Our Farmhouse Banister

I've obsessed about the banister in this house almost from the day we moved in. 

 I didn't like it at all...kind of groovy and not me.

It looked very 70s or 80s.

 It looked almost Craftsman in style but not quite. 

Bill says that it was constructed in a cost efficient manor. 

Our house was built in 1990. 

Our banister should have been built in a traditional style. 
 It should have had white turned balusters with a dark cherry stained handrail.
 That was the style in 1990. 
That would have been more me.   

The balusters do not go into the stair treads. 
Instead they are attached to a bottom rail. This was cheaper to build. I'm not sure that this would even pass code at this point but we don't have small children so I'm not worried about it. 

Bill and I aren't likely to get our heads caught in between the balusters.

 Do you do this?

When there is a something I don't care for, I repeatedly think about it until I come up with a fix.

Not all the time but occasionally it will return to my thoughts until I can come up with a solution to what I perceive is an aesthetic issue. 

I finally like our stair banister. 

I got the courage to paint it in 2014.
 I realized today that I finally like it and I haven't had any thoughts about changing it since the day the paint dried. 

The farmhouse style decorations throughout the house coordinate with this type of staircase. 

 Do you know the best part? 

It was an inexpensive fix. 

Wrought iron -the darling of the 2000s would have cost a small fortune. (It's still beautiful in my opinion.)

The traditional style turned baluster and handrail that I craved when we moved in would have required a custom carpenter. 

All this needed was primer and paint. 
There was nothing really wrong with our banister so we never got around to spending the money on it. 
 I'm so glad we didn't change it!

Thanks for stopping in. 
Katie 

Linking with,
The Essence of Home
Thoughts of Home 

 

Cottage Bedding in the Master

I hit Pinterest with a vengeance when it looked like we might buy the less than perfect lake house. 
You can visit my lake house board here.  

  It is no secret that I love cottage interiors. 
Deep in my soul that is the style I feel most comfortable with. 
I try to temper my love for all things cottage with Bill's more lodgey and contemporary preferences. 

Since the lake house deal is dead, I decided to "cottage" up the beds for summer. 
There were colorful elements lurking in the armoires even though the beds have been monochromatic for the last few years. 

The base for the master bedroom was a king size dust ruffle from Ralph Lauren. 
Macy's had it on clearance about three or four years ago. 
 eBay came to the rescue when no other components could be found.

A seller made pillow covers out of designer sheets. 
I bought two covers.
Changing out a bed for the seasons is as easy as making the bed. 
The only challenging part is wrestling the mattress to get the dust ruffle on.

Once the ruffle was in place, it was time to pull out pillow cases and shams to see which direction to go. 
I love the chambray color cases with the lace peeking out from underneath. I've had these a long time. 
They've been part of many different bedding sets.

Layering an ordinary pillow case with a lace one underneath elevates the bedding. 

The red ticking cover came from Pottery Barn.

The YoYo pillow top came from the old craft mall in town.

The white embroidered pillow is Chaps by Ralph Lauren. 
It's been on the bed for years.

The quilt at the end of the chaise came from my grandmother. 

 I was repairing this quilt almost 33 years ago on Valentine's Day. 
Bill called. I knew then that he liked me. 
We started dating two months later and were married the next year. 

I made a little sailboat quilt for Chris almost 30 years ago for his "big boy" bed. 
He says he cannot be trusted with it yet, so it stays here for safe keeping.

The other quilt resting on the school house desk came from a garage sale. 
I had a dream that morning that I found a quilt at a garage sale and I did.
It was only a dollar.
 

 

Daisies seem perfect with this cottage scheme. 
The lake scene painting also came from a garage sale. 

That's all for now. 
I'm adding a few patriotic touches to the house.
I'll have those for you when I'm finished. 
Katie 
Linking with,
Between Naps on the Porch 
A Stroll Thru Life 
Savvy Southern Style 
Common Ground   
French Country Cottage

Beadboard Wallpaper

I made a vow.

I promised myself that wallpaper would never enter this house again. 
I stripped all the wallpaper from this house back in '98. Most of the kitchen wallpaper came off in pieces no bigger than my palm. It was three days of holy terror! 
 That's when I made the vow but who knew that wallpaper would make a comeback?

