a walk through

Just add baby!

2012-08-08T19:30:00.001-05:00

Chris and I can't wait to welcome home, Baby Boy Walker. My due date is August 13th, so he could be here any day now!
Although our house is still under renovation, and things feel a little disheveled, the nursery is all ready!

The bumper pad wasn't ready yet when I took these photos, but here's the fabric...

Thanks for checking in! Hopefully my next post will have some pictures of sweet baby boy!

An update on the Walker decor...

2012-07-17T12:59:00.001-05:00

Here's just a few updated shots of our living room...

Lately, I'm inspired to take a paint brush to some things in our home...just not sure which first and what color......this includes the coffee table, the marble top top chest, the china cabinet in the dining room, the wing back chairs, and the little footstool in front of the wing backs. I won't paint all of these...but just thinking about it.
.........someday......after I paint the crib.......and have a baby........and we finish our renovation, I'll get back into some projects like that.

Thanks for checking in!

The progress of a work in progress

2012-07-17T12:15:00.006-05:00

Well, it's been seven months since my last post! Yikes.
If anyone still reads this thing...I have an update on what's been keeping me busy and away from the computer.

Firstly, Chris and I are expected a baby boy in less than a month! Yay! Due date is August 13th.

Secondly, although I'm also still decorating on my own, I've been working for another designer, the fabulous, Fran Keenan. I'm learning a TON from her, and love getting to glean from her wisdom, experience, and talent! You can see some of her work here in Birmingham Home and Garden and her own homes were featured in Southern Living this past year (I can't find the link for that one) and in Cottage Living a few years back. She's keeping me busy, and away from the computer.

Thirdly, since April we have been under renovation. We moved out for three months. We are still not finished, but since the baby is coming soon and blogging will be pretty low on the totem pole, I thought I should at least show the progress of the project so far.

Our kitchen went from this...

To this...

Now, it looks like this...

We uncovered lots of extra space, but eliminating a staircase down to our wet basement and installing a trap door in the kitchen floor instead.

(It has not really been styled yet, and still has a box living under the table)

Grey sheet of drywall, that is taped off in blue tape, is sealing us off from the construction that continues in the back half of the house. This will be a cased opening, just as it was before, which will now take you to a hallway with the laundry room, back door, and master bedroom (with new on-suite bath).

* Cabinets by Cannon Woodworking in Trussville, AL.

* Countertops by Concrete Farmer in Trusville, AL.

So the layout in our dining room went from this...

To this...

(Dining room is full of boxes that we can't empty til the reno is over, and some extra furniture too)

By swagging the chandelier over, we have opened up traffic flow through the house, and given ourselves more living space. To the left, when the metal filing cabinet (barely shown in picture) goes to its new spot, after reno is complete, there will even be room for a chair and ottoman there!

The view all the way through...

Thanks for checking in!

Landscaping our Home

2012-01-02T10:49:00.000-06:00

Creating curb appeal and landscaping our home has been a slow process...(and finding the time to blog about it, has been even slower!). Chris and I have been chipping away at the landscaping part of things mostly since Spring of 2011. But we did the most work on it this fall. There are still a few finishing touches to be done, but I am pleased with the progress.

Here's the journey...

We bought the house in Fall 2009.

Spring 2010

Winter 2011

(New paint job and woodwork)

Winter 2011

Spring 2011

Fall 2011...

My goal in landscaping our yard was to make our home feel tucked-in to the landscape and feel like it has been there for a long time (which it has...but the landscape wasn't speaking to that). Because our house is so high off the ground, it is easy for it to look out of touch with its surroundings...like someone just plopped it down. So, we bought as many fast growing shrubs as possible, and the largest shrubs we could afford. We planted the tree on the left corner of our home to provide shade that will give us a cozy cottage feel. I can't wait to see as the Carolina Jasmine grows up around our porch to bring "green" up, making our home feel "tucked-in".

Now we just have to wait for everything to grow!!!

Eventually the Taber Azaleas on both sides will grow to cover our foundation completely. The River Birch tree will be taller than our house and will shade our front window (our bedroom). The Caroline Jasmine vines will wrap around our columns and arch over our front porch. The rosemary flanking our steps will grow big and create a fragrant welcoming to our home. I'm not crazy about the two small Azaleas by the sidewalk, so I think I will move those this spring and replace them with something else.

A few notes for impatient people like me...

I'm no gardening wizard, but here's what I've noticed at our house:

Knockout roses grow like crazy.

