Harrington House

Powder Room Sink Skirt

I've had this sink skirt done for months, but I'm just now getting around to posting it.  I know I have shown pictures of the fabric but I don't think I had shown pictures of it actually hanging.  (Did I, y'all??  If so, let me blame it on mommy brain.)

I am a fabric girl.  I looove fabric, and this one is one of my favorites I've ever used.  It's silk-like but it has some weight to it, so it hangs great!  And it's a check.  And black.  Two of my faves.  :o)

This powder room is just off the garage entry before you get to the kitchen.  Eventually, when we redo our kitchen (way on down the line), this room will be redone along with it.  The kitchen and family room and this powder room all have gray tile flooring.  We are going to put hardwoods down there like in the rest of the house.  Until then, I'm working with what I have.  

To dress up the builders' grade cabinet, I decided to hang a skirt.  I removed the doors and drawers from the base cabinet, and then used a plain old shower curtain tension rod to hang the fabric.  As you can see, I just sewed a simple rod pocket, but I wanted a huge header on top so that it flips outward from under the counter.  Initially, I wondered if it would annoy me to have fabric covering the cabinet instead of doors, but I've had this up for over 6 months now, and I still love it.  Since this is just the powder room, I only keep things like extra toilet paper, some cleaning supplies (all non-toxic), and some stuff like that under there.  But I did make sure the rod pocket is extra roomy so that I can easily slide the fabric away to the side, and also so that it covers the rubber stoppers at each end of the rod.

 

Hanging on the wall....

I adore this old set of pictures of these two little girls.  Aren't they precious?  I love their dresses and their hairdos and that big ol' slice of watermelon.  Sweet summer sisters!  :o)  I have some other B&Ws to hang with this one but I took them back down.  I just couldn't get it right yet.

 

Still hunting for something perfect for this tiny shelf...

 

 

The fabric on the window is a black and tan toile that I found at Old Time Pottery for $5.  I sewed it into a faux Roman shade.  

 

 

 

My $2 trash basket junkin' find...

 

Another new flusher to match the faucet...

 

...the faucet that I love...

 

Junkin' in Tuckasee

Just showing a few of my finds from the past month while I was away, for those of you who are interested....  

I found a sweet little sauce boat ... instant love!  This is one of my favorite things to collect:  buffalo china (or restaurant china/restaurantware), and with a brown pattern to boot.  I'll say it again...sigh, instant love.  (This isn't where it is going to stay.  It's just sitting there at the moment...looking alllll pretty and such... ;o)

It's impossible for me to stop collecting footed bowls, compotes, preserve dishes, trifles, and the like.  Highly impossible.  I have entirely too many recipes for delicious dips and bowl desserts.  

Another addiciton...cookbooks.  Y'all've heard me say it before...I could read cookbooks all the live long day and not be bored.  Plus, it's Julia Child....hello.  

(P.S.  Have any of y'all seen that Julie and Julia movie?  Thoughts?)

(P.P.S.  Did you notice the double contraction up there...."y'all've"?  Impressed?  Or did you cringe?)

Loved the coloring on this cover below.

 

I got a new swing arm lamp for the living room.  I loved these details.

Baskets.  Of course.  What can I say...

This old licorice box I don't get to keep.  It's for Kelly Jo, but don't you just love it?

I found this set of buffalo china platters with a smoky blue transfer and a crest that reads "Felicitas Multos Habet Amicos" - which translates "Prosperity has many friends." Not necessarily one of the sweetest sentiments in my mind, but hey, at least it's written in Latin and looks pretty.  Haha!  When I found these in an antique shop for a price so ridiculously cheap, I literally clutched them so tightly till I could pay for them and haul tail out of the parking lot before anyone in there realized what had happened.  The mixed sounds of my triumphant cackle and spinning gravel was all they knew.  Mwahahahahahaha!         

 

Work in Progress...Times a Million

As I mentioned, one of the projects I'm working on is trying to change up the living room a little.  The old wall cabinet you see on the left is likely to be painted, I just haven't fully decided on the color yet.  Red?  Brown?  Green?  On the living room windows are the curtains I moved from the dining room.  I'm trying to incorporate that gorgeous red in them into the room.  

This is the other side of the room.  (I can't believe I'm showing it in this state.)  It's a verrrrry small room, so the furniture arrangement is pretty much impossible to change.  I've already taken everything off the walls and everything out of there except the furniture so that I can start from scratch with new ideas.

