Downton Fix: Secrets of Highclere Castle

PBS has a great little look at the "Secrets of Highclere Castle".  It is a 54min tour of Highclere and its history, with wonderful interviews from Lord and Lady Carnarvon.  I loved watching this because you not only get a background on the castle's history, see more of the castle and grounds that aren't used in the Downton shots, but you also see so much more of the rooms THAT ARE USED IN THE DOWNTON SHOTS.

Click here to go to the PBS instant play video to watch!

So if you're like me and need a Downton fix by the time Friday rolls around...and you still have over 48 hours to go before Sunday night's episode, click on the picture of Highclere (pronounced "high clear") and enjoy! And don't forget to hop over to the sweepstakes section and enter to with the PBS Masterpiece trip to Highclere and London!!! (If you win, you're taking me).

XXXOOO.

P.S> Make sure you keep dropping by throughout January...I'll be having a monthly give away at some point and it just may involve Downton and or Highclere in some way...hint, hint.

Freebie Friday: Amy Butler's Blossom Magazine

You know I heart Amy Butler fabrics.  Her creativity is inspiring.  And her use of bold colors and patterns reminds me that color is fun.  She now has a free online bi-annual magazine!  All you have to do is register with your email address and she will email you a link to her magazine every 6 months.
I enjoyed looking through her first edition of "Blossom"...it was a little bit Anthropologie catalogue, a little bit craft store catalogue, a little bit poetry/art book, and a big boost of positive creative energy that seems to leap off the screen. Even if you aren't a sewing maven, curl up this weekend and grab a cup of cocoa and take a few minutes to check it out. It is 270 pages of goodness. Be sure to click all the way through, because some of the photos and articles in the back are breathtaking.

Hope you enjoy this little free find!

XXXOOO.

She's a Natural...a "Traditional Natural"

My friend, Amy's, mantle. I just LOVE her excellent use of pheasant feathers, silver  and gold and yes, ANTLERS!
Not too busy, working with only a few objects.
She repainted all of the woodwork a crisp white.

I know a lot of cool Amys.  Guess it was a popular name a few years back. But I've loved every Amy I've ever met.  Maybe I'm biased (and I hope you feel the same way)!  My friend, Amy, asked me to pop over to sort of walk through her house and help her decide where some things might be better off in her house and discuss a few options for getting her to a finished look. I'd like to start by saying "thank you" to Amy for letting us come along and be house guests today!!!

We started in her entrance way.  We discussed establishing a style and presence.
She has an antique, family heirloom Secretary in another part of the house. I suggested moving it to her entrance. Along with a plate wall. These elements will establish a Traditional look and work best in the more formal areas of the home.
Entrance Way Changes Suggested:

Use family  heirloom Antique Secretary

Create Plate wall for color and pattern

OR

Hang Silver Trays on wall vertically for reflection and statement

Amy has nice dark hardwood floors, so a nice natural fiber  mat in the entry area (keeping it similar to the one in her dining area, will keep things simple.

Then we moved into her dining room!

As you can see, this is the most beautiful shade of pale blue EVER.  A light, soft, whisper of a blue that on swatch reads a tad gray but in decent natural light reads palest blue:

Glidden "Blue Frost"

She framed botanical prints, has natural wood table and chairs and mirror (from Restoration Hardware). And natural jute rug. She has no curtains, allowing maximum light to filter through white painted shutters.     In order to give all of this unfinished wood a bit of a balance and contrast, I made a few suggestions:

-a different lamp

-One of the following:

  stacking her antique Royal Albert plates on the buffet 

OR sitting a silver tray on the buffet 

OR setting a cake stand next to the lamp
OR a terrarium!

(**making sure to contrast surface with other choices of lamp, etc. For example, if she were to use a mercury glass lamp, she should contrast with using her stack of china or a glass or ceramic cake stand, not using a silver tray or silver cake stand. Otherwise she would have too much matchy silver, get it? She wants to mix and match to achieve this look, using different surfaces). 

-She has planned to add branches to the antique crock  

-I also suggested that she change her chandelier (Iron, clean lines, nothing fussy).

