Some Fall Decor
It’s getting a bit late in the season, but I thought I’d share our fall spirit with you.
This is a basket we bought at the Threshers this year. We agreed on it because of the antlers! lol
I filled the basket with gourds. To keep them up towards the top of the basket I stuffed it first with tissue paper. I also kept the tag on the basket to remember who the craft vendor was!
We also each got a pumpkin, which we kept on the porch…
One of our black kittens on the porch too. Meet Patch…
Here’s how our carved pumpkins turned out…
John Deere and a scary laughing face. lol
Happy fall ya’ll!
A Quick Doorstop Project
The main level in our new house has a small bathroom in the laundry area (yes!), which is super handy, but sometimes a bit wierd. We like to leave the door at least half open so that you know the room is not occupied, but you also dont want the door flung wide open to see everything (let’s face it, even when clean, bathrooms just aren’t that appealing!).
So, to stop the door from flopping about annoyingly, I made a doorstop. Cost? Free!
I went out to the barn and grabbed an old brick, then cleaned it off. I used some soft, thick, scrap fabric I had on hand, and wrapped the brick like a present. I secured the fabric with a glue gun. Last, I added ribbon trim, also scrap, to the seam for a finished look… Viola!
Nothing fancy, or groundbreaking, but it was cheap and does the job. I don’t think it looks half bad either, if I do say so myself! And, you get a sneak peak of the bathroom/laundry room! Just a note, if you are thinking about a project like this, it works great! I love how this thick, soft fabric slides easily and quietly on the tile floor with a scoot of the foot. I recommend!
Sun Porch Make Over
One of the rooms on the lower level of the new house that I have not yet given you a tour of is the “sun porch.” This room is on the back side of the dining room. We saw potential, but it was initially a bland, useless room. Before:
Unfortunately, these photos are only “semi-before” shots. We do have some things in there. But, you can see the room is blah and in rough shape. What you can’t see is that the walls are blotchy paint, everything is dingy and dirty, and the carpet piece is missing a chunk.
Here are a few perkier after shots:
The carpet is the same… for now. I plan to do some stenciling on it!
The ceiling still needs to be painted. I am waiting to find the perfect light blue…
Here is the view back out the antique stained glass window into the dining room…
And my helpers…
Better, no? 🙂
Farm House Tour- The Upstairs
I have been wanting to show a mini tour of the new farm house, and finally got started! These are “semi-before” photos, as we already have our things moved in, but these our not our paint colors and mostly not our curtains. There will be many more changes to come, and I wanted a way to show the progress and changes. So, lets start with the upstairs!
Here is the view at the top of the stairs.
There are some frames in the hallway and the book shelf I redid…
At the end of the stairwell is an old antique wash cabinet from my granparents…
The view back towards the stairwell…
Next is the room on the left of the stairwell, next to the old wash cabinet. We call this the “kid room,” which used to be a little girl’s room…
The other side of the room…
And on the wall by the door there is a chalk drawing of Dora! lol
The door in the last photo goes to what we call the “baby room,” which will one day be a nursery…
The other side of the room has chalk spiderwebs, which were for a little boy…
Here is the view back towards the “kid room”…
Next is my walk through closet that leads the master bedroom. This is across the stairwell from these rooms…
I still can’t wait to have the time to paint the closet the dark navy I have picked out!
The jewelry area…
Next you walk through the closet door and into our sunken bedroom…
The walls are currently yellow, which is fine, but we plan to paint them a nice gray at some point. The little white shabby dresser was found in the back of the house and makes a perfect TV stand for us…
The wooden shelf above the chair is a barn board we found…
Recognize the blue chair from the old office? It was too big. The next photo is of the antique dresser from my grandparents that matches out bed…
Our bed…
The shelf by my side of the bed we made out of another barn board that we call the “cow board,” because its front is smooth and wavy due to cows rubbing on it…
Our stained glass window and exposed rustic beams…
Next is the main bathroom. This shot is a view in the doorway from the closet…
The blue and flooring aren’t really our first picks, but they will make due until we can paint and spruce…
Well, thats the upstairs. What do you think so far? A lot to do, but so far we love it! 🙂
A Gift Basket
I work for a non-profit agency and part of our yearly activity is to do a bit of fundraising to help out. This year we decided to make gift baskets and then auction them off. I volunteered to make a gift basket and then of course panicked, not knowing what to put in it!
