one thing leads to another

you know the old story about putting a rose in

a room? then you clean the table on which it is perched.

then you open the drapes. then you pick up the clutter and vacuum

and on and on until you have an 

easy on the eyes room.

make one small pretty change and it leads to more.

that happened to me this week.

and it started with painting my door red.

that led to completely rearranging the furniture

in our living room. which meant moving furniture out 

and into our bedroom. which meant moving furniture out

of our bedroom and into our den (pictured above).

which led to painting the moved furniture since

it had a new home. i'll show you that later.

it also led to finally hanging the big distressed mirror that 

i have hauled through three moves (always writing into the contract

that my mirror does not convey).

in our small space it adds a big punch, throwing light

and reflections around the room. i love it.

hanging the mirror also led me to do something on the opposite wall,

which to this point had yet to be treated. but having that wall in 

the mirror's reflection pushed me to get 

something up there. 

so i dug around in our shed (grabbing the empty frames)

and the storage closet and threw this 

up there. kind of haphazard but it works for now.

there was a mahogany secretary desk here but it got the

boot because it was just too chunky for this space.

my grandmother's old drop leaf table is now perched here. 

it's just the right depth allowing us to move the sofa and 

have a walkway between the back of the sofa and the wall.

see the wall to the right of the black door? that's where the 

drop leaf table was but we could never open the 

back door all the way. and my three little guys would

inevitably slam that table every time they swung the door open.

now the door opens all the way!

but now i need to do something with that wall.

don't like the picture there. 

with summer coming i anticipate lots of in and out over in that

corner so i may throw some kind of treatment on that wall

and put up some hooks.

and it all started with the red door.

now, back to my planned projects!

does this ever happen to you? please tell me i'm not the only one. :)

what i wore wednesday

linking up with lindsey again for

what i wore wednesday.

heading out to our favorite eatery

in asheville, nc.

tuxedo top and cardi, loft; jeans, lucky;

boots, luchesse; necklace, darlybird.

off to church

dress, mast general store (patagonia); tank and tights, target; cardi, loft;

darlybird necklace again; boots, miz mooz.

ciao

at long last

i love red doors.

on homes.

on churches.

on quirky old delapodated buildings.

love them.
always wanted one.

finally, after perusing photos of yellow homes

with red doors i decided to go for it.

i love how all the colors come together.
yellow house, red door, blue porch ceiling.
(i realize i took these photos at the worst time of day - shadows
and all - but i had to take advantage of my three free minutes!)

i didn't want to spend money on a new
door handle and lock (it was brass) so
i took it off and painted it.

the finish came out great.
first i spray primed it with kilz,
then sprayed three coats of rustoleum's
hammered bronze, then followed it
up with three coats of deft's spray
lacquer.


BEFORE

AFTER

now, we just need a little spring green to liven things up!

i'm linking up to coastal charm and domestically speaking.

bedroom update (don't get too excited) and some eye candy

as promised i have a master bedroom update for you.

what i didn't tell you is there's not much to

report. :)

sorry, didn't mean to tease you like
that. i do have a little eye candy for you
from some of my favorite
antique spots in asheville.

pastor j and i spent last weekend there compliments
of my parents. i know. awesome, right?


but first. . . our master.
the busyness of life stalled things after i painted
three of the walls. BUT i have done this. . .

collected all my planks! that's something right? they are only 1/4 in. thick
which i am happy about because hopefully that means i won't
have to take down the existing crown molding and baseboard.
fingers crossed.

i also got rid of the awful 1980's skinny blinds and put up
some dark bamboo roman shades. still looking for the
right fabric for panels.

my loose plan for the weekend is to begin putting up the planks.
i'll let you know how that goes!

okay, on to the fun stuff.

tobacco baskets
and
crates
o'plenty!



i loved the clock above!
wonder if i can recreate it??


and, oh, if i had the money i
would have stocked up on these
baskets for the boys'
suite makeover!

perfection!

old french shoe forms. these would look great hung on a wall
in a grouping!

love, love, love this empire chest! the color, the amount
of distressing, the curves. beautiful!

transit letters
and
chippy furniture
abound!