 It takes time to find just the right things to work with an existing room.  I encouraged her to leave what she has as "place holders" until she finds just the right piece for the space.  I'm not a fan of running to TJ MAXX or Hobby Lobby to just buy "something". If you love something at TJ MAXX then great!!! But don't feel pressure to buy anything just to finish a room.  Dont' be afraid to save up or take your time. I call this "don't mistake loneliness for love".  Sometimes you just want so badly to finish up a room or a grouping so you get excited at the first thing that might work. You want to believe it will work even though you know that you should hold out for something else.  Don't mistake lonliness for love. Wait until you find THE ONE! So I suggested to Amy that she leave her lamp and chandelier and wait until she finds JUST THE RIGHT THING for her budget and taste.

We discussed her design style and at the risk of sounding like I'm into astrology or something, I'm going to say she's a TRADITIONAL NATURALIST.  I'm making that term up.  But it's true.  

She loves Traditional furniture and accessories but she likes understated natural tones and textures.

Here are my suggestions for a finished room plan for her:

The Traditional Naturalist Dining Room for Amy W.

Ballard Designs Iron Sphere Chandelier

OR

Pottery Barn

and for a lamp on the buffet:

or

 

or

or

Paint her existing brass lamp with mercury glass mirror paint and use natural shade to get this look

a simple terrrium:

or

or

depending on chandelier choice...if she chooses the sphere chandelier, she wouldn't do this on buffet.

and branches in crock (changing to match season).

Hope you have enjoyed this little venture into Amy's Traditional Natural home!
Thank you, again, Amy for sharing your beautiful home with us and for the experience of helping you to find a path to make sure that your rooms reflect your style!

XXXOO.

DIY: my kitchen chalkboard

Last year I started searching for a chalkboard for a narrow spot in my kitchen.  I started looking online and found several that were a bit more than I thought they were worth.

Ballard Designs chalkboard $199

   

But I loved interesting frames and they were hard to find at the price point I liked. One day I stumbled across a fun one at HOBBY LOBBY and was SHOCKED that it was $169!!! It was pretty much crap, too.  Not very sturdy and not well made.
SO, of course I thought to myself, "I can totally do this". Always look on the bright side of life, right? If you think you can do something, you can!!!  I went to my favorite thrift/junk/antique shop and started hunting. I knew what I was looking for: A MIRROR.
Yes, A MIRROR. Old mirrors typically have really cool frames. And I knew that a long door mirror would be just the right size to fit the spot where I wanted it to hang in my kitchen.  And I found just the right one in less than 30 min of searching.  It was $20. It was gold and gaudy, but I stand by the claim that paint can change just about anything. So, I hot footed it over to Lowes to pick up chalkboard paint.  Some people would recommend popping the mirror out of the back of the frame and replacing it with a board that you've cut to fit and painted with chalkboard paint. I thought I'd try just painting the mirror itself.  I didn't prime the mirror. I didn't really know how this was going to go, but I gave it a shot. I taped off the frame, painted the chalkboard paint right onto the mirror and waited for it to dry. Then a few days later, I went back over it with another coat of chalkboard paint.  It worked!!! I then used some left over paint I had in my garage to paint up the frame.  It has held up for just about a year, with no chips or peeling.  I wash it gently with a wet paper towel when it needs cleaning, typically once a week.  So maybe you already have an old mirror kicking around? Why not upcycle it into a chalkboard?

Here it is!

I used a small foam roller to paint
the chalkboard paint over the mirror

I used a foam brush and just lightly
painted over the gold frame using Valspar "Greek Sea"

And all for under $30

I have to admit, when I envisioned a chalkboard in my kitchen, I pictured all of those Pinterest pins that have pretty chalkboards with Bible or poetry verses drawn artfully in chalk...something lovely to encourage my little angels.

BUT what is typically written on my chalkboard is "DON'T FORGET YOUR LUNCH", daily schedules lots of scribbles from my little kiddos and a random quote every now and then, typically courtesy of my 14 year old son.  Once he put a recipe for beef jerky on there. I had to laugh because this is so much better than a pretty quote...it's real life and it captures our imperfect family more perfectly than a lovely quote, although I try to sneak one on every now and then.  What it has on it right now has become a bit of a family motto for us, not a lovely Bible verse or intellectual quote, sad to say, but a quote from Monty Python.

