:: a lakehouse renovation - the living room

Hello Friends & welcome back to { driftwood cottage }. I finally got around to taking some photos of the lake house and thought I would share the before and afters of the main floor Living Room. 

:: AFTER ::

:: BEFORE ::

This is the living room when we first viewed the home.

 As you can see this isn't a super large space.

Ugh, that pass through only highlighted the side of a big black refrigerator...I knew immediately how I wanted to solve that problem. The built in bookshelf & banquet have been the perfect solution. I can now fit twice as many people comfortably in the same amount of space.

:: DURING RENO ::

Ceilings have been stripped, and paint swatches are on the walls. At this point I had so many paint choices up I was driving myself crazy. I knew I wanted a neutral and something that would work well with the stone fireplace, I still hadn't decided on furniture so I was still up in the air.

The pass through between the Living Room & Kitchen.

 Crown moldings are up and I'm still deciding on paint color, also whether or not to paint the wainscoting the same as the wall color, not sure where that idea came from, but glad we didn't.

This was the exciting day when the flooring was finally going in. What a huge difference the hand scraped antique bamboo floors made throughout the house.

 Oops, looks like they painted the wainscoting after all...but not the trim...miscommunications happen...of course we went back to the wainscoting the same as all other trim. I went with Sherwin Williams White Duck on the walls and Benjamin Moore's White dove for all of the cabinetry & trim.  I am so pleased with the color I chose for the walls & trim. The walls are a lovely white with a hint of gray, and White Dove is the perfect white with no strange undertones. The floors are in & I'm already bringing in accessories and furniture is being delivered. 

 Lighting was so much fun to pick out and made such an impact on the updates to the house. I purchased most of the overhead lighting from Shades of Light, they have a specific section of lighting for 8 foot ceilings so I knew whatever I chose would work in our spaces. I also ordered some of our kitchen and bathroom fixtures from Lowe's, all very affordable stylish options.

The beginnings of decorating, little by little I brought in my online purchases & little finds from the usual places like Home Goods & World Market. Since this is our second home and we are only there part time I went with less expensive large furnishings knowing they would last longer with only minimal wear. Sofas & Living room chairs I ordered from Rooms To Go, opting for slipcovers & microfiber for easy cleaning. Two years in and the furniture from Rooms to Go is holding up quite nicely, and I suspect we will get many many more years out of it without a problem.

We opted to go without a television in this space since we have a large lounge area in the basement. This living room is for lovely lake views, cozy fires, good books, coffee & conversation.

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

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:: countertop vignettes

Happy Monday my sweets. Wow, how quickly and busily last week passed. 

I was too busy to get back here to post a thing. 

I spent my one free day {Thursday} cleaning my house, well at least my kitchen. 

I pulled everything off of my counters and piled it on the table & gave everything a good scrubbing.

That's alot of stuff huh. 

I really don't like my kitchen's backsplash, so I always try to hide as much of it as I can. 

Someday we'll invest in a new one I suppose, but there are always more important things to be done. 

I think I'll wait until I decide to do a whole kitchen renovation, 

like painting out the cabinets and I would love to have butcher block countertops. 

It just seems so wasteful when you already have granite....I should be happy with it I suppose.

We always seem to want what we don't have.

I'm in the process of choosing a paint color for the kitchen and adjoining keeping room. 

I've gotten the painting estimates and all I have left to do is decide on my color and give them a call.

Why is it so much easier to make these decisions for someone else's home? 

I have been mulling this over for months now.

I really want to keep my custom curtains,

so I'm trying to find a color that will work well with them.

I have my color choice narrowed down to Sherwin Williams Macadamia shown above, 

and it's lighter counterpart Softer Tan {which I recently used in my clients home & love}. 

I'm so ready for a change, but I'm also scared it will look all wrong when it's done.

I'm kind of afraid that I'll miss my warm bold red walls.

On the other hand....

I'm really looking forward to a lighter brighter space, 

and the illusion of more of it.

Anyhoo, that's what's going on around here, and here's what my countertops look like now.

I just love baskets, and you'll find them all over my kitchen....

anything natural and woven is good in my book. 

I also love vintage goodies too, so you'll see plenty of that as well. 

Most everything in this vignette was found at a Thrift store, minus the lampshade {Target}, 

and the vintage cookbook & wooden mortal & pestle which were both inexpensive antique store finds. 

I just adore my vintage brass lamp with it's cute candlestick look & pull chain switch.

On the left side of my sink & directly behind my island cooktop I have my vintage tool caddy. 

This was a local antique store find which I have had fun filling with vintage wooden utensils.
Will you just look at how clean and shiny my countertops are, wow,

that's a perfect reflection of my vintage look coffee grinder lamp.

So, what do you think about my red walls and new paint choice?

Do you redecorate your countertops very often?

What is your favorite kitchen accessory?

Hope you are having a wonderful Monday : )

{peace, love & hugs}
Carrie

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{ lightening up }

With spring here and summer on it's way,

I have been feeling an extreme need to lighten and brighten my home.

I'm wanting to change out the darker colors of fall and winter,

for the light and airy ones of spring and summer.

Put away cozy throws, and roll up the heavy rugs,

and trade them out for light wood floors and throw pillows.

While I would love to do some major changes,

like painting, or recovering furniture...

these things just aren't in the budget right now.

Soooooooo.

Today while I was doing my weekly cleaning,

I started playing around with some things just to try them out.

It first began with taking up some rugs to be cleaned,

Then I moved on to my slip covered sofa in my keeping room.

I removed the slip covers to find a lovely canvas body on my sofa.

While I had removed the cushion covers before,

I had never really seen the sofa completely without it's cover.

I was pleasantly surprised by the color and look of the fabric.

So much so that I thought I would just leave the covers off,

and add an old chenille bedspread to the cushions.

Voilà , a lighter brighter sofa.

Now, be honest with me... 

should I leave it like this,

or should I cover it back up?

What do you think?

Does it work?

I pulled the straw colored textured pillows from my living room sofa

to help add in some of the colors from the curtains, lampshades and floor.

The little ivory pillow was borrowed from my bedroom.

I know the coffee table is really dark, and it really needs a new paint job,

but for now it will have to do { until I get around to that }

Now, here's the other side of the keeping room.

To balance out the room and the new light color of the sofa,

I added a couple of creamy throw pillows to my comfy café au lait chairs,

a sweet little vintage linen table cloth and milk glass compote to the table between.

To help lighten up the coffee table  { that needs to be painted very soon },

I added a whicker tray, some light colored books, and a little plant in a milkglass planter.

So, what do you think?

Should I keep it?

Oh yes, 

and what color if any do you think I should paint the coffee table?

White?

Gray?

Distressed of course.

Oh, and what about the lamp?

Do you think I should paint it or leave it?

I know, I know, that's a lot of questions,

but I really would like to know what you think.

I love new ideas,  and I really value others opinions of my spaces.

Alright, with all of that said and all of my decorating questions out of the way,

here is my keeping room before the mini makeover.

Oh yeah, see that sleeping dog there... remember her ?

you know... BIG DOG little basket.

That's my Lucy, she's 15 years old,

and that spot she lays in right there,  it looks like it's 15 years old.

She has absolutely ruined my super soft and comfy cream rug...

hence the beginning of this mini makeover.

Removal of the rugs.... 

oooh and did I mention she also sheds something awful ?

I love her to pieces though, 

and if I have to sacrifice a rug here and there,

so be it!

{ she's worth more than any stinky ol' rug anyways}

* peace & love *

Carrie

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