Do I Have Too Much Stuff?

Lately, I have been longing for a less-is-more house,

so my filled-to-the-brim postal sorter may soon be a thing of the past.

I purchased it in the early 90’s to display my merch in my old retail store,

Heart in Hand.

Here it is in our most recent past house — the brick bungalow,

where it served as a humongous TV stand:

In our current house, the Dutch colonial,

it’s on a wall in the dining room, just across from our table.

Here you can see how the dining room is open to our kitchen.

G.O. added a beam where the two rooms meet,

+ my beloved St. Louis bus station sign is hanging there:

The trunks underneath the sorter are filled with fabric + pillow forms + blankets:

While up on top, I’m displaying my small bird house collection:

We bought this chippy blue metal house last Fall:

I think I love chippy red metal just as much as blue.

I bought this small birdhouse in a store about 20 years ago:

My friend gave me the white bird house years ago:

Come Spring, this trio will head outside, for mostly decorative purposes.

As much as I love birds, I kind of hate to attract them

as a murderous cat named Patty lives just next door.

  Meanwhile, the rest of my sorter is full of more of my treasures,

including this sweet, little pitcher that I bought in Soho, NYC:

This lighthouse nightlight was originally our grandparents’,

then our late sister, Kathy, had it for years.

It obviously took a tumble in the past, + G.O. sez he’ll re-glue it for me.

I bought the pair of black urns from Lowe’s a few years back,

+ the faux plants are from IKEA.

I have a yen to put them on our front porch steps — maybe later today.

I love my heavy glass vessel from Pottery Barn, bought years ago;

currently, it displays a collection of old baseballs:

Speaking of baseballs, here’s one signed by the great Brooks Robinson.

(Hall of Fame 3rd baseman for the Baltimore Orioles)

How lucky I am, to have these old golf trophies of my dad’s!

I collect the Guy Wolff pots, + this one is from the late, great Smith + Hawken.

Coincidentally, this pot is resting on my Smith + Hawken garden book!

Well, that’s about it.

I guess you’d never suspect me of wanting to go less-is-more, would you?

We’ll see — stay tuned!

November Nesting

So.

If the calendar says November, that means Christmas is coming.

It means I should be doing the following:

Sewing pillows,

painting + stenciling everything in my path,

+ sewing yet more pillows.

 Exhibit A: painting + stenciling.

This coffee table is being re-done in my newest style obsession,

which I am calling Vintage Blanket.

I kind of love it where it’s at right now.

Perhaps I will keep it for myself!  Stay tuned!

But wait.

November on my calendar means merch, yes.

But is also has me yearning to binge eat the following:.

 3-packs of Affy Tapples

Countless containers of pumpkin flavored Greek yogurt.

HA!  JUST kidding about the binge eating!  (Or not.)

Actually, I find myself wanting to NEST.

Time to putter around the interior of one’s house,

after one has neglected said-same house all summer!

First, I have turned my attention to our living room,

more specifically, the windows.

  Look!  I’ve sewn curtains + lots of them!

My beautiful, semi-sheer fabric was once IKEA curtain panels, @$20 per pair.

2 pairs yielded more than enough fabric

for both our living room bay + our dining room bay.

6 window treatments for only $40-ish!

The embroidered stripes + knots are festive, are they not?

They add a little texture + a bit of pattern to our rooms.

I opted for only a single panel at each window,

as I thought the standard 2 pairs looked too puffy + granny’s house.

The single panel just looked better to me.

It allows lots of light to stream in (big priority for me),

+ we can still see outside.

Thankfully, it also handles my other concern — privacy,

both during the day + night time.  Yay us.

But wait.  What!?

Somebody’s forgotten to hem her curtains!

OOPS.

Fingers crossed I won’t procrastinate too much + do some hemming, stat.

Stay tuned!

 

2 Pairs Of Lamps, Lots O’ Waiting

10 years or so ago, I bought a pair swing arm pharmacy light fixtures.

They were discontinued from Pottery Barn, for sale on eBay.

I can’t recall what I paid, but they were fairly “spendy”.

Natch, I wanted to bring them to the Dutch colonial,

but it took a while to persuade G.O.

Finally, just yesterday afternoon, they made it!

He attached them to the woodwork of the middle window of our bay,

right behind our couch.

They are taking the place of the pair of Target lamps

that were on our sofa table.

Here:

Those little Target cuties were moved to another window bay,

which is in our dining room/office/what-have-you room.

Here:

I think they look fantastic!

We have a chippy gray bench that will go on that empty side of the table.

I promise to take a snappy of it + share with the class.

I hurriedly staged this table late yesterday afternoon,

so it’s a sure bet that I am going to move things around or add stuff.

I promise to take snappies + share with the class when I do.

I shall take additional photos of our pharmacy lights in the living room, too!

Stay tuned!

My Groovy Postal Sorter’s Groovy Re-Do

After spending countless hours on Pinterest,

swooning at, among other things, 12’s of epic shelf stylings . . .

. . . I decided it was the perfect moment to re-do my old postal sorter.