"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"!

XXXOOO.

Linking to:

My changed kitchen: forced kitchen remodel

Two years ago, two weeks before Christmas, I noticed that the hardwoods in my kitchen were buckling.  After several phone calls to flooring experts, plumbing experts and appliance experts we all came to the conclusion that my 2 year old Bosch washer had leaked internally (leaked from the drum) and the water had seeped through my laundry room floor, under the walls and into my kitchen, under my hardwood floors and cabinets. SO, immediately the insurance company sent someone out for the faulty washer part and in came the demo crew. DID I MENTION THIS WAS TWO WEEKS BEFORE CHRISTMAS?

Looking back on this now, 2 years later, I can laugh. But at that time, I cried.  It meant taking down Christmas decorations while they hastily tore out my cabinets and floors in our kitchen and eating area. Tarps went up and bare concrete was left. It meant no Christmas cookies, because my oven was in my garage. It meant getting creative with cooking (let's just say that I love my crockpot and it will always have a special place in my heart for getting us through this ordeal).

It was a four and a half month process to get back to being a functional kitchen and therefore a functional home. Living amongst all of the installation, with an infant with RSV, only moving into a hotel for a few days while they were staining and poly coating the floors.  But this forced kitchen remodel (one that we probably wouldn't have done on our own) was a great learning experience and allowed me to make choices to change our kitchen to reflect my style a bit.

Because it was an insurance claim, we couldn't really change too much.  They replaced the flooring, but I got to choose the stain.  They re-used the cabinets, I got to choose the paint.  They repainted molding and walls, I got to choose the paint. We had to keep the counters and backsplash, it was easy to work with.   It was a win.

So for all of our frustrating days during living in the house while they were working (one week they would come and rip out the floor, the next install the floor, then we'd live on raw floor for 2 months while they painted the cabinets at another location, etc). It was a process but in the end, it was worth it. 

So here it is:

The Beginning: 

Here it is half way through demo.  You can see my pantry and how dull and horrendous my cabinetry was.
When we bought the house the kitchen and family room were red. We never got around to painting because of the high ceilings in the family room and because of 2 unexpected pregnancies that kept me off a ladder!

Concrete and old hardwoods that were stained a strange oakish yellow, note horrible glazing on cabinets courtesy of previous owner. But granite, actual cabinets and backsplash were good.

Where my oven used to be :(

And this is how it was for almost 3 months until things started moving along!!

My then toddler, making the most of the open space.

And FINALLY a fabulous ending!!!

After all the red that was there previously, and not a lot of natural light, I wanted to keep things soft and simple.
I wanted neutrals!

{very happy to be baking again!}

Pray, Eat, love.  {I'm a talker, I like words}

getting the family room back to 'normal'. I was limited with how high up I could hang curtains due to the angle of the roof line.  I've always felt that when they built this house they should have put transom windows in over the other windows, so to try to get a similar look, I've hung mirrors over the windows, helping the dimensions and adding height.  

loving the new shaggy, soft rug, living it up without workers around!

and finally, I could add a splash of color without worrying about clashing with red walls. YES!

The End!

Here are some of my sources {what I already had before the forced remodel and what I added to it to have it all come together for my ecclectic look}.

Paint Colors:
Ralph Lauren "Broome" (close match is Taupe 4 at Lowes) (new for renovation)

Trim and cabinets "Antique White" (existing cabinets, painted with Antique white and glazed ONLY in recesses).

Curtains in family room, Anthropologie (new for renovation)

Smocked white curtains in eating area Target, copy cat Pottery Barn (existing before remodel)

Table in eating area, Ballard Designs (existing before remodel)
Tolix Chairs in eating area, Pottery Barn (new for renovation)
Ikat pillow, Etsy (new for renovation).
***
I forgot to add that we updated the original cabinet hardware. They were brass and had been spray painted black (something we didn't know when we purchased the house). So it was an opportunity to upgrade and we did. I found fantastic prices at http://www.doorhardwareetc.com and overstock.com.

I'll be posting some updates to these pictures...I pretty much move things around in my house on a weekly basis, so I'll be sharing some other views of this room, soon. It's a happy, airy place now!!!
XXXOOO.