From the Design Book: A Home Tour Fit for a Sister

“The ache for home lives in all of us. 

The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned."

~ Maya Angelou 

All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes 

Yesterday, I went on a home tour through this house. 

As soon as I walked in the door, my heart began to ache because my sister Miriam (and blog partner) wasn't with me to see it. And this is why: If you took Miriam's heart and shaped it into a 10,000 square-foot residence, I'm pretty sure this would be it.

The house had a gentle and feminine soul.  It was a place where old things were treasured and somehow felt new again.

I loved the antique portraits of the home owner's great-great grandparents in the front room.  And that sofa--also the great-great grandmother's.  Seriously.

I spied these framed family recipes in the kitchen next to Grandma's china.

And anyone who has a teacup chandelier hanging over the sink is definitely a friend of mine!

As if this kitchen needed anything to make it prettier . . .

Tile backsplash?  Cabinet details?  Milk glass?  I can't decide which I love more!

The owner of the home said she wanted a home that combined the "old" and the "new."  I think her buffet and dining area are the perfect melding of these two ideas.

But perhaps the stairway is the best example of blending the old and the new with its Victorian spindles mounted on the outside of the steps juxtaposed with a fun frame collage on the wall.

Each of the stair treads has a fun quote on it.  Do you recognize any of these?  Disney lovers unite!

The great room is a soothing kind of lovely with its robin egg blue, cream, and coral palette.

The adjoining craft room is a fun and fresh compliment to the aged doors that separate the two areas.  And who said you had to commit to just ONE type of wallpaper? I would have never thought to put a strip of each on the wall.  Brave, but beautiful.

 The master bedroom is a simple and soothing space anchored by a two way fireplace and softened with ruched bedding.  Drool.

And just take a look at these gorgeous sliding doors that mark the entrance to the master bath.  I think I'm in love.

And while the ENTIRE house was incredible--all 10,000 square-feet of it--I had to share this teen girl suite from the upper floor.  I knew Miriam would love it with its feminine lighting, Tiffany blue walls, and painted piano!

As hard as it was to walk through this house without Miriam, I think it's going to be harder to convince the owners to hand it over to her so she can live there.

Here's to all of our dream homes . . . even if we aren't the ones living in them.

From the Design Book: A Virtual Home Tour for My Husband

"One of the reasons that women writing about homemaking a century ago were so self-possessed is that neither they nor their readers were conflicted about the importance of their subject. A Victorian woman’s home was her eminent domain, and she ruled over it with as much confidence as Queen Victoria ruled the world.
 


~ Sarah Ban Breathnach, Romancing the Ordinary: A Year of Simple Splendor

One of my husband's many gifts is his enduring spirit.  For example, on Saturday morning he ran 10 miles without stopping.  In a few days, he will have officially survived 17 years of marriage with me with only a few thoughts of "stopping." And if life would allow it, he would watch every-stinkin'-war-documentary-episode that the History Channel ever made, back to back, stopping only for a ham sandwich.

He is my own Energizer Bunny---except when it comes to the Parade of Homes.

Something mysterious happens to my husband when we start to "parade" through homes.  The feet that happily carried him 10 miles in the scorching sun on Saturday morning suddenly become fatigued with all the "walking".  The eyes that can unblinkingly watch a 6-hour documentary on a civil skirmish in 18th century Albania suspiciously glaze over whenever I ask him his opinion on paint colors.  And even though he has filled our marriage with love notes and flowers and thoughtful deeds, he surprisingly has NO feelings when it comes to decor.

So we've made a deal.  He and I go to three homes together.  Three.  No more.  No less.  And we are both on our best behavior for three houses.  I don't engage him in conversations about textures or textiles, and he doesn't puff his cheeks out and exhale bored sighs.

Marriage saved.

Unfortunately, there were 35 homes in this year's parade and my husband somehow dodged seeing my favorites.  So pardon me for a moment as I bend the "Three's the Limit" rule and create a "virtual" house walk for him.  Here is what I would say to him if he had walked through with me:

"Honey!  Look!  There's house 16.  Isn't that paneling great with those shingles?  And I really like the blue of the front door against the grey/green of the siding."

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"Oh!  I love all the light in this family room!  And the tufted couches?!  Yes, please!"

