Blue and White In The Garden Room

Hi, Friends,

How are you? I hope you are doing well. 

Thank you all for your kind words concerning the loss of our sweet Dixie. We will miss her. 

We're still in the midst of a major heat event here in Texas. It is awful. It's discouraging to think we could have at least five more weeks of this. 

Let's cheer things up with a garden room post. We love the garden room. 

I brought out some blue and white decor in order to cool things off inside the house. Yellow had been my spring color this year but it's just too hot for yellow. My mother collected blue and white for my grandmother so a lot of my pieces belonged to my grandmother. My penchant for collecting comes from my mom. Of course, I've added to the collection over the years and some of my pieces came from my dad's side of the family as well. Blue and white is a classic scheme. 

I didn't overload the kitchen with it, so there was some of it left over. Once a flow blue platter was placed in the hutch, I was sold on the scheme in the garden room as well. 

Green goes well with a touch of blue. 

The hutch holds most of my garden, bird, and decor books.  Blue and white accessories are nestled within. 

The pitcher is reportedly Mary Gregory glass but I don't have enough experience to know if it is authentic or reproduction. Either way, it is stunning. 

I just noticed my roses have faded but I don't care. They are still beautiful. The print came from a book printed during the 1920s. 

I went upstairs to grab some pillow covers and a few quilts and coverlets even though we don't need them in this heat.

White couches are my favorite because they can be transformed just by switching out pillow covers. These floral pillows were from IKEA a few years ago. They have a 90's big floral feel. A friend's mom made the other one. 

I scored a blue and white quilt last Friday at an estate sale. I was thrilled. 

It's fairly worn but it's lovely. It's so soft. Washing it was a risk but it was one that I was willing to take. 

My machine is low water usage without a lot of agitation so excess water doesn't damage the fibers as much. 

Dog hair can get in the strangest nooks and crannies so I took the opportunity to clean as I styled. 

Dixie was a short hair dog but she shed as much as our Border Collie. 

A neutered stray has started coming around more lately since Dixie is not here to scare her off. 

She will let me sit on the other side of the glass but I can't get near her. I've offered food and water. Shortly after I did, I saw her hop over the fence with a tail of something hanging out of her mouth. Caroline plays and nuzzles through the glass. It's one of the craziest things. 

The chest on my side of the sofa came from my great grandparents. It was part of their wedding suite. 

It's new to me from my step mother's house. 

A pitcher and a creamer bring the color around the room. 

I moved the pie safe into this room after putting the painted desk in the kitchen. 

Rabbit wire inserts were replaced with these metal cloverleaf sheeting panels. I spray painted them gold. These doors aren't in great shape so I'm not sure they would stand up to the weight of glass. I'd love glass but screening the interior means that it doesn't have to stay as neat and tidy. 

The weird device on the wall is the mini split. It's an air conditioner but it's also a heater. It keeps this room comfortable all year long. 

My flower frogs are corralled in a flow blue vegetable bowl. 

That's all for now.  I'm enjoying this fresh color scheme. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed a look at the garden room. 

Stay cool. 

Katie 

New Flooring For The Garden Room

Hi, Friends,

How are you?

I hope you are staying well and encouraged. 

I've wanted flooring for the garden room for a long time. Years ago, we put down tile everywhere because we had a very naughty dog. It didn't matter that there was a dog door. He had accidents in the house anyway because he was so high strung. He needed dog therapy. 

I thought tile was low maintenance. Nope. Grout is never low maintenance. Trying to keep grout clean is such a nightmare. We had wide grout lines which was even more of a problem. 

The garden room has the prettiest light for photography but the floor looked terrible. 

Once we did the hard wood floors two years ago, the kitchen and the garden room were next on the list.  We had such problems with our flooring company that I could not face another flooring situation. "The virus that shall not be named" popped up so it's taken two years to revisit our flooring needs. We also purchased the East Texas house which caused a shift in our focus. 

 We love our floors out in East Texas because they are pretty and durable. We purchased a luxury vinyl plank and had it installed. Bill could have installed it himself but I didn't want him working on floors for multiple weekends. We protect it from scratches but that is about it. It can be wet mopped which is a bonus since it's so sandy out there. 

We began to feel like LVP was a good choice for the garden room. 

It is impervious to water unless a flood of water gets up under the flooring.

