Headboard achievement unlocked

Finally we got a headboard for the master bedroom. I wanted something with words on it, but not silly words like "dream" or "love". So this has the names of tea. I like tea.I got it from here, where you can get any upholstered thing in any of the fabrics. The silver and brass Moroccan mirrors on either side are souvenirs from Marrakesh where if I ever return I will buy the whole city.

There has been a long delay between my last post and this one due to several new additions. Not to the house...to the family:
They arrived a bit early in late January and are doing fine.
This event did result in the creation of the nursery.
Before it looked like this:
Here it is ready to paint.
Note also the (mostly busted) reproduction lighting:
There was a shark drawn in pencil on the corner of the wall:
This is the nice new lighting from Restoration Hardware:
Here it is all in butter yellow. Crib is from Target.
The changing table is actually an Ikea kitchen island. Note: double changing pads for twins!
The greatest thing about this room is all the built ins- plenty of shelving. Also featured in this picture: plush dog, tripod lighting, cat asleep on a pillow by the window:
The next phase is to put up art. We have some prints of dragons by Ron Rodecker to frame and put up. From now on I will try to update this blog in the usual at least once per month fashion!

Amazing China

The scope of the entire set:


A butter dish? with area underneath for ice:


Three salt shakers (because no should ever have to pass the salt):


OMG glasses!:


Close up of the detail on the borders:



My goddaughter's mother's grandmother (follow that one) needed a home for a gigantic set of china and glassware from 1910 and yesterday I drove eight hours round trip to Lake Placid to pick it up.

Fortunately it was beautiful fall weather, her grandmother is a delightful person and also the china is unbelievable.

Unpacking it last night it just seemed to keep coming in a never ending flood of gold embossed rims.

Yes, it's all mine! It just seems to belong in my house, looking so at home on top of the gigantic Stickley table. *dances* Next time dinner at my place will be so fancy!

Strange Art at Brimfield

This year was the year of the paintings on velvet, apparently. If they had been reasonably priced I might have been tempted.

Giant Silver Snail!


You have cooties...I mean SCABIES!


This one was my favorite. A lovely depiction of Princess Aimsatnothingwhilenaked.


Some memorabilia, and alien porn.



Also, this moth was not at Brimfield. It was on my doorpost. Does anyone know what it is? It was HUGE.

It's Summer Again

Time to play guess that flower!

Let there be Eastlake light!

I went out of town to attend a Romance novel convention, and my husband hung the Eastlake chandelier which is another piece of Ellen and Delia's we are "babysitting"- like the beautiful tapestry from the January post.

It has such amazing details:


And the shades....wow.


I should go out of town more often!

More Sunroom: A Window and a Floor!

The screen on the sunroom before (totally busted!)


The beautiful windows. The curve at the bottom of the window which was present in the screens at the point where they joined the house was preserved by taking arch windows and turning them upside down!


The floor in progress:


The original bedroom floor harmonizes with the color of the new floor. A good match:

A Light and a Door

The master bedroom had a screened in porch off of it, which would have been lovely if it had not been so totally busted. A year ago we decided to make it into a four season room. This is the first of the posts about that process.

The old porch light:

You can really tell in this photo that the walls are the exterior shingles of the house, and how badly damaged they are after so much time exposed to the elements.

The new porch light (it really turns on!):

We wanted a craftsman style swing arm light so it could be adjusted above a reading chair. More about those windows in the next post.

The door (with lead paint and no flooring):

These doors are original and all the glass is custom sized, so I am so happy that we were able to keep them.

The door (repainted, refurbished, intact, with floor installed):



I am actually sitting in this room typing this, in a large paisley armchair with a big ottoman and it's awesome. More pics to come!

Menorah Upgrade

This is the (tiny but pretty) one I have been using since '95. Shown next to Kiddish cup for scale.


This is the large pewter one. We unwrapped it today and it looks even more impressive in reality.



There's nothing that says "It's Channukah, b**ches!" like a menorah large enough to take tapers.

Tapestry!!

Over the holidays we had the delightful experience of staying with writer friends Ellen and Delia. Prior to moving into a (huge, gorgeous) New York apartment Delia had renovated her previous Victorian home with beautiful original and period lighting, wallpaper and furnishings.

Every square inch of their apartment is an inspiration to me, and I got to spend hours talking about colors and comparing samples. I left with a lot of ideas. Unbelievably, because they are so short on space I also left with some of their stuff- including a beautiful tapestry which they did not have space to hang and so I am "babysitting" it until they want it back.

Today it got hung, in the foyer, and it looks great over the vintage chest:


This is how it looks now when I open my front door:


Huzzah! So Medieval and fairytale looking! I feel like I should be answering the door in a houppelande!

Bar Tiles and Pulls

It's a bit of a learning process, this DIY thing. However, it is fun and one of the areas where we can play and learn to do new things without the fear of harming some irreplaceable hundred year old thing is in the Bar Room.

The bar itself was a sideboard which was built in the 70's and they tried to match the rest of the house but they didn't quite succeed. Eventually the plan is to have built in shelves and make that a Library Room, moving the bar to the 3rd floor. However, in the meantime we wanted to make it look more like the rest of the house.

This involved removing doors from both sides to create open shelving for glasses and bottles and replacing square wooden pulls with the same Craftsman pulls as in the kitchen, then getting tile and covering the white pressed wood countertop with it.


In case you don't remember (and I don't!) what the room looked like when we moved in, here it is:

You can just see the edge of the pressed wood countertops.

This is the tile we chose:

I liked the tiny squares because they create a natural and varied but overall uniform appearance. The stones are slightly iridescent, which you can sort of see in the pic. We got the tile at Home Depot and installed it ourselves using the Tiling 1-2-3 instructions.

This is what the tile looks like over the whole bar:

You will notice that some of the pulls are not yet on, and you can still see the pressed wood on the side.

Here is pic showing the side tiles and in counter outlets:


This is what the pulls look like all on:


It's finished! (for now...)

So come have a drink!

The Pink Room Is Now The Yellow Room

Last weekend was very productive. I made slow cooker chili, played more D&D on the Geekchic table, and painted a room.

The pink room was a color which was clearly chosen by a tween girl, and was on the dark side of the house which made it somewhat more somber than pink ever should be. The yellow is "buttercup" Behr one coat ultra paint, and really brightened up the room.

Before:



During:



After: