home goods: more of chelsey's home

main street in the town i grew up in is truly one of a kind. i have never seen another small town with such a long stretch of beautiful, well kept, antique homes. the best thing is that they are all so unique, each one completely different from the next. i feel so blessed to have grown up in one of them. i can't believe that i forgot to take pictures of the exteriors of these homes! that will be my mission the next time we go back. for now, here are some more interior shots of my friend chelsey's home. (click here to see chelsey's chic bathroom.) her home was built in 1891 and has impressive stained glass windows, wood floors and wood details. enjoy!

dining room

chelsey and her husband replaced this window a few years ago. one of the previous owners moved away and took many of the beautiful windows with them! can you believe they would do that??? some people!

front foyer and staircase leading to the second floor

view up the stairs to the landing leading to the second floor

view of the landing looking down from the second floor.

ah-maaaazing stained glass window on the landing.

second floor hall.

cool view taken from the landing.

breakfast nook, my favorite room in their house! love the pops of color.

brand new gourmet kitchen...has ALL the bells and whistles!

thank you chelsey and bob for letting me take pictures of your home goods!

bathroom goods: two totally chic bathrooms!

these two bathrooms are so fun! they are both from the home tour that i wrote about here and here. the red bathtub bathroom is from my friend chelsey's home. not much description needed here...enjoy!

(click on the picture for a full size view.)

chelsey's bathroom; circa 1891

(they don't make sinks and tubs like this anymore!)

the black and white bathroom; circa 1879

(original tin walls and ceiling...incredible!!!)

home tour goods: sneak peak

remember the holiday home tour that i told you about here? well, it was last saturday and it was so much fun! i took almost 400 photographs between my parent's house and two others. I can't wait to share the rest of them with you but it's going to take me a few days to get them edited.

the last night we were there i went back to my parents house to take some pictures. i got there before my mom and was locked out. i was anxious to take pictures so i took some from the outside. i ended up getting some unique shots that i never would have thought of had i not been locked out. (click on the images for full size)

view looking in the front door window

looking in the back porch window at the family room and dinner table

looking in a front porch window. the dollhouse my grandpa made me is on the left; it sits on the landing of the front stairs. you can also see the foyer and the living room here.

beautiful stained glass window at the link residence.

incredible ceiling at one of the homes. the ceiling and walls are covered in the original tin. it is in pristine condition. truly amazing.

there are so many more pictures to share! i will post them as i get them edited and organized.

i'm jealous of her goods: teresa bennett of cozy cottage slipcovers

i can sew a mean drapery panel, a-line dress, or pillow cover. i even managed to design and sew three wedding gowns for my senior thesis in college. one thing that i haven't even attempted to try is slipcovers. i would LOVE to know how to do it. but boy am i scared! maybe someday i will have the courage to buy 15 yards of white twill or linen and give it a go. today i am going to just be green with envy as i show you some more pictures of the beautiful work of teresa bennett of cozy cottage slipcovers. she had the tremendous feat of slipcovering five pieces of furniture for my parent's living room. she blogs about it here and here. didn't she do an incredible job?

my mom agonized over the furniture for this room for months. i finally convinced her to slipcover her current pieces after showing her this picture for inspiration:



i just love how everything turned out and i can't wait to see the room all put together for the home tour on november 14th.

organized goods: the shoe corner is no more!

if there is one thing i would change about my house it's that we don't have a mud room or a downstairs laundry room. we have a tiny coat closet and some peg boards that my husband crafted, but that is it. the door from the garage enters right-smack-dab into our kitchen. we typically take our shoes off when we come inside and it ends up looking like this:

this is our "shoe corner". it's barely even a corner and resides in the main traffic area of our kitchen/family room. you can see that i made an attempt with a cute market tote but alas...the shoes end up spilling over onto the floor. the other day i was at wal-mart and spotted this. a basic over-the-door shoe rack. (it's cheaper in the store than online.) why didn't i think of this before? brilliant! now our shoes are nicely organized and hidden away in the coat closet. i love this solution because it doesn't take up floor space, the shoes are easily accessible- no more digging through the market tote looking for a lost shoe, they are hidden away from sight, and our children can easily reach their shoes on the bottom four rows. when our youngest walked in the door from school the other day she yelled, "what happened to the shoe corner?" i was happy to tell her it is no more!

mantle goods: for now anyway

do you remember my post about antlers? and the beautiful pictures from design*sponge of samantha's house?

samantha's mantle

i was quite smitten by her home and became compelled to do something about it. seeing as i don't have a money tree in the back yard to redecorate my entire home (which is probably a good thing anyway since i keep changing my mind these days about what i want, love and can't live without) i decided to go for the mantle. i used items that i already had (which was a stretch since i usually decorate with lots of color) and in about an hour came up with this:

(please excuse the tacky white cord.) using all these neutrals and earthy/animal trinkets is usually not my style at all. but i like this look for the fall season. it's warm and interesting to look at. (note to the wives out there: apparently it's not so cool to hang a deer rack above the fireplace unless it's one that your husband shot and killed himself.) so...out of respect for the mr. my antlers will be coming down when the Christmas decorations go up. it's ok though...i'm sure by then i'll be inspired by someone else's mantle and i'll be over the whole earthy animal thing.

slipcovered goods: sneak peak

here's a sneak peak of one of six pieces of furniture my mom had slip-covered for the home tour/house remodel. i can't wait to show you the rest! i will also let you know who did all the handy work. she is amazing!