i exercised great self control and
walked away with only one item.
this rusty, pale yellow, rectangular basket.

a girl can never have too many rusty wire
baskets!

bedrooms, bathroom, red door, and a speaking engagment

it's been quiet on the blog because it's been

busy at quinby cottage!

just wanted to pop in and say i'm still here

and will be back tomorrow to give a

cottage improvement update!

i have two big projects underway.

the master bedroom and the kids'

suite upstairs, which includes their bedrooms,

bathroom and a hall that joins the two.

and, as usual, i found myself diving into

an unplanned project in the midst

of those two things.

inspired by the above picture (source unknown) and this

i have decided to paint our front door red.

it's sanded and ready for some makeup.

pics to come when she's all prettied up!

but first pastor j and i have been asked to speak at

campus crusade for christ at the university of south carolina

tonight.

 the topic?

the boundaries of love

wish us luck!

what i wore. . . no. 2

alrighty, i'm back for another week of

"what i wore wednesday" because you ladies

made it so much fun.

i had a request for larger photos in

order to see fabric and detail better.

while i hesitate because i'm afraid the only

thing that will show up better are my wrinkles, gray hair,

and grand canyon pores i do am aim to please, so here ya go. . .

wednesday

(meeting with school principle -no, no one's in trouble!)

white top: old school j.jill

navy cardigan: loft

pins: the pleated poppy herself

jeans: lucky's

shoes: target

thursday

(errands for our church)

plum top: anthropologie (sale upon sale item)

cardi: gap

neclace: target

jeans: loft

shoes: target

friday

(painting, running, cleaning)

sorry, can't bring myself to enlarge this one. really, there's nothing

to see here!

top: pastor j's closet, vintage gap

sweatpants: target

saturday

(son's basketball game)



cream top: loft

cardi: backpacker, local

necklace: indy craft show, local

purse: loose lucy's, local

pants: oops! (reject jcrew chino's), local

shoes: gift

here are some detail of the top and cardi. . .

sunday

(church)

top: anthro, sale

jacket: loft

neclaces: target

jeans: levi's

more detail. . .

monday

(chillin at home with a sick kiddo)

cowl neck top (more sweatshirt than sweater): target

cardi: loft

jeans: lucky's (i finally wore these jeans out today, i noticed

a tear in the knee as i was getting in my car. sadness.)

and that's all i got for the week!

make sure you visit all the other wwiw participants. you're sure to

find some inspiration!

master makeover in progress

i was a little caught off gaurd by the calender today.

january has really gotten away from me! 

we've had snow days, scheduled days off, and sick kids.

the only thing all this means is that my project list is

getting restructured.

but that's life right?

if having kids has taught me anything it's that

flexibility makes life a lot easier.

a lesson that has not come easy for this highly structured gal!

today, because bean was home and passed out on the sofa

i decided to get started on our master bedroom which

is within earshot of the sofa.

it's a project i wasn't going to hit until spring,

but, i had the paint so i figured why not!

i have done absolutely nothing to our master since

we moved in last september other than our bathroom

and my closet.

below is a very before picture. it's actually an mls pic and what we saw

when we first looked at the home. so, none of it is our stuff.

their bedframe, while very nice, really overwhelmed this room so we sold our

bedframe before we moved

with plans to do something a little different for a headboard.

it's impossible to see the wall color with the lighting in this photo.

it's a fleshy pink color. i have previously described

it as resembling the underbelly of a pig. not a great color.

this looked a lot better on my camera than it does here.

the left side is the new color, rice grain by sherwin williams, mixed

by home depot. love behr's paint and primer in one.

the right side is the old pinkish wall.

rice grain. it only took one coat of behr p and p. awesome!

the trim and molding, currently a creamy white, will

be painted a bright white.



all walls were painted today except this one. it's going to be an accent

wall and will receive a treatment of horizontal

planks, painted white.

source

i'm hoping to land somewhere between these two looks.

the above pic is clean and fresh and below is

rustic and fresh, and a little less perfect which suits

us better.

source

it will be my first project using my new nail gun and compressor so

join me in praying that i don't land in the hospital with a nail driven through

my hand. just kidding, mom! i'll be fine.