I'm also trying to finish up sewing today for Jack's room and Amelia's room.  I hit a major mental block with Amelia's window treatments, but now I'm getting excited again!  This is one of my inspiration pics.  I found it in a magazine and took a picture of it with my phone.  (I'm sure everyone else in the waiting room who saw me taking pictures of magazine pages thought I had gone over the deep end.  Haha!)  This looks really similar to the treatments in the nursery.  

This is part of my inspiration for Jack Jack's nursery...a vintage block and Daddy's old baseballs.  I injecting some green in the room along with the existing blue and white, and I'm using the red from the baseball stitches as a tiny accent color.  

The other day, I stopped into Goodwill.  I got an armful of goodies, with the most I paid for a single item being $5.  Yea!

The bateau-shaped basket is getting painted and going into the master bath next to the shower with towels in it.  The flat round basket will also get painted, and I'll probably use it for serving food maybe (?) like breads when we have company.  I got another basket but forgot to take its picture.

I got a mess of cookbooks and a couple Martha books and a Victoria book.  I could read cookbooks all the live long day, from recipe to recipe and cover to cover.  Do y'all do that?  I already have one of these books, but I thought it would be great for a Christmas gift or even a wedding shower gift in a basket full of some other goodies.

I found some more apothecary jars for one of the bathrooms.  I think the little squadgy one would look nice with a candle in it, but I've never done that.  Maybe I'll get adventurous and try it.

I thought the cathedral-like pattern on this piece was pretty, but I don't know what this is supposed to be used for or what I'm going to use it for.  Hmmm...

I was soooo excited about this glass ice bucket!  It came with the hammered metal claw-foot tongs.  I love how chunky and heavy it is.  

So, I have my hand in all these projects.  I'm trying to work on them in between calls to poison control and warding off a case of mastitis.  

New Dress for the Dining Room

My dining room is one of my favorite rooms in my home, but lately I have been wanting to rework it.  It all started with a trip to one of my favorite antique shops (doesn't it always?).  A few weeks ago, I saw a beautiful buffet that was just begging to come home with me.  I told him to hush up and try not to look so gorgeous because I'd be coming back for him soon.  So last week, I went and hauled him home with me!  Yea!

 Do you love him like I do?  

I love the finish and the bow front drawers, but I mostly love that it is substantial enough to sit with my dining room table, which is tall and chunky.  Most other buffets and sideboards always looked so pitiful next to the table.

Those silver candlesticks are a pair that I found at a local thrift shop.  I found them on two separate trips, months apart!   How 'bout that?  It was just meant to be that they were mine, I reckon.  :o)

Like I said, I have been wanting to revamp this room for a while, and well, maybe it's just because it is summertime...but I felt like it was needing some bright greens!  I'm so glad I went with it, because I am loving the browns and the bright green together.  I found the berry garlands at Michael's, and this set of cloth napkins at the same antique shop.  I put them on a brown transferware platter that my sister Kelly Jo gave me for my birthday, along with a set of old monogrammed silver forks and spoons I had.  There is also an old wooden-handled wine key that I hunted for forever and an eternity that I put on the tray, too.  

I was digging through all my black and whites for some to put on the buffet, and Mike said I should use this one.  He called it a conversation piece.  Haha!

Don't you wonder who this woman was?  That's certainly quite the pose.  (Well, lookie there...conversation has started...)

A little collection of china butterpats... 

There is tons of storage in this piece.  All y'all antiquers know what that means... ;o)

I also changed up the curtains in the dining room.  I moved the ones I had in here to the living room (more on that later), and put the living room ones in here.

I also finally hung up a little dish on the wall with some of my other brown transferware platters.  (Come to think of it...I got the little birdie dish at that same antique store!  Haha!)

Before & After: The Guest Bath Edition

Alrighty, so here are those before and after shots of the guest bath.  This all took place a couple of weeks after Amelia was born (along with renovation of the master bath).  What in the wide, wide world I was thinking doing that with a newborn, I'll never know!  My house was completely in disarray (much like now...and I don't have any renovations going on...).  But it was pretty much a necessity (the renovations of both baths) because the fiberglass shower units were cracked, and we feared water damage.  

