Woodland Themed Christmas Tree

First of all, WOW, thank you for all the comments!  This blog is a creative outlet for me but it's also a part-time job and your comments are my salary.  I think it's safe to say I just got a Christmas bonus.

Thank you very much!

The second tree I bought is a Weeping White Spruce and it's a living tree.  Since it will only grow about 10 feet tall and will stay quite narrow, I thought it would be perfect for my yard.  I'll plant it on my driveway side of the house so that when I expand and renovate the kitchen, I'll have a view of it from the kitchen sink.  

In case I ruined the other tree, this was my backup plan.  But why not enjoy it in the house for a short time anyway?

It's the perfect size for the dining room (albeit a few inches too tall).

I'm continuing with the woodland theme I've used in a lot of recent posts and using materials that are natural for the most part.

I've added some grapevine ball lights (available from shopterrain.com), some blue-green eucalyptus, fronds from the back porch Boston fern (these live for weeks without water!), a few antlers...

...a garland of pinecones, sweet gum pods, wood chips, walnuts, a few little moss-covered nests into which I've placed a craft store partridge and few moss green floral ornaments for the little shimmer.

The tree is in a plastic container which I just placed in a large ceramic planter from the back porch and topped it off with some more moss.

Here's the kitty shot.

It wasn't until later that I noticed the other one

sitting on the refrigerator in the kitchen.  

I think he's wondering, "Can I jump on this thing?"

Around the base of the tree I've borrowed a few baskets from around the house which could certainly be used as a creative and green way to wrap a few presents.  These act as a base for some of the bulbs I'm growing.  On the left is a piece of artwork by Massachusetts artist Dawn Southworth (remember the wrenches in the middle bedroom?).  The artwork is diverting heat from a register in the floor but I kind of like how it looks too.

The table was made after I found the amazing antique pedestal seen below.  It was missing its top so a new top was made that was covered with zinc to update it.

On the table I have a kuba cloth that a bought several years ago with the intention of making it into pillows.  I might still but I think it looks great as a table runner.  On top of that is my advent wreath of Great Grandma's candle clips, a silver bowl with beach wood I've collected in Maine and the brass pitcher with  some of the trimmings from the other tree.

The Money Shot that'll end up on Pinterest

I love this little tree and I'm looking forward to having

Christmas dinner in here by tree and candlelight.

Now it's time to get all the boxes (hiding stage right) back down to the basement.  Except for Christmas dinner, all the preparations are done and it's time to enjoy.

Talk to you later in the week before the big day but today I'm linking to Cottage & Vine's Room by Room.

Also linking up with Nita's Mod Mix Monday.

Check them out.

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.

Double Duty Closet

When you live in a small house, it's great to find places that can serve more than one purpose.

Remember my dining room closet that had many layers of wallpaper?  That closet normally holds my vacuum cleaner, a few vintage suitcases that act as storage, a few coats, and my freshly laundered shirts until I have time to iron them.  

And remember my post on Wallpaper in Your Closets?  Well, when I did that post, I already had something up my sleeve.

I fell totally head over heels for this 1940s Fox Hunt wallpaper.  I don't think we had this exact print but I remember the den in my childhood house having wallpaper similar to this.  I was lucky enough to snag the last double roll of this fun print.  And I've been champing at the bit (pun intended) to find the time to finish this project for a few months.

I had assembled a bunch of things as inspiration for the dining room a few months ago but I couldn't show them because it would have given away the surprise of the wallpaper.

First, I had to trim off the selvage edge.  When my grandfather taught me how to wallpaper, I remember that we used to overlap the edges, but I don't recall him trimming these off.  Perhaps he spared me the agony.  I used my four-foot level as a straight edge and a razor blade to carefully trim off the edges.  Thankfully I only needed only three strips.  What a pain!  I can't imagine trimming enough wallpaper for an entire room.

This ain't no prepasted version.  I had to mix the paste -- yeah, that's a mixing bowl and a big old paint brush -- apply it to the back...

...and book the wallpaper to let it absorb into the paper for several minutes.

The smell of the paste and the wet wallpaper took me right back to an eight-year-old boy wallpapering the downstairs bathroom with my grandfather.  I don't think I've experienced that smell since that time.  It's amazing how an odor can be so instantly connected to a memory.

It was tough working with this old paper, probably due in part to the paper's fragility after 60 years.  I ripped the first piece but since it was off to the left of the door, I pieced it back together and prayed the glue would hold it tight while it dried.  It did.  The other two pieces went pretty smoothly.  The whole thing took about two hours.

The wallpaper is still wet but I couldn't wait to start setting up the closet.  I took the bench from my bedroom upstairs and stacked the vintage suitcases.   I love how the original paint on the upper shelf pretty closely matches the color of the bench.

