Country Living’s Kit Barn

It’s LIVING IN A BARN WEEK!

This month’s Country Living magazine features 4 converted barn homes,

+ it’s my job to review each one, starting with yesterday’s Modern Barn.

Today I shall discuss the Kit Barn.

Kit meaning it’s built from precut posts-and-beams + arrives on a truck

from Country Carpenters in Connecticut.

But first.  Remember how I geeked out over the sweet paintings of the barns?

I read the tiny print to see who the talented artist was,

+ her name is Emily Isabella.

How adorable!

She has an etsy shop, which I need to investigate further.

We’ll discuss.

But first.  Back to today’s Kit Barn.

This is a small detail, but how much do we love that transom-style window

above the garage door?

A lot.

Some people in our town added a garage to their beautiful older home,

+ I was so impressed when I saw that they had included a similar transom window!

I mean, WHO does that?  Besides nobody!

Perhaps I’ll risk having a restraining order placed upon me

+ snap a photo to share with the class.

Anyway.  The homeowner is Laura, + she lives in Napa Valley.

Turns out she’s a fixer upper flipper with her own company,

Del Mar Restoration!

I can’t wait to look at their website.

I’ll report back.

I’m SO sorry for my crappy photos!

I am a huge fan of Adirondack chairs,

+ this one earns extra points for being modern + navy.

 I like all the crunchy gravel surrounding the barn

+ the charming cupola + weathervane.

Inside, there’s a bedroom tucked under the exposed rafters.

That bed looks like it’s been upholstered with a gray linen,

+ the mix of pillows + the Hudson Bay blanket fit nicely in a rustic barn home.

Nearby there’s a seating area with another favorite, a brown leather couch.

The light fixture + that rug (navy + plus signs!) are both swell.

That coffee table, though.  Whoa.

Wish I could persuade G.O. to try + make one for us.  Stay tuned.

That horse trough tub is cool.

I can only imagine how hard it would be to persuade G.O. that we need one!

HA!  It’s always tons of fun when I get to use the fighting cat photo!

But wait.

My fave feature of this entire barn would be the RED WHEELS on their table.

O . . . M . . . G !

I told G.O. that, if he/we ever see anything like them, we must get them!!

I’ll keep you posted.

Next on the barn home agenda is the Neutral Barn.

Hint: lots of white.  See you then!

 

 

Mama’s Got A Brand New Rug

Last Christmas, my sister Lisa gave me a Pottery Barn gift certificate.

After much pondering, I finally chose this cool rug:

Who doesn’t love navy blue ticking stripes?

As a reminder of days gone by, let’s look back at my old, much loved kilim rug:

I loved it because it had all the “Kay colors” of blue, red + buttery tan.

I bought it way, way back in 2007, so I was ready for a change.

Meanwhile, this cute little rolling table is also new:

I bought it for my biz, RedBird Vintage Home, 

to resell at one of my upcoming spring markets.

Who knew?  It would look so great in our living room!

Check out the way the white bead board top echoes the white stripes.

So.  I may or may not sell it.  We’ll see!

I love how you can tell that it has been made from parts of other furniture.

The white top + apron have the best chippy patina,

while the graceful, natural wood legs surely came from something fancier.

And the wheels!  I’ll buy anything with wheels!

In fact, our living room has not 1 but 2 typewriter tables,

which, as you know, have wheels.

Sorry about the naughty photo, but it’s  been so dark + dreary here.

Anyway, I bought a sample 12″ square marble tile for the top,

yet more white in the room.

Now, then.  This concludes the tour of all wheeled items in our living room,

but before I go, may I show you some other newcomers to our living room?

Golf trophies!

My dad won those, + when we were visiting last month, he said I could have them!

I’m not sure how sentimental he is about his “major awards”,

but I promised him I wouldn’t sell them.

How could I?

But stay tuned for whether or not I sell my little table!

I have a market this coming Saturday.

 

PAINT REMORSE

Today I am thinking obsessing about all things PAINT

+ changing my mind a lot.

This is never a good thing in G.O.’s world.

Oops.

But back to paint.  I want my bedroom to look like this:

Emily HendersonN

I want that dark blue accent wall!

