Showing posts with label Tablescapes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tablescapes. Show all posts

Sunday, November 26, 2017

When You Are Afflicted With Projectitis....





I'm seeing lots of 'reality' posts on various blogs these days. People admitting to not having immaculate homes 24/7, admitting that not every room is perfectly styled and ready for a Country Living magazine shoot  (What!!?, don't we all live like that??).  




I see photos with a bit of artful messiness here and there as evidence of real-life lives: a few toys scattered around on the floor, a couple dirty dishes on the coffee table, some one's shoes tossed randomly under the sofa.  


I'll start off by saying right away that this post isn't going to show that kind of reality.  Thanks to the multitude of projects that we have going on right now, including major renovations, my home is neither magazine ready nor is it even just discretely untidy here and there--it's just AWFUL everywhere.  


This is, of course, one of the reasons why I haven't posted in so long: too many projects consuming all my time and energy, plus some other things that demanded my attention, equal no spare time and a pretty messy looking home.


So, since I don't have much in the way of pretty pictures to share, this will be more of a battlefield-tour, with select, highly edited photos of the nitty-gritty that is my current reality and a few brief, explanatory sentences. 



Man Cave

Let's start with the man cave, which until recently, has been a storage room for all of the stuff we didn't have room for anywhere else.   We borrowed several design ideas from the cabin, including using galvanized metal (click here for more info on this) for the wainscoting and creating salvaged-looking wood for a feature wall and for the trim throughout (click here and here for more info on the wood 'aging' process).




We stopped at about 85% complete so that it could briefly revert to the Storage Room and the juggernaut that is my renovating husband could continue rolling inexorably forward with more upstairs projects, forcing me to make decisions about paint color.


Details such as clearing out all of the tools and other stuff, finishing the switch plates and cleaning up all the sawdust, plus adding manly-type furnishings, remain.  




Flooring and Re-finishing the Walls


This is why the Man Cave remains almost, but not quite done.  We need a place for the big saw that is used to cut the wood floor planks and store all the stuff from the other rooms that are getting wood floors and refinished walls, and the Man Cave is the biggest room on the second floor.  


And what I mean by 'refinished' walls is my husband sanding away the ugly texture that came with the house so that the final, painted surface is nice and smooth.  The end result is lovely but the process is horrible and messy, with super-fine dust getting everywhere.


This also means that I need to decide on final paint colors for the sanded walls and I'm pretty sure that trying to choose a paint color that we both like will break my brain.


A medley of the upstairs mess...




The Deconstructed Chairs

These ugly escapees from the '70s were a Craigslist find (the twin to the chair below is lurking out of frame in full tacky glory).  But what could be better for a furniture deconstruction project?  They were almost free at $20 for both and had no redeeming qualities that I wanted to preserve.  The only thing that convinced me to bring them home (very reluctantly) was their solid wood construction, high back and side wings that could remain exposed, and relatively simple, unadorned style.  





This is my first attempt at chair deconstruction (I'd spent a lot of time looking covetously at Restoration Hardware's very pricey deconstructed chairs, which is where the idea was born).  In my ignorance I had assumed that full chair destruction could be accomplished in just a few hours instead of the month and a half of hard labor it actually took me to remove the dreadful, smelly fabric and batting and millions of staples and to sand away the icky, speckled finish so dear to the hearts of 1970's furniture makers.

These chairs are part of the cabin collection and I will share more on the deconstruction journey and their final, 'after' appearance later on in a separate post (although you get a glimpse of one that is finished at the end of this post).





Window/Map Wall Art


Another Restoration Hardware-inspired brainwave. I was sauntering around their store discretely trying out the deconstructed chairs and cogitating about how I could replicate them for MUCH, MUCH less than Restoration Hardware prices (see above) when I spotted some vintage maps on the walls of one of their show rooms (the theme of this particular 'room'  seemed to be world-traveling-manly-man from circa 1932 whose taste runs to over-sized leather chesterfield sofas, chunky, rustic coffee tables, weathered looking globes, a few chrome accents here and there...).  I remembered some windows-as-photo-frames I'd seen at World Market and a light bulb went off in my head as I stood there channeling Indiana Jones.  


I'll share more on how I put all this together later in another post; it involves a poster-making website and some free, vintage map images.






Bath Towels

This is so mundane but I thought I would share it anyway.  I think I got this idea from Sarah Richardson back when she still graced HGTV-USA (why is she only on HGTV-Canada now? Who knows.   Sarah, please, please come back to us all here in the lower 48, especially now that Fixer Upper is going away...).


Anyways, back to the towels.  It's simple: I sewed on grosgrain loops so that they would hang on hooks and stay put.  I find towels hanging spread out on towel racks very messy looking and opted for a vintage-looking hook and rail thing I got at Hobby Lobby instead.  Instant tidiness.


