Trompe L'oeil Bamboo Chest

It was love at first sight but it's taken several weeks to get everything cleaned out

for the yard sale and this new gem moved in to place.

I love September.  Gone are the air conditioners and fans in the windows.

September provides cool nights and fresh, dry afternoon breezes that let us

open the windows to get a little wind in our sails.

It's the perfect time to clean out, freshen up and make a few changes

around the house before we're stuck inside for a long, cold winter.

This circa 1880s English chest from Darby Road has found a new home

in the guest bedroom which is where I've kicked off my shoes

each night since I started work on the master bedroom.  

This narrower chest allows me to fully open the door

which makes the room feel much larger.

Transforming a simple chest with a painted bamboo design like this would be

a great DIY project so I thought I'd show some of the details close up

so you can copy them.  Should we have a contest?

The design uses three shades of gray and black.

Painting the straight lines would be a biggest challenge.

I've chosen a few sea-inspired items to go on the chest.

The antique Chinese bowl is the perfect place for a watch and few coins to

keep them from the paws of bad kitties entertained by pushing things

over the edge in the middle of the night.

A pulls are wooden and painted with the same treatment.  Their surface

is "polished" by years of use almost making them look porcelain.

Detail of the ogee edge and the simple gray line on the side.

Let me know if you undertake this faux bamboo technique.

I love to see and share it.

Guest Room (So Far)

Mom arrives this week.  It took me longer than I expected to make it through the guest bedroom redo.  It took me about a day each to tape up, prime, paint, and clean up the windows and then hang the new window treatments.

I didn't start with a clear plan for what I wanted to do but the room was inspired two things.  First, the bright yellow toile bedding I bought several years ago because I thought it was really unusual...

...and this large collage I've had for several years but never found a place for in this house.   Artwork is really personal and this large artwork may not appeal to a lot of people.  It's a very bright, bold piece and although the yellow toile was soft and pretty, I thought its color was bright enough to hold its own.

As you can see, I've moved the bed from the other room and placed it in front of the window.   It was interesting to read everyone's comments on this subject.  Some didn't mind it, some liked it and others thought it is a crime against humanity.  I thought it made sense for a few reasons.

In its former position, the bed acted as a barrier to walking into the room.  Its height also blocked about a third of the window.

By bringing in the platform bed from the other room,  the low headboard covers only a bit more of the window, but the lower bed takes up much less volume in the room, and you're now able to walk right into the room rather than do-si-do around the bed.  (The old bed has a new owner and has gone to live its new family.)

I also find the symmetry of having the bed centered in the room, much more calming.  Everything is much more resolved for me.  Call me crazy.

(For the Feng Shui people, I did my due diligence and I think I'm okay.  The bed isn't supposed to be in line with the door.  The bed faces the wall on which the door is placed, but it's not in line.  There always seems to be a remedy so if you have any concerns, feel free to comment.)

I put one of the Louis chairs between the windows...

...and hung a small painting above it.  This piece is by Henry Botkin and is a collage of painted papers from 1961.

Closeup of the Botkin painting.

On one side of the bed, I've placed this barley twist table.  This was a piece that in the middle bedroom.  I've haven't figured out the lamps.  I thought I might want a red lamp to help balance the color in the artwork.  I placed this wooded sculpture in front of an old amp just to see how some color light look on this side of the room.   The sculpture is by Provincetown artist Mike Wright.  It has a modernist feel but it's contemporary.

The little footstool on the shelf below was my grandmother's.  It would be something familiar and for any one of family that might be visiting and help make them feel at home.

I later swapped out that lamp and hung the sculpture on the wall.  I'll find the perfect lamps sometime but this is fine for now.

I found an old feed sack that works with the color scheme and I've placed that on the Louis chair.  I still can't figure out what I want to do with these chairs but I do like this circular graphic on the seat.  I know, it's a little bizarre.

But kind of fun with the toile at the same time.

On the dresser, I've put two large pineapple finials.  One of these was in the living room.  These are cast iron relics from the 1920s and used to top old street lights.   For now,  I've set this drawing, a grid of scribbled dots, by Maine artist/dealer/collector Corey Daniels. 

It's a modern piece in an antique frame with beautifully wavy glass.  I love the piece itself but I think I would like something much larger for here.  I tried that big mirror horizontally but it's way too big.  It's another thing I'll know when I find it.

Other than the yellow toile bedskirt and shams, all the bedding is white.   The matelasse is a duvet cover but I've removed the down comforter and use it as a coverlet for summer.

The little "forgiven" pillow is from the etsy shop enhabiten.  It's filled with buckwheat hulls and lavender.  It thinks its message and scent promote calm and relaxation.  Liane from enhabiten is a New Hampshire artist who uses vintage fabrics and textiles to make simple, beautiful utilitarian goods such as pillows, bags, scarves, pincushions, etc.   She also has a blog.  Check out her cross pillows and balsam pillows; they're really beautiful.

On the other side of the bed, I've borrowed a pale yellow end table from the living room and a lamp.  I've matched the shades on both lamps with shades from Target.

Next to the lamp is a vintage Sputnik alarm clock, a magazine and some fresh flowers from the garden.

This single huge peony from the garden, along with some white verbena and a few pinks, is enough to fill the whole room with the scent of peony.   I think this simple arrangement is the perfect welcome for mom.

I'll be linking up to Jane's Small but Charming Flowers in the House Party tomorrow.  Be sure to check it out.

I'm also linking to Nita's Mod Mix Monday.  You can see that here.

Your Room Now

So I took your advice and took out almost everything you didn't like. 

