A White Clad Living Area
Tomorrow will mark four weeks since our furniture arrived at our "next victim", as I come to call it. I've been unpacking, painting, unpacking...repeat. Most of the boxes are unpacked, broken down and delivered to the recycling center. The garage is fairly clear, enough for one vehicle to park inside. We feel somewhat triumphant!
The main living area is slowly being painted white, the UT burnt orange is growing smaller and smaller, only gracing one wall presently. Each wood paneled wall is taking a bit of putty, sanding, also three coats of white enamel. I chose enamel in a satin finish in an effort to bounce some of the light around the room, hoping to even out the northern blue light against the glowing east and western light. The space feels much larger, brighter, yet, a bit bland. Our furniture suddenly turned brown! Our antique Persian rug I spent months finding seems a little - meh. Heavy sigh. I think finishing the space out will take some major texture and pattern with a subtle casting of color to create interest. Sounds good, right?
I thought this morning as I begin to spend the next few days painting what is left of the room, I would share a few photos with you. I've unpacked a sparse number of treasures, those things I worried for when they began their journey here; the Santos, the antique French tapestry remnants, an odd sunburst mirror hand designed by a metal artisan in Austin and a concrete covered deer who throughout the years tends to recline upon the dining table. It's a good place to keep an eye on things. Here we go -
What do you think? White! It's a little snow blinding, isn't it? I realize "white" is trending, I'm honestly not a trending sort of girl. For this space, white, at least for the moment, seamed the answer. The front doors are in the upper right corner. I've temporarily have the vintage French dresser resting in front of a window, the scales a little off, think it will be relocating soon. The daybed is centered under the front window. A conversation area is snuggled in front of the fireplace.
Our brown furniture, brown antique armoire where the TV is playing hid 'n seek, our brown English lamp table and vintage French coffee table turned ottoman. I pinned the French tapestry remnants to the doors of the armoire, trying to cover some of the brown! I don't know, maybe? There may be some painted furniture in our future. We won't discuss the recliner. Still cant' figure out how that happened...blue eyes. Speaking of blue eyes, we've placed Mr. GDC's home office in what was the dining space, upper center of the photo you can spy the corner of his desk with his lamp resting upon it.
I am a little happy with this, one of small occasional tables that travels about the room tucked perfectly beneath the English lamp table. Playing, I placed one of the sunburst mirrors beneath the Aiden Gray lamps in an effort to spread a little light. Then I positioned the vintage floor mirror against the wall behind the lamp, so that when the lamp is on the light reflects. I'm becoming like a bird searching for light, ooo, shiny object.
The daybed fits nicely under the front window. It offers a lovely little corner to curl up in. I may take a que from it, arriving to us "naked", I left it because I loved the natural wood grain. Maybe rather than paint some of our other pieces, I need to start stripping... can you hear the burlesque music?
Mr. GDC's home office. I'm thinking a broody color in here; green, grey, or something else. His office looks out upon the rose garden, which needs pruning, lots of pruning. Honestly, I think this would make the most wonderful kitchen! Maybe a someday scheme.
Looking toward the back of the space, there's that UT burnt orange.
I'm still not wildly happy about the built-ins. If you will, allow me to caution you, built-ins were all the rage in the 90's, which is when I suspect these were installed. While they can be useful, they are incredibly restrictive. Once in place you are stuck with what you've built, there's little you can do with them. I'm considering a few options; removing all of them, removing only the center section then adding door to the built-ins on either side. The doors could be French paned with sheered fabric, or flat allow an application of a wallpaper mural. A definite someday scheme is to replace the center window with double metal French doors allowing access to the yard.
I'm pondering the fireplace, it feels a bit 1990's as well. It also feels a bit New England to me. I discovered one interesting thing, the brick surround is stained, hiding beneath is terracotta Corsicana brick.
I'm thinking of attempting to remove the finish, revealing the terracotta brick. I think it interesting a previous owner stained the terracotta brick, then painted the walls essentially - terracotta. I'm thinking color! I'm also not a huge fan of the fireplace mantle. This room was added in 1950, the house originally built in 1939. A mantle from that ear would have had a bit of carving, some legs, a little decorative detailing. Uncertain what to do with this.
Opposite the fireplace I positioned the antique armoire with hidden television to balance the room. Did you notice the brown line on the wall?
Well, there is a chair railing trim along this one wall only. This wall is the original exterior wall to the cottage. I thought, why is there a railing along one wall? It bugs me, really bugs me, three walls no chair rail, one wall rail.
I pried it off, thinking it was surface mounted upon the wall, it wasn't. This is what happens when I'm left unsupervised. Since I had a peeking place, I dug about trying to figure out if the original brick exterior wall from 1939 might be standing there - can't tell, I found a board. Wouldn't it pretty to have a brick wall here and the natural brick around the fireplace? hmmm.
View from the Keeping Room. Currently I have antique Galveston cargo trunk gifted to us by our friends, Hank and Carol, at the back of the settee. I think it might fit better under the window near the front door, also be more visible.
View from the back of the space looking toward the front doors. The ceiling I believe as well is most likely 1990's. This one of two ceilings in the house that are drywall, all others are wood. I wanted to investigate, this time supervised. We removed the edging around one of the recessed lights, peeking around the edge with the help of a light we discovered a wooden ceiling about a foot above the ceiling. I'm too excited! The ceiling will be coming out after the new year! We are uncertain what is there, whatever it is, it will be original, historic and build some character to this very white space -
Yesterday we had some visitors...
Grey dove! I'm so excited! I feel home....
Until next time, wishing you all the best -
