Cottage Style Preview and Giveaway Reminder

Since I'm helping promote the book, the wonderful people at Better Homes & Gardens have given me permission to do a little preview of the New Cottage Style book.  It's hard to be completely objective, but I've shown it to quite a few people and they all seem to love the book.

Here's my dining room looking better than in real life after being styled by

the amazing Stacy Kunstel and magically captured by Michael Partenio.

My friends reaction was "Wow, it's so clean!"  It's true.  It almost never looks like this.

I particularly enjoyed this modern take on cottage.   I love the mix of the rustic table, the Eames chairs and the modern light fixture, all in neutral tones.

The book also includes some spaces with unexpected dramatic color on walls and in draperies.

This French-inspired cottage has the most stunning lamps and

light fixtures all throughout the house.  

I also love how the framed herbarium almost becomes modern art.

And there's lots of airy spaces with the bright, fresh colors of summertime.

There's a little something for everyone in this book.  I've thumbed through it at least ten times and each time I find something new.  There's both tons of inspiration and/or lots of pretty rooms you could straight up copy.

More than 100 of you have already signed up so, as promised, I'll be giving away FOUR copies of the book.  I'll cut off comments at 8:00 Thursday evening and draw four winners randomly.

BE SURE TO SIGN UP ON THE PREVIOUS GIVEAWAY POST.

Lamps and Lights

On Sunday, I packed up some of the stuff I wanted to get rid of and headed up to Maine to see if any of the antique stores wanted to buy it or take it on consignment.  What a great idea!  I sold everything at the first store and did much better than I would have at a yard sale.

And, of course, I couldn't leave without a few things.  I've been looking for lamps so not only was I immediately attracted to the color of this pair of 1931 Pisgah Pottery jars (above), I think they could make awesome lamps.  I don't know anything about Pisgah Pottery other than it's from North Carolina but a pristine pair seemed really unusual so I couldn't resist.

I stopped by Old House Parts in Kennebunk to look at door knobs and left with this aqua door.  I'm not 100 percent sure what I'm going to do with it but I couldn't pass up that paint color.  It could be a table top or I thought it would be an interesting way to unite a few small pieces of artwork.  You might notice I've made a few changes to the guest room.  A friend is giving me a pair of chairs for the living room so I moved the living chair upstairs which is a nice, softer chair for the bedroom.

I also came home with this (perhaps) chain off some kind of conveyor belt.  I thought this could be used to make a chandelier, only a really butch version.  A mandelier!

I thought if I copied a very traditional form but used the chain as the material for a ring from which crystals hung, it could make a really interesting twist on a traditional light fixture.  

To get some ideas, I thought I would head out to the country for some inspiration to a place where local designer Katie Rosenfeld says all your lighting dreams can come true.  I packed up my car for the journey...a few bags of trail mix just in case I got lost and headed out to:

The Yankee Craftsman

357 Commonwealth Avenue

Wayland, Massachusetts 

Here, way out in the boonies, is the most charming red farmhouse with an old-fashioned workshop in the back.  Burly dudes in place at their anvils, hammering, creating and restoring the most beautiful selection of antique light fixtures I've ever seen in one place. 

If ever there was place that could make a mandelier, it's this place.

Out back in the barn, ponies whinney, and two large floors are packed with chandeliers, pendants, sconces, lamps, glass shades and hardware.  

It's hard to get the scale but these two fixture above were probably six feet tall.

This little gothic pendant caught my attention.  I've always been attracted to church lights, crosses, religious statues for some reason.  (Nun in another life?)  But I also have a similar fixture I bought a few years ago in Maine and just never knew where to put it.  This fixture was $1799!

I couldn't wait to get home and dig mine out.  I like mine better.

Glad it didn't make it to the donate bin!

Upstairs in the barn is...just...amazing.

Your presence is detected and...

...hello!  Everything lights up at once.

So beautiful.

These fixtures are handmade at Yankee Craftsman.  I think these would be perfect

flanking the doors on my back porch when those get rebuilt.  And the prices are reasonable.

I really loved this collection of bowl pendants.  I'd love to have a huge dining room that could accommodate maybe five of them hung at different heights.  I'm sure they're quite heavy but they just give off this buoyant feeling.  Like hot air ballons floating in space.

I have some ideas for my mandelier but I need to do some drawings and look for some more parts.  But I'll definitely be back here to have them execute my vision.

New Cottage Style Giveaway Jubilee

***GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED***

Winners will be announced later tonight or tomorrow morning.

I thought this side of the pond could use a little festivity too so in celebration of the release of the Better Homes & Gardens New Cottage Style book, I'm happy to announce a Giveaway Jubilee of two copies of the book.

To enter the giveaway simply leave a comment.  If you're an anonymous commenter, please leave a first name, city and state (or country) or some other unique moniker so you'll know I'm talkin' to you when you win.

I won't make you jump through any more hoops like following me on Twitter or FaceBook.  If I get more than 100 comments--hold on to your fascinators!--I'll double the giveaway to four books just to increase your chances of winning and to thank you all who are always so great about commenting. 

I'll draw the names randomly next Thursday, June 14th.

Good luck!