Your Room

I"m talking tomorrow off to get the dining room painted and then I have to set my sights on your room.  You may remember this was one of the rooms I talked about in my New Year, New Projects post.

You'll be happy to know that this room is the brightest room in the house.  It's also the cats favorite room as evidenced by the two craters in the comforter.  I hope you're not allergic.

But there something that's always bothered me about this room.  There's no decent place to put the bed.

To the right of the bed there's about 9 inches of wall space between the bed and closet door.  That leaves very little room for a bedside table.  Where will I leave a vase of welcoming flowers?

To the left of the bed there just enough room to get through.

This wall has a window right in the middle of it.  As you can see by the height of the bed, it would almost entirely cover the window.

You can also see that I didn't make my goal of getting all the windows painted by the end of March.  The one-window-a-week plan lasted three weeks.

This wall faces the street so I wouldn't want to have the bed blocking the windows here either.

And the other wall that has the door has just enough room for the dresser.

The dresser was Mrs. Mastrullo's and it's not in the best shape.

I was thinking of painting it a medium to dark gray.

But what to do about the layout of the furniture?

Here's a picture I borrowed from Small but Charming and I have two questions.

1)  Would you mind having a bed in front of a window like this?

2)  Is that someone's finger in lower left-hand corner of the picture?

I got this bed from Ethan Allen and it was floor sample so I got a great deal.  But I bought it before I really knew what I was doing.  I never considered that these chunky posts on the headboard and footboard would take 8 inches out of the room.  In a small room, that could make all the difference in the world.  The bed is also really high and I never considered how much visual space a high bed would take out of the room.  Purchasing this bed was a mistake for my house.

The bed I have in the master bedroom is lower, has a low headboard and no footboard.  So I think I'm going to try switching the beds to see of the other one works better and allows me to put the bed in front of the window.  That leaves me about three feet on each side of the bed for lamps, flowers, gifts and chocolates that I will leave for you.

If it works, I might even let you take the Ethan Allen bed home with you.

New Year, New Projects

Finishing my first major renovation project this year feels like a great accomplishment.  I'm thrilled that it's done but, at the same time, I'm a little sad it's over.  There was quite an adrenaline rush (or various combinations of sickness and excitement) in seeing my house stripped back to its 168-year-old core...

...and put back together. 

 I miss coming home to see progress being made.  I'm eager to see that progress continue on the inside but the renovation coffers are depleted for a little while.  

In the meantime, I have several projects I can work on.  

First, I need to finalize the plan for the new kitchen and the two bathrooms.  I have a sick feeling that I'm going to have to get another variance for the windows changes I want to make for the new kitchen layout.  

As I mentioned earlier, I want to redecorate the guest bedroom.  Future renovations will not involve this room at all so it's a good opportunity for me to work on establishing a new feel/mood for the inside that better fits the new exterior.

I'm envisioning something that's a little Ralph Lauren...

...a little European country...

...and a little junk shop.

Here are some of the things inspiring this look.  Remember my glazed wallpaper experiment?  I'm leaning toward glazing it in the same color as I've used in the living room but I'll try to leave more of the gray pattern showing through.  Many of you liked the gray glaze--as did I--but I think I want to keep the house light.  I may do a few accent walls in a darker gray.  

I found the ivory matelasse coverlet (with Grecian urns no less!) on a recent trip to Maine for 70 PERCENT OFF!  (That NEVER happens to me. )  The pillow sham with the gray stripe is Belgian linen from Restoration hardware.

I'll add to that some of the vintage things I love to collect, primarily wood and black metal.

I'm still trying to think of a creative way to display my collection of vintage show forms.

I would like to paint this old bow-front dresser that was left in the house...

...to look something more like this Gustavian piece.

The dining room that's right next to the living room will also get a makeover.  I've never been happy with the modern dining room table in my old house.  It's too sleek and takes up too much room.

I recently found this chunky pedestal table base...

...and I'm going to pair it with this tabletop that will be wrapped in zinc.  It's going to be cut in two and put on an expanding frame so two leaves can be put in for larger dinners.

Remember these chairs I bought on ebay?  They turned out to be too small for the living room so I'm going to overhaul these to go with the new zinc-topped dining room table.  They're pretty scary right now but just a simple change in color...

...would really change their look.  Or I could...

...no, I'm just kidding.

I'm thinking they'll be painted a dark gray or brownish gray...

...and upholstered to look more like this bed.

I just got these wingback chairs for the living room.  I find these so horrible they're almost wonderful,  if you know what I mean.  I think I'll leave the natural brown legs and then I'll have them recovered.  These might also work in the bedrooms as a nice comfortable place to sit and read before going to bed.

I like this windowpane fabric but I'm thinking I'd like them to be more masculine with perhaps a houndstooth or herringbone on the outside...

...with just linen on the back and seat.  

And in between all of that, I've got 10 windows that need to be painted on the inside.  Getting the windows painted actually is my first priority but I'll try to work in these other projects and keep you updated as progress is being made.

*****

It's been almost a year since Trina from A Country Farmhouse encouraged me to start a blog.  I wasn't sure anyone would be interested but I particularly wanted to document my process of getting a variance in Cambridge, Massachusetts and going through a renovation in a congested urban area.  Along the way, I've found people were interested and I've been encouraged by those of you who are kind enough to leave (mostly) supportive comments.  I've "met" some wonderful, interesting and inspiring people around the world and I've gotten frequent e-mails from people who are renovating homes in the area or who grew up or lived in Cambridge.  

To all of you, I send out a thank you and a sincere wish for a happy, healthy New Year.

Steve