Watering plants will not be an issue. It looks off in photos but in person it looks almost like real wood. The winning factor is it can be installed over most existing flooring. 

We could lay it over the tile! Cracking up tile is a horrendous job. 

I wanted to see if I could install the flooring myself. Bill had to work but he was working from home so he was able to do the occasional heavy lifting. I had the cutest assistant as well. Can you spot her in the photo above?  

Once I got the hang of it, the planks were easy to snap together. 

This room is 21' by almost 10'. I was able to get it installed in one day. 

I should have paced myself and worked on it a second day because I was exhausted. 

We got NuCore Waterproof Flooring in Driftwood Oak from Floor & Decor. 

It was around $550.00 to do the whole room.  

There were a couple of sections where the tile wasn't perfectly level. Unfortunately, I didn't think of shimming the plank until I was almost finished. There are a couple of spots that make a slight noise when they are stepped on but that doesn't bother me. My childhood home had the same issue. 

We decided that I should start at the front of the room and work my way toward the window in case there were partial planks. Sure enough, we needed a small sliver right under the windows. 

The planks can be cut and snapped with a razor blade knife. Bill had no problem scoring the vinyl with one pass. He made the first cut since I was chicken. I took over from there, though. 

It took me several passes since I'm not as strong as he is. The razor also got dull as the day went on. I didn't think to change it often enough. 

The gray chair and ottoman went upstairs to our room and we brought Bill's recliner downstairs. 

He doesn't watch T.V. anymore so the recliner didn't get used. 

It coordinates well with the brick wall. 

Bill got new floor molding and installed it. 

The new flooring has really warmed up the space. We love it. 

The above image captures all three floors - the wood in the living area, our kitchen and the garden room. Our kitchen floor is very early vinyl plank. We have had it for 23 years and it's almost indestructible. 

I'm not sure what we do about replacing it because it is losing shine.  

The floor was easy to install. It's affordable, beautiful and it's low maintenance.

It's a win. 

That is about it for now. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

Katie 

Summer Decor In The Garden Room

Hi, Friends,

How are you? I hope that you healthy and well. 

I've done a little summer and Patriotic decorating in our sunroom. 

Patriotic decor doesn't stay out for long around here so getting it blogged about in a timely fashion just doesn't happen. It's cute so better late than never. 

A thrifted Uncle Sam whirly gig sits on the end table. 

He was sitting in the store for a couple of weeks looking a little forlorn.

 I appreciate the craftsmanship of this handmade item so it came home with me. 

I love a white sofa because with a quick pillow swap it has a new look. 

The P. Kaufman Queensland fabric has long been a favorite of mine. My local upholstery shop still had several yards on a roll. I bought all that he had. We used to have a red sofa and with pillows in the same print, The original pillows and sofa are long gone and I was happy to make some new ones. 

This print may seem dated since it was such a hit in the late 90s but I think it's a classic.   

The red floral and fruit ground is great with the flag pillow that I made from a placemat. 

Oh, how I wish I'd bought more of those placemats. 

I made the sailboat quilt for our son when he was a toddler. 

He has kept it here since frequent moves are part of this lifestyle. 

 We enclosed the original back porch in 2003. We needed a little place to retreat from teenagers and garage bands. This little sunroom is diminutive at only a little over 9 feet wide but it lives larger since double French doors open out from the breakfast nook. It is such a useable space for us. Bill has his little corner where he enjoys his morning coffee and an evening YouTube video. The rack above his chair is undecorated right now since our new kitty took a fancy to the decor up there. 

My seeds are stored in my great grandparent's wedding chest. The favor from the garden's flowers are dropped in little containers in the top drawer until they are called in to service the next year. The seeds  are temperature controlled because of our mini-split. The mini-split is one of our best investments. It keeps this room cool or toasty depending on the season. 

It is rare that I show complete angles of this room.

There are plants everywhere during an extreme cold snap. The floor is practical but it needs an update. I just can't seem to face cracking up another tile floor.

The dish dresser is one of my favorite pieces to decorate with seasonal or holiday decor. 

Vintage and newer gardening books rest on the shelves but they are handy for perusing. 

Fun vintage decor bits are sprinkled in amongst the books and plants. 

That's about it for now. It was fun showing off our festive decor.

It's hard to believe that July is here already. 

Have a wonderful Independence Day! 

Katie