My rosemary is not growing very fast. I've heard the more you cut from it the faster it grows, though.

Carolina Jasmine and pink jasmine grow very fast (but you have to make it very easy for them to climb...I created a trellis of nails and wire on our columns for it to fire, and fishing wire on our light post. The confederate jasmine that I planted in a few places in our backyard is not growing very fast at all.

I also planted creeping fig on our foundation, it is growing well...but it's having a hard time clinging to our bricks...which is the whole point! When I bought it, I got mixed advice, but one person said to cut off all existing growth when you plant it, because only the new growth will stick to the walls. I didn't do this...I think they must have been right.

By the way, Happy New Year!

Thanks for checking in!

Kitchen pics coming soon!

2012-01-02T09:33:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry for the delay on the final photos of my client's kitchen. The backsplash tile we selected has been backordered. The backsplash is getting installed this week, so I'm looking forward to sharing the final product soon.
Thanks for checking in!

KItchen Progress

2011-10-28T13:51:00.001-05:00

My clients kitchen is moving right along...

Remember these before shots...

Well, things have been moving right along...

(Don't panic, the fridge will have matching cabinet door fronts on it!)

We've also moved this archway towards the entry way to expand their dining room...

(The above table, chairs, and light fixture may be for sale...email me if you're interested)

And we've gotten the floors refinished in something....not so orange!

I can't wait for this Restoration Hardware table to go in their new, spacious, dining room...

Shameless Plug: If you live in North Alabama and order something from Restoration Hardware, your furniture will be delivered by the great guys from New Latitude Movers, which is the moving and delivery company where my husband works.

With this chandelier for a little glitz...

Progress is fun!

Thanks for checking in!

A little at a time...

2011-10-16T21:01:00.001-05:00

As I have journeyed into the world of being a decorator, it's been fun to see how each client relationship can be unique to fit the client's individual needs.

I have one client that found me through my blog. She is a young newlywed. My husband and I can relate, that at this stage in life it is tough to budget for a decorator...yet there are so many decisions to make as you start to collect the pieces that you hope will last a life time and also try to figure out the best way to arrange those faithful hand-me-downs.

Every few months she calls me to check in on her and help keep her "punch list" on track. It's been fun watching her transform her home a little at a time.

Here is the client's home before:

After our first visit:

(new rugs, new sofa, new furniture arrangement, brought these 3 chairs that she already owned into the room to replace the red ones)

Then she found these great grey linen-look drapes from Ikea...

Way to go, girl! Things are looking great! Keep on truckin!

At our last visit we met at the fabric store and selected these fun fabrics for her living area...

From left to right, these selections would be for:

grey cushion: existing single tufted chair

tiny blue swatch: existing sofa

cream/blue quatrefoil: bench cushion

zig zag: dining room chair seats

suzani: pair of accent pillows for sofa, slip cover for cube ottoman

velvet burnout: center pillow on sofa

I can't wait to see how all these fabric selections look in her home. She and her mom will be slaving away at making everything themselves.

Maybe the next stage will be lamps and light fixtures...or some pretty things for the walls?

If you can relate to this client, I'd love to help you get moving in the right direction in your home!

I can also do this via email if you are outside of the Birmingham, AL area.

Thanks for checking in!

Destruction Day!

2011-10-05T19:01:00.002-05:00

It's Kitchen Destruction Day at my clients' home in Homewood, AL. We've been revamping the living room piece by piece, and it has really made them want to do the same for their kitchen!

I can't wait to see how it comes together in the next few weeks!

Before...

Now...

Here's a sneak peek of some of the elements that will be in the new kitchen.... (Sorry, the colors are off.)

I'll keep you posted!

Thanks for checking in.

The Stripe Type

2011-09-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

I'm very late posting this, but I got super motivated over Memorial Day weekend and striped up our little hallway!

I love stripes and had thought for a long time that I wanted to do stripes somewhere in our house, maybe a bedroom. For some reason, I had never thought of our hallway until I went to, my sister, Emily's house and saw what she had done in a little hallway in her house. She is super crafty and did this with stamps!

A few step-by-step pics...

Before...

I decided on 6" stripes. I figured that was going to leave the least amount of awkward leftover space. At the very top, there is about 7-8" inches of wall color. In a small hallway like this people are looking down a lot more than they are looking up, so I started my stripes at the baseboards and left the extra space for the top. It's not noticeable to me at all now.