I had hoped for a very cottage-y look when we installed the wooden bathroom countertop last year. My plan was to do the walls last summer but I lost steam after the other bathroom remodel. 

I love the contrast of the wood counter with the white walls and woodwork.

 After a year of daily use this counter still looks as perfect as the day we put it in. That wasn't the plan. 

It was supposed to be used occasionally by guests but three weeks after we finished the install our daughter had her stalking incident and moved back in with us.

Two months later, our youngest moved back in. 
He moved out last Saturday. 
Daily use and this counter still looks fabulous. 
I love it with the white walls instead of the black.
I'm smitten with the backsplash. 

White walls were part of the original plan but I was afraid that white walls alone would be boring. The other two bathrooms have the beadboard wainscot going up only a few feet. Here it needed to go higher for more impact.

Beadboard wallpaper seemed like  an easier option than those ginormous sheets of plywood. 

The sacred vow to never have wallpaper again has been broken and my wallpapering skills all came flooding back.

Does it look just like the walls in the other bathrooms? 

Does it look like real wood?

No - on both counts. 

Is it still cute?

Yes - it's adorable.

Be careful, this dings very easily but it was an easy fix and it adds a little interest to otherwise boring walls. 
The wallpaper is about $18.00 a roll at Lowes and 
it took less than two rolls to complete this project.
Once it was up and had a coat of paint, I trimmed it out with some molding the neighbor gave me when she moved. 
That's what makes it look more like real wainscot. 
I'd hoped for some better photos but this room is a beast to photograph. It has zero natural light and that huge mirror.
Framing that out is on my project list for this summer. 

Katie 
Happy Friday!   
Linking with,
French Country Cottage    
A Stroll Thru Life
The Scoop
Coastal Charm
Inspire Me Monday   
Savvy Southern Style   
Funky Junk Interiors

  

The Office/Guest Room

I haven't shown you much of the office/guest room. 

It only has one tiny window which causes it to be very dark.  I painted it Drizzle by Sherwin Williams back in 2005 when we had the big water leak.  

It was supposed to be gray but wasn't. We had new flooring and repairs to do in almost every room downstairs so this color had to stay for a while.  

Bill wanted to paint the room last year because he'd just inherited a Bluebonnet painting from his Granny Vi.

Bluebonnet paintings are highly prized by Texans. I have no earthly idea what the New York state flower even is. 

Texans learn about the Bluebonnet in infancy. 

(I am not kidding about this.)

 Gorgeous isn't it?

Bill would love to have a dark and moody office but the room is just so small.

We painted it Urban Putty by Sherwin Williams. 

Now, I've used this color in several of my rooms and loved it but it did nothing for me in here. 

We did this last April and I never even did a reveal because I was underwhelmed. 

 Underwhelmed.

Most of the other art didn't come back in the room so the painting could take center stage.  

It did look beautiful with the wall color.  

The problem wasn't with the wall color or the furnishings. 

I think we were both a little over creams and golds.

All of our walls were some sort of creamy yellow or olive except our bathrooms.

I've been very attracted to white rooms.

 Not pure white but white. 

Painting the room white would fix the first of a few glaring problems.

The focal point needed to be the bed even though this is an office/guest room the bed in the back corner was just creepy. 

I wouldn't have wanted to sleep with my back to the door. I'm afraid of Zombies. 

Not really. 

It's a design principle that the bed should be seen when you first walk into a room. That literally isn't always possible but the bed is usually the prettiest element and I feel most at home with our beds as the focal point. I don't know why I didn't do that 9 years ago. 

The breakfront was also not getting enough attention. 

I love this piece and it wasn't being shown to its potential. 

Yes, that is another little antique Bluebonnet painting. 

I had intended to wait until I scraped the popcorn off of the ceiling to paint the walls.

 My plan was only to rearrange the room but... as usual I got carried away.

This is only a sneak peak but already it feels so different and more us.

  

The shelf needs to be arranged and I need art for the back wall. 

The reveal will have to wait until that is finished. 

A collection of bird prints would look good with the Bluebonnet paintings. 

We'll see.

Have a blessed weekend. 

Katie   
Between Naps on the Porch
A Stroll Thru Life   
The Scoop    
Savvy Southern Style