Cottage Core Kitchen Curtains And Early Spring Decor

Hi, Friends,

How are you? I hope you are well. 

I spotted some floral fabric with a yellow background when I was at the thrift store late last summer. I've never used a lot of yellow in my decor, but I was drawn to it because of the beautiful flowers. It was around $6.00 which is a bargain for a yard or so of good decorator fabric. Changing the valance in my kitchen for a new look is one of my favorite ways to change up our decor. This remnant was going to be perfect for a new color scheme. I thought I might stitch it up last fall but it didn't feel quite right for autumn but it seemed perfect for spring. 

So Caroline and I cut it up for valances. 

If you have been around for a while, you might remember my Better Homes and Gardens curtains from Walmart. I also have these in turquoise. 

The scallops on these are very pleasing to me so these were used as the pattern for the yellow cottage style floral fabric. 

This is so easy to do. Just lay the old valance on top of the new, double it over and cut. 

Easy if you don't have an assistant. 

My assistant was there to make sure that the center of the floral design was the same for both valances. 

That was not possible, however, with the amount of fabric available. 

This is why, I'm not a professional seamstress. I know how it should be done, but I've not the patience or wherewithall to achieve top notch results. Unless, you know that the center of the floral is supposed to be in the center of the valance, most aren't going to notice this flaw. The little cafe´ curtains stay up all the time. They were made during lockdown from an old voile tablecloth from my sister.  The window behind the closed cafe´ is foggy. Thankfully, we are finally getting those fixed. Our eight foggy windows have been on my repair list since before the pandemic. You can imagine all the reasons why they've never got to them. 

Shopping the house for matching accessories is one of my favorite things to do when introducing a new color scheme. 

Here are some photos of how yellow was sprinkled about the room. 

Some of my daffodiles from East Texas dried perfectly so they rest on a shelf in the niches.  

The double vases with the cottage motifs were a thrifted find. 

A porcelain rose from my mother in law is a perfect compliment to the roses in the floral fabric. 

The clock was an antique store find. I'd admired it for a while but it didn't have a price. It finally had a price and then I dropped it on the way to the register. I caulked it and repainted it when I got home. Only a close inspection would reveal the break. I just love it. 

What could be more cottage than a needlepoint of a cottage? 

This one was an eBay find. The glass cracked when I stapled the ribbon to the back. Ugh! 

Cottages are a repeated motif in the room. 

There wasn't any yellow in my ribbon stash so I did make a run to Hobby Lobby. 

I loved this frayed edge ribbon that was found in the fabric section. I'm going to need more of this.  

A loop of mustard ribbon around the preserved boxwood wreath echos the color story.

A begonia from Calloway's matched the coral cabbage roses in the valance. The flower pot came from there as well. They were purchased with a gift card that Santa put in my stocking. 

Santa knows me well. The white glazed clay pot is a new favorite find. 

Except for the ribbon, the striped vase was the only item purchased for this redecoration. 

I thought it was super cute. 

We had gorgeous weather while I was working on this. I cannot wait for spring.

The kitchen will be ready.  

That is about it for now.  

Thanks for stopping by. 

Katie 

Summer Bedding Looks In A Cottage Style

Hi, Friends,

Y'all know that I love redecorating for the seasons and the holidays.

The bedrooms are no exception. I thought I'd share some of my favorite tips for getting a cute, cottage look for your beds this summer. Many of these images are from my archives but there will be a few images of what is going on currently. 

I have a collection of quilts, coverlets, pillow cases and pillow covers. 

When they aren't on a bed, they are stored in one of our two armoires. 

When the system is operating as it should, covers are taken off of the pillow forms and stacked according to color and season. When the system has gone awry, pillows with covers are tossed into a closet. 

The system manager has bouts of laziness amidst spurts of creativity. 
Reds, blues and anything with a summer motif are stacked together. 

A geranium pillow from a Raz warehouse sale adorns a guest bed. I made some red gingham pillow cases years and years ago. They have been used many times.