First, I taped out my lines, finding a happy medium between truly level and what looked right to my eye. Our house is old and un-level, and I often find what looks right to my eye is the better guide. Something can be "level" but if it's not parallel with the baseboards and crown-molding...it's not gonna look right. Also, a note for dummies...the stripes should continue straight through doorways and come out the same color on the other side.

Next, I painted over my tape with the wall-color, Benjamin Moore Coastal Fog, to prevent my accent stripe color from bleeding.

Then, I painted my second color, which is my trim color- Benjamin Moore Sandy Hook Gray. But, before painting the second color, I put Xs on the stripes that would be painted to make sure they would work out right and not leave me with too much tone-on-tone trim/stripe action. However, a little of this was inevitable. I also did this to prevent dumb mistakes...which are always a strong possibility.

Then, I let it sit for about 6 hours, peeled away the tape, and VOILA!

All I can say is...I'm glad I did this hallway and not a bedroom cause it was TEDIOUS and time consuming!

Thanks for checking in!

A Nursery that is All BOY!

2011-09-21T14:52:00.001-05:00

I've had a blast working with one of my clients on this nursery. It is her fourth child and she has been-there-done-that with sweet blue/white, pink/white nurseries. This round she wanted to do something different and go all BOY.

The room looked like this before for baby #3...

The inspiration for the nursery started with two things I found at Scott's Antique Market in Atlanta.

The first is this fabulous lamp made from reclaimed parts from a John Deere Tractor factory.

The second were these old yarn spindles. With these spindles I was imagining peg hooks or some sort of shelving. I wasn't quite sure, but I knew we had to have some to play with for the room.

These elements definitely got us going on a rustic track (which I always love!).

We were also inspired by the dog silhouettes in this fabric. We wanted to use this fabric, but kept getting stumped on how to incorporate it into the rest of our developing plan.

After exploring a few fabric options, the client stumbled across this fabric that she loved, and we knew we wanted to incorporate it in a strong way.

She already had a glider in this fabric from her first child...

So I paired these three fabrics for the crib, with the buffalo check glider. I was still looking for a way to incorporate the dog silhouette idea.

Piece by piece the room came to together, until it looked like this...

Circles are a repeating element from the polka-dot crib bumper, to the spindle shelves, and the circular parts of John Deere lamp.

I made this wall-hanging by running strips of burlap behind these inexpensive clip-together glass borderless frames and hanging the rows from sturdy hooks to form a grid.

I used the tiny polka-dot print for the changing pad as well as the piping and ties on the crib-bumper.

I was concerned that the beigey/buff cream in the buffalo check would clash with the whiter creams in the other fabrics, but it's really not noticeable in the room. Everything meshes together very well.

Layering lots of shape, sizes, and textures of items gives these shelves a "lived in" look.

We chose simple, inexpensive window treatments to balance the price of custom bedding. It turned out to be a nice break for the eye in the room.

I blew up a silhouette of a lab from the dog fabric that we loved, made a stencil and then painted this canvas with a simple cream background and the chocolate dog. I hung it with a strip of burlap and a sturdy hook to give it more height.

We painted the crib the soft sage color of the bed skirt to soften the look.

Now this little guy is here, and he is LOVING his room.

Thanks for reading!

Fab

2011-07-18T06:10:00.001-05:00

When I'm decorating for my clients, my favorite part is putting together fabric stories! I guess this is a nod to my degree in Apparel Design.

The client already had curtains out of the pink floral fabric for her little girl's room. I picked out these two complimentary fabrics to break up all the pink.

We are talking about using the pink floral for drapery and bedskirts and pillow shams. The green dot would be a duvet cover and additional sham with the solid green linen as a ruffle trim.

Isn't it fun?

The Room of Many Rugs

2011-07-11T17:37:00.002-05:00

I've tried a few different rugs in our living room, before finally settling on something I'm happy with (for now).

But, I'll go back to the beginning.

First there was a borrowed young Kilim rug. The colors were too strong to go with my color palette.

Then, I had this gorgeous antique kilim, which went great the floral curtains. This lives in my dining room now, which is directly adjacent to the living room.

Then for a funkier flair, I went for this cowhide. I love it, but it left a lot of bare floor. Bare floor= not so cozy.

Now, I've been loving this combination! It's a hemp natural rug layered underneath my cowhide. This gives me the coverage that we need to make the room cozy. It keeps my dog from scratching up the floors, and will help keep us warmer in the winter. This hemp rug is more cleanable than a sisal or seagrass because it does not have a latex backing.