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"Don't you just love how that reclaimed wood looks above the television?!  It's an art piece!"

"Look at the combination of the beadboard above the cupboards and the glass tiles below.  Adorable!"

"And look, honey!  An eating area other than In-n-Out that can accommodate all of our boys!"

"Don't you think our oldest son would drool over this room with its cool color scheme and private loft?" 

"Fun room.  What a great way to utilize the space with all of those built-in cubbies.  And I've always been a sucker for eaves.  They make rooms so interesting."

"How hard would it be hang pendant lights like that in OUR master bedroom?  And what do you think of that tufted headboard?  Did I mention how much I love all things 'tufted'?"

"Holy Moly!  Look at that shower (on the right).  It's bigger than our garage and has floor to ceiling window slats!  And those mirrors.  Yum.  I could get used to this place---including that walk-in closet."

"So what didya think, sweetie?  What would you rank the house on a scale from 1 to 10?  Wait.  Let's make two separate rankings---one for the floor plan, design, etc., and one for the decorating.  So?"

I'd like to think that after reading this post, my husband will have ABUNDANT feedback for me that will lead to hours of staring into each other's eyes as we discuss the virtues and vices of berber carpet, the craftsman style, and of course, tufted furniture.

Then again, maybe I should just be happy if he reads the post in the first place.  After all, it would mean that I got him to see FOUR houses this year.  

(Cue wicked laugh dripping with gloatful satisfaction.)

Poor thing.  

He never saw it coming.

 

Sharing at . . .

Cedar Hill Ranch
Between Naps on the Porch 
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Homestories A to Z
Jennifer Rizzo
StoneGable 
No Minimalist Here
Common Ground
From My Front Porch to Yours   
French Country Cottage 
At the Picket Fence
Stuff and Nonsense   
Savvy Southern Style 
It's Overflowing 
Atta Girl Says

From the Design Book: A Bathroom Makeover

"[Dessie's] shop was a unique institution in Salinas. It was a woman's world. Here all the rules, and the fears that created the iron rules, went down. The door was closed to men. It was a sanctuary where women could be themselves- smelly, wanton, mystic, conceited, truthful, and interested. The whalebone corsets came off at Dessie's, the sacred corsets that moulded and warped woman-flesh into goddess-flesh."  

~ John Steinbeck, East of Eden

I have a bittersweet relationship with bathrooms.

On the one hand, I have to clean them.

(And it wouldn't hurt to remind you here that I have 5 boys.)

On the other hand, bathrooms offer me a moment of honest privacy in this very public world. 

The bathroom is where I close the door on the idealized bodies I see on magazines and television and Pinterest, and where I come to terms with my own, very normal, very real woman-flesh.  Here is where I weigh that flesh, clean it, pluck it, shave it, paint it, scent it, dress it, and own it.  That moment in the morning when it is just me and the mirror is a defining one: each day I decide to either live with what I see or change what I see.

Not long ago, I realized I REALLY didn't like what I saw in the mirror---aside from that trouble area just south of my chin and north of my kneecaps.  It was everything ELSE in the mirror that troubled me.  I saw yellow-striped wallpaper, builder-white walls, and non-committal brown cupboards.  Yuck.  It was indeed time for a change, and this time, it didn't involve a diet.

Behold.

My bathroom decor was doing NOTHING to help me feel confident, happy, or skinny.  So I decided to change it.

Here it is now.

Now my bathroom is soft and serene and sparkly.  And while I may need a heck of a lot more vertical lines to make me look skinny in that mirror, I swear the new surroundings have completely changed my outlook in the morning.


The first thing I did was strip the wallpaper down to the bare walls and paint it a neutral tan color (Gobi Desert by Behr).

 Next, I took those horrible brown cabinets and painted them white and added a brown glaze over top.

To finish off the tub area, I added a topiary and a candle chandelier.

For the sink area, my husband and I framed out the mirror with some inexpensive molding.  This made a HUGE difference for not a lot of work.  (Says the wife whose husband did all of the cutting . . .)

I added apothecary jars on silver trays for a little sparkle . . .

These jars looked lovely sitting across from my vintage toiletry bottles.