You'll be seeing more of this when I reveal the cabin bathroom.





Pillows


It was a summer of pillows.  I'm a fabric junkie and grew up with a mom who sewed and made everything, so creating with my own two hands a custom collection of pillows that adequately expressed the right degree of cabin-ness was very important to me.  I did buy a couple  pillows when I couldn't stand the thought of one more sewing project.   


At least once a day my husband asked me if he needed to buy another container to haul all the pillows back to the cabin.  I think he is concerned that we will need to sleep outside because the bed and floors are covered with pillows...


I don't know what he is talking about...but I am looking forward to show you all my pillows in their proper place at the cabin. 




Coffee Table and Other Things

The next few photos show a random collection of various cabin-related furniture and accessories.


In it's former life, this coffee table started off as another 1970s piece.  I banished all semblance of '70s tackiness with some chalk paint and a gray-brown stain for the top. 






I've been collecting all sorts of cabin-related accessories and decor items over the years-- here they are sitting in our dining room, ready for packing and transport to the cabin.






I used painters drop cloth and black ticking fabric to create a shower curtain for the cabin bathroom. I then transferred, stenciled, and hand painted a message about how much it's going to cost to shower at our cabin...




Not all of my time has been spent on cabin or house related projects.

My family and I recently made a trip to Yosemite National Park to scatter my mom's ashes...






This gorgeously rustic bungalow was Jennie Curry's ('Mother Curry' of the Yosemite Park & Curry Company) home when she was still alive.  Don't you just want to go inside, sit down with a cup of hot cocoa and a good book and never, ever return to your daily grind of a life?




After the photo above of the divinely wonderful and rustic Mother Curry's Bungalow, it's entirely fitting to end this post with a sneak peak of our own little rustic cabin.  Yes, yes, YES it's finally, finally done and habitable in every sense of the word.  We just spent Thanksgiving there-- you can see our Thanksgiving Table below.







I will, of course, share more photos of the cabin over the next month or so as I work my way through all of the photos...



Thanks for visiting!


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Most likely linking to the following this week....


Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch
Bouquet of Talent at Life on Lakeshore Drive
DIY Salvaged Junk Projects at Funky Junk Interiors






Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy New Year 2016! - Top Ten Posts of 2015







I know everyone says this on every New Years Day, but...this year has truly flown by.  It seems like it was just yesterday that I was sitting in front of my computer wondering what my first post of 2015 should be.

As a celebration my 2015 blogging adventures and all the wonderful support and feedback that I've received from all of you who follow along, I'm re-capping the top ten Dancing Dog Cabin posts of 2015.


Starting with No. 10 and ending with No. 1, please click through the title of each post to read the entire article.


No. 10



No. 9




No. 8




No. 7



No. 6



No. 5





No. 4.











No. 3



















No. 1









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Why stop at ten?  Here are a couple of personal favorites that I'm including in no particular order.












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Editorial Update: Not sure if this is a blogging no-no or not, but I had intended to include this sneak peek at my next post, which involves transforming a tired old Ikea bookcase.




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For everyone who reads Dancing Dog Cabin, thank you so much for following along and leaving such kind and lovely comments!  Thank you to all the linky-hosts who have featured my various posts and projects and to anyone who has pinned and shared my posts.  This is what makes blogging so fun and rewarding.

Wishing everyone a wonderful and happy New Year!!

***

Linking to the following this week....
Roses of Inspiration Linkup at The Enchanting Rose
Bouquet of Talent at Life on Lakeshore Drive
Brag-Worthy at Bless'er House
Inspiration Thursday at In The New House Designs
Five Star Frou-Frou at a Tray of Bliss
Something to Talk About at Karen's Up On The Hill
Share It One More Time at DesignThusiasm











Sunday, November 29, 2015

What is a Holiday Table?







This is my Thanksgiving table.  But it could be a Christmas table too.  It's a holiday table.

What is a holiday table?

It's pretty....










It's intimate....







It's yummy....







It's a feast for the eyes...





It's inspired by nature...





It's a place for everyone to gather and celebrate and be grateful for what they have.








***


What makes a holiday table special?

The sparkle....





The glow....






Elegant details....that aren't too fussy or precious.






Something fun and whimsical at each place setting...







Pretty collectibles that you have gathered over the years...










The gleam of silver...









A favorite flower...







***

A holiday table evolves and lingers...






...so that you can sit down the next day and enjoy those leftovers in style.








What does a holiday table mean to you?

***

Thanks for visiting!


Linking to the following this week....
Roses of Inspiration Linkup at The Enchanting Rose
Bouquet of Talent at Life on Lakeshore Drive
Brag-Worthy at Bless'er House
Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home