House Tour Continued: The Rest of the Downstairs
Finally here to finish the (inside) house tour! Coming from the living room tour, next you would walk into the “office” room. This room was already red, and I owned a lot of red furniture. It is wild in there. But, soon to look a bit different. This room is so handy. We have room to do computer work, crafts, store paperwork, and lounge. There is also a closet and plenty of floor space for kids and toys. Since it is connected openly to the living room it would be easy to keep an eye on little ones playing.
This is the one room that we have a box left to unpack. You know, that one pesky little box that has nowhere to go?
And next, the dining room! You can see there is that shelf in the way still…
The table and chairs we bought from the seller.
The window is a view into the sun porch we saw before. The stained glass door on the other side is the same as the sun porch door, but leads to a storage closet, which has proven to be super handy!
This is the door we use most frequently, but it is actually a side door. The little screened in porch is out that door and there is a big circle driveway there.
Directly the oposite direction of this picture is the kitchen…
Isn’t the arched doorway adorable? There will eventually be a small table under the window.
Yes, the curtains are currently mismatched. Soon to be fixed, when I can make up my mind!
I also love the rustic cabinets! The little silverware drwaers are like cigar boxes!
The ceilings are low, but its cozy. Out the door by the window is a stairway to the basement and a storage woom we lovingly call the “dog room.” Unfinished and super ugly, but this area is a life saver!
Now to backtrack into the dining room. The door next to the dining room entry is to a 1/2 bath and a laundry room. Oh, how a mainfloor bathroom is wonderful!
Not fancy, but perfect to us!
Well, what do you think? That is pretty much the whole house, flaws and all! I can’t wait to start making chnages and show you all!
House Tour Continued: The Living Room
I have finally gotten around to taking more pictures of the house! Again, these are semi-befores, as I have put things away and somewhat decorated, but we have not done any remodeling or painting yet. We can start in the living room.
Here is the view from the steps that lead upstairs (where we toured before)…
Yes, the room is peach. No, it is NOT staying this way. Also, if I may vent, I hate the couch situation. That is the old floral couch from my “green lounge room” in the old house. We covered it with a slipcover (horrible idea!) and the ottoman is the red one one from the office covered in a sheet. This was our way of making a temporary L shaped couch. Yeah, I hope it doesn’t last long!
Also, I love the curatins, but I think they are getting traded with another room, more on that later! And sorry to those of you who do not like animals in decor, but this room has a lot of it. Fiance and I like it 🙂
The walls will soon be a grey. Also, the empty wall above the teal table has some art…just not hung yet!
Don’t mind the shelf that is in the process of being moved in the last photo! Next is a shot of the entertainment center. The last owners built this awesome rustic thing and left it. We had debated doing away with it, as it is very big, but it has grown on us! I think it may pop in a neat way once the walls are painted, so we will keep her for a while!
A shot of some antique keys hanging inside the entertainment center…
The makers of this cabinet hung a spoon handle on the outside as a coat hook. Such a cute idea!
There used to be a stove where the stone wall is.
Here is the view out our red front door…
fSo, what do you think? Its getting there. I can’t wait to paint! Stay tuned for the tour of the rest of the downstairs! 🙂
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! 🙂
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?!
Inspiration and Big News
After being out of town, and a little out of touch, most of last week, I am finally catching up. Reading through a backlog of blogs today I ran across the most gorgeous farm house tour on Apartment Therapy.
The details of this home struck a cord with me, because we happen to have just bought an 1891 farm house. Yes, one more move! We close in about two weeks. We are anxious, nervous, excited, and very busy. This is the first time I will really be moving away, although not far, just to Iowa. This is our dream home, and we are very excited to remodel and decorate once there. Pictures soon to come!
But for now, here are two of my favorite images from Shannan and Cory’s home tour. Check out the rest here.
I love that light fixture! And the pillow is gorgeous! I am so excited to put some of this inspiration to use in the new place!
