As promised in my last post I wanted to show everyone the new place and talk a little about each space in the house. I’ll only be covering the downstairs. It is the most pulled together right now and I don’t think the second floor will be together enough for me to want to show it until spring. The move only happened a month and seven days ago! As you’ll see I’ve been busy!
We understand that even if you know us well our decorating style will probably be too loud, bright, busy, and chaotic for you. I’ve definitely gone all the way over to maximalism now. We have eclectic tastes and this house is even more “us’ than the last house. We collect things from the Art Deco period and mid Century period, as well as a fair amount from the 1980’s. About half the items in the house are family antiques and second hand finds and the other half are equally divided from street finds and new items.
The house in the photos is decorated for the Winter Holidays. We enjoy decorating the house each year and in the end the house always feels more festive and more like home, with the decorations. I wanted Stan to have a surprise when he came down for his December visit, but I could not put up all our decorations. What you are seeing is about a third of the decorations we have for the house. There are normally four more trees! The ornaments are a mix of vintage, hand made, gifts from friends, and of course some new things, which now that I think of it aren’t all that new anymore.
The Family Room
Our Family Room is really meant for our day to day lives, but I was mindful of the need to change to room a bit for guests. The chairs can be removed and the nook table in this room can be expanded and we can pull in other dining chairs, or it and the bar can act as buffet areas. Stan plays the piano and I love to hear him play, so I chose to put the piano in this room. The louvered doors you see will be replaced with a set matching the frosted glass doors between the dining room and our bedroom, that you’ll see later. We just haven’t had a chance to put them in yet. So much to do!
The TV Room
The TV room is really more of a media room, but I hate that term. We put four comfortable chairs in here so it it acts as a sitting room if we have a couple of guests. The router, TV, blur -ray player, streaming box, VCR, and our stereo will be in here. The recliner was Gertie’s (Stan’s Mom) and it coordinated with our things well enough that we decided to keep it. Stan normally sits in it, but Bram & Quince often keep it warm for him right now. The flame stitch throw was one Gertie made. We decided to keep that one for ourselves. Stan has already made pelmet boards for this room, that we painted black to cover the tops of these windows. We also have custom fabric roller blinds, to put up in each room, to replace the mini blinds. We just haven’t had time to put them up yet.
The Front Sitting Room
I wanted the Siting Room to be the opposite of what people expect when they hear those words. I wanted it to feel warm and bright and fun. I wanted it to feel like summer even in the depths of winter. The pelmet boards for this room are yet to be made. Both windows are of differing sizes and these will probably be larger than the others, so not as easy as some of the others. I’m likely to paint them a burgundy color, much like the fabric toppers that are on them now. We also want to raise the curtains in most of the rooms to above the window top level. This accomplishes two things; it makes the room look taller and generally makes the windows have more presence. This room holds many of our film & TV boxed sets and about a fourth of our books.
The Dining Room
I want to use the Dining Room more than we did in our NH house. I’m going to try to use it for every special occasion we have as a couple. I also think it will be great for when we have another couple over and want the dining to feel a bit more elevated. I can also imagine playing board games on this table. We have a lot of them! The room holds many of our film & TV boxed sets and about a quarter of our books. We do have to replace part of the floor, by the stairs and the carpet on the stairs we will change out for something more to our tastes.
Our Bedroom
Our Bedroom is all about a storage. We don’t have the walk in closet that we had in the other house, so we purchased built in amoires to hold many of our clothes along with our tall chests. So far, the thing I love about this room the most is how quiet the street is. It makes it easy to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Our Bathroom
Our Bath is very bright; I made it this way because it doesn’t have an exterior window. It is on the small side, but it has everything we need. The double sink was a must and having just the shower works much better for us. I love the marble in this room! The art on the left is low because we still need to put up shelves we have that go above them for storage. It not being the only bathroom in the house is also one of my favorite things about this house.
The Kitchen
What to say…I love our Kitchen! It’s light and bright and fun and best of all it is finished! We brought our cabinetry, the double island, and countertops to the new house. The appliances are new and have many features we’ll use often. The best way to describe the fridge is, ALL THAT, and having a double, air frying oven is a dream. The icing on the cake though is the dishwasher! We also have a new washer & dryer, but those are in the basement. We have two different backsplashes picked out for this room. We’ll install those later.
The Guest Bath
Last but not least the Guest Bath. Built with the same materials as our bath. The photo of the vanity, mirror and light were just taken, but the second photo is from before the move. I don’t think I want everyone seeing all the moving boxes being stored in the shower right now, waiting to be recycled! We also have a backsplash picked out for this room. Again, that will be installed later. It’s just lovely HAVING a guest bath.
The Holiday Lights & Outside
The outside now looks as it always will. Adding the fence in the back was a must to keep Bram & Quin safe. We’ll add planters in the front and more raised beds in the back. We have mid century shutters chosen for the five front upper windows. They are black and have a chevron pattern. We’ve also chosen a mid century awning to go over both basement doors in the front.
A sneak peak at the second floor. Me in my office. Believe me the wall behind me is the only thing in that room that is pulled together!
If you missed my first post about the move read it here.
Hope you enjoyed the tour!
