After: The Great Room

I'm finally back! Whew, it's been an intense couple of months. Any free moment was spent painting, painting, oh and more painting. And let's not forget the striping of hardware. That is some intense, detailed work. With all this work, I have totally neglected blogging, both writing and reading. Let's just say blogging isn't the only thing I've neglected...I try to avoid making eye contact with the beast that has become my looming pile of dirty laundry.

So, in my last post, I mentioned that I turned what is normally used as a dining room in old cape homes into a great room. I really liked the idea of having the tv room be a part of the kitchen. It brings the family closer together and the person cooking doesn't feel so cut off from everyone else. Besides, there is another dining room and I didn't see the sense of having two dining spaces. I mean, how much of your day do you actually spend dining, anyway? Here's the first shot:



This first photo was taken from the kitchen looking all the way through to the mudroom (the mudroom is still a work-in-progress, as you can see from the blue tape still on the window panes). Where the wood stove once was, now our tv and entertainment center reside. I was originally thinking of painting the walls a light olive, but felt it needed a warm color, like this gold, to balance out the cool tones of the painted black and white floor. I love it! If you look at my last post, you'll see that the walls were an odd sort of clay color and the windows and baseboards were teal. Very strange and ugly combination.

Painting the walls was a totally different experience. There is only one short wall made of drywall, but the rest is 200 year old horizontal, floor-to-ceiling wood paneling. So different than anything we had worked with before, but I found it fascinating.



We painted these old built-ins an ivory color. Before they were the same clay color as the walls. I also kind of dig having the tv hanging on the brick. I adore the contrasting textures.



This is the view from the mudroom. We will ultimately gut the kitchen and make it amazing, but with my husband just starting his own business, it's best to wait until next year to be sure all remains financially stable. In the meantime, we will paint the cabinets a deep, country red.



Ollie managed to get his cute, little hiney into this shot. Maybe he just wanted to model with his new digs. But the point of this shot is the door. This is one of the doors I worked on, endlessly, to strip the antique hardware of paint. It was all painted white before I scrubbed and scrubbed and steamed and chipped and picked all that white paint away from the beautiful ironwork. Here's a close-up of the door latch:





This is a closer shot of the horizontal wood paneling. I love the big slabs of uneven wood. Oh, and I bought these wall hangings from etsy back in December. They are printed on old dictionary pages. Two represent my husband and two represent me. Any guesses as to which goes with whom?



I found this amazing Boston subway sign last month. I'm completely in love with it. This shot also gives you a sneak peak into the living room, which I finished painting and decorating very recently. Can't wait to show you that room!

Life has been extremely hectic since making the move to southern New Hampshire, but we have managed to take some really fun day trips too. We've been up to Lake Winnipesaukee and also up to Maine. We've gone into Boston and Salem. Being so close to places like these is the reason we moved up here in the first place and we wouldn't dare let this summer come to a close without taking full advantage. Now I'm looking forward to another stunning New England fall and to dolling my home up in its autumn glory.