Dearest Layla,
I love the way you mix the old with the new and make it look crisp. I, too, have just moved into a new house this past Fall, and am trying to create the home I’ve always wanted, but I can’t seem to pull it all together. The items I have are dated a bit, not just by the age, but both in style, and colors. I have a needlepoint runner that I just adore that my grandmother made and had on her bedroom on her dresser when I was growing up. I have two very different sets of china in green and pink rose patterns. I have old pieces of furniture that could use a fresh coat of paint and updated hardware. I don’t really care for the “shabby chic” look, but most of the pieces I have seem to lend themselves that way.  I have two boys in the house so I don’t want things to look too feminine. What I have loved about the way you put things together is mixing the old and the new so that you still achieve the a balanced and appealing feel. To sum it up, I would really like to use and display the items I have in my home without making it look too dated and fussy. Being a single mom of two boys, one with significant special needs, I really want things to look crisp and kept. If you can offer some advice, I’d greatly appreciate it!  Thank you, in advance! : )

Best Wishes,
Traci

First off, thanks again for the sweet email, Traci! I really do love a “crisp cottage” look, and I’ve found that I’m most drawn to interiors that are made up of a mix of vintage elements with some (or all) of the following things:

- chunky, warm wood tones

- lots of white

- pops of color

- fun fabrics

-painted furnishings

- typography

Here’s a visual, just for fun:

So, keeping vintage elements mixed with warm woods, lots of white, pops of color, fun fabrics, painted furnishings and typography in mind…check out the cottage style interiors below. Can you find at least four of each of those things in each photo?

(Shannon Quimby)

(The Painted Hive)

(note: you can read more about Ashley’s workspace at CreativeMama)

(Kristin Alber)

(The Lettered Cottage)

(The Lettered Cottage)

(Polished Pebble)

(Southern Living)

(Country Living)

(Miss Mustard Seed)

(Southern Living)

(Southern Living)

(Sarah Richardson Designs)

(Sarah Richardson Designs)

(Sarah Richardson Designs)

(Sarah Richardson Designs)

(Sarah Richardson Designs)

These last four photos are of a farmhouse bathroom Sarah Richardson designed. There’s lots of vintage goodie/white/fun fabric/painted furnishings going on in this fabulous little space, too!

(Note to Traci: notice that even though the print on the drapes is a floral in this room, it’s a stylized, gender neutral-colored floral, which keeps it from feeling overly feminine.)

There’s a nice balance in the finishes in this room, too. The (painted) concrete and clear glass elements play perfectly with the glossy whites and shiny chromes.

And how about that yellow-painted secondhand mirror? What a fantastic way to further balance the room by bringing more of that gorgeous yellow color all the way up from the tub!

Anywho- I hope that helps a little, Traci!

PS- My friend Melissa from The Inspired Room also answered a reader question over at her blog today. Click on the banner below to swing by her place for a visit!

I noticed something serendipitous while the paint was going up on the walls in the pantry yesterday. Do you see it there, too?

That’s our (50% lightened) Gray Owl paint on the wall space between each shelf, but it almost has a “paint strip” effect because of the different light and shadows in there, doesn’t it? So fun!

Ooh- and speaking of paint strips, some readers were wondering why we lightened our Gray Owl paint by 50% and “didn’t just go with the next lighter color on the paint strip?“.

Well, according to the folks at our local Benjamin Moore, each color on a paint strip is exactly that: each a different color. Every paint strip is made up of colors that coordinate…not one that has been gradually lightened from the bottom to the top of the strip. They’re all mixed up using different formulas. For instance, we used the color Simply White on all of our doors, shelves and trim. Here’s the paint strip it’s featured on:

Again, according to the folks at our local Benjamin Moore, if you lightened the color Camouflage by 25%, 50% or 75%- you would not end up with the colors, Old Prarie, Moonlight White, and Simply White. They’re all made up by mixing different amounts of different colors together.

We chose to lighten our Gray Owl by 50% because Gray Owl was the exact shade of gray we wanted to use (undertones-wise)…we just wanted it a little brighter. Except for in the pantry. We’re crazy about the (serendipitous) variations in there!

Hope that helps and happy weekend!

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She asked if we could “pretty please show a now photo”.

Well, it’s far from finished but, Sarah, this one’s for you!

I just snapped it about 30 minutes ago, so it is truly a “now” photo.

The ceiling went from Sherwood Tan to (flat) Simply White (Benjamin Moore), and the walls are going from Algonquin Trail to (eggshell) Gray Owl (lightened by 50%). The trim and doors went from Manchester Tan to (semi-gloss) Simply White, as well.

Today, the fireplace mantel will go from Manchester Tan to Simply White, and the last two coats of (50%) Gray Owl will go up on the walls.

We look forward to personalizing our living room, little by little, over the next several years. Light fixtures and (too small/worn out) furniture & rugs are expensive to replace, and we want to really explore our options when it comes to building out a more functional/cottage-y fireplace wall. (I’m imagining floor-to-ceiling stone and white-painted built-ins!) But again, that stuff isn’t cheap to create.

It’ll be a fun space to pull together over time though, and I look forward to sharing more photos of how it’ll look in the meantime as soon as everything is dry and pushed back into place!

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Right now, the island doesn’t reflect our personalities at all, so we’re going to have fun giving it a farmhouse/cottage-style makeover over the next couple of months.

The new bar top will stick out a little further than the existing one because the corbels are about 4 inches deeper.

I’m excited about that little addition in surface space because we plan to use the bar as extra seating when we have more people over than will fit at our dinner table.

We also plan to replace the existing countertop with something a little more laid back, and then we’ll pick out a cheerful new paint color for the base of the island. We had been thinking that we’d paint the corbels the same color as the island, but now that they’ve been stripped, we’re sort of diggin’ the idea of just sealing them with wax.