Okay, onto the pictures.  Like I said, I love a good before and after.  Now, perhaps you will like the before shots better...if so, lie to me.  Haha!  It just wasn't "me."  (I apologize that some of these are sideways...for whatever reason, I am not being allowed to rotate them....)

   

Oh, y'all, this wallpaper was a beast to remove.  Our contractor said something about painting over it, and I told him absolutely not.  I could just imagine in my head what that would look like.  So, Mike and I tried every single last product available to remove wall paper.  Nothing worked...none of the well-known products, and none of the secret ones known only to professionals, none of the Paper Tigers, and none of the homemade concoctions (the many, many, many ones we made) worked.  The walls were left with gigantic gouges and ripped up wall.  It was a disaster of the worst kind.  So eventually, our contractor had the wall guy mud over the whole room and then sand it all down.  You could never tell what went on in there.  (Apparently, my contractor had been planning to do that all along, and we misunderstood.  It just kills me that we spent so many hours working on destroying those walls...)

The previous owners had put in raspberry pink tiles on the floors.  That is so limiting.  There is only so much you can do with raspberry pink tiles.  

I had already removed months prior the glass shower door.  It was so ridiculously hard to keep clean.

When the demo and renovation started, I would go in there and stand in the evenings after the workmen had left and just smile.  (Is there something wrong with me because I looooove these kinds of sights??)

Slowly but surely, I started to see my vision coming to life...yea!

In the end, the only thing we kept was the toilet.  We kept everything in the same location, so we didn't have to move any of the plumbing.  I love this bathroom.  I love that the permanent pieces are white so I can very easily change the color, and the whole look, of this bathroom when I want to.

Here's the pretty terlet handle...  Ahem, I changed that out myself.  

(Sorry, again for the sideways shots...I love the subway tiles in here.  I love them anywhere, I'm pretty sure.)

I love fabric shower liners.  They look nice, and they are so easy to throw in the wash.  I bought this one, along with the one in the master bath, at Wal-Mart.  

I found this oval-shaped egg basket at an antique store.  I intended to use it in Amelia's big girl room since it matched her walls, but when I got home, I realized it matched perfectly in here, too.  

Towels and soap for company...  (Since this is the bathroom I bath Amelia in, I only tie up the towels with ribbon when company is coming.  You know this wouldn't last if Amelia was in there.)

I also like the look of the brown wicker in this bathroom against all the white.  I have the stool above with the towels, the trash basket, and this little bicycle basket.  I have dozens of these baskets that I've picked up here and there at antique stores.  They are the perfect size to hang somewhere to keep little things in.  I hung this one on the back of the bathroom door to hold an extra hand towel and wash rags.  (Yes, I call them "wash rags.")

So, there's the guest bath before and afters.  Now, I'll have to post the before and afters of the master bath.  (It was maroon and Clinique green!) 

My Paint

There's a paint party at 320 Sycamore, so I am joining in with some of my favorite paint colors in my home.  I dug through my albums and hunted up some pictures to show the wall colors...just so you know my Christmas trees aren't still up!  Haha! 

My master bath is one of my favorite rooms.  I am in love with this paint.  It's Benjamin Moore "Wedgewood Grey."  It's the perfect shade against the white tiles in there and the antique oak furniture (two dressers and this armoire) that I have in there.   

The master bedroom is a blue that's a little lighter than the bath.  It's Benjamin Moore "Woodlawn Blue."  It's very calm and serene...perfect for a bedroom, I think.

My second favorite room in the house is probably my dining room.  Now I get a blue million questions about this paint color every time I post a picture of my dining room.  I am SO SAD to say that I do not know the name of the color.  I call it Muddy Waters, because it's a beautiful mix of dark, muddy brown with some dark olive green to it.  It's even prettier in person.  So if you want to see it in person, come have dinner with us, and you'll see it.  ;o)

The color we have throughout most of the house is Ralph Lauren "Nantucket White."  It's a very, very neutral creamy color, but it's the perfect contrast against the white trim in our house.  It's in the foyer, the living room, the family room, and up the stairs and down the upstairs hallway.  Here are some pictures of it in different lighting...

The guest bathroom upstairs is Behr "Ripe Wheat."  When it first went up, I about passed out thinking it looked like earwax.  Then, when everything was all said and done, I loved it.

(Wow, as I'm digging through all these old albums, I'm seeing pictures of my bathrooms before we redid them.  I'll have to show you those.  I just love a good "Before & After"...)