Rugs can totally change the feel of the room!

All of the rugs, except for the first red kilim, are from Paige Albright Orientals in Mountain Brook, AL!

Our Furry House Guest

2011-07-10T22:53:00.004-05:00

This little "mini Bei Bei" is staying with us for a month, while his "mommy" is out of town! He's my sister, Kate's mini-goldendoodle puppy! His name is Barnabas. (I know, what's with our family and crazy dog names!) He's about 4 months old and he and Bei are quickly becoming BFFs! They play non-stop and he follows Bei's lead on all the training cues.
I wonder if two dogs are in our future???

Fabric Stories for a Boy's Room

2011-05-17T09:46:00.001-05:00

I put together a few potential fabric stories for a client's little boys room, so I thought I'd share...

Fun, huh? What's your favorite?

Virtual Client- A Kitchen & Breakfast Area Spruce Up!

2011-03-28T17:22:00.000-05:00

I was honored and excited when a blog reader from Mississippi contacted me for help with her kitchen and breakfast area.

She and her husband built their house a few years ago, and she was feeling that this part of her home was just blah.

She's a new mom, and so I wanted to help her make her space beautiful, relaxing, and practical...on a budget!

Here are a couple of the pictures she sent me...

The client loved the Southern Living Taylor Creek Idea House and has used it as her inspiration for many parts of her house. So, I used the Taylor Creek House kitchen to give us some direction for where to take her kitchen.

(Sorry for the blurry picture)

For her kitchen I recommended:

- Paint the cabinets.

If you want wood colored cabinets, I would suggest going very dark, like a dark walnut or coffee color, or going with a light pickled or white-washed look instead of a medium tone

- Replace the barstools (which she was hoping to do anyway).

- Replace the pendant lights.

- De-clutter above the cabinets and on the countertops.

Custom cabinets, which are preferred, go all the way to the ceiling. To mimic the look of custom cabinetry, you don't want the eye to be drawn to the gap between the cabinets and ceiling. If your cabinets don't go all the way to the ceiling, you can use this space as storage with inconspicuous baskets instead of display.

- Spray paint the black refrigerator with stainless-steel look appliance spray paint.

- Add a colorful rug to make the space feel homey, and give some cushion for her baby to play.

- Add bamboo blinds to the window

For her breakfast area I recommended:

- Remove the tv cabinet and invest in a small flat screen to tuck in the corner of the kitchen countertop (nearest the breakfast area).

- Line up the breakfast table parallel with the wall of windows on the left.

- Add ceiling height white curtains to dress the windows, along with bamboo shades for each window, mounted just below the curtain rod.

Always, always, always use floor to ceiling curtains!

- Add a colorful patterned rug

- Get an old long bench or church pew to push against the wall under the windows on the left. Dress it with comfy pillows in an indoor outdoor fabric, and pull the table up to the bench like a banquet.

So here's the look:

Here's the run-down...

1. School house pendant lights. She will need 3 of these over her peninsula, and 1 over her sink.

2. A very inexpensive indoor outdoor fabric for pillows for her breakfast area banquet. I wanted something she could wash and/or wipe off when her baby (or husband) spill something.

3. A Dash and Albert rug indoor/outdoor rug in Gunnison. She can hose it off if something gets spilled!

4. We're on the hunt for the perfect old church pew!

5. Ikea has several options for simple white curtains in long lengths. The downfall is...you can't order online.

6. Bamboo shades cozy up any space, in my opinion! These are from Lowe's.

7. Another indoor/outdoor rug from Dash and Albert in Diamond Slate/Blue.

8. I suggested painting her cabinets a warm grey color like "Mourning Dove" by Martha Stewart. Her walls are already Starched Linen (by ??)

9. These hip and easy to wipe down bar stools are inexpensive from the Home Decorator Collection.

10. Freshly painted cabinets are yummy.

******

I can't wait to see the finished product!

CONTACT ME IF YOU WANT HELP WITH YOUR HOME!

sarawalkerdesigns@gmail.com

Sara Walker Designs- It's official!

2011-03-25T12:18:00.000-05:00

If you're in our around Birmingham, AL contact me for help making your home a home.

For the out-of-towners, I can help you too, via photos, email, & online shopping.

A room I'd actually like to dine in!