Okay, so  maybe the moment wasn’t perfect,

as you can see, the sun was definitely not shining.

Oops!

Let’s continue anyway, shall we?

Here’s my pair of vintage corbels that I bought last summer:

I considered adding my pair of black urns, but I stopped myself.

 Is less really more?

While we ponder that cosmic query, here are more groovies:

I tried to keep the the theme “old” + “white”.

HA!  Like me!  Old + white!

Okay.

Let’s see how I did.

Look at this silhouette that I made.

That’s our grandson + a photo frame from Pottery Barn!

Next we have a framed photo of my family,

snapped on the porch of our grandparents’ house,

way back in the summer of ’60.

I am on the bottom step, at left, with my sister Kathy holding Lisa.

I’ve chosen to display a couple of snowmen in a salt cellar,

with epsom salt filling in for snow.

You can’t tell, but the white snowman is actually a window scraper.

Our dad owned a Standard Oil gas station in the 50’s,

+ I s’poze this was a give-a-way to his best customers.

I’ll have to take another photo to share with the class.

Meanwhile, here’s my favorite of all my glass containers:

It’s a wonderfully heavy canister from Pottery Barn.

Since I love baseball so much, I’ve filled it with old baseballs.

I love that slender beaker because it’s glass + red — 2 things I love!

This vintage wooden tray (below) formerly displayed smalls in my old booth:

These days it displays my Kay redware plate (Workshop of David T. Smith),

my most precious photo of my sons,

+ a GOOD plate from Diane Keaton’s old collection at Bed, Bath + Beyond.

Quick query:

Does that penny rug runner scream “Granny Chic” or just plain granny?

While we ponder that question, let’s view this bowl,

one of my favorites:

Isn’t it wonderful?

It’s Fioriware, from Zanesville, Ohio,

from their “Gingham” collection.

Okay.

 In addition to displaying a whole lot o’ my stuff . . .

. . . my postal sorter also serves as our home office.

That explains the printer (at lower left),

+ this wonderful Dachshund tape dispenser!

How cute!

It was given to me by my niece + her awesome 4 children!

Here’s my sister, Kathy (a.k.a. Nana) with one of her grands:

No fair!  She looks like she’s 20!

Thanks for viewing; as always, it means a lot.

Finally! Curtains!

After much pondering about window treatments in the Dutch colonial,

I finally chose to sew 1/2 tiers for our living + dining room bay.

 Here’s 1 pair, already up + at ’em in our dining room.

My fabric is some very lightweight + soft handkerchief linen.

It’s so pretty!

Anyway, if you are wondering why I finally chose 1/2-tier curtains, here’s why:

Reason #1. This gorgeous fall foliage from next door.

How could I possibly cover up such natural beauty?

It’s great that we can see out, but passersby can’t see in!

Genius!

And speaking of not covering up natural beauty,

here’s reason #2.

All our gorgeous original woodwork!

After all that work — stripping + refinishing —

it would be a crime to cover that beautiful woodwork with curtains,

don’t you think?

And now, reason #3 for 1/2 tiers — the curtains in this room:

They’re so simple!  So less-is-more!

So me!

Coincidentally, this room is my inspiration

for the dining room/office combination in our house.

Isn’t it great?

It’s a room in designer Allison Kandler’s California home.

I am a huge fan of hers, +I have blogged about her previously, here:

Combination Dining/Home Office In Our New House

Meanwhile, I’ll share more curtain photos as I sew more of them!

Stay tuned!

• 

Ch Ch Changes With My Old Postal Sorter

Yesterdee we were as bizzy as 2 beez.

We moved my huge postal sorter from our current living room,

where it loyally served as a media center + display piece:

Now it’s parked in our Dutch colonial’s dining room,

where it is being pressed into service

as a home office + display piece:

Wait.  What?

You exchanged the sorter’s original base

with our beloved pine farmhouse table? you ask?

Has the world gone mad?

No — the table works best for my home office hopes + dreams.

See?  It provides space for sitting + working.

I may or may not keep that vintage rolling stool there.

Stay tuned.

But where will you dine? you might be asking now.

Please.

We’ll park it on the couch, as always — HA!

But seriously.  If we do have guests,

we’ll enjoy our meals on this round table that we already had:

Does it not look like it was made for that window bay?

I think so!

Isn’t it great when a plan comes together?

Let have one more look-see.

Please notice my vintage blue library ladder,

which is very groovy, too:

Its pretty pale blue plays very nicely

with the pale blue of our ceiling, don’tcha think?

Now let’s look just a tad bit beyond —

into our adjoining living room.

There’s our new chair from IKEA:

It’s their gray chenille  EKENA chair:

Its combination of traditional + modern style

fits very nicely in our décor.

Plus, that chenille fabric should wear like iron.

Its tweedy gray color not only complements our décor —

it will not show any black pet hair!

We’re placing yet another vintage sorter of mine

on that blank wall behind the chair:

I can’t wait to fill its shelves + cubbies with all my books + ‘stuff’!

Fingers crossed we can move it today!