One of suitcases holds files, papers, bills, receipts, tax documents, etc., and the other holds hats, gloves, gloves and umbrellas.   I've recovered the bench with a brown plaid RL fabric.  I was planning to use the vintage box on top but when I went shopping today, I found the perfect tray.

And here's the final product.  Since I don't have the space for any kind of sideboard or serving table in the dining room/study, the closet is the perfect place to set up a little bar when friends come over.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out.  The wallpaper seems perfectly at home, like it's been there for many years.

And I think it's the perfect little surprise that makes a house unique.

I had a lot of fun doing this...and it's another project I can cross off the list.

A Medallion, a Door Knob and a Paint Color

I buy a lot of my office supplies from Ebay so at the end of each month I get an e-mail from them that I have X number of Ebay Bucks to spend.  I usually use the bonus dollars to buy something like a little McCoy planter or as a credit toward a larger purchase.  I mean free money is free money.

With last month's Ebay Bucks I decided to buy a little plaster ceiling medallion.  Totally free including the shipping.

I've had real issues with the dining room ceiling.  The paint and/or plaster on one end of the dining room was peeling severely when I bought the house.  I thought it might be calcimite which I've read horror stories about on the internet.  But, refusing to accept I might have calcamite, I decided to scrape all the peelings and use joint compound to fill the holes.

The ceiling in the same area was also really discolored.  Whenever I would use joint compound on the holes, the discoloration would migrate and leave a urine-colored circle around each area that was wet.  I tried a latex primer to no avail.  It would look good for a month or so and the discoloration seemed to start bleeding back through the primer.

To add to my ceiling misery, the plaster around the box for the light was just a mess and I just couldn't get it to look good.

So I tricked a friend into helping me install the medallion.  It came with a metal ring that screws right in to the box so it wasn't necessary to glue it right to the ceiling.  I caulked around the edges but if I want to take it down at some point, it should be pretty easy.  And then I did a coat of that nasty, oil-based KILZ to block the discoloration.  I typically like the smell of things like gasoline and airplane glue (and I'm particuarly fond of magic markers) but I'm still a little disoriented from all the VOCs in the KILZ.  I think it will do the job once and for all though.  The ceiling looks great.

Here you can see the edge of ceiling and wall blur at a misty horizon.  I'm also really liking my choice of oil-rubbed bronze hardware.  I love the contrast of it against the White River paint.  The hardware isn't a perfect match with the spray paint I put on the hinges but it's pretty good.

The door know is white porcelain with an oil-rubbed bronze backplate.



I think this room is crying out for a little purple.

I was just starting to load things back into the room and try a little artwork on the wall when I decided I wasn't 100 percent happy with the paint color.  I painted the walls and trim the same color and what looks great in the living room looked just a little too dirty in the dining room.  Why does that happen?  In the living room, the paint is broken up by the burlap-colored drapes and in there dining room, there's larger expanses of the same color and it's just not perfect.

So even though White River is the lightest shade on that particular page of the BM fan deck, I went and asked for a 50% version of the same color.  I think the woman actually tsked at me.

In the photo above, I've just done above and around the closet door.  The 50% is a very subtle difference but I'm liking it 100% more. 

It acutally shows a little better at night.  The lighter wall color really provides a better reference for the oyster/mushroomy color of the door and trim.

So here's the view from the dining room into the bathroom foyer.  It's about a foot larger than it was before.  The bathroom door is on the left.  The gnome door to the basement is on the right.  And the hidden window is under the sheetrock between the two.  I can't wait to get that restored but, alas, I am broke for now.  I'll have some time to make some decisions on the bathroom finishes and fixtures.  I want something really special for the sink.  A bathroom easel maybe?  No, I guess not. I'm thinking something with wheels for sure.  My peeps are on the hunt.

Here's a picture of the front staircase when I bought the house.  You can see down the hall how dark and tight that space was.

And this is what that looks like now.  That window will really bring in some much needed light.

I'll shut up for a while.  I have a friend coming in to town so I'm putting away the paint brushes for a few days but I have more visitors coming in early June so I'd like to get going on the guest bedroom soon.

That New Construction Smell

The construction portion of the new guest bath is done.  It's my favorite part of a project.  The dust, the noise and the strangers in your house are replaced with the smell of joint compound, new wood and primer.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Now my works starts.  I have two new thresholds that need to be stained and finished to match the floors, wood casings need to be spackled and painted...

...walls need to be painted in the dining room...

...and in the kitchen.

I love the view down my mini enfilade but the path and the view is partially obstructed by the TV stand in the living room.  It's been a real challenge figuring out a solution for this but I think I've done it.

Stay tuned.