2011-03-20T20:42:00.000-05:00

We hung my grandmother's chandelier! Finally!
I've been hating our chandelier since the day we moved in, so I'm so glad to finally get up something that I love!

Before:

After:

Also in the name of being less prissy in our dining room, I removed the cafe curtains from the windows...

Before:

After:

I also added in a few more antlers. I probably have too many antlers in our house, but my husband loves to hunt so we have tons of them. They're free and such an easy way to add a natural, rustic element to a room.

The bad news is, this window is directly across from our bathroom, and so I'm trying to figure out how to add back in a little privacy. I'm deciding between bamboo shades or some sort of gauzy pocket panel cafe curtains gathered on upper and lower rods...not sure what the word for that is.

I'm finally happy with our dining room! (At least for today.)

Thanks Grandma (actually, "Grandmother" as she was called)!

Before:

After:

A little less prissy, a little more me.

2011-02-18T13:48:00.000-06:00

People are always commenting and inquiring about the wall of hats in our dining room. They were my grandmother hats, and they are all fabulous and unique.

I have loved having them displayed as a focal point in our home, but it was making our dining room so feminine and prissy...especially when paired with our floral rug and floral cafe curtains. So I x-ed the cafe curtains, for now, and I shook things up a bit with the hat wall.

I made the back wall of our dining room more of a salon wall, with the vintage hats as the main element. This feels a little more casual to me, and a little more "me".

Don't worry...I know our chandelier is the real downer in our dining room! Just ask my husband, I complain about it constantly. But luckily, this weekend we are getting started restoring an old chandelier that was my grandmothers! It will be much better! I can't wait!

Counting Sheep

2011-02-10T22:09:00.001-06:00

On a budget, it's hard to afford big rugs! So I find myself having to layer smaller rugs around my house to keep things warm and cozy, literally...our house is freezing in the winter! I was tired of stepping out of the bed onto the cold floor in the mornings, so I picked up these sheep skins at Sams for $30 each! I think they frame the bed nicely (I wish I had a wide angle lens to capture it!).

I love the organic shape of hides. Bedrooms are full of squares, and so it's nice to soften things up a bit.

...and they're perfect for Bei to snuggle up on.

Thanks for checking in.

Charlie and the Painting Factory

2011-02-02T21:01:00.000-06:00

We were blessed to have found Charles the Painter, and his handy wife Marilyn! We originally weren't even planning on hiring painters. We just wanted someone to help Chris with the scraping and prep part of the job. Charles gave us such a low quote that we couldn't resist and hired him for the whole job. And I am so glad we did!
They worked so hard on our house and did everything the tried and true honest way...no shortcuts! We've had some setbacks with the cold weather, which made it a very long process, but now their job is complete!

Charles the Painter has...
- Scraped
- Sanded
- Pressure washed
- Primed (all by brush and roller, no spraying)
- Removed all the old caulk
- Replaced rotten wood
- Helped Chris with some carpentry
- Re-caulked everything
- Replaced some cracked bricks
- Smoothed out all our wood siding with spackling to make it all smooth and look like new!
- Primed again over the new caulk (all by brush and roller, no spraying)
- And finally...painted the house!

So here are some pictures of the process....

scraped...

took out two bushes...

sanded...

put up some new trim...

(I thought we needed a little architectural interest to keep up with the other bungalows in our neighborhood...most of which have the cute overhanging eaves)

Primed...

railings taken down...

New columns and new gable...

Good job to Chris and his dad Bill!

While they were busy working on the structural details, I was thinking ahead to the cosmetic details...

I built our shutters with basically 0 help from any of the men! I'm kind of proud of that.

I painted our front door to match the shade of blue/green that we discovered was original to our porch ceiling...

Chris worked hard building our railings, with some help from me and Lindsey B....

I painted our porch swing, and hung it with rope...

(Thanks to our friends, the Boneys, for the rope idea)

We took a little break for Christmas...

But Charles the painter came back from the holidays with a vengeance. He spackled every board of siding till it looked smooth and brand new...

He put fresh caulk everywhere and did some more priming...

I took down the black lantern on our porch and spray painted it "oil-rubbed bronze"

And painted our mailbox and address numbers with a hammered copper spray paint with a few shots of the oil-rubbed bronze hammered spray paint by Rustoleum....

And sprayed the box on our house to match...

And this cute star for a little personality...

Then the first coat of paint went up...

It looked pretty stark and brown with the stark white primed trim...scary!