Stay tuned, of course,

but first, just one more look:

There’s my old easel, displaying my oil painting

of my sister, Kathy, + our late friend, Cindee.

I painted this back in my graduate school era (’78)

at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.

TY, as always, for viewing!

LET THE MOVING BEGIN!

---

Progress continues at the Dutch colonial!

One day this past weekend,

I insisted that we haul our dining room table + chairs

over to our new dining room:

Man, that table is HEAVY!

I love it, though.

Its lumber came from an old factory in Manchester, England.

Isn’t that a cool story?

I thought so.

But wait.  It looks a little sad, all by itself, don’t you think?

Here ’tis, all staged + pretty, inside our current house:

Check out our art ledges!

G.O. made them from an old door frame

+ bent the iron brackets himself!

Man, I really miss that Pottery Barn rug!

I just think a room looks unfinished without a rug.

So.  You might be asking,

“Why isn’t your dining table in the center of the dining room,

where it’s supposed to go!?”

Funny story: G.O. asked the same thing!

I just said “trust me” + kept moving.

Here’s my plan.

The dining table sits semi-inside the bay on one side . . .

. . . + on the opposite side, this:

Yes!  It’s my beloved postal sorter

from my old retail store, Heart in Hand!

 We are currently using it as a media center

+ display piece in our living room.

I am thinking possibly a home office in our Dutch colonial.

Stay tuned!

A NEW FAUX CEILING BEAM — UP + RUNNING!

Even though I’ve not blogged about it,

progress at the Dutch colonial has been fast + almost furious!

  Remember this day when we retrieved some old lumber

from our neighbor’s garage tear down?

My plans for said-same:

A faux beam spanning the ceiling between our kitchen + dining room.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

YUMM-O (at the beam, not so much for my photo!)

YUMM-O (at that vintage sign of mine — once again, not my photo!)

* * *

Sorry about that — we had a torrential rain storm this afternoon,

which made the lighting less than favorable for photos.

There’s more progress to share,

but I’ll save all that for another time with new + improved photos.

Here’s just a sneak peek:

Stay tuned!

 

Hardwood Floors — The (Almost) Finale

There’s been some more hardwood floor progress at the Dutch colonial!

The 3+ day job of sanding is done, + here’s the result:

Up close + personal:

Then what?  You ask.

Time to choose the stain color!

HA!  KIDDING!

Disclaimer: it wasn’t that bad at all!

I just think that cat photo spells C-O-M-E-D-Y!

* * *

Anyway, as I was saying, I wanted something on the light side,

so we chose Golden Oak:

It’s a tad darker than I had anticipated, but it’s still good.

The warm golden undertones match those of our oak kitchen island:

Our house’s beautiful original wood floors + woodwork

are the reasons we opted for an oak island.

Isn’t it great when a design plan comes together?

So.  Now that the floors have been stained,

it’s time for their poly finish coat,

which means yet another design choice.

How shiny (or not) do we go?  You ask.

Here’s my thought — our kitchen tiles have almost no sheen:

So to keep things flowing nicely, from room to room,

we chose a satin (low luster) poly finish.

The poly’s going down later today!

Next step: the rugs + furnishings stage, at long last!

Stay tuned!

Wicker + Bench Dining Room Trends

So.  Yesterday I mentioned that our new house dining room

will be half dining + half home office.

Let’s discuss the dining half, shall we?

We’ll have a round table here in the window bay:

My inspiration:

While these  homeowners chose to a build window seat,

I’d like to opt for a bench in our window bay.

I think that’s a ‘thing’ now.

See for yourself,

in my own dining room (from a while ago):

* * *

And in this oh-so Scandinavian room:

vtwonenl.jpg

I like the office chair at one end of the table, too + might ‘borrow’ that idea.

 * * *

Next up, another dining bench in a glam** dining room:

BHG

**Glam is not my favorite décor style.

* * *

This, on the other hand, is more like it:

Southern Living

I’m a fan of the striped upholstery,  the modern pendant + papered accent wall.

Notice please, the wicker dining chairs.

This, too, is a ‘thing’.

Polished Pebble blog

I’d kill for that ^^ table.

* * *

Pottery Barn

I love the work of the Pottery Barn stylists, don’t you?

* * *

Look closely at the lower front of these wicker beauties:

pub1emagazine.se

Is that a number I see?

Okay, now my head is spinning with inspiration!

What on earth did we do before Pinterest?

* * *

So.  Let’s recap.

I’ve been musing about the following 2 décor trends:

1. Dining bench + 2. Wicker dining seating

Well, coincidentally, my plans include using both  trends in 1 piece of furniture!

A wicker bench!

This is the Himara All-Weather Wicker Wingback Settee

from World Market.

Was $349.99  Now $244.99

I’m seeing some ticking stripes on the cushions in our dining room.

Look at those lines!  I love it!

A wingback can’t get much more traditional,

+ the wicker makes it a little more modern!

So, what do you think of my wicker hopes + dreams?

I think I’d like to save myself a $35 delivery charge

by finding it in a World Market store!

Road trip!  Stay tuned!