home tour goods: more pictures...finally!

i feel like it has taken me forever to get these posted! here are some more pictures i took of my parent's home. i will post more later. remember how i said i took a bazillion pictures? i'm going to have to split them up. enjoy!

exterior front

front porch

the pine tree that you see at the corner of the house was the tree we had as our first christmas tree the year we moved into the house, 27 years ago. it was only a few feet tall then. now it's almost as tall as the house.

back

back porch

foyer

my grandfather made me this dollhouse when i was 7. this landing was one of my favorite places to play as a child.

five of my parent's eight grandchildren

this chandelier came out of my brother and sister-in-law's first home. i was visiting many years ago and found it laying in their basement. i snagged it up and have been hording it for years. when my mom mentioned that she wanted something new for their foyer i knew it would be perfect; i thought their foyer could use a little bling. she cleaned up the brass and bought $40 worth of crystals and voila! isn't it pretty?

front stairs and two of my grandmother's paintings

my grandmother's self portrait

my grandmother's version of a mary cassatt painting

my parents the day after the tour- relieved and proud.

i went a little overboard with pictures of the living room. i really wish i had some better "before" pictures. here are two i found from christmas's past. you get the idea; tan wallpaper, tan carpet, white drapes, etc. you can see the arms of the ladder back chairs and love seat that are now slip covered. the transformation of this room is probably the most dramatic in the whole house.

christmas 2007

christmas 2006

christmas 2009
(a bit different eh?)

note to self:

1. if you are going to buy new christmas tree lights, buy enough for the whole tree. not all led lights are created equal.

2. once the tree is completely decorated there is no turning back to re-do said lights.

(my dad typically puts the lights on my parent's tree and decorates it. he does it every year and is really good at it. this year he bought some new led lights to go with last years led lights. however, he didn't realize the new ones were different shades of color -with a sort of neon blue hue- until it was way too late. as you can imagine, with thousands of people about to tour the home, my mom and i were going nuts, crazy nuts! it took all of our strength not to start dismantling the tree to fix it. what's a wife and daughter to do? we just didn't have the heart to re-do it or complain about all of his hard work. after all...he got it done, right?)

oh, how i wish you could've seen this mantle in person! these pictures simply do not do it justice. before the tour my mom sent me some pictures of the unfinished room. i remember telling her that i really hoped the florist was going to use a lot of white on the mantle to balance out the stark white of the slipcovers. the florist and i must have been on the same page! i think it is just stunning.

i just love love love the back of the ethan allen ladder back chairs. 

my mom bought the round table for $19.00 and painted it blue.

my mom made the black pillows out of old needlepoint that she's been collecting over the years. i found the yellow pillows at tj maxx. (two for $19.00, with down inserts...can't beat that!) when i bought them i originally intended on using them in another room...they ended up working perfectly here pulling gold tones out of the rug and adding color to the sofa.

(no the lamp shade is not purple. it's black. for some reason it photographed really poorly.)

the plaid chair was my great-grandmother's. my mom had it reupholstered in the same wool tartan as the drapes in the family room. the wreath is beechwood florals.

i embroidered the R for the lumbar pillows at home and finished making the pillows the night before the tour.

go here to learn about the slipcovers and the fa-bu-lous woman who made them!