Exterior cottage love going on

June 25, 2014 By

Well, now with the warmer weather finally here, at least in my neck of the wood, I hope you are enjoying it. School is almost out and I’m sure that is a relief to end all the lunch making, homework checking and routine. Here’s to a great summer for everyone!

I have a bit of progress to report at the cottage.  Hubby has been determined to get the fire table finished, so here’s where we are now, and by we I really mean him.  I’ve done nothing, except help with the design and the finishes…of course 🙂   Can’t wait to try it out.

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And I received my fabric order from a few weeks back, so I’ll be sewing up a storm, whenever I can get a second.  These will be exterior cushions for the cottage deck.   Can’t wait for them to liven up the wood chairs, wood deck and log exterior of the cottage….you get the idea…so much wood…and so0000 much brown.

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And kind of another exterior update, Hubby got the terracotta tile laid in the sunroom, right at the entrance to the deck.  It still needs to be grouted, I’ll share the progress once it is completed.  He’s been a busy, busy, boy.

While he was working away, I kept myself busy making over this lovely little china cabinet that a neighbour gifted to me.  I know it’s not really related to the cottage exterior theme of this post, but I’d thought I’d share it anyways.  It’s a perfect fit in this somewhat dark corner of the cottage, so I decided it should be a nice bright colour to liven up the corner.  This is how it looked:

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And in the process:

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I told you it was bright….and quite lively.  I used homemade chalk paint (Cyan Sky) and I will be giving it a going over with some antique wax (which will tone it down a little) and then of course, some clear wax to finish it properly.  I love, love, Fat Wax in case you are looking for a recommendation. Check out their website for locations near you.  I’ll post a picture once it’s completed, hopefully soon.

We also went to the Pontiac Artists’ Studio Tour a few weeks ago. I posted about it last year, when all the TBBs went.  Hubby got an adorable candy dish for his office (sorry forget to snap a pic before he went off with it) but I did get this great shot of an old barn on one of the properties.  There is just something about old, timeworn barns that appeals to me.

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Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians and an

early Happy Fourth of July, to my American readers!  

Have a wonderful long weekend!

Lisa

Filed Under: Art, COLOUR, Cottage, decor, DIY, Events, Exterior, Fabric, Furniture, furniture makeover, Haven, makeover, nature, The TBBs, vintage Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Mixing up fabric textures in a room

October 28, 2013 By

Last spring, I started redoing my family room, I shared my new sofa and coffee table in a previous post, shown below.

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I have always loved tufting and classic chairs so I went with this very traditional style.  Very different styling from my sofa and exactly what I was looking for.  I wanted large and comfortable for tv watching.

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But  since I was lusting over velvet,  I went with a hard wearing velvet that is cosy and practical.

This photo below shows the sofa fabric on the right, the floral fabric I had chosen for the throw pillows, and  the blue velvet sample.  As you can see I didn’t match the blue exactly in the throw pillows, it just references the blue.  Notice how different the fabric textures are? A woven for the sofa, a linen for the pillows and a velvet for the chairs, this makes the pieces much more interesting together.

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Did you notice the nail heads accenting the legs? Details, really make a piece sing.

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So would you do velvet or do you think it is too traditional?

And on another note, I did get back to my table this weekend. Hubby and I worked on the sanding down the table top which was much more time consuming than we thought.  Here’s how it looks now.

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Obviously we have a little more work to do…..dreading having to sand the intricate apron, as that will have to be done by hand…sigh.

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But I did get finish putting the dark wax on the base.  I’ll follow it up with a coat of clear wax when I’ve finished sanding the top.  I think you can see the depth the dark wax gives the finish (please ignore the sanding residue on the stretcher, I guess I didn’t clean that off too well).   Signature-00133

Filed Under: COLOUR, decor, family room, Furniture, furniture makeover, Haven, makeover Tagged With: , , ,