A Very British Den

Hello there! Back to our regularly scheduled home progress posts...

And this one is for those of you who just can't get enough (translation: it's definitely an over-share post...so get comfy!)

Let's start with the "Befores", shall we?:

Hello, Yellow

Yikes. This color reminded me of a rich lemon meringue pie (it was more intense in person than these pictures are letting on), and just kind of screamed at you - even from the font door (this room is straight ahead, once you walk through the foyer). Even though it was a "happy" color, it kind of made me angry every time I was in there. Ha!

Anyway, this was the dining room of the house - attached to the foyer (and the kitchen via the laundry hallway). Let's have one more "Before":

Ok, so as noted in the post title, we decided to make this room our den. There were several reasons for that, including: how cozy yet bright and cheerful the room is thanks to five windows and a door transom, the fact that it was in the back of the house - where I think a den should always be tucked away if it possibly can, it was quieter because the exterior walls do not face the street, and there were more den-furniture arrangement possibilities because of how the doorways, windows, etc. were situated in this room than there were in the current living room.

So first order of business:

PAINT!

Ahhhhh....much better. It actually took us three similar colors to land on our final. Mainly because even though the colors matched in small doses, the changing light of the foyer did not play nicely with the first two colors, which were a touch cooler in nature. In the above pic you can see the first two tones meeting at the corner seam. Our third coat, and final color ended up being:

Revere Pewter

A perfect blend of cool and warm, and a neutral that seemingly goes with everything we throw at it! 

Also, if you scroll back up to the yellow walls, isn't it amazing how much the color change makes the molding pop?

Ok, so onto our theme. Because we all know I'm a theme-girl.

We have spent a good bit of time in the British Isles over the past few years, and the homes and decor there all scream "hygge" to us (look it up, if you don't know what hygge is...that'll be another blog post for another day).

We love the warm rich textures, the natural fibers, the timeless patterns... They just invite you to come in, put your feet up, and stay awhile! So, we decided to try and incorporate elements of Ireland, Scotland, and the English Countryside into our decorating scheme - working with what we already had and searching for authentic-feeling additions to fill in the gaps. 

And this is where we landed:

Of course our musical gallery wall is a major feature of the room that has nothing to do with Great Britain, but screams "home" to us.

We already had this (English)leather chair, and were looking for a matching chair to have a set, but ended up finding a sofa in the company warehouse for the same price as a chair, so we jumped on that in a hurry to add two additional seating spots to the room!

Our Irish element is the natural wool rug in a super cozy cable knit sweater pattern.

And for Scotland...one of our heart-homes in the world, we ended up with a tweed plaid hide-a-bed couch and Scottish lace pillow:

Funny story about the couch: we thought we'd give the stock color (soft mossy green) version of the sofa a shot, with the understanding that if it didn't look great, we could return it and special order a soft gray at no additional cost. - We brought the moss home. Hated it. Ordered the gray. - Two weeks later, we got a call from the furniture store, and come to find out: the gray color had been discontinued and they forgot to pull the sample from the floor. To make it up to us, they allowed us to choose ANY specialty fabric of our choice at no additional change, plus we got to keep the moss couch until our special order came in. Enter: Plaid (and super elated Kristin). I can't imagine the room without it. 

Providential mistake? Maybe so, maybe so.

Here is our existing buffet ($20 thrift store find over 10 years ago...three colors later) that fit perfectly on one wall, and stores candles, wax melts, games, CDs, and DVDs like a charm. Also note the Scottish bagpipe chanter from my brief flirtation with becoming a piper. 

Above that are some vintage English fox hunt pictures that previously hung in our bedroom at Windy Poplars.

We also love that when you're sitting down and look out the three high windows, you can just see the tippy top of our neighboring church, which reminds us of a church you might see in the Cotswolds:

We swapped out the light fixture for something a little more casual and modern. I knew from the start that I wanted a simple drum chandy, but couldn't find one comfortably within the budget. So, though this was a bit more busy looking that I originally wanted with the "X" design, the shape and size were perfect for the room, and it was a steal at Lowes.

