethereal. She always has lovely gardening ideas! Don’t forget to check out all of the other beautiful and interesting container posts via the links below.
Happy planting!
Amber
In August we moved into our historic 1920’s red brick home that we purchased and began renovating over a year ago. The renovations took much longer than expected (don’t they always?) so we didn’t end up getting all the rooms completely finished and decorated in time for this tour, but we are really loving how everything is looking for Christmas so far!
Welcome, welcome WELCOME! After months and months of empty promises (we really tried, I promise!) I am finally ready to open our front door and let you take a peek into our new 1920’s American Foursquare home with Craftsman Bungalow elements! Oh boy are we loving it! Although it is bittersweet to leave the yellow brick home, we have no regrets! I had really hoped to have things “finished” in time for fall and had planned for this to be the great reveal post, but there is STILL so much to do. We only moved in about three weeks ago and as you can imagine there are still unpacked boxes and totes everywhere! Nevertheless I decided to go ahead and give you a little “PREveal” of some of the foyer and living room with snippets from upcoming posts where I will show the spaces and decor in more detail.
So, you’ve fallen in love with that charming old house—the one with all the character, the beautiful moldings, and the solid bones. These homes offer so much character so many visions, and it’s like taking a step back in time when you walk through each room, right?
But before you start envisioning your vintage furniture in every room, there’s something crucial that often gets overlooked: the plumbing. Yep, old houses come with old plumbing, and that can mean a host of potential problems if not addressed early on. Technically, old houses come with a lot of issues that go beyond just the indoor plumbing, like the electrical wiring, the foundation, the gas, and so on. But right now, the plumbing might be the biggest issue of them all.
So, with that all said, let’s talk about the essential plumbing changes you should consider when owning or buying an old house.
The first thing to consider is the material of the existing pipes. Now, you really need to keep in mind that older homes might have plumbing made of galvanized steel, lead, or even cast iron. While these materials were once standard, they don’t hold up well over time. That’s surprising, right? So, galvanized steel pipes, for example, are prone to corrosion and can lead to reduced water pressure and rusty water. Lead pipes, which were banned for water supply in the 1980s, are a major health hazard and should be replaced immediately if found. If your old house still has outdated plumbing materials, replacing them with copper or PVC is a wise investment.
Sometimes there doesn’t need to be a lot of upfront cost, for example here in Kentucky there are a lot of resources to help homeowners remove lead pipes from their home and this can also include lessening the financial burden too due to the large health risks that these have.
Another area that often gets overlooked in old homes is the plumbing fixtures. Those antique faucets and clawfoot tubs might look amazing, but they could be hiding serious problems. So, it’s so important to understand that old fixtures are often less efficient, leading to higher water bills. They may also be more prone to leaks, which can cause water damage and mold issues over time.
Ideally, it’s just best to go ahead and consider upgrading to more efficient, modern fixtures. You’re going to want to look for WaterSense-labeled products, which are designed to save water without sacrificing performance.
The scary thought is that old homes often have hidden leaks that can go undetected for years. While homeowners will question why their water bill is so high, many will just assume that their water company upped the price.
But this is a big deal, not just for your wallet but for the whole house in general. These leaks can cause serious damage to the structure of the house, not to mention the potential for mold growth. One of the most common (and potentially damaging) types of leaks in old homes is a slab leak.
Why is this a big deal? Well, it can lead to water seeping into the foundation, causing it to crack and settle unevenly. This does far more damage than rain could ever do, so if you’re even slightly suspicious of this, then you’ll need to look into slab leak repair ASAP because fixing your foundation is far more expensive than fixing your plumbing (sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars).
Chances are, the water quality in older homes might not be up to modern standards. So, this was already mentioned above but pipes can leach contaminants into the water, and older homes might have water supplies that aren’t as clean as they should be (especially due to the quality of pipes).
So, that’s why it’s a good idea to look into installing a whole-house water filtration system that can help ensure that the water coming out of your taps is safe and clean. You can easily buy one of these from Amazon and install it yourself.
Finally, if you’re dealing with old plumbing, don’t forget about insulation. Old homes are often drafty, and the pipes might not be adequately insulated. This can lead to frozen pipes in the winter, which can burst and cause extensive water damage. If you’re from Kentucky, then you’re probably more familiar with the freezing temperatures, especially in January and February, and busted pipes can get really expensive to fix.
Happy AUGUST and welcome to TFT! This is now my sixth year co-hosting this fabulous weekly link party for bloggers and blog readers with Katherine of Katherine’s Corner and a fantastic group of bloggers!
NOTE: The party time has changed to 9:00 a.m. MDT (11:00 EST).
If you are looking for inspiration, want to share new ideas or make new friends, you’ve come to the right place!
As many of my readers know, my son has been home for a short summer break before returning to culinary school in NY next week, so my husband and I have put all home projects and decorating on hiatus. Just before my son arrived I gave this vintage clawfoot table a “Pottery Barn Finish” makeover and I will be sharing a post on how it turned out this in an upcomiong post.
Even if my son wasn’t home I am not sure I can get into fall decorating just yet. It is SOOOO hot here in KY! My first two weeks have been miserable in my classroom at because the HVAC is broken too. I am not looking forward to taking our son back to the Hudson Valley next weekend because I will miss him, but I am hoping it might be a little cooler there. For a little fall inspo you can take a look at last year’s fall “preveal” tour when we had just moved in to our home.
Quick and Easy Ideas to Get You in a Fall Mood ~ Common Ground
Fall Candle Holder Vignette ~ Thistle Key Lane
Five Minute Twine Pumpkins ~ Creatively Beth
Early Fall Vignette for a Fall Coffee Table ~ My Wee Abode
Thanks for Visiting! Enjoy the Party!
No new posts again this week as I have been spending quality time with my son and my dad who also has been visiting. I have started transitioning to fall around the house and will share a little post next week with some early fall ideas.
Summer to Fall Decorating with Sunflowers
Here’s some of my favorite ideas for transitioning to fall using sunflowers.
Apples, Dahlias, and a September Table ~ Everyday Living
Simple Fall Mantel with Gourds and Greenery ~ Thistle Key Lane
Garden Room Sitting Area in Harvest Color ~ Common Ground
How to Decorate with Sunflowers ~ Masterpieces of My Life
Thanks for visiting! Enjoy the party!