The rug’s dark blue is a tad more ‘now’ than my go-to paint ,

NAVY.

However, because it’s granny’s my ongoing quest to stay somewhat current,

I forced myself to step away from the navy paint

+ buy a quart of this navy-ish dark blue paint (large swatch):

Deep Blue Shadow from Glidden

One quart of paint + one decorating magazine purchase later,

I dashed back to the Dutch colonial,

where I painted a small sample on our bedroom wall.

How very HGTV of me!

theturquoisehome.com

Oh, how I feared I would get periwinkle.

The good news, though, is that, much to my surprise,

my new dark blue (in the morning) was GOOD!!

.(Since I failed to snap a photo of said same, you’ll have to trust me on that.)

But wait.

 Fast forward to yesterday afternoon,

+ my formerly “good” dark blue had turned to Welch’s grape jelly!

The humanity!

Full disclosure — this happens to me all the time.

 I’ve actually coined a little pet phrase for it:

PAINT REMORSE

And yes, of course, it’s not just our bedroom.

I also dislike this icy blue of our main bathroom + have plans to change it:

I need something warmer + darker to make that wainscoting pop.

SO. As of right now, my plans include switching to one of the blues shown here:

Stay tuned!

Hardwood Floors, Step One

Our hardwood floors are being beautified at the Dutch colonial.

Here’s the dining room floor, mid-project, as seen from the kitchen:

You can see that the first task was sanding the edges.

We rented an edge sander at our local build-o-rama;

it cost $40 for 4 hours.

Here’s another view of the dining room, looking back at the kitchen:

This next photo was taken from a corner of the living room,

facing the dining room on the left + the front door on the right:

While most of the house’s wood floors are the traditional narrow oak,

the bedroom has wider pine boards:

We briefly considered painting it,

but we decided that we’d opt to stain it, too.

I’ve had that plaid rug for years,

the colors of which I still like very much.

One of those blues could become an accent wall,

as seen in this inspiration bedroom,

designed by Emily Henderson (past winner of HGTV’s Design Star):

That Target rug is more ‘now’ than my plaid rag rug,

so I’m tempted to spring for it.

I’d like that throw, too, please.

Stay tuned to see which rug will make the cut!

My Kitchen Rug Obsession

Quickie update:

 Because of a 1/8″  disparity in size between our dark + light tiles,

our checked kitchen floor hopes + dreams were dashed.

Thanks to some quick thinking on my part, plan B happened.

Here ’tis:

1. All the dark tiles have been laid in a running bond pattern.

2. The lighter gray tiles have been returned to our local build-o-rama, Menards.

3. We now wait for more darks so we can complete our task.

Part most of me is glad we’ll have a plain Jane floor,

because I am obsessing about patterned kitchen rugs.

Maybe you’ve noticed that they’re a ‘thing’ now.

From Apartment Therapy:

More specifically, kilim rugs in kitchen are a thing.

One of my designer faves, Emily Henderson, is on board:

Ditto for This Old House magazine:

Since I’ve been a fan of kilim rugs for years,

their surge in popularity is good news for me!

Here’s one I bought way back in ’06:

As you can see, it has all the ‘Kay colors’, as I like to say.

Yep, that rug really tied the room together.

HA!  Did you recognize that quote from one of my favorite movies,

The Big Lebowski?

If not, rent it.  Watch it.  Thumbs up!

* * *

But I digress.

Check out the wallpaper on the ceiling here — yay or nay?

Apartment Therapy

I’m going to vote ‘yay’,

 but would our relationship survive our attempting to wallpaper a ceiling?

While we ponder that query,

let’s have a look-see at another rug with the ‘Kay colors’:

From Pottery Barn

This version of the ‘Kay colors’ is lighter + more now

than those in our current living room.

.The pretty, pale-ish blue of the PB version would play nicely

with our kitchen’s blue ceiling, don’t you think?

Plus, it’s an indoor/outdoor rug —

pretty much a must-have for a kitchen in my little world!

Luckily for us, indoor/outdoor rugs seem to be a ‘thing’ now, too.

The choices are endless!

Time to go online shopping — stay tuned!