New Year, New House

Ready to Party?
With our first real house party scheduled for New Year's Eve, we are scrambling to get the first floor complete and at least have one or two more full bathrooms complete prior to a house full of people. Danny is once again back in action working on everything from installing curtain rods to prep and painting to installing all the hardware in the bathroom.

The So-Much-More-Than-Breakfast-Room

After months of planning and designing, I must say our breakfast room is easily my favorite room right now. I got to start with almost a clean slate and have aspired to keep the awesome original features of the room cohesive with new contemporary touches.

Some highlights of this oh so fabulous room:

The Bench

Comprised of two original church pews that were salvaged out of an old church, our eat-in breakfast bench ties together new and old. After all the prep was complete, I finished it off by painting it with the same oil paint  white color we are using on the trim throughout our house. Then our very talented seamstress (whose work can also be seen here: ) custom made two cushions for the base and countless throw pillows to top it off.

The detail carvings I bought it for were also the hardest to paint

Getting my paint on

Perfection! Now we just have to find/make the right table

The Light
After a trip to DC to visit my best friend who is an architect extraordinaire, I had a good idea of what kind of funky yet vintage light I wanted but it definitely took me a few weeks to find the perfect one.

The Mural
I worked with Wanda from Murals Your Way and got a great discounted mural in the form of wallpaper to cover the wall surrounding the old coal burning stove (original to the house and built in 1907). To finish framing the stove, I painted a wood mantel shelf and hope to find the perfect accent color accessories to complete the room.

The very dirty stove

Another look @ the Close-up: Notice anything about the cities?