Thursday, March 22, 2012

before and after: foyer

I've been working on my foyer, living room, kitchen (and now office) since January. It started out with a worn hole in the sisal rug in my office. You know how that goes. One is connected to all. So, with a little paint, a few pieces of furniture switched out, and lamps traded from other rooms... I'm finally there.

I've also been collecting vintage wall art for my long, narrow foyer. It's finally edited, arranged, and hung!

Before.....

After....

I was interested in un-coloring. Leaning more on textures, art, and arrangement and editing of objects.. rather than the deliberate, vibrant colors.

Wall color: Benjamin Moore, Titanium.

Inspired by the blog... For the Love of a House.

All the objects below were pulled from antique shops, although not all are actual antiques. The dome clock was actually my grandmother's, given to me a few weeks ago by my Uncle Karl. My son cleaned it and got it working. It's about 60 plus years old and is a wind with a key, 400 day clock. Meaning about 392 days until the next winding! My 16 year old son is already "claiming" the clock for his future house.

The breakfast nook was Sherwin Williams: tomato red.

before....

after....

the Benjamin Moore, Titanium is carried through the foyer, living room, breakfast nook, and kitchen.

Bird prints at breakfast nook to be framed.

Next post: Living room and kitchen before and after.

living room progress

I woke up to this the other morning. Deconstruction of my living room. I had spent the evening before un-decorating. Saying good-bye to my old living room. It has served us well, but time has moved on and it's time to bring it up to date.

There are a few pieces of furniture that have stood the test of time and will stay. There are my bergere chairs, still covered in its original pheasant toile fabric. I'm adding the red stripe ticking to the kidney pillows. I had sworn off red for this room, but just love this change to the chairs.

The sheild back chair will stay at the table behind the sofa. I love the silhouette of this chair. It was originally a chair to a dining room set we had purchased at an antique mall many years ago. The seat will be re-upholstered.

The new rug has been delivered and awaits the walls, ceiling, and trim painting to be completed. You're seeing the backside of the rug. It's a wool rug, nubby in texture, and in a deep caramel color. Still thinking of putting a cowhide on top of it. We'll see...

The Room and Board sofa will definitely remain. The pillows will be covered. The coffee table to the left stays too. I've had this coffee table for almost 10 years. I'm a bit fussy about coffee tables. While I've seen many of them over the years that I've ooh-ed and ahhh-ed over, I've never wanted to replace this one.

Lastly, I'll be keeping the black sideboard and mirror. The height on this sideboard is unusual. It originally had doors across the entire front. Since the inside was painted / finished as well, I took the doors off the center and created a bookcase.

It's true, I can't paint a room without Etta (one of our two cats.. Henry and Etta). She loves all ladders! And the minute they are opened - she's ready to perch. She's actually half owl.

Etta will stay, too. She's definitely a classic.
(although seeming a bit stand-off-ish here...)

The mirror will stay, but is getting painted to move away from its heaviness.

The plan is to paint the woody - bronze sections in this Benjamin Moore - silver fox.

What's new?

Fabrics. The plain linen will be the window treatments in the living room. Inverted box pleat valances, mounted just below the crown molding, banded with the plain ink blue linen.. will go on the small fireplace windows. The rest of the linen will be flat panels on the large window and French doors.

The medallion patterned linen will cover the cornice boards in the breakfast nook and kitchen window.

I love the mix with my collection of Polish Pottery.

I've added this dresser, picked up a few days ago at Covesville Antiques. I love how it relates to the kitchen. It has great hardware and wonderful, warm patina.

And, there's my middle son - Walt, getting his morning coffee - on his 16th birthday. I told him I was re-decorating the living room for him.. he didn't buy it. Smart.

And today, I woke up to this... a bit of paint progress and new rug unrolled.

The lamps will probably be moved to the foyer and get burlap shades. I've ordered these wall mount lamps from Pottery Barn to go on either side of the mirror.

Now to paint the rest of the foyer, kitchen, and breakfast nook...

Can't you see a cowhide under the coffee table??

Lots more to do...

Today, we're off to Greenfront Furniture. My husband needs to try on chairs. Actually, it's my husband and daughter who need to try on chairs (and ottomans). They are known to sit together, squished in our old red chair (now in the basement) and watch Chopped on the Food Network.

So, this will be a very important purchase.

Leather for the new chair?

Gray and Gold

Dreaming of gray and gold. Thinking about changing out my yellow family room walls for a tone of gray. Hmm... is it because fall is on its way? Just love the stillness of the combination. Seems serene and quiet. My sunny family rooms walls are ready for a filtered gray light.