Girly Closet

So I still have some more final touches before I unveil Amelia's new big girl room.  Before I moved all of her clothes from the nursery into her new room, I wanted to finish up the closet.  So we spent a good chunk of the day holed up in that tiny closet.  (Our secondary rooms are practically glorified closets themselves...the closets...you can imagine.)

Actually, Mike was the one who spent most of his day holed up in there.  Due to the paint fumes, I kept myself and Amelia preoccupied elsewhere.  But I still managed to come in every so often to earn my title as "Foreman," as Mike likes to refer to me during most home improvement jobs.  I admit...I am very particular.  ;o)

No need for nicknames.  I see the writing on the wall, Mike...literally...         (Good one, honey...haha)

Thanks for working so hard...and for putting up with me!

I've hunted everywhere in my files for before pictures of the closet, but I can't find them.  It just had that white wire rack system.  I really wanted wooden shelves.  We are slowly but surely replacing them in all the rooms.  

We painted the walls the same color as the bedroom (Behr "Pismo Dunes").  I promise it doesn't look as loud in real life as it does in the photos!  The shelving and the clothing rods are white.  The below photo is a bit more true-to-life on the color.

We actually used stair treads as the shelves and painted them white.  I wanted rounded edges and was planning to sand them, but then I saw the stair treads at Home Depot and got those since they are already rounded in the front.  I'm so glad we did. 

I have some little white storage baskets that I am going to use to store her shoes and socks and other bitty baby stuff.  I'm going to make some tags for each basket later this week.

The iron brackets on the left ends of the shelves are from Anthropologie.  I got them a couple years ago when they were on clearance for next to nothing in the store.  I think they look so perfect in Amelia's new closet!  

Once I get more finished, I'll show the rest.  

In other news, Amelia has a lot of "owies" that we have heard about all day.  Yesterday, she was playing outside barefoot and barelegged and fell a few times on the back patio, sustaining several scratches.  As soon as she woke up this morning, the first thing she told me about was the "owie on toe." 

Once we got inside yesterday evening and I started investigating her "owies," I realized she in fact did have a whole slew of them.  But you know, we have to keep up that Southern stereotype that we all go around barefooted all the time...  ;o)

 

And my favorite part of the day today...she sang "Amazing Grace" for the first time in the bathtub tonight, and it was far and away one of the sweetest things I have ever, ever heard...ever!   Oooh! 

I hope y'all have a wonderful Sunday tomorrow!  I'm off to watch my alma mater....

 

GO BIG RED!

Some "Real" Mistreatments...

...meaning "I just mistreated real curtains."  

Last year, I bought some black and white ticking curtains for our master bedroom from a catalog.  I bought the longest size they offered (84") knowing they were still not long enough like I like.  So, for the last year, I have dealt with this...

YIKES!  Highwater curtains!  It has been driving me crazy!!!!  But I had some obstacles standing in the way.  For instance, we have picture railing around the room that really prevented me from hanging the rods any higher (which I usually like to do anyway).  Had I been able to do that, I could have considered adding on a decent-size chunk of complimentary fabric to either the top or the bottom.

I tried ring clips (yes, wrong color ones), but that didn't work either.  I'm all about beautiful fabric panels ending in a puddle on the floor.  However, because these are sturdy twill, it just looked wrong.

So, I have ended up taking the ring clips (and, yes, I did use the wrong color ones...you hardly notice them now, I promise), and clipped the back of the rod pocket.  I'll show you.

Since I'd had these on the rod, the pockets were already fluffed out, as you can see.  I thought about ironing them flat again, but I think I like this better. 

I took the back part of the opening of the rod pocket...

...and clipped it to the back of the rod pocket about 2 inches in.

After I had done both ends, I spaced out the rest of my ring clips on the rod and decided where the middle clip should be using really exact measuring...eyeballin' it.

Then, I finished with the other clips.

And I always like to extend the rod a little more and move one or two clips to the outside of the rod holder.  I just prefer the way it looks when it's all done.

 

I love them so much more than before!  I like that little poofy deal at the top that makes it more interesting than just hanging on the rod.  And the best part is the length looks so much more appropriate.

(For lots more on window mistreating, fly over to Nesting Place where it originated.)

Just another little tidbit...

I had found a neat piece of wood at an antique store and didn't really have a place in mind to use it.  I'm pretty sure it was one of those decorative pieces that used to sit on top of an old dresser.  It had been repainted and distressed, and it just caught my eye.