New Cottage Style

You heard it here first:

Better Homes & Gardens "New Cottage Style" book, in which my house appears, is out and available on Amazon here.

I'm glad to see it's a very resonable price so it's accessible to everyone but I've ordered a few extras and will give a few away once they arrive.

Flashback

To give the details of the photo shoot and how everything happened, I need to flash back to June.  After I determined that the e-mail coming from Better Homes & Gardens wasnt' a scam, excitement turned to nausea when I realized a professional camera lens would be in the house.  The plan was that the magazine would be sending a field editor, or scout, to the house to look around, set up some camera angles and take some shots.  I had about two weeks to get things ready.

At that point, I had just finished the little construction project to make room for a new downstairs bathroom so I could expand the kitchen.  The walls were unpainted and I had a 1960s portable dishwasher on one side of the stove and a microwave cart on the other.

I swapped those out with two cheap cabinets from Home Depot that painted in BM Rockport Gray.  I also happened to find an old lab table with a slate top that was the perfect size and height for an island.

I also added open shelves above the stove and new cabinets.  The brackets were from Home Depot and were about $9 each.  These were painted out in BM White River which is the same my trim color in the living room, dining room and kitchen.

I added butcher block countertops on the new cabinets.  These are 1-1/2 inch hard rock maple that I ordered from John Boos & Co.   I was able to order a 4-foot section which I cut down to fit the two cabinets.  I ordered them on-line and it was delivered to my door a few days later.  These are unfinished and should be conditioned with food-grade mineral oil but they also come unfinished.  When I do the major kitchen renovation, they will become big cutting boards.

Here's the "before" of the kitchen...

...and this is what it looks like now.  I tried to add up the cost of all of these changes and, excluding the stove, it's about $900. That includes cabinets, countertops, open shelving, kitchen island, bamboo blinds and paint.

A few days before July 4th weekend, I got e-mail from the editor of BH&G saying they were having trouble finding a field editor who could come in time to get them photos for their editorial management meeting and asked if I could put together a list of before and after shots for them to see...next week.

Sure I can do that.

But first, I wanted to get this doubly duty closet done.  The next morning, I got up at 4:30 so I could the wallpaper up before going to work.  A little bit of shopping at the Cambridge Antiques Market for barware over the 4th of July weekend and I was ready to take my photos.

Here's my before of the dining room.

And here are the afters.

Many thanks for Shelley from Bow Street Flowers for coming through with all the flowers for my own photo shoot.

I'm not sure these will ever be done I was pretty satisfied with how the shelves looked.

This was another shot I included just to have a little fun and to show the versatility of the dining room.  Although the basic elements of the room are very neutral, it's easy to bring in a little color just by adding a few accessories.

When the stylist and photographer arrived, they had a shot list that included these photos along with instructions on what should be included in, and what should be removed from the shot.  Although the photographer was free to take and submit his own shots, the shoot was very clearly directed.

Next time, I try to explain and demonstrate and what I learned about taking photographs.

Cottage Style Photo Shoot

The photo shoot for Better Homes and Gardens

New Cottage Style is now a wrap so let me give you 

a quick peek behind the scenes of how it played out.

Two large boxes arrived the day before the shoot

filled with pillows, throws and a few accessories.

On the morning of the shoot, photographer Michael Partenio arrived with his assistant David McCaughan.  As they unloaded and began setting up their equipment, stylist Stacy Kunstel arrived in a second truck with flowers, plants and other props.   

Because most of the house was being photographed, I set a table up in the shower which became the prop room.  This was an out-of-way place for props and where flower arrangements could be set up.

Photographing began upstairs.  Michael's camera outputs its images to a large monitor making it really easy to see the details of each shot.   It's a pretty cool setup.  I want one.

After setting up each shot, Michael takes a few test shots.  Once he's happy with the basic frame of the shot, Stacy steps in and "styles" each shot. This might involves moving a few pillows, adding flowers, etc.  Here, Michael and Stacy are reviewing their image before taking the final shots.

For more about Stacy and Michael, see this post.

As each shot is taken, Dave is on standby to adjust lighting and/or grab more equipment.

Each shot could take up to an hour so one or more of the cats inevitably wandered in to participate.  Dave acted as the cats' personal photographer.

Cat's photos are by David McCaughan.

Angus was a little camera shy so Stacy stepped in to see if we could get him to sit down for this kitchen shot.

On Day 2, they finished up the kitchen and began working on the dining room.

Two cameras were set up in the kitchen at the same time and Michael went back and forth between close-up shots of the kitchen shelves and dining room.

Zazu tried hard to get in every shot.  

This is the final shot of the dining room that appears in the

Cottage Style Book.

Shooting finished up with photos of the living room and the exterior of the house.  I was lucky to get a parking spot immediately in front of the house the day before so I could back out of the shot when they were ready to take it.  

It was an exciting two days.  The Cottage Style team was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!  I was so impressed with their talent.  I learned A LOT and will share the details over the next few posts.  After a few months of getting ready, particularly in the last week, I'm exhausted.  So while I rest and catch up on my sleep, I get to enjoy all of these flowers.

Thank you to all of you for your congratulations.  This has been an incredible experience and I feel very lucky to have been involved in the New Cottage Style book project.  I truly feel like I won the lottery.