It Was Meant to Be....

The first time I saw this stool in the Ballard Design catalog I knew it was perfect for my kitchen. But the Jacksonville store didn't have one and when I checked Ballard's website they were backordered.

Today I decided I really had to do something about the 19 year-old Target stool that was in my kitchen. Off to the Ballard store to see if they had one in stock so I could at least look at it. None in stock, but they had this one in the clearance area marked down. I think it's perfect. And, I'm lucky to live in one of the few places that has a Ballard b&m store!

My Vintage Nancys

When I was 9 I was sick for a month and my mother's rule was that if you were too sick to go to school, you were too sick to watch tv. So each day my grandmother bought me a new Nancy Drew book. By the time I was better, I had read every Nancy Drew book written up to that time. I have no idea what happened to those books - they were probably passed on to my sister and then given away.

A few years ago, I was in a used bookstore and saw an old Nancy Drew. When I saw that old blue tweed cover, I had to have it! It was very interesting....when the books were originally written, the authors had no idea of the staying power of Nancy so they describe life as it was in 1930's America (in Nancy's Mysterious Letter there's an interesting passage, for example, that explains how air mail went to England - it involved the train, Newark Municipal Airport, and an airplane launched from a ship at sea!). One by one, I collected all 36 "original text" books - all the books were rewritten eventually to remove any references that would date them.

Part of that collection is in the picture above. The most valuable is a first edition of The Secret of the Wooden Lady also known as a "Smoking Ned" because Nancy's boyfriend has a cigarette in his hand in the frontispiece. There was such outrage that it was removed from subsequent editions.

Stuff in the Den

For years I didn't know what to do with this awkward corner in the den - it's not that deep so finding a piece of furniture that would work there was difficult. Then Storehouse Furniture (how I miss that store!) started selling these black iron shelves in different sizes and one fit in this corner perfectly.

At the top are two photographs - one of men fishing along the Matanzas River and another taken by a friend of my nephew's on a school trip to Africa. The burl bowl was purchased at a League of New Hampshire Craftsmen shop.

This shelf has an old ironstone platter, an antique wooden sewing box, and a vintage trophy filled with corks from wine bottles - memories of good times! The Brownie Starflash camera I found on eBay - it's exactly like my first camera except that mine was red. The mini huraches are a souvenir of Cuba given to me by a friend who knows of my fascination with pre-Castro Cuba. Another friend gave me the red and blue pins that were worn to show support for teams in a 1950s Cuban baseball league - I decided they'd make perfect shoe buckles for the huraches.

The "Southernmost Point in the US" miniature was given to me by my niece and nephew to remember a family vacation to the Florida Keys. The rowing picture was taken of my nephew's boat the day they won at the Stotesbury Cup - a first for his school. And there's a photograph of Stiltsville just because I like the idea of Stiltsville!

The three baby cups are mine, my father's, and my sister's - my mother never mentioned having one. The model of the French chair is one bought by my mother at a flea market in Normandy back in the 70s.

Before it was illegal to harvest cypress knees, they were made into lamps and sold to tourists as souvenirs of Florida. I have a thing for them and bought this on eBay for $12. I had it rewired and replaced the original shade (a horrible basket-like thing that makes them more valuable to collectors). The little Greek statue was a present from my grandparents after a trip to Greece in the 60s.

Bookcases

I've had built-in bookcases in two places that I've lived and had to leave them behind when I left. So when I moved to Florida 19 years ago, I decided to buy free-standing bookcases. At the time there was a store here called Naked Furniture - you selected unfinished furniture which they would finish and add moulding. I wanted pine but the saleslady convinced me to buy oak instead.

At some point, I painted the room white and decided the bookcase would look better if the back was white too. Since I didn't want the mess of paint in my den, I wallpapered the back.

When the den was painted brown, the oak just looked terrible and there was no getting around the fact that the bookcases had to be painted. I'd rather lick a snake that go through that again - remove and store 48 linear feet of books, the tv, dvd player, and wiring. Since I was going from oak to white, it required two coats of primer and one of paint. And I decided to do this in Florida in July using my porch as a workshop so I was sweaty and covered in paint for two weeks! I don't think the color is a perfect white but it's close enough - I'll never go through that again!