I finally decided to hang it upside-down above the shower stall curtain rods to hide them.  (Thanks goes to my husband for hanging it for me, because my attempt wasn't so solid and, let's just say, I'm lucky I didn't sustain a head injury when I was getting out of the shower one day.)

  

I was so excited the color of it plays well with the toile in there.

New Curtains...Yea!

Earlier this week, I finally got around to hanging up some new curtains in the living room.  I wanted to change what I had in there previously because it looked so fall-y.  So I found this fabric, and even though it has that chocolately background, I thought it would look good for the spring and summer.  I have a green sofa in this room, and even though it is solid, it has NOT been easy trying to find fabric that I like with it.  

I have been slaving over these window mistreatments...  Ha!  (If you haven't mistreated anything, you have to start.  It's so easy and quick and inexpensive.  And fun.  And liberating.  And beautiful.)

The lighting in this room makes it so hard to get good pictures, day or night.  These don't do the fabric any justice.  It's really beautiful, and it has changed the whole look of the room.  I'm not sure what type of fabric it is, but it has such a pretty feel and nice drape.  I love it!

I am eventually going to put some fringe along the selvage of these, but until then I just rolled them in to hide them.   

Love that poof at the top!

Thank you to the Nester!  And thank you, Mike...and Amelia, for helping me!  ;o)

Now I need to find some coordinating fabric for some pillows...

    

Jumpy!!

This cold, cold weather is bad news when you have an energetic toddler ripping through the house!  No park, no stroller rides, no walks down the street...what's a  momma to do?  Well, I took Amelia to one of those indoor gyms for kids.  Now, I admit, the idea of all those germs really bothered me (you know, indoor where the good, disinfecting sunshine couldn't get to them)...but I figured I just have to put some faith into her immune system and go for it.  The place I took her is right up the road, is pretty inexpensive, and she LOVED it! 

I didn't get a single picture of her face because she did not stop once!  And I think this is the first time I didn't have a bow in her hair while we were out and about.  Y'all, that jumpin' is hard work...the child can't be bothered with hair accessories at a time like this.  At least she had a pink shirt on. 

Doesn't this look like fun?  I did not want to test my big pregnant self on any of the inflatables for fear I'd pop a whole in something and ruin everyone's good time.  

Towards the end, she was getting pretty good at running and jumping on everything.  But falling down is way more fun!   :o)

Now, let me tell you about... The Fit.

After an hour, she started to slow down a bit, and since it was naptime, I decided it was time to call it a day.  As I carried her out the door, my little lady decided to throw a fit.   Oh my goodness.  Not only did she try to turn herself into liquid several times as I tried to carry her to the car, but she tried that "stiff-as-a-board" stunt, too, making it almost impossible to carry her.  I take it she was NOT ready to leave "Jumpy" (as she calls it).  And after acting like that, there was no way I was going to take her back in there.  I sure didn't want to send that message...you know, have a total come-apart and you get what you want.  Oh no!  

So, when we get to the car, she again turns herself into liquid...in the parking lot...on the pavement beside the car.  Doncha know I just wanted to crawl under the car and hide.  And had it not been for my big pregnant round belly and the fear that I might get wedged permanently under it, I probably would have.   This was by far the worst fit she has ever thrown.  I did NOT get a picture of that part of our day.  I hope to goodness our next trip to Jumpy is not like that!  How embarrassing.

Now, I can't talk about jumping without talking about candlesticks!  So let me show you a new candlestick I found at the thrift store.  It's silver-plate on brass so it's heavy, and the silver is perfectly worn like I love!  $1...Yea!  I have it in the dining room on a table that I just moved in there.  It's the only thing on the table right now, though.

I love honeycomb candles, and I just made a little wreath of boxwood for it.  

And MOST IMPORTANTLY... please keep praying for Harper and Kelly.  The most recent updates sound so good.  Prayer IS powerful!  It is amazing to be witness to so many coming together in spirit and prayer over this precious child.  

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them."  Matthew 18:20

"Before our Father's throne,

we pour our ardent prayers;

our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,

our comforts and our cares.

We share each other's woes,

our mutual burdens bear;

and often for each other flows

the sympathizing tear.

Blest be the tie that binds

our hearts in Christian love;

The fellowship of kindred minds

is like to that above."