Raleigh bound

I know, I know, I know----we have been super slack about blogging.  Mostly with good reason though.  I had a MAJOR birthday in July and I have been taking birthday trips.  My friend, Renee, took me to Raleigh.  We stayed with her daughter, Elizabeth, at her cute place.

I'm just saying----there was ALOT of eating, shopping and cocktails.  

First, we went to the Five Corners area and ate lunch at a diner area in a drug store, Hayes Barton.  I had a grilled pimento cheese, tomato and bacon-----can it get any better?!  Yep--Renee got a grilled cream cheese and olive.

 We topped it off with a HUGE piece of coconut cake.  The entire time we were wishing for a similar menu in our neck of the woods.

We went shopping in the area.  There were several shops with anywhere from high end antiques to small gift items. There was LOTS  to see and LOTS to want.

Renee scored this great Audubon print at one of them.

Saturday we took off for some places that Allison had been dying to visit.  Finds was one of them.  The owner finds and up-cycles old items.  

I got some vintage Clarence House trellis wallpaper.  Not sure where I'm going to put it yet, but had to have it.

We then went to Form & Function.   

They had a great mix of old and new and I found a vintage ice bucket to feed my florentine need. 

They also had this amazing wood planking that was stick on! There were lots of different woods to choose from.  We were immediately wondering where we could put some in our houses/shop.  

Then since our stomachs were yelling, we headed to Beasley's Chicken + Honey.  Yummy, yummy comfort foods---mac and cheese, greens, beets, chicken.   And REALLY hot and spicy Bloodies.

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We loved every bite (and sip) of our lunch!

Next up was the much read about Furbish.  She was one of the first to upcycle old furniture.  Not much painted furniture in the shop at the moment.  Lots of accessories. Allison said it reminded her of Anthropologie.

Then to a shop with tons of furniture--Studio 123.

All day, we had been on hunt for a chair for Elizabeth and her husband Clayton's house.  We looked a bunch, nothing knocked our socks off, but she did find one at Studio 123 that she really liked.  It was a massive warehouse of furniture in various stages of re-do.  At $695, she wasn't ready to take the plunge.

After a few more stops, we ended up where we always do:  Homegoods.  As we were grousing about how we never find anything good at Homegoods/TJ Maxx anymore, lo and behold, a light beamed down from above and there was a chair for Elizabeth!  And it was a recliner too! Clayton would love this!  But it was one of those really good ones that don't look like a recliner.  Perfect.

THEN, we look over and there's another one that worked in Allison's house.  And it's a recliner for her sweet husband, Jon.  Major scores. All with a really great price tag!

After that, we needed a glass of wine, so home we went to put up our feet for a few before heading out to a delicious Laotian resturant that Elizabeth took us to called, Bida Manda.

Raleigh is a fun place to shop and to live.  It was a great trip and a wonderful birthday present!

                                             Karan

A Before and After

I'm not sure you can be in this business if you don't get excited about making something old, new or better, or cleaner or more functional.  We see potential in nearly everything.  Since our storage space and free time are both very limited, that can be a potential problem. No need to call TLC and report us for Hoarders, really, we promise. If we had a dollar bucket for every time one of us said "It would be great painted " we could eat caviar for lunch daily. 

One day several years ago I was making a donation run to one of the local thrift shop where we take the few things that don't sell here.  And out front I spotted a pair of chairs that were just dying for a makeover.  They have been sitting in my living room since then, untouched.  I've been drooling over Schumacher's Chiang Mai Dragon along with the rest of the design blogosphere for almost as long as I've had these "project chairs."  However, no where and no way can I justify using $200+ fabric in my house with these charming mutts.  You can read about that here.

I've looked for countless knock-offs and even ordered something from a bogus fabric website in my attempt to soothe the Chiang Mai beast. Needless to say, my chairs are still untouched.  A recent girls trip to Raleigh, NC inspired me to finally get cracking on my chairs after I picked up something totally different for the chair seats. I told myself, this is it. No more fabric. 

After we got home from Raleigh, the weather was wonderful and the humidity was almost non-existent for July in Virginia. It was God telling me, now is the time.

Here are the chairs, complete with a photobomb from Beatrix. 

They are caned with wide seats and arms, in great condition.  They look like they were re-covered by someone with a Swingline and prayer.

So I began to take off the top layer of fabric in preparation to paint them, unfortunately for me there was not a hidden gem of vintage Chinioserie fabric underneath.

My fabulous photography skills dumb luck, make the wood look really rich and beautiful. Trust me, it's not.

Here's the first coat of Navajo White - stay tuned for the progress!

Allison

Becoming a grownup----the conclusion

OK, last post about the little cottage that could.  The bathroom is up next. 