And that's about it! I'll leave you with one last angle of my current favorite room in the house (probably because it's really the only room that's done-ish). It's the place where we can escape to and relax at the end of the day, with no glaring projects tapping on our shoulders. Still a few finishing touches needed here and there, but what would home be, if not ever in need of attention? ;-)

*Note: Sorry these images are smaller than usual, but some were from my cell, so I couldn't properly size the width to match my big camera pics. :-)

Furnishing Ingleside

So today instead of a room I have a sweet little old leather-topped desk to share, and the magic of Old English Scratch Cover and Polish. We had several furniture pieces we'd been scouring yard sales for - one of which was a small vintage desk to go in my small vintage office. Fun fact: I had a HUGE office style filing desk at Windy Poplars, and it took three strong men and all their might to squeeze it into the house when we got. That day we swore we were never moving it again, so it was written into the house contract that the monstrous desk was part of the package.

Anyway, back to present-day. We came across a desk that was the perfect size and style - even had a leather top still in decent condition *swoon*. BUT, it was rough, ya'll. Kept in a basement for years, it was heavily scratched, water damaged, and full of dust and dirt.

But something told me it was worth a gamble. Those dovetail joints and wooden handles got to me...

So over to Ingleside it came ($75) and to work I went. First a very weak solution of soap to rub it all down, then a toothbrush to really dig the years of dust out of all the grooves. Finally, it was time to polish!

Instead of a full "before" and a full "after", I thought it would be more effective to post "in progress", so you can really see what this stuff is capable of. Hopefully it will make a hard case for you to give those old worn out wood pieces at yard sales and thrift stores a second chance. I know it breathed a whole new life into my sweet gem!

Left side: BEFORE | Right side: AFTER

 Left side: AFTER | Right side: BEFORE

Kitchen Progress

Hello, friends! Whew! What a couple of months it has been. 

"Full steam ahead" has been our MO - and thankfully, that steam is finally starting to slow down, and we are able to breathe at a normal pace, and enjoy everyday living again! Still a TON to do here at Ingleside, but all of the big projects and must-dos are checked off our list. And the rest can now wait until we're good and ready... 

Thought I'd kick this return to blogging off with a few "before" and "progress" pictures of our kitchen. I don't want this to turn into a home improvement blog, nor do I enjoy posts with 300 pictures of nearly the same thing. So hopefully we'll keep things tame-yet-informative around here as I begin the process of sharing what we've been up to the past few months.

Firstly, the kitchen was not in bad shape. It had been remodeled about 13 years ago, and things were still holding up ok.- The walls were a sage green, and really, were what was dating the space the most. A quick coat of paint solved that problem! In the first picture you can see the beginnings of the cut-in of the new color...sort of a soft mushroom/bisque color to go with the old world pitted floor tile.

 And here is the "after" once the full coat of paint was complete. Already, much better! This picture also highlights the bottom cabinets which were in rough shape. The top were passable (though a cherry finish is not my favorite) so we decided to leave them and focus on the lowers: lightly sanding and using a de-glosser before giving it a few coats of paint.

 Also note in these pre-lower-cabinet-paint frames, the color of the granite. Though unique, I was not a fan.

Ok, I confess, I actually HATED it. It looked like good old Virginia clay had been smeared all over the counters...just so. much. terracotta. ICK. So when we were considering what color to paint the cabinets, I suggested we find a color in the granite we actually liked (a light grayish-quartz) and try to match the cabinets to that to down play the orange-y red (which the cherry cabinets highlighted) and highlight the gray veins of the stone instead.

 And you know what?!! It actually worked!!! *praise hands* While I would still never choose this granite, I don't mind it at all anymore. The lighter neutral color really toned down the original mud-look, and you (well, I) barely notice how very "dirt-y" it is. WIN!

So, quandary: I can't decide whether to paint the toe-kick. At our last home, we painted it a matte black, and added legs/braces to make the cabinets look more like furniture, which I loved. BUT, I feel like these simple shaker design fronts wouldn't really lend themselves to that... So, what would you do? Paint it to match the cabinet fronts? Leave it? Paint it black?