What do you think?

PS- The winner of the Handmade Walls e-book is:

Congrats, Mari! I’ll be in touch shortly!

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I knew those two were creative…

…but man it was cool to see how they break down the methods to their magnificence, step-by-step style!

Their e-book walked me through the creation of 22 different projects. Each of them varied slightly in cost-to-make and level of difficulty, and each of them had it’s own nifty name. One of my favorites is the Stanley. Here’s a sneak peek…

And here’s a sneak peek at some of the other goodies included in their book:

When I was finished reading it, I texted Ashley to see if I could purchase another copy to give away here today. She said yes (yay!), so if you’d like to enter for a chance to win, just leave a comment on this blog post (email subscribers will need to visit TheLetteredCottage.net to enter), and I’ll randomly select a winner at 10pm (CST) on Sunday night. (May 12, 2013)

Good luck and happy weekend!

PS- Alabama peeps: Ashley and Jamin are having a yard sale on May 18th!

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It sat there for soooo long. I started to wonder if it was going to lay an egg- ha! Max and Kit-Cat were very intrigued by it, too…

It must have been there for almost an hour by the time it flew away.

We were all very tired after the “excitement”.

Well…maybe not all of us…

PS- Alabama peeps: I’m hoping to be well enough to attend Shaunna’s Vintage Market later this week/weekend:

Will you be there? Sounds like it’s going to be awesome!

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Scoring with a utility knife, and a couple of hammers did the trick, lickety split!

We had planned to go back over to Keith’s this past Thursday to build out the new fireplace, but Kevin had gotten really sick by then, so I met Matt (from Perfectly Imperfect) over there (while Keith was at the fire station) this past Saturday…

…and here’s what we came up with: (Caution: low-lighting, cell phone pics ahead!)

(Thanks again for your help, Matt! You rock!)

We were at Keith’s for 6 hours total, and we were really just kind of winging things as we went along. We ended up using 2×4′s to frame out the boxes on the left and right, and then we clad them (and the little piece of wall directly above the firebox) with cement board. According to the guys at the fire station, cement board should always be used around a working fireplace when you’re butting it right up against the fire box like we did. After that, we created another “box” out of 2×4′s to act as a mantle beam. We used a nail gun to attach the thin, barn wood planks to it, and voila!

I’m thinking about using a (gray-colored) concrete skim coat product (SkimStone) on top of the tile on the floor, but I haven’t had a chance to research it thoroughly yet. After that, we’ll attach the AirStone to the cement board, and then we’ll start working on the bookcases on either side of the fireplace.

But for now, I’m jumpin’ back in bed. I woke up sick and without a voice yesterday, so obviously my body is telling me to take a couple days off!

PS- The winner of the Red Letter Words giveaway is…

Congrats, Becky! Be on the lookout from an email from Dee soon! (And we used to make May Day baskets with our mom, too!)

“The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat.”  ~Jules Reynard

Kevin and I photographed some Thanksgiving-themed place card ideas for HGTV.com this week, and even though I had just started pulling things together in that last pic, I just had to snap a pic when I came around the corner and saw Kit-Cat curled up in the bun basket. I texted the pic to my BFF/neighbor and she jokingly replied, “Remind me not to eat the bread next time we come over for dinner!”

Happy weekend to you and your cuddle-uppers!

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To kick off this magnificent month, our friend Dee from Red Letter Words is going to give one lucky Lettered Cottage commenter a pre-made, gallery-wrapped canvas of their choice! I’ve always loved the one Nester used in her living room…

#sigh #dreamy #NesterI’llBeRightOverToTakeANapOnYourCouch

The winner of this week’s giveaway can choose any 12×12, 11×14 or 8×20 gallery wrap canvas. Here are some photos of those sizes so you can get any idea of what they look like…

11×14:

12×12:

8×20:

There are lots and lots of colors and designs to choose from, and you can find them all listed by category here: Red Letter Words.

For a chance to win a canvas, just leave me a comment below about one of your favorite things about the month of May. (Email subscribers will need to click over to TheLetteredCottage.net to leave a comment.) The giveaway will run from today (Wednesday, May 1st) ’til Friday (May 3rd) at 10:00pm CST. I’ll randomly select and announce a winner on Monday, May 6th.

Good luck and thanks for visiting today!

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(Sources clockwise from top left: unknown, PSDAB.com, Trulia.com, unknown, House Beautiful, unknown.)

Man are there some creative, kids-at-heart out there in the design world!

We’re going to stick to something a little more simple over at my bestie’s house, but our cutie “client” is excited about his “new” room just the same…

Here are a few photos of some of the things his mama has gathered up for his room so far: Nautical flags…

Life preserver and anchor pillows:

Catalina bed from Pottery Barn Kids:

…and the Madras quilt and shams, also from Pottery Barn Kids:

And in case someone out there is looking for similar-style inspiration, here are some decor inspiration pics I came across while searching for stuff online:

Distressed wood state sign:

Reclaimed wood fish wall hanging:

Sailboat garland:

Personalized life preserver:

Lake sign:

Vintage oars:

Pool rules sign:

Vintage wood buoy, red:

Vintage wood buoy, blue:

Zig-zag patterened starfish pillow:

Seashell bucket:

Map pillow:

Reclaimed wood whale wall hanging:

Vintage minnow bucket:

(Maybe for an easy-to-grow houseplant to add a pop of fresh greenery to the room?)

Vintage fishing basket:

Boys wall hooks:

Wood nautical flag:

Nautical rope mirror:

And last but not least, check out this Nantucket-themed reclaimed wood whale wall hanging:

I’m excited to report that one just like it will be hanging over my little buddy’s big boy bed very soon!

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