Pinboard

I love vintage WPA postcards of National Parks - some I've picked up on my travels and some have been sent to me by my niece who loves them too - and I wanted a way to display them. Pottery Barn had a wonderful linen covered pinboard but it couldn't be that hard to make....so, I bought a 3M foam board and covered it in white linen.

New Den Pillows

For a change, I decided to add a little color to the den so I made these pillows with some fabric from Calico Corners. This was my first time trying envelope-style pillows and I could not believe how easy it was! There's an added benefit because it makes it very easy to switch covers if I get tired of them. And I know that within six months, I'll find these garish...my name should be Monochrome Mary.

Gulp.....

My den slipcover has been on for slightly over a year and as much as I hated the idea, it needed to be laundered. Even though I've read in many message boards that Mitchell Gold slipcovers launder like a dream, it was still scary.

I tried one seat cushion first - pretreat spots with Oxyclean, wash in cold water, and air dry for several hours in air conditioned space. I was told by the salesperson when I bought the sofa to put the slipcover back on the cushion when it was slightly damp but I did it when it was damp. Then I let the slipcover finish drying on the sofa until it was totally dry. It worked like a charm!

I did not think the main slipcover that goes on the body of my sofa would fit in my washer so I had to find a laundromat with commercial size washers that wasn't yucky. I hit paydirt close to home at The Washboard - excellent laundromat. Air drying this part was more of a challenge and in the end, I spread it out so that it filled the guest bathroom.

Last night I put it back on - damp, of course, and let it dry til morning.

So good to know that it laundered beautifully, went back on easily, and no shrinkage!

The Desk

I was so happy to finally find a good spot for the painting my sister brought back from Italy! It's been in quite a few spots in my house but none were ever right. I think it's perfect on the top of the desk.

Bedroom After

I find the finished bedroom to be more restful. The picture over the bed is a print I bought from a street vendor in Florence years ago. The bedside lamp came from a local consignment shop. The trunk at the foot of the bed was my grandfather's - he used it to store his tools and was given to him by the daughter of a ship's captain. The pillow on the chair was one I bought in Steinmart years ago.

Fabric

My bedroom needs at least 30 yards of fabric for the windows and bed and I had some major sticker shock when I started to look for replacement fabric. Then, Pottery Barn had a 20% off sale on their curtains. I had always liked their Matine toile, so I decided it was time to buy. I got lucky and found the matching quilt and shams on eBay for a lot less than I would have paid in the store. And since I liked how the bed looked without a dust ruffle, I just decided not to have one.

I have a wing chair (that once lived in my living room) in the bedroom. Over the years it had faded from terra cotta to coral. It was a big surprise to me to learn that it's a lot cheaper to have furniture reupholstered than having slip covers made. After testing several different solid natural fabrics, I decided natural twill was the best choice.

The Bed

My bed is an antique rope bed that my mother bought for $10 when I graduated from my crib many, many years ago. It is not close to a standard size and in desperate need of a new mattress so I debated about getting rid of it and buying a new standard sized bed. But when I took off the dust ruffle and the legs were exposed, I fell in love with the bed all over again. I was able to find a company in Columbia, SC that makes custom sized mattresses. With each new mattress, though, less and less of the headboard is exposed!

The Bedroom

My bedroom has been pretty much unchanged since the early 80s...Laura Ashley fabric, botanicals on the wall, swagged curtains. As much as I still love the fabric, the room looks dated.

Kitchen - Done, Finally!

The weather is finally nice enough to have the windows open, so the painter was here today to remove all traces of the stencil design in the kitchen. I tried - but two coats of water-based Kilz didn't make a dent in covering it up and I never mess with anything oil-based.

I had never replaced the original contractor ceiling fixture over my breakfast area. A chandelier wasn't a good choice because the wiring was not centered over my table and couldn't be without ceiling and electrical work. I just didn't want to get into that mess. Last week, looking at another decorating blog, I came up with the idea of a schoolhouse light.

I hope this is it with the kitchen for awhile!