White sheets sets, matelasse coverlets, shams and dust ruffles provide the neutral backdrop for the colorful accent pillows and pillow cases. 

Quilts in coordinating colors are draped across the end of the bed. 

We have a wonderful Tommy Hilfiger twin bedspread. When folded in half it fits across the end of a queen size bed. One side is blue and white gingham. The other side is a red and white stripes. I love this coverlet and would buy it again because it is so versatile. It's perfect for summer. I got it at T.J. Maxx. Usually, our quilts are twins size which is adequate for the look.  

An assortment of bedding red, blue and a floral give a bed such a cottage-y feel which is one of my favorite combinations when the weather is hot. 

Mixing stripes with checks is effortless. A floral is thrown in the mix as well. 

I've been known to quilt something every so often. My quilting came to halt for many years but I've recently started the hobby again. I stitched up an easy quilt in green, blue, and red two years ago. 

The square floral pillow was made out of a Chaps by Ralph Lauren sham. 

Somehow, one king size shams got misplaced. Since I only had one, I cut it up and made an accent pillow instead. 

Black and ecru ticking sheets from Red Land Cotton became the inspiration for our 2020 bedroom. 

We highly recommend Red Land Cotton Sheets. They are so comfortable. 

The black ticking strip square pillow is older Pottery Barn. The toile for the pillow came from a nearby drapery workshop. Occasionally, they would open their doors for free picking. Our fabric closet was stuffed to the gils in those days. 

The red and blue against a white headboard look so cute. 

The addition of a flag pinned to blue and white stripes turns a pillow into a festive display. 

The dutch boy and girl pillows were thrifted years go. I love rescuing vintage needlepoint. 

I'm quite cognizant of the fact that most people do not go to such lengths to get a quaint, seasonal bedroom. 

Did I miss my calling as a Macy's bedding department stylist? 

It really isn't that difficult to change the look. Sheets are changed weekly adding a few seasonal cases to pillow forms doesn't take that much extra time. 

I love our beds to evoke a summer at my grandparent's cottage feel. In reality there was no air conditioning at the cottage so I'm sure the beds were very simply dressed. I vividly remember a chenille bedspread on my grandmother's bed. That probably was sufficient unless another layer was needed as dawn approached. Who else remembers hiding beneath a bedspread to elude a buzzing mosquito looking for a meal?  

I've been on a quilt kick lately. My new red and white quilt just pops against the freshly painted bed. 

 Our bed has been given new life. I love it again. 

A few red transferware pieces echo the color story. The transferware goes with the faux brick on the faux fireplace. 

Our bedroom in East Texas tells another color tale. This time green is the hue. 

Someone steals the quilt in the middle of the night or so the story goes. I found the quilt in our attic when I was a teenager and I packed it up and took it to college with me. I have no idea who made it but it is old. 

Guest room number one is a symphony in blue. 

You'll notice the Tommy Hilfiger bedspread has appeared again for the summer of 2021. 

The chambray colored pillow covers were also found at the Raz warehouse sale. 

The gallery wall was fun to create. It is reminiscent of my cousin's teenage bedroom. 

That is about all for now. 

I hope this inspires you to create some fresh summer looks with a cottage feel. 

It's fun and it's only annoying for the person who takes the pillows off at night. 

Haha. 

Blessings, 

Katie 

Cottage Style In The Main Bedroom

Hello, Friends,

How are you? I hope you are doing well. 

Grab a cup of coffee or tea because this one is wordy. 

Is your life getting back to normal? We are getting there. Bill is back in the office three days a week and I'm having to re-learn how to entertain myself. Last week the new kitty kept me busy. 

This week the bed got a makeover. 

You can read about my bed dilemma in this post. 

I love our bedroom out in East Texas so much that it made me realize that I didn't love our bedroom at home. We spend more time at home than we do out at the new house, so our room needed a refresh. The paint was old and dingy so the walls and ceiling got repainted in January. I took the chaise out last week and I love how it's opened up the space. The pink velvet chair belonged to Bill's Granny Vi. 

I still didn't love the bed. 