 



 

Plain vanilla---and the store brand of vanilla, not the good kind. There are some things we can't change, like the almond Formica counter top.  There was never anything covering the window which is fine 99% of the time.  But that 1% when someone needs to use the loo and there are folks on the deck, it's definitely needed.  The lowest of the low-end towel bar is now history too.  The yellow-ish vinyl floor has to stay for now.  Going to try to find some nice looking peel-and-stick squares (is that an oxymoron?) 

 

 

The after-----

 

 

Navy paint, a bamboo roman shade, and striped shower curtain with new rod and hooks----MUCH better.  That's all the photos I have cause it is tiny.

 

The bedroom before:

 

 

The furniture is fine, but the clutter and wall color needed major help.  We found a place for the down comforter under the bed in a container.   The dog art moved over the mantel with the other dog art.

 

Here is after:

 

 

Having a darker wall color helps balance out all of the dark furniture.  New lamp on bedside table.  The quilt is one he had and still liked.  We are looking for something to go over his bed.

 

When Watson lived in Australia, he had a friend who is a professional photographer, Gareth Kelly.   He had four of Gareth's postcards DUCT TAPED (there's that guy thing again) to the bathroom mirror!  I found these floating frames at Walmart of all places.  Now the postcards are useable art.

 

Lastly, there was this empty (except for piles of stuff) corner.  We moved this smaller bookcase here and added a lamp.  The Mulkey crest looks good here, but he will need to re-frame it. The "W" is one that his grandfather (for whom he was named) made in shop class when he was young.

We had to put the kitchen on the back burner for now.  It is okay for color, but needs major organizing inside cabinets.  Also, lighting might have been better in the 1700's!  We are going to switch out that tiny spot on that beam with a chandelier.   Will need to re-hang pictures and get something to put on the floor.

 

Thanks for sharing our journey with us!

 

Karan



 

The Reveal

I didn't really mean to leave y'all hanging on seeing the before and after pictures of Watson's house.  I just kind of ran out of space and time :)

I left Sunday morning.  Since I was travelling I, of course, had to have some sustenance and Hardee's was on the way.

With sausage biscuit and Diet Coke in hand, off I went.

I arrived in Farmville around noon.  We unloaded, planned and figured then all of the sudden it was 1:30!  So off we went to Lowe's.

By the time we got home and got started, it was already 3:30 - at this point, I could tell we weren't going to get everything finished that we wanted to, but I knew we could come pretty close. So, we painted and straightened until 10:30 that night! After that, we finally put our feet up and ate a delicious steak  salad that Watson made, then crashed at midnight.  The things you do for your children---I'm usually snoring by 10!  

First, the before pictures.  Now remember, Watson is 27 and lives in this little house by himself.  There is no one else to help or blame for the state of affairs.  I want everyone to know that I really did try to teach him (and his sister) to keep things picked up, but alas, it didn't stick.  Now, in reality, the apples probably didn't fall far from the tree.

Anyway, first up.  The living area.  It's one room with a fireplace, 4 windows, 3 door openings and a laundry closet.  

That's a world map held up (not so much)with duct tape. There is NO overhead lighting anywhere, so lamps are a must.  Before, he only had two - one of them being a cheapy floor lamp from goodness knows where.  The wing chair is from our house and the nice leather sofa came from the shop.
Nice color on the walls, but all the red sort of made you feel like you were in a cave.

Here's the after--kind of.

The new color is around the fireplace.  That's the highest I could reach with the roller on Monday after Watson went to work.  I REALLY wanted to get that map down and put up art so he could see where we were going.  I brought the tortoise candle jar, the dog and the lawn ball from home.  The lawn ball has his initial on it.  I found it in London---it was his present I brought home.  At the age of 13, he wasn't too impressed, but now I think he appreciates it.

We pushed the sofa back to give more space in the room.  (The front door is behind the sofa, but no one ever uses it, so access wasn't important.) It faces the TV (of course).  The pie safe is now in the left corner and can hold extra clothes, CD's, whatever.  

Here's a better photo.  The wing chair and a Hitchcock style chair are on either end of the sofa.  The rug is on loan from a friend until we get what we want.  The trunk is the coffee table until we find one.  There is now a nice floor lamp on the wing chair end of the sofa, and a lamp on the bookcase on right and a lamp on pie safe on the left.  With all the new lighting and the change in wall color, it should feel much lighter now.  We're going to get a matching floor lamp for other end of sofa.

Next blog---the bedroom and the bathroom. Stay tuned because my before and after pictures are much better for those!

Patience grasshopper!  

Becoming a grownup

This past Sunday, I headed out to Farmville, Virginia to help my son, Watson, get his little cottage organized and spiffed up.  He lives on an 800 acre farm in a little house.  It is planted in soybeans now, but it used to have cows.  The cowpies could be a problem since they could come right up to the windows!
(It's at this point that I realize that I didn't take a picture of the house--bad on my part!)

