It’s hard to believe but somehow six months have come and gone and it is time once again for the spring edition of the One Room Challenge hosted by Linda at “Calling It Home”. This time I will be working on finishing the entryway and living room at Storybook Cottage. It truly is a bit of a challenge to try and complete a room design in just six short weeks. Particularly when you have just moved into a 30 year old that needs A LOT of work! But we’ve been so pleased with how our first ... View the Post

The small entryway at Storybook Cottage measures just 6’ by 7’. This gives you an idea of the overall space. We so appreciate the generous baseboards… …and lovely crown molding. The walls were painted “Cottage White” by Behr. It is a warm cozy white. The ceilings and trim throughout the house are “Du Jour” by Valspar. A crisp, clean white. This was the light fixture that came with the house. As I said in a previous post this room receives very little natural light and the yellow ... View the Post

Oh how I adore verdigris lanterns! Natural verdigris is the patina that is formed when copper, brass, or bronze is exposed to air or seawater over a period of time. Antique statuary and lanterns with a natural verdigris finish are highly sought after and can sell for thousands of dollars. This is the light fixture that was in our entryway. It isn’t horrible at all….in fact we sold it for a great price on Craigslist. The problem was/is that our entryway is on the dark side as it has no ... View the Post

Oh, I love a good cupola. This post is A Valentine Gift for our Cupola Francis Ford. Some of these glorious domes also have fantastic weathervanes. Cupolas were often used in barns for ventilation and of course, weathervanes have been used for centuries to show the direction of the wind. The most traditional weathervane designs are chickens, ships, arrows, and horses. Not all weathervanes have the points of the compass (North, South, East West). Antique weathervanes can command a ... View the Post

After 25 years of traveling John and Mable Ringling began construction on the house of their dreams in 1924. During all their years of travel they had been carefully collecting some of the worlds greatest works of art and Ca' d'Zan (House of John) was just the venue to showcase their treasures. As I had slowly toured both the exterior of the home and it’s gardens sadly, I only had time to see the first and second floors as I had a plane to catch. I plan on visiting the third floor and tower in ... View the Post

You remember the wine rack bathroom right? It’s right off of the family room. This is not the wine rack bathroom. It’s what the wine rack bathroom wants to be when it gets out of college and grows up. So you may remember I took down the wine rack above the bathroom sink/mirror. Once the wine rack was down I removed the double stick tape frame from around the mirror since it was now several inches too short.   So we were left with a really large builders grade mirror in a truly tiny ... View the Post