Then, Charles the painter never misses a beat, he went back and did some more spackling anywhere he could find a blemish...

Finally, the trim color started going up, bringing the look together, just in time for a snow "storm"...

And after some touch-ups and two coats all around...the house looked amazing, due to Charles, Marilyn, and their trusty sidekick Bei!

And Chris and I worked pretty dang hard ourselves!

Thanks to our friends and family that helped too...Lindsey, Alex, and Bill!

Now it's time to ~~relax and enjoy it~~ paint our steps and porch and do some landscaping!

If you're in the Birmingham area and need a painter or general handy man, please contact me and I would love to pass along Charles the painter's info!

the Cinderella Chair

2011-01-31T11:36:00.001-06:00

If you take this:

Subtract this:

And then your mom finds this at a garage sale:

And you hunt down the perfect fabric that looks like this:

You add x-large buttons and chocolate brown velvet piping, remove the skirt, paint the legs chocolate brown and click your heels three times, you might end up with this:

Which looks pretty happy in a room like this:

So the moral of the story is, this nasty old chair went from this:

to this:

And I'm glad.

Now, I just need the perfect, cheap, fabric to make a slip cover for this:

Ta-Da!

2011-01-19T17:52:00.000-06:00

Operation Exterior, complete!

(for now)

The color is a little truer in this photo...

We used Kingsport Grey HC-86 as the main house color and Grant Beige HC-83 for the trim color (Thanks to my friend, Doug, over at Tracery Interiors for the trim color tip).

Next on the agenda...
Painting the concrete walkway and porch (same color as house)...then eventually replacing it with stone.
Landscaping...we want greenery that will come up as tall as the brick foundation and make the house look "tucked in".

The recap...

Before:

After:

I'll post more details on the whole process soon. First, Chris and I need some R & R to enjoy our accomplishment!

House Updates

2011-01-14T15:42:00.000-06:00

We're just pluggin' along. Still trying to get our house painted. Charles the Painter and his handy wife Marilyn have been working hard, but the cold weather is slowing us down!

We're so close! We still need the second coat of trim paint and a few little touchups.

I'm very ready to get everything cleaned up, beautiful, and back to normal!

Sorry for the lack of posts, but I've been spending my weekends working outside on the house (in the cold!). I don't want to show any update pictures right now, because we're so close to being finished...I want to wait and show the final product!

Happy New Year!

Merry Merry

2010-12-30T14:09:00.000-06:00

I hope you had a Merry Christmas!

We did.

Why the blues?

2010-12-21T13:38:00.000-06:00

I was chatting with an architect friend of mine and shared with him our discovery of turquoise blue underneath layers of paint on our front porch ceiling. Turns out our porch is not so unique.

He told me an old theory about why porch ceilings are painted blue. He said that in Louisiana, people used to paint their ceilings blue to repel mosquitos. Mosquitos hate the bright sun, and so the idea is that they hide from blue skies and will potentially hide from "blue sky look-alikes". This trend travelled north into other areas of the South.

This led me to research and I found a few more possible reasons for this southern trend...

1. Blue is a calming color.

2. Blue wards off evil spirits, and because "haint" is another word for evil spirit, it is often referred to as "Haint Blue". This tradition began with the Gullah people, who were descendants of slaves who worked on plantations in South Carolina and Georgia. They passed on their heritage through the stories and the beliefs of their ancestors, such as the belief that the color blue warded off haunts or haints.

3. And again, Blue paint repells insects, insects confuse it for the sky and don't nest on blue paint. They also hide from the bright sun associated with blue skies.

4. Blue ceilings make the day feel longer.

5. Blue ceilings date back to the mid-1770s when Prussian blue pigment became popular. Prior to this time, blue pigment was expensive and didn't last.
Here are some of the links I consulted:
The Whys Behind the Blue Porch Ceiling
Haint Blue Porch Ceiling Tradition
Color Diary: Blue Porch Ceilings

Well, I loved our turquoise ceilings before, and now I love them even more knowing their some Southern history associated with it! That was just the motivation I needed to finish scraping them so we can enjoy them!

I matched the color from our ceiling and incorporated it into our porch swing and front door...

(this night-time shot actually shows our door the best...)

P.S. We're still trying to get our house painted! It's been too cold to paint or caulk! (You can't paint if the temperature is under 50). Luckily, it's warmed up a little bit around here this week, so we're hoping to see some progress soon!