The Rose Cottage

We have a small room in our basement, right at the bottom of the stairs, that I’ve never blogged about.  When we moved in, this little room had all wood paneling with no windows. Dark and dreary.
It looked like this.



As soon as I could, I painted that little room white.  Then we used it as a homeschool room for a while, but we pretty quickly realized that it was much more convenient and enjoyable for us to do homeschooling upstairs in the kitchen where there are windows with sunshine streaming through. So then the little room turned into a toy room. This worked out somewhat okay for us, but all the favorite toys still usually ended up upstairs or somewhere else. And then the little room wasn’t getting used very much.
So a few weeks ago, I had a genius idea to turn the little room into a cottage for Peyton and her baby dolls. I think I was going through creativity withdrawals from not having any house projects going on for a while. Plus, Peyton’s birthday was fast approaching and I thought it would be the perfect birthday present for a six year old girl who loves playing with her babies and having tea parties. 
Once I got Tim on board with the plan (it took a little bit of convincing), we told Peyton about our idea just to make sure she would be excited about it, which she was.  I also wanted her to be part of the decorating process because I knew she would really enjoy picking things out and doing little projects with me.  She decided to name her cottage “Rose Cottage”. 
Although Peyton has done a lot of the shopping with me, Tim and I have kept the door to the room closed and kept the kids out while we’ve worked to transform the room into her cottage.  So seeing everything put together and the room decorated like a cottage will still be a fun surprise for her on her birthday.  Plus, there are a few little things that we’ve gotten that she doesn’t know about.
Much of what is in here are things that we already had on hand, but we also shopped at Ikea, thrift stores, the Habitat ReStore, and on Craigslist.  I wanted it to be Shabby Chic and Tim wanted it to be not expensive.
So, Welcome to Peyton’s Rose Cottage…
First up, her kitchen and coffee bar.
She already had the pink kitchen set, but one of the doors had broken off, so we hung a piece of fabric (a kitchen towel from Ikea) there to give it a cottage/shabby chic vibe.


The curtains are also kitchen towels from Ikea that Peyton helped me sew. 


The coffee bar cabinet was a cabinet that was leftover from our kitchen renovation when we ordered the wrong size.  Tim put feet on the bottom and a “countertop” on top.  All the dishes were either thrifted or from Ikea.


The baby doll bedroom


The hanging light is from Goodwill (previous picture). Peyton helped me make the burlap pendant.  I found the shutters at the Habitat Restore and painted them. The fur rug is from Ikea.  And the bassinet is from Craigslist.



This crib bed spring was from the Habitat Restore. 


This little side table was one that we already had, but Tim cut a section out to make it kid size.  And then I painted it with chalk paint and distressed it.  We already owned the little rocking chair.


Next up, the dining room…
We used the same Pottery Barn Kids table we’ve had for years.  Peyton asked me to paint it white (because she’s my girl and we all know by now how much I like white) and I switched out the wooden knobs to glass knobs. I also re-painted the chairs that we already had.  I used Annie Sloan chalk paint for both the chairs and the table.


The chandelier is from Goodwill.  It was brassy gold.  Pink spray paint does wonders.


More Ikea finds. 


I sewed two Ikea kitchen towels together to make the table runner.


And lastly, here’s a few room shots.  One from each side.



Major props go to Tim for helping me make my vision turn into a reality for our little girl.  He spent hours cutting boards, hanging the lights from the ceiling, and screwing windows and shutters and curtains and bed springs and shelves into the wall. 
Peyton’s birthday is in just a few days and I can’t wait to show her her Rose Cottage. 

Foyer Closet turned Mudroom

This was one of those projects that took much longer than was expected.  Between Tim’s work travels, our trip to Florida, and then the holidays, it got started and then put on hold a lot. But I finally have my mudroom and I love it!

 

Sometime back in October, I convinced Tim to begin converting our foyer closet into a mudroom. I knew Winter was fast approaching and with it there would be an abundance of coats, scarves, hats, boots, and gloves to deal with on a daily basis.  Our house is tight on storage space and so every inch counts and needs to be functional for our family.  And the current set up of the foyer closet was just not cutting it for us. I almost forgot to take a “before” picture, but snapped this one with my phone just after Tim had taken one of the doors off.    

Some things that weren’t working for us:

-Lost/unused space both on the floor and upper shelves

-No place to store things like hats, gloves, etc…

-Doors that were just constantly in the way and inconvenient

-Kids could not reach the hangers to hang up their own jackets or get them down (which meant I had to do it)

I wanted the mudroom to have plenty of space to store all the everyday winter accessories in a way that was easily accessible to the kids so that they could both find their things, as well as put them away without my help.  I also wanted to love how it looked. I envisioned woven baskets, horizontal beadboard walls, oil rubbed bronze hooks, and of course, lots of white. So those were the goals. 

