My Somethings Old

Just the other day Sherry at Young House Love chatted about how so many designers have been saying "every room should have something old in it".  She then went on to show off a fabulous Craig's List find that I am totally jealous of and if I lived closer to her and knew her address I would totally steal when she wasn't looking.  



Gorgeous, right?!?!?!  But back on track...I couldn't agree more!  You know, with that part about every room should have something old in it.  We all love to buy new shiny stuff but I so often find that it is that old piece with a story and history that makes a room come alive.  Even if it is just a chicken bowl.

Yup, I have a bowl / chicken in my office that was passed on to us by my husband's late grandfather.  And we love this little guy!  It makes us think of Grandfather Don every time we walk into the room and in it's small way makes this house our home.  


In my kitchen I love the antique kettle that sits above the cabinets.  It was an antique store find and I love to dream up all the places it has been.  I usually picture it on a cold morning in Yosemite boiling up water over a campfire.

In our family room one wall is dedicated to a "something old" art project that I made from recycled cabinet doors.

And our dining room is home to one of my favorite Craig's List finds (take that Sherry!) which brings much needed character to a very bland (for now) room. 

So wherever your Old comes from I think it is a brilliant idea to bring a meaningful or antique or collected item into each room.  Because although Pottery Barn is beautiful none of us want to actually live in the catalog.
         

Refined Tradition & Elegance

A while back I saw this bathroom on Pinterest



and fell in love!  The subway tile, claw foot tub, yellow polka dot floor, even the door knob are beautiful.  But what really captured my attention was the color combination.  And I knew right away that this is what I wanted in my daughter's bathroom.  But, in-spite of what I like to believe, I do not have free rein over this house.  My husband does have some say in the big (like paint) decisions.  So we came up with a plan we can both get on board with (he felt the turquoise was to "kid bathroom").

So, our plan...

We are getting started with this



Buxton Blue is from the Benjamin Moore Historic Color Collection - A collection of 174 time-honored hues...steeped in refined tradition and elegance.  Yup, my daughter's bathroom, where she splashes in the tub, splatters her My Little Pony toothpaste and tries her best to get the pee in the potty, will be refined and elegant.  That is how we roll.

Despite my claim last week that the long weekend would be project free, I did recruit my husband to help me get started on the paint so the bathroom is looking like this.

He kept hiding from the camera but I did manage to get this shot of him hard at work.

Well, at least part of him hard at work.  


I will give you one guess as to why we didn't take the paint all the way to the baseboards.



source


Yup, wainscoting!  We will probably do the regular chair rail height rather than this taller version, but isn't this inspiration room amazing.

We will also get rid of these horrible fixtures

which we also have in our Master Bath, by the way.  Add some towel hooks, maybe a floating shelf, possibly some art.  Love these



And possibly even replace the light fixture.

Which we have two of in our Master Bath - must have been a builders special.  Please don't ever go with a builders special cause there ain't nothing special about it!


I'm also hoping to frame out our, yup you guessed it - builders special mirror.  Check out this one that I found here




So as you can see we have big plans.  Actually they are really little plans - all little things that will hopefully add up to a BIG difference (but not a big bill).  That isn't to much to ask, is it?