And then, as the finishing touch to the bathroom, I decided to use this little garage sale tray as a "towel plaque."  Just a simple swipe of a white-out pen in the center of the tray, and voila!

I wish I could say that my new bathroom is self-cleaning, but it's not.  But somehow cleaning a beautiful bathroom doesn't feel like such a chore.  The boys' bathroom?  Well, that's another story . . .

Sharing at . . .

Cedar Hill Ranch
Between Naps on the Porch 
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Homestories A to Z
Jennifer Rizzo
StoneGable 
No Minimalist Here
Common Ground
From My Front Porch to Yours   
French Country Cottage 
At the Picket Fence
Stuff and Nonsense   
Savvy Southern Style 
It's Overflowing 
Atta Girl Says 

Sweet Bella Roos

From the Design Book: Updated Farmhouse Home Tour

“There were no clouds, the sun was going down in a limpid, gold-washed sky. Just as the lower edge of the red disk rested on the high fields against the horizon, a great black figure suddenly appeared on the face of the sun. We sprang to our feet, straining our eyes toward it. In a moment we realized what it was. On some upland farm, a plough had been left standing in the field. The sun was sinking just behind it. Magnified across the distance by the horizontal light, it stood out against the sun, was exactly contained within the circle of the disk; the handles, the tongue, the share—black against the molten red. There it was, heroic in size, a picture writing on the sun.” 

~My Antonia by Willa Cather, Chapter 14

What is it about a farm that has such a hold on me?  The idea of living off the land seems incredibly romantic to me---that is, until I actually HAVE to live off of the land and do things like touch scary things like animals and dirt.  But when I read My Antonia, I sigh wistfully as I imagine myself in flaxen braids and calico cottons, standing in a wheat field at dusk.  It's bizarre, and probably hormone related.  All I know is that reading the passage above makes me feel like tying on an apron, gathering some eggs, and bottling something. 

The problem is, I don't live on a farm.  I live in a quiet neighborhood on a fraction of an acre.  I grow children, not livestock (although by the looks of their rooms today, the difference between the species is negligible.)  But luckily for me, I came across this little gem of a "farmhouse" in the local home parade and could imagine that it was mine for 20 minutes or so.

The home is an updated spin on the classic farmhouse.  Set in a field against a lake, this house has all the charm of a turn-of-the-century homestead with all the amenities of modern living.

I immediately fell in love with the pendant lights along the porch and the beautiful brick steps.

To the left of the front door is this lovely entry bench.

The family room is light and bright and comfortable with wood floors, a two-way fireplace, and different textured fabrics.

The breakfast nook is just off the family room and kitchen in this windowed corner.  The dark wood table looks perfectly snug against an upholstered bench and farmhouse chairs.

This room was one of my favorites in the house.  This dining room is adjacent to the breakfast nook, but it is completely enclosed.  The wall of windows opens up to provide open-deck dining in the summertime.  And the fireplace is actually the backside of the fireplace in the family room.  Such a great way to get more bang from your fireplace buck!

The bedrooms were just as charming.  I loved this nautical bedroom with its accompanying pirate-themed bathroom.  Ahoy, matey!

If you look closely, this bathroom not only has porthole mirrors, but wallpaper with little skulls and crossbones.  Adorable!

The girls' bedrooms were just as appealing as the boys' rooms.  I especially liked the cheery color scheme of this room.

Down the hall there was a cozy playroom that was ready and waiting for the kids and all of their toys.

The family room packed a comfortable punch with its orange leather chair and gray tweed couch.

Mom and Dad have a workspace of their own with this office.

And when the rigors of life just get to be too much, Mom and Dad can escape to this lovely bathroom.  I wish I could have fit the whole bathroom into my lens, but my favorite part was the reading rack in the tub. 

I realize that this home is a far cry from the abodes in My Antonia; it has nothing of the the rough-hewn, rustic living of the pioneer prairie.  But for city folk like me, it's at least a step in the right (romantic) direction.

Sharing at . . .

Cedar Hill Ranch
Between Naps on the Porch 
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Homestories A to Z
Jennifer Rizzo
StoneGable 
No Minimalist Here
Common Ground
From My Front Porch to Yours   
French Country Cottage 
At the Picket Fence
Stuff and Nonsense   
Savvy Southern Style 
It's Overflowing