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?!
Moving In!
We have been so busy with the moving, but I wanted to take a minute to at least give you all a sneak peak! I wanted to take pictures of the inside after this weekend, but there is still to much stuff sitting around to be put away yet. So, for now…
The front view. Not a lovely picture, but this is our 1891 baby. With two big old barns and six acres we have projects lined up for years to come!
Here we are in front of the side on our day of closing. Can’t wait to show some detail shots of the inside, but all in good time. For now I am staying in IL during the week while I work here, so I will only be at the new house on the weekends. More to come!
Sneak Peak of the Outside
I am learning how to use the Blackberry wordpress app to update posts, so I thought I would test this out by giving you a little sneak peak of the outside of the new house. Now that the flowers are all planted things are starting to look bright and fresh!
The Lounge
There is an extra bedroom upstairs that I did not have a particular use for at this time. Why not use the room as a chance to have some fun and make a relaxing lounge where I can work on some projects?!
Here’s a little tour:
Bright, no? But, I love it and find it so cozy. Remember that couch from before I bought the house? The trunk was my birthday present a few years back and it now holds scrapbook and craft supplies. The bright flash made some of the paint look patchy, but I promise, it isn’t so. The door knobs and latch plates are from doors that were found rotting away in the garage when I moved in here. I couldn’t keep the old doors, but also couldn’t part with the the hardware. Any suggestions?
Virtual Tour-Starting in the Dining Room
I think I will give you a little before and after tour of each room as I update them in the new house. Besides the bathroom, the dining room was one of the first rooms I refinished. I decided not to mess with the beaded board walls or drop ceiling at this time, and the carpet may someday come out to reveal the… hardwood floors! But for now… the before:
Yeah, not much for a dining room, right? And After…
I really wanted initially to get rid of the blue ceiling fan. However, family and friends convinced me to work around it. The fan was new and it had a remote and a dimmer. They swore it would be handy. Turns out, they are right! So, I covered a large lamp shade in silky black ribbon and attached it to the fan over the light bulbs. I also hung a crystal from the pull. I think the set-up helps a lot!
On this wall will eventually be a buffet I am refinishing. Stay tuned for that project soon.
And remember the armuoir I turned into a mini bar? So, what do you think so far?
Budget Bathroom Redmodel
I recently bought my first home and armed with a tight budget and a big dream I set out to fix the place up. The house was built in the 20′s and plumbing was not originally indoors. The bathroom is large, but appears to be in an old bedroom or closet. There was a bathtub, but because of the slope of the roof, there was no room for a stand up shower without hitting your head. I had to get creative in order to stay within my means and also make the place functional for everyday living…
Here are a few before shots of the old retro bathroom:
Not only was there no shower, but this baby also had carpet, dingy tile board walls, no outlets, and only one tiny light. I had my work cut out for me.
I decided to refinish a clawfoot tub and move it away from the wall a couple of feet in order to add a diverter faucet where the ceiling was high enough to stand to shower. The rest fell into place after that. All was done for under $1000. Check it out:
Yea, that’s right, it’s the same bathroom. Clean, functional, bright, and a bit glamorous. My own personal dressing room!
Our House- The Outside
When we moved into our new home it was getting cold and dreary out, and I have yet to post pictures of the outside of our house or our porch. Until now, that is. This weekend was so gorgeous outside that I took some pictures of the porch and the newly covered bench, as well as the patio furniture that I had time to repaint. Here we go:
The front view of our house.
The little bench by the front door and our red vintage lawn chairs!
Our gorgeous chairs!
And on the other side- our lovely vintage ice cream table and chairs!
Enjoy our sunny pictures!
End Of House Tour- The Living Room
So, I have given a quick tour through our new home at its current state. The only room left to show you is the living room. We are in this room most, and love the feel of it. The black console table was made just for me by Tony (aw). The pictures do look a little dark even though I did turn on the overhead lights, which we never use. Let me know what you think!
Console table with the shelves above it. The black chair was a project I redid.
The TV area. The TV didn't fit into the cubbie that was preexisting, so we just decorated the cubbie and put the TV below.
The close up of the TV cubbie. I love the little antique picture. In the small jar is also small little glass candies. I need to find a better place for them.
These old movie theater seats were a salvaged find. They sit next to the TV on the right. The vintage ad above matches them so well.
The other side of the TV. We love our movie display. Again, I love anything with cubbies, so this was perfect for me!
The couch is directly facing the TV. We still want to replace those flowery curtains, but the couch is comfy and cute- we got lucky for a hand-me-down!
Next to the couch is my pride and joy! My Eames era lounge chair!
My Baby!
Guest Room. My Shabby Chic
I have always loved shabby chic. I will admit it. But, it has never fit very well into the decor I have. Needless to say, Tony does not like shabby chic. We agree on almost all decor decisions, but not that. However, we did have another spare bedroom and decided to use it as a sort of guest room. I was able to put a dresser in there and have a space where I can store my extras (curlers and make-up) and get ready for work. So, Tony let me have my shabby chic way with this room. It, as is the rest of the house, is a work in progress. But, its starting to work.
Just as you come into the guest room, you see this chair. It's too bad you can't see it in the picture, but there is a shabby blue frame hanging on the wall behind it. The little plant stand matches another being used as a bedside table. They are antiques, one from my great grandmother, the other found (how crazy!) at an antiques store.
The bed is directly in the door. Chenile bedspread, antique shadow box filled with my antique collectibles, vintage bench.
In the back corner is the only extra closet space of the house. We keep the vaccuum and things in here. The vanity is for me to get ready. I had bought it with the intention of painting it shabby white. But, now I am afraid of taking away from the piece. Any suggestions??
Our Office/Den
One of the extra bedrooms in the house has been turned into a den. We added a projector and a futon from my appartment. Its cozy, but still a work in progress. We do like going in there to watch movies, but it needs some work. We plan on mounting shelving along the walls right under the ceiling. We have a sort of music/art theme going, so we would like to set some of our memorabilia on the shelves as a border around the room.
The closet in the den has become a mini office. We are both still in school and it comes in handy to have a place to sit at the computer. Tony built a wall mounted desk and we painted it black.
From the doorway looking into the den. You can see the futon and the projection shelf. I have a plan for some art to hang along the empty wall.
This is the wall that the futon faces. The bookshelf holds all of our school books. Above that is empty because it is for the projection screen. We have a large frame for the area, but it has yet to be hung. The file cabinet is an old Shaw-Walker that I painted bright red.
A close up of the bookshelves and our fish Van Halen.
This is the closet office. Tony made this desk for me. I used wire to hang pictures. I'm not sure, but even after editing, it still feels a little cluttered to me. Any suggestions?
The chair that we are using right now as the desk chair was found in the garbage. I hate to admit that, but it was perfect and I couldn't pass it up! All it needed was a good scrubbing (thank you Magic Eraser!). I thought it was so vintage cute, so I made Tony go swipe it. Gorgeous.