So, I decided to make a basket of hot cocoa and coffees and all the fixins. I got this idea because a while back in a magazine I saw some antique spoons coated with chocolate and given as a gift with some drinks as stirers. I started off with some vintage silver spoons and some chocolate…
Then I wrapped these cuties up. I added some cute vintage mason jars and a tag for the cocoa…
I think it turned out pretty well, and it was super easy! Hope it raises some money! 🙂
An Addiction To My “Dressing Room”
I am absolutely loving my new closet, or “dressing room,” in the new house! I am getting used to having all of my clothes, shoes, and jewelry out on display where I can easily pick outfits and use things I haven’t in a while. With the new arrangment comes, well, arranging, however. As I get settled I am slowly making changes and getting ready to paint. So, with that said, that means that I have been making some changes to my organization. If you remember my pictures of my older house, you will remember that I kept a lot of jewelry and items in an old antique metal medicine chest hung above my dresser. There was nowhere to hang it up in the closet and sitting on top of a dresser did not allow the door to open… so…
I had gotten an old flower-y frame at a garage sale that just so happens to match the colors I want to use in the closet. I also happened to have some chicken wire in the barn. A staple gun and some elbow grease later…
I think it turned out super cute. It will probaby be going on the one wall shortly. So far its been handy too!
Desk Chair Redo
I was in an office chair conundrum at the new house. The office is large enough to hold the futon, DVD rack, desk, book shelf, and even file cabinet. But, its just not very comfortable. I loved using the comfy and gorgeous blue wingback chair in my last home office, but in this office there just isn’t enough space for a nice layout with the chair. So, the blue wingback moved to our bedroom. More pictures of that to come. Then there was no office chair. What to do?
During a recent (and quick) trip down to the creepy basement to store a few boxes I noticed a computer chair with wheels! It was ugly. No other way to put it. But, it was sturdy and heavy duty, and in good shape other than the abused crudiness of it.
The before:
First step? Remove the ugly arms. Then it was some paint and fabric…
Not too bad, eh?
So, what do you think? I think for being a completely free project it turned out super cute and will work for us for a while, while we have zero money. Oh, and don’t worry about the BRIGHT red walls. Come winter they will no longer be so obnoxious. It is especially strong paired with a big red filing cabinet and on the other wall is a red futon and ottoman! lol.
Blue Chair Love
This chair is so unique that its simply adorable. In addition to the ruffly curves, the chairs bright blue hue pairs wonderfully with the rustic wood walls of the room. What do you think?
See it at Design Crisis.
Glam Bedroom Chair Love
I came across this bedroom and just adore this black and white chair. No, I adore the whole glam little bedroom.
See the whole sweet room here.
Sneak Peak of the New House
We are completely moved into the farm now, and even had our housewarming party. And, we are loving it! There are color and arrangement changes we’d like to make in the near future, but for right now we are settled! Soon I will have a full tour of the place for you all, but for now here are a few tid-bits to get the feel for the antique unique-ness of our new home.
Here is a shot of my closet. Yes, I said MY. And, yes, this whooole space is the closet! Wow is right. Its like my own personal dressing room. Oh, and I might be nice and share one or two shelves. 🙂
This is a peak into our bedroom. The bedroom is sunken behind the closet. The beams on the ceiling you see here are barn boards from our barn. And isn’t that little stained glass window adorable?
This little shelf is in our bedroom. We made it ourselves (whereas the other elements were added or refurbished by previous owners) and it was made out of a board we found in the barn. The curves in the front of the board were carved out by cows rubbing on it. Oh, and don’t worry, the mustard color will soon go.
This is a peak at the top landing of our stairs. This little gate was made from an old antique door. So cute. It latches with an old barn style latch. It already proves handy for keeping the dogs corralled, but will also be handy with kids someday!
Here’s a little magazine rack that is built into the stairway. These little touches are what makes this house so sweet and unique.
This is a shot of the banister that has been antiqued. This is right off the dining room and basically the view you get as you walk in our main door.
Across the other side of the dining room are two antique doors with stained glass windows. One leads to a sun room and one to a storage room. Gorgeous touches!
In the dining room and to the right is the kitchen. The kitchen was added on later and has a drop woods ceiling. The master sunken bedroom is above the kitchen. The kitchen has warm hardwood floors just like the dining room and living room. There is an super cute little arched doorway leading to the kitchen. And notice the antique wood wainscoting? Each room also has original crown moldings.
Here’s a peak at the antique kitchen cabinets. Some of them! Need I say more?
And one last shot I have for you is the living room. The couple who refinished a lot of the house before us built a TV cabinet out of antique doors that were found in the barn. It is large and we are not sure we will keep it here, but it is so neat and such a conversation starter!
Well, what do you think? Are you ready to see how we decorate and accent all of these crazy details?!
Make Mine Eclectic 