This was our inspiration.

The first thing I did was find the baskets that I wanted to use under the bench (all baskets ended up being from Target) and then Tim planned the dimensions of the bench around them. From there, we just planned and readjusted our plans as we went through the process.  And in the end, I am completely in love with the end result.  Tim did an amazing job! 

 

 

 

Christmas Home Tour

 

 

Brrrr!!   It’s so cold out there!  Stomp the snow off your feet, take off your jacket, and come on inside!

And welcome to my Christmas home tour…

When the cold, winter weather began settling in over the last few weeks, almost instinctually, I started switching things around to make our house feel warmer and cozier inside.  I switched out most of the bright colors for warm neutrals and brought in more soft textures and snuggly blankets.

This wreath is an Anthropologie  knock-off that I made a while back using this little tutorial.

 

 

 

Since a full size Christmas tree wouldn’t fit anywhere in the upstairs, we got a mini-tree for this room. I wanted to keep things somewhat simple, so I stuck the tree in an old bucket that I had wrapped in burlap and tied with a ribbon and then I made some finger garland and wrapped it around the tree like a warm scarf.  If I had a short strand of white lights, I would probably wrap the tree in lights too, but I don’t have one, so this will have to do for now. 

This year, I am drawn to natural décor, so I used some pinecones and a lot of greenery around my house.

 

 

My swinging chair got a soft, cushy bean bag seat, a new throw pillow, and a furry stool to prop my feet up on.  I think it’s pretty much perfect now.

 

And the faux mantle, got a simple little makeover…

 

 

 

Now we’ll head downstairs to the basement, which happens to be a little bit more fun and colorful than the upstairs. We put our main Christmas tree down here this year because, like I said, there was no place upstairs for it to go.  And since this is where our fireplace is, it works out well.  On Christmas morning, it will be fun to open presents by the fire.

Most mornings, I get up before the kids, tiptoe over the creaky wooden floors while I sneak past their bedrooms, make a  beeline straight to my Keurig, and then it’s down to the basement to start my day off with coffee and Jesus. I turn on the Christmas tree lights; and on some mornings, I even build a fire in the fireplace.  Then, while sitting on the couch, wrapped in a warm blanket and holding a hot cup of coffee in my hands, I enjoy the twinkly lights and the crackling, flickery fire while I read my Bible and talk to Jesus.  It’s so cozy and peaceful.  It’s my favorite way to start the day with Him.  And I’m pretty sure He likes it too!

Tim put a mantel up last week just in time for me to decorate it for Christmas. 

 

In the ten years that we’ve been married, this is the first year that I’ve ever had a real wood-burning fireplace with a mantel to hang stockings on and decorate for Christmas.  So I am happy, because it’s been on my wish list for a long time!  And I was so excited to get to make colorful felt wool ball garland to hang on the new mantle. Isn’t it fun?! 

And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care…

 

Peace and joy… what amazing gifts!  They aren’t of this world and they can’t be found in this world. They are planted in our hearts by Jesus, gifts from Him.  I’m so thankful He came so that we could experience His unshakeable peace in a shaky world and in His presence we could find true eternal joy. 

 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Vintage Rattan Hanging Chair

Last week, Tim screwed a giant bolt into a rafter in our ceiling so I could hang up my new-to-me Craigslisted rattan hanging chair.  And I LoVE it!

 

We had to scoot the fireplace over a tad to accommodate it, but I think it’s just perfect for that little corner.  It’s so fun!  And it has a peaceful little view into the woods behind our house, where this time of the year, the trees are especially pretty and colorful.

 

I’m on the hunt for a giant cushion to plop down in the bottom and a few pillows to toss in there (this one is borrowed from my couch), but don’t you just want to grab a good book and a cup of coffee and curl up for awhile?

I sure do!  In fact, I’m blogging from this chair right now.

It’s become the new favorite (and fought over) seat in the house.

 

The first day that we had it hanging up, the kids were spinning each other and getting a little bit crazy with it.  Several times I warned them to calm down. My warnings went unheeded and I think I was too busy with something else (I can’t remember what) to intervene immediately. Then all of a sudden, the knot I had tied came loose and Tyson and my chair went crashing to the floor.  Oops!  Thankfully no one was hurt and my chair survived the crash unharmed.  The kids all learned their lesson.  And I learned to tie and secure a better knot.  And so far, this one is still holding….