My Mother's House Tour: The Family Room

I decided to go ahead and finish off the tour today because Friday and Saturdays are a kind of crazy around here, so here you go.......the final room.  The Family Room.   This is where you come in from the laundry room/back door.  It has a flat roof and has given my parents nothing but trouble since day one.  To make a long story short, they put up this tin ceiling last year.  It is gorgeous!  It adds instant charm and character and totally compliments the decor. 

Some of her clocks, bottles, candles, etc.

This is a chippy little cabinet she found in Texas.  It's cute on the inside too but she likes it closed to see the chippy goodness.

This is her mantle.  She said it's always been a challenge for her because it's so long.  I think she does the right thing and doesn't try to decorate all of it.  Sometimes less really is more.

The entertainment shelves.  Wire baskets, scales, white pottery, mercury glass, they all happily co-exist.

A close up of the top shelf.

These are one side of these double built in shelves.  There is another set on the other side of the door exiting the family room.  That's alot of shelves to fill up!  This is another one of her challenges, but again she rises to the challenge and makes it look effortless.  Thank goodness for books, boxes and baskets.

A charming clock collection in a wire basket.

Thank you for joining me on this tour of my parents home.  I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have!   They have a done a wonderful job of making their house a home on a budget. And with nothing but a walmart in town, mom had to get creative with her decorating.   I'm just glad their genes run through my blood, maybe my home will look this nice one day too.

My Mother's House Tour: Kitchen and Laundry Room

Hey there, c'mon in to the kitchen.  My parents bought this house when I was in kindergarten, almost forty years ago (holy cow that makes me sound old!) Anyway, this house was a sight, almost everything was blue.  My mom worked tirelessly to change it to her liking.  This kitchen has been changed and changed and then changed some more.  And now it looks like a comfortable vintage cottage kitchen.  Take a look.  Dad put beadboard three quarters the way up on the walls and made a little shelf on top for old bottles and dishes.  This little cabinet houses more dish collections.

Isn't that drop leaf farm table the cutest?   It's the perfect pop of color against all the white.

They replaced the original kitchen window and put in this window that extends out.  It's a great sunny place to grow plants.  More of her collections are displayed above.

They took the doors off the upper cabinets a long time ago and made the scalloped edge for the shelves.  You can do that when you have nice white dishes and cute things to display.  My mom has always been ahead of the design trends it seems like.  She always knows just what to do in decorating to remain timeless and classic.  I didn't get  a shot of the bottom cabinets but they are white and the counter top is a chocolate brown color.

At the time I didn't know I'd be doing a room by room house tour or else I would have taken more detailed pictures, but here we are in the back door entry/laundry room.  This is what you see when you come in the back door (and almost everyone does).  Pretty cake plates, dishes, and more collections on shelves.

This is just inside the back door on the right.  Look at the things she has held on to all these years.  I get rid of things too easily and have to purge every so often, but she keeps them and then makes a great display with them.

The washer and dryer are at the end of this room and I didn't get a picture, but trust me, it looks very cute.  Even a washer and dryer look cute because of the accessories she has on the shelves surrounding them.  True talent.

The tour ends tomorrow.  Don't miss it!

My Mother's House Tour: The Living Room

Here we are in the Living Room.  A bright sunny, calming place. The walls are painted a creamy buttery color.  There are more of the white built in shelves my dad made.  She displays white pitchers and bowls.

The antique buffet and mirror are a good contrast to the silver pieces she has arranged. ( I sound like I know what I'm talking about, don't I?)

A little corner of the room gets dressed up too.  I have that same lamp and it will never be as cute as hers because she knows what to pair it with.

This is the gorgeous white hutch that she has painted a couple of times.  Keep your eyes peeled for all of her wire baskets, she has alot!

This is the view from the other end of the room.  The big picture window that she did herself to look like stained glass and a grouping on the wall.  Those are thrift store urns that she painted white and put live plants in.

Here is another close up of the shelves, they have a crackle finish on them.   She has several mirrors in this room and they really reflect the light.

This table setting is at the opposite end of the room from the hutch.  She has two Santos, vintage china, and old music stand and look closely at the wooden block the plant is sitting on.  She spotted that at DI for a couple of dollars with Beverly and I and she saw it's potential.  Some sanding and staining and it's just the cutest thing.  Pottery Barn has one just like it in their catalog.  I'm kicking myself over that one.