Bill and I resumed talks about painting the bed.  If I think about it, I've wanted to paint this for about five years. That would have been a steadfast, "No." according to Bill. I should have pushed the issue by pinning images of white beds. Bill isn't able to visualize so he needs to see a picture in order to give the okay. The other day, he finally said that he didn't know why he was doubting me. My projects usually end up looking fine. I've gotten a lot of grief from family and friends for painting my furniture. I have never regretted painting anything. I've regretted not doing a better job on a couple of pieces but that was before the chalk paint method was figured out. Our more valuable antiques were never painted. I've even refinished one of the pieces that I painted in 2013. 

I went around and around about what color to paint our bed frame. 

We talked about black but black wouldn't shrink it in size. The oversized look of this piece really bothered me. A French gray seemed very appealing but there is nothing else gray in the room. 

The dresser and the mantel are both white. The other furniture is a mid-tone brown.

 The bed didn't even match the other furniture very well. 

The bed was going white. 

Chalk paint was my preferred paint choice for several reasons. 

We have a Sleep Number mattress. I'm always afraid to move it so that we don't dislodge or break the pump mechanism. We needed something that would dry quickly so that we could go to bed at the end of the day. We needed a paint that would cover the finish without sanding. I wasn't about to sand the wood on this. Painting the bed with the mattress in place was the plan. Bill hates to paint so this was a bit unfathomable to him. It's also why he was resistant to painting it. 

I love painting. I love the details and lines that appear once something is coated in white. 

The first coat always makes it look like I've made a terrible mistake. 

The image below shows two coats on the headboard and three on the footboard. 

I was loving it already. 

It took four coats of chalk paint with a few touch ups. 

Bill had a work dinner so there was plenty of time for it to dry and style. 

He commented that the lines and shadows are more noticeable since it's white.

He liked it with the mantel.  

He said it was like sleeping in heaven. 

He's never had a near death experience so I'm not sure how he knows what sleeping in heaven is like. 

He says funny things sometimes.  

The chunky posts on the footboard remind me of my grandfather's old bed. 

The lines of the headboard are so fun. I love them. 

My preferred style of bedding always competed with the brown bed. 

Our white bedding is always a foundation for a quilt and some needlepoint pillows. 

It makes it easy to switch out for the different seasons. 

Ralph Lauren's bedding was always a favorite of mine. This look always reminds me of his older bedding sets.  

The needlepoint pillows were made from completed canvases purchased from eBay. 

The quilt was a recent Pottery Barn Outlet purchase. 

I've eyed it for a year but I wanted the King size. Even with the discount the price seemed a little high. 

On my last few visits they didn't have the King anymore. 

I thought since it was going to go across the foot of the bed that the Queen would be fine. I'd seen that a couple of my blogging friends had picked it up. I finally decided to just go ahead and get it the next time I saw it. It was 40% off the day I popped in. The gal rang it up and it rang up lower than 40% off. I'm not the best at math but I can figure out shopping percentages. Ha. I mentioned that the price didn't seem correct. She thanked me for my honesty. She put it in again. Same thing. "I thought, "Great. It's been here a while, so it's got a bigger discount." Pottery Barn doesn't work that way, though. She turned around to talk to her manager in order to find out what was happening. 

The manager said that the 40% was already programmed in and that my sales associate put in an additional 40% off. 

She asked what to do about it. The manager looked at me and said, "Nothing." "You just got a really good deal." 

Common tradition used to be that price discrepancies always went in favor of the customer. That isn't the case anymore. My conscience really would have bothered me, if I knew it wasn't ringing up correctly and I kept silent. I would not have been able to enjoy the quilt. It was nice in this incidence that they gave it to me for the lower price. It made my day.  

 Cottagecore, formerly known as Cottage Style, is currently gaining favor.

 Our newly repainted bed leans toward Cottage Style rather than Farmhouse Style. I expected it to look more Farmhouse and I'm happy that it doesn't. 

It appears smaller which is what I wanted. 

I love, love, love it! 

Which is way more than love. 

I'm so glad this is done! 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Katie