Now, he didn't let me know that we were doing this until Friday night.  AND, I didn't know what he needed until Saturday afternoon.  So after work, I took off to Target and Tuesday Morning looking for new bedroom and bathroom linens.  Not knowing what I was in for, I overbought with several selections to choose from---good idea because half of the bathroom stuff is going back.  (ALWAYS SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS!!!)

Then I went to Allison and Jon's house.  She reluctantly gave up their Grandmother's pie safe---on a long term loan of course.  They also found 2 wrought iron chairs they were no longer using to send along.  Then I came home and shopped our house.  Accessories, end tables---you'll see them later.

This was me as I headed out.

Gotta love the van.  It holds an AMAZING amount of stuff.  The kids call it the "Afghani - van" since it looks like it may have been through a war zone. I've found that you really need to watch out for the brackets on the side of a dumpster because they will make BIG scratches on your car.

Stay tuned to see the BIG changes in the little cottage!

Blogging the Blogs

When I have a moment, or when I want to escape someone or something, I get online and read the blogs I subscribe to.  Now, once I learned about blogs and what great information/fun they were, I was hooked.  I subscribed, and subscribed, and subscribed to any and all.  Then, I realized that my inbox was TOO full and there wasn't enough time in the day, so I started un-subscribing.

Now I'm down to a manageable (kinda) few.  There are some I can skip without much hesitation, but some I just can't wait for.

My fav is Design Indulgence.  Sherry is a hoot, a little irreverant, and has excellent taste.  She shares all kinds of design info and finds.

Another favorite is Design Chic.  They are a couple of gals, again with excellent taste, who show their own places but will share places they have found on the web.  They have re-modeled a place in South Carolina that will make you totally envious!

Lastly, the first blog I started reading was Miss Mustard Seed.
Marian is a cute young mom with 2 boys and a husband who is a youth minister.  She has been so successful that she has started her own line of decorative paint finishes called Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint.  She is always fixing, finishing, changing and blogging it all.

There are many more: Chattafabulous, Chinoisserie Chic, and Aesthestic Oiseau to name a few.

Getting out there and exploring these blogs will link you to other blogs you may enjoy.  Just keep on linking!


                                                                 Karan

A holiday and a bride

The past weekend we did flowers for a bride who was married at The Williamsburg Lodge.  Since it was a holiday week, we had to get the flowers in on Wednesday.  They arrive in large, flat cardboard boxes, usually with exotic labels from places like Columbia or Nicaragua.  I had a picture of the boxes all stacked but didn't have memory card in camera---still trying to remember these little details necessary for blogging!

It takes several hours to open, re-cut, and condition the flowers.  Here is a photo of them all in buckets waiting their turn to be used.

However, they had to wait until Friday because we all had to celebrate the Fourth!  It is a big deal in our neighborhoods with lots of kids, dogs, strollers, bikes----and whatever else creative folks come up with.



On Friday, we started working on the flowers.  We worked on the juleps cups first.  There were 75 of them.  Packed them up and put them in the storage bathroom---the coolest place in the shop.  (I know you are thinking "Storage bathroom"?  It is an extra bathroom that we turned in to a storage space because WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH!)

Next up were the bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages.  They always get a special space in the fridge---we put the wine down in the bins!

Saturday morning we finished everything and loaded up ready to head to Williamsburg, BUT my battery was dead.

However, no problem for us gals.  We hooked it right up to Allison's car, got it started and off we went.

To off load flowers at most places, you are relegated to the shipping/delivery dock.  Then you find and/or ask for a cart which you get if you are lucky.  The Lodge could not have been more helpful.  Then you make several trips down halls past kitchens and storage rooms to your destination.

Here are photos of the final product.

There were 10 tables with the tall arrangements and 15 tables with the tray arrangements.  

There was also a wedding arch for the outside ceremony. However, since it was around 93 degrees and we were setting up at 1:00, we moved it inside the ballroom and they moved it back out right before guests started arriving.  Reports are that it worked out just fine.

Thus the tale of another lovely summer wedding.

             

           Karan

A happy wedding

One of Allison's friends, Sarah, got married last weekend. They have known each other since elementary school.  In fact, Sarah is the one that first introduced Allison to her hubby, Jon.

Sarah was having a family-only wedding so she didn't need a tremendous amount of flowers, just a few bouquets, a boutonniere for her groom, a table arrangement and then something for the pergola under which they said their vows.  We were so happy that she asked us to provide the flowers she wanted.  

The flowers were bright and happy and were fun to work with, just like the Bride and her family. We were able to get a good idea of what she liked from perusing her Pinterest board.  

This is the arrangement for the pergola on top of a bookcase in the back of the shop.

Flowers are 3 varieties of roses, hydrangea, snapdragons, ranunculas, and hypericum berries.

Best wishes for a happy send off into married life!

                                                          Karan & Allison

P.S.  Here's a snap stolen from Sarah's Instagram of the flowers at the site!