Vintage Curtains for My Bedroom

I gave my bedroom a good fall cleaning a couple of weeks ago. Shuffled the furniture a bit and then decided I needed new curtains! After a bit of thinking and trying to decide what I would want, I remembered I had a vintage curtain I picked up at an estate sale (Back in 2015! I blogged about it here.).

 

I was just one curtain panel and two valances, but it was made up of two pieces! And those two pieces happened to be almost the same size as my old curtains! So a bit of unpicking and an old sheet for lining and I have new curtains!

I love this print! My favorite colors, a bright light background and definitely a vintage flair!

 It also happens to go really really well with the new summer quilt I am working on. You can see the quilt top to the left in the picture above hanging on the wall.

It just goes to show you can't go wrong buying things you love!

Living Room Updates 2020

I thought it would be a good time to share more pictures of the living room, especially since we just got a new rug! Now, that sounds simple but of course there is a long Rug Story!

It has taken us about a year to find one we like! I know! We are particular. It had to be soft, plushy, but not to thick, not too dark, busy or too light colored. Nothing that would clash with the curtains, which was the biggest problem! We looked at so many! But I think we only tried five.... Still that seemed like a lot! 

Before I forget to mention, we finally decided on the Mohawk Marrakesh Damask. Mom loves the Mohawk brand and it is made in the USA! (We still had to air it out on the front porch for a week before bringing it inside. Not sure why rugs have to stink so much!)

We actually start looking for a new rug last summer as our old one didn't recover from a washing. But we were ready for a new one and it was starting to look sad and worn. In the fall, right before we started the radiator project we tried out a couple of rugs and didn't like any. Then we decided to post-pone a new rug as it was a bit of a construction zone! (I think Kerri Dog missed having a rug!)

We did learn things from our first batch of rug trials. The curtains kind of clash with any pattern, navy blue was too dark on the dark floors, and rug shopping is hard work! Lol!

This rug comes in a couple of different colors and I hadn't realized at first that last fall we tried the navy blue one (which is the only color our local Lowes carried.) So glad I took another look online and found this one! 

This wall is still rather blank... but I am thinking on it! 

My Downstairs Bedroom

As you know, a year and a half ago I switched bedrooms with my sister Mandy. I was a bit sad to leave my upstairs nest, but for the six months previous I had been camping out in Mandy's room anyway (Because of allergies and the heat didn't doesn't really work upstairs, I wasn't sleeping very well upstairs).

It didn't take us very long to shift furniture, paint walls and swap light fixtures. But I didn't really give much thought to furniture arrangement and making the room mine. Finally this summer I knew how I wanted to re-arrange things. And I love it! 

 Kerri is in her usual spot!

She loves propping her paws up on the footboard!

 This bedroom doesn't have quite as much cozy character as upstairs, but I love That there is at lest one piece of slanty ceiling! That is actually the bottom of the stairs going up.

I wasn't sure at first if I would bring my coat rack down, but I was really sad not too! I decided I would just find a place. And am so glad I did! It is so handy for my knitting bags, purses and sweaters.

I love how much light I get all throughout the day. Much sunnier then upstairs!

And a panoramic view!

Paint Projects Around the House

This was the first year this peony bloomed! I think I need more of the variety! 

 I thought you might like to see a couple of pictures of the freshly painted bathroom! Ah! Fresh paint always feels so nice!

I ordered a bent "Radiator Brush" from Wooster Paintbrushes. The minute I saw it on amazon, I knew I needed one! So far, I have only used it for painting the front of a radiator, so not sure it if really helps reaching behind and getting all the nooks and crannies. But it sure is cool!

Besides painting the radiator in the above picture, I have also been working on two more radiator that will be installed this fall. So far, I have them scraped and primed. 

It is amazing what details they put on these old beauties!

I think I mentioned before that I painted the back entry/stairs the same time I painted the bathroom. This space gets a lot of traffic, so I decided the steps also needed a paint re-fresh. It is hard to find a time when I know the ins and outs will be at a minimum! So far I have only been able to paint the blue. Since the squares are all ready there, I just used a craft brush to re-paint the squares and border. I still love this feature!

 Also getting a coat of paint is this little table I picked up at a garage sale! It was covered in silver spray paint when I got it. This is just after I finished washing it down with hose. All the old paint just came right off!

That is when I discovered the "wicker" wrapped around the legs wasn't actually wicker! The wooden legs were turned on a lathe to look like ridges of wicker. Isn't that cool? I am thinking it must be 1900-1920s, with possibly a replaced table top.

Isn't it sweet? I am so excited to have discovered this little gem. I was going to buy another small table from Ikea for the porch, but this one is much better! 

 I had to sneak in a few summer flower pictures too! The baskets on the fence are so lovely this year with geraniums.

 And Kerri enjoying a little porch time with us!

 It is almost hydrangea season!

Last week marked the one year anniversary of the Brick House! Gosh! I can't believe it has already been a year!

Summer Flowers, Painting and Porch updates

Ah! Summer is here in full swing! The porch is almost tree house like with all the leafy green trees surrounding it. I have been doing a little fluffing and sprucing to the porch. We changed the pillow covers to our usual summer covers and have added one or two other things.

I suddenly remembered I had a basic wooden stool in the basement and decided it would make a great plant stand behind the settee. Then Mandy found a (slightly squashed) fern on sale to perch on top. Perfect!

We have had pansies on the porch this spring. This one is lovely! 

 I forgot I wanted a new doormat to spruce up the porch, until I saw this one at Hobby Lobby! Mandy managed to get Kerri to "pose" for us. I love all the colors!

 Summer also means gardening around here. This year we have larger hanging baskets on our fence hooks. The tin buckets, while very cute, looked a little lost on the fence. We are loving the bright geraniums!

We also got our patio pots planted! (Say that seven times fast!) Can't wait to see what they will look like all filled out!

Summer is all about projects too, right? So last Friday I decided it was time to get re-painting the bathroom checked off the list!

 One of the perks of having a small bathroom is it is quick to paint! I managed to paint the bathroom and back hall (they were both the same color) in a little under three hours. Made a nice start to the weekend! (I don't often get a bird's-eye-view of the bathroom. The ladder was half in the bathtub for cutting in around the ceiling!)

I didn't get any spiffy "after" pictures. And it doesn't really look any different as I used the same color paint. It just feels a lot fresher and clean with a new coat of paint. Six years of wear and tear in a bathroom was starting to show on the walls! 

Saturday was filled with a bunch of projects outdoors! All of which I will share more details later. Mandy built a potting bench, which is super cute! I cleaned out the garage, which inspired Mandy as I found a bunch of lumber. The Great Radiator Project has also started. In the left corner of the picture above you can see a radiator I am scraping. There are two I need to scrap and re-paint. The others just need a touch up coat of paint. I am also working on patching the cold air returns in the cottage, which is why there are old floor boards there! I was cleaning and stripping the finish on the boards.

It took a bit for me to adjust to not having the Brick House to work on! Still in process, but I am getting into re-focusing on projects around the cottage. The biggest one this year is to get the whole house fitted with radiators. There are a lot of steps that project and hopefully we can get most of them done this summer!

I dug this embroidered cottage out of my closet and finally got it finished!