This was one of my favorite photos because of the crate used to hold towels. We found an old crate of glass bottles at a garage sale for a few dollars, and had planned to use the bottles as wedding decor. Little did we realize that the crate had a Tipton, IA business emblem on the side, which is where we later bought the house! I would love to incorporate our crate in a useful way like this!
What do you think?
Next Comes The Bathroom and Master Bedroom
This is the bed. Matching side tables and lamps.
A close up view of the side table. This one happens to be Tony's.
This is the dresser facing the bed. An old full length miror stands against the wall and an Asian keepsake box sits on the floor next to it.The dresser is vintage from when my mom was a little girl. She used the room set and then I did when I was little. The black strips are removable, and flip over to change colors. We painted one side of each black.
The hand is a vintage glove mold, the box is an old Kodak box, which we keep our momentos in. The mirror is an antique medicine cabinet, which we painted black and added a chendelier crystal for a pull. Close up of sink and storage.
The view from the door into the tiny bathroom. It feels really bright and spa-ish because of the light blue walls and white curtains. We added a blue rug and blue curtain hooks.
The little shelf we hung across from the toilet with pretty perfume bottles on it. The only little "extra" that fits into the space!
Close up of sink and storage. Pretty much the entire bathroom.
Moving On To The Dining Room
We have also got the dining room pretty much set up (for now). We do have many projects on the list, but Illinois winters don’t allow for too much outdoor work (sanding and painting). Here is the mini tour of the dining room. And, as always, suggestions and comments are always welcome and appreciated!
This is a little corner of the dining room. The door leads down to an old basement. This was a hand-me-down metal desk. We fell in love with it. We don't really use it as a desk, but more as a table and storage (the house has NO extra linen-type closets!). The little jar is a bag of HUGs! The paiting is one by my brother, which he gave me for my birthday this year. I love this little area.
A close up of the painting by Ryan.
This is the corner of the dining room between the kitchen and the living room. The antique table and antique lamp are from my grandmother. The silver balls are modern and I think provide nice contast here. The little primitive box was one that Tony made when he was in high school. I think its adorable. I added antique bottles.
A close up of Tony's little box and the apothecary bottles.
This is the other side of the window. The plate rack obviously still needs to be hung.
This is our little red dining room table. The mismatched chairs are all painted black. if you can see the curtains here or in any other pictures, they, too, need to be replace. They are covered in fruit. Its on the project list!
This is the little wall space next to the window. I love this set up. I always love antique frames.
This is the wall behind the dining table. It is pretty bare for right now, but we are working on redoing a giant antique desk for this spot. We got the desk at an auction for $5! The candles and shelves will stay.
The Kitchen Comes Together
- The little window to the dining room. Enless possibilities. The clock happens to have faces on both sides!
Close up of the window and beautiful bottles we have collected.
View heading out kitchen door. The artsy rolling pin was an auction find. The curatins have to go, but that will be an upcoming project.
Some of the DIY the landlord tried above the microwave. He had it hidden by a mass of leaves wound in lattice. It was so dusty and ugly. So far I spruced it up with a vintage lunc box of recipies. I love the little vintage tea pot Tony found for me.
The other corner of the kitchen. Same old ugly curtain. I was also thinking about painting the cabinets. We are renters, so this might be a project for after we have been here a while. But, they are old, shabby cupboards, so maybe, just maybe...
Some More Pictures
A few more before shots.
This is the before of our living room and boxes. And the UGLY curtains!
A view from the living room into the dining room. Stuff was everywhere!
Where To Begin
So, as I said, my boyfriend and I have just recently moved into a new house. The place is cute and cozy, but it will take some work for us to arrange, decorate, remodel, and combine all of our belongings. We have been there for a couple of weeks now. But, to backtrack, here are a few photos of the house as we were moving in, and the empty rooms just asa we are starting to arrange.
Tony is making dinner in the new house with our pup Romeo.
Make Mine Eclectic 