A longer view of that end of the room.  She's had that chandelier ever since I can remember.  Some things that stand out to me that make this room so lovely are the paint color of course, and the contrast of the darker furniture with the white accessories.  Fresh plants, mirrors, groupings and good use of space, filling every corner.  It's just a lovely sitting room and a nice place to be.

Stay tuned, more to come tomorrow!

My Mother's House Tour: Bedroom & Bath

Today I'm showing you the Master Bedroom, Bathroom and what used to be called the "Toy Room" when the grandkids were little.  It doesn't really have a name now so we still call it the toy room.
The bedroom is a tranquil space.  My dad made the shelves that flank both sides of the bed.  Their room is small and they have never been able to rearrange the bed.  It's been there for as long as I can remember.  Yet they find ways of making it fresh and different.  Here are some of the clocks they have collected.

This is in the corner of the room on the other side of the bed.  I should have gotten more pictures of the whole room and what they've done with the closets.

A close up of the gorgeous dress form all decked out with vintage jewelry and the lovely lady bust.

 

The bathroom is next to the bedroom and it is equally lovely.  A long time ago this bathroom started out with pink and red tile on the wall. (Am I remembering right?)  They have done alot of work in here over the years.   I should have gotten more pictures.  You can see the other wall in the mirror and a peek of the chandelier.  They have installed beadboard on the ceiling.  The cabinets are painted white, and of course the loveliest of accessories compliment the room.

This is the formerly known as toy room.  This has been a bedroom, tv room, grandkid play room and now it's kind of the collection room. Just look at all the old wine bottles ( I'm sure there's a name for them) and the old suitcases and scales.  My mom had a vision for those shelves and my dad built them.  They are solid and chunky!

This is the nature wall.  Birdsnests, eggs, old honeycombs, seashells of every kind.

And we can't forget about my dad's collection.  He loves airplanes and trucks and cars.

These trucks look like the real one he restored and sits in his shop.  Is there anything these two can't do?

I failed to get a picture of the closet in this room.  Old paper on the wall with pictures of my mom's mom and her mom and my grandma's wedding dress on display next to my mom's wedding dress.  A great display.

Another room tomorrow!

My Mother's House Tour: The Craft Room

I spent a couple of days at my parent's house last weekend. I always love to look at the different things they have done to their house since I was there last. But this time for some reason, their house just blew me away! I told my mom her house should be in a magazine, and I'm convinced if she had a blog, her house would be featured in a magazine! I took pictures of almost every room and am going to feature a room a day.
Today is the craft room:
She is a collector, that's for sure. Her and my dad have been going to the Texas antique shows for a couple of years now and she finds the most amazing things. Like this cute little Philadelphia Cream Cheese mini drawers. She has all kinds of little antiques jewelry pieces and things she's been saving for years tucked away in the drawers. We looked at every drawer, inspecting each item.

She has a way of displaying things like ribbon and thread in such a cute way.

This is her to die for craft closet. Fabric, boxes, flowers, papers of all kinds. It's a work of art.

This is another picture worthy display of her cigar box collection, salt and pepper shakers, most filled with glitter, her giant button jar and cute card box filled with everything needed for crafting.

The room shouldn't even be called a craft room, that's not a good enough description. It should be called "the creative room where you can spend hours and hours". In fact, my daughter Emily wrote a high school paper on this room and her Grandma.

She has a way of putting things together and displaying all her items perfectly.

Stacks of books and magazines, hat boxes, bottles, old dolls, string, ribbon, it just goes on and on. You can't take it all in at one time. It has to be discovered in layers. My two girls love to look in Grandma's craft room and usually talk her out of something to take home. I'm sure they'll always remember it.

Come back tomorrow for another beautiful room.

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Painting my life away

If you were fortunate enough to move into your home with the doors, cabinets, window sills, mouldings and shelves already white and you like it that way:  THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS!

This is what my entire home looked like when I moved in.  Oak.  Everywhere.  Oak.
I know some people would be perfectly happy to have it.  Here's one of my many, many doors to be painted.  I've already painted over the brass handles.

But I have visions of this:

So.........I must keep doing this:

See you in a year or so.