Our Cottage Style Bedroom

Is it really almost March? The month of spring! We’ve had a perfect winter for people that love winter..lots and lots of snow and sub zero temps. Hopefully by the time spring rolls around it will be as perfectly spring as winter was winter- if that makes sense.

 

Right now between hosting tea parties and doing all the other usual stuff around here, I’m trying to also get some spring cleaning done. It probably wouldn’t take me very long to do just the basic spring cleaning, washing off walls, windows, etc., but being the person I am, I start moving things around for a different look and before I know it, I’m painting, or out in the shop making something. It’s really not always very fun being this way! It takes a lot of time.Though it’s less fun not doing anything about it!

 

I redid some things in the bedroom and master bath. Last summer I found a beautiful white with blue trim duvet cover in a yard sale for a few dollars (thankfully it was king sized!) and thought someday I want to give our bedroom a cottagey, shabby chic, romantic look using mostly whites with a few splashes of blue. I could already imagine the ruffled curtains fluttering in the breeze of the opened window and the smell of lavender wafting through the room. It’s a little early for the fluttering curtain but I did make a little sachet and filled it with lavender scented salts…

 

 

 

 

I am pleased with how the ruffled curtain turned out – but trust me – I will hopefully never decide to decorate another room with them! We have two windows in our bedroom and I keep pushing off the task of making the second one. I thought maybe if I would make one ruffle a day it would seem less daunting. I took a sheer panel and sewed the ruffles onto that. The fabric is from a local outlet store (Zincks). I got it for .99 a yard. If I would have taken the whole bolt (100 yards) I could have bought it for .50 a yard but I thought I really don’t have use for that amount. They do have great deals there!

 

 

I made a liner for the white basket. I thought it would make a good clothes hamper. The fabric is also from Zincks.

 

 

Here is the “before” picture of the wardrobe. I had originally made it for an entertainment center but ended up moving it to the bedroom for a wardrobe…

 

 

After..

 

 

The suitcases come from my grandma’s sale a few years ago. The white one I painted but the blue is original. The blue still had the address tag hanging from the handle with my grandparents names on it. I thought of the excitement they felt when they packed it for a trip, which wasn’t very often, I don’t think.

 

 

The hall tree was still an orangeish oak when I decided to use it in the bedroom. I had a willing little helper, in pjs, to paint it.

 

 

 

 

One day I might paint the hooks on the hall tree black. Maybe after I get the procrastinate curtain ( as I’ve started to call it) finished.

 

 

Now for another direction…

 

 

I was quite tickled when I found this lamp in a thrift store for $1.99! I’m not sure why it caught my eye.. I just know I like it…

 

 

 

The old door I found in a garage sale and painted the words on. Aren’t they true?

 

 

 

This cute little container was given to me by my sister. She filled it with a homemade lip balm that I absolutely love! I asked her permission to share the recipe…

 

2 Tablespoons beeswax

2 Tablespoons coconut oil

2 Tablespoons shea butter

Add 5 drops peppermint oil and melt all together. Pour into containers right away.

 

 

This rug was made by my grandmother who is in the eighties and still making these beautiful carpets!

 

 

 

I think whites make such an inviting room.

 

This little guy thinks our bed is the coziest …

 

 

My next post will probably be the bathroom, which I started spring cleaning and noticed it needs a large shelf built on the tub ledge to hold homemade bath scrubs and beads. It also needed some lantern jars hanging from the ceiling – which I will share a step by step on how I did it for those of you interested in something thrifty and simple.

 

Until next time…

-Mary

 

 

 

 

Paradise Gardens

I don’t want to sound complainy but is anyone else tired of this out of the ordinary cold, snowy Ohio winter we have had?

 

 

 

It has it’s beauty, but after weeks and weeks of it, it makes me crave for mud, even.

I felt the need to post something summerish, a breath of green in wall of gray, if that makes sense…

Last summer mom, my sister and I were invited for a coffee break at a friends house. This friend (who is also my aunt) is the most amazing woman. She has gardens that look like they come right out of country gardens magazine and a house that looks like pottery barn! She fixed an awesome brunch for us and we dined outdoors amongst flowers, greenery, pottery barn lanterns, a rushing creek, summer breezes, I could go on and on. She even had a fire going in the fire pit close by where she heated the coffee!

 

 

You almost had to be there to appreciate. I feel the pictures I took were a little hurried and don’t really justify how it actually was. I was so intent on going to the next display that I probably didn’t focus enough on getting a perfect shot on the one before!

 

 

 

 

 

I wish I would have thought to take pictures of the food but I neglected to. Here is where we dined…

 

 

She had beautiful roses floating in a granite bowl on the table…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a deck built out overlooking the ever rushing creek you can see in the background...

 

 

Lots of little paths meandering through the trees…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To bad I can only relate to you the sights. To be there and smell the flowers, candles and greenery and hear the musical sound of water, and taste the delicious food was heavenly. It was truly like sitting in paradise! I hope you enjoyed and I apologize if I gave you a bad case of spring fever!

-Mary