A Major Overhaul

Hello Blog....long time no see!   Apologies on that end.   I have had my hands full of all sorts of projects little and big as of late, but I'm really excited to share pictures of one of my favorites.  This project has been nearly complete for sometime now, except for a few final touches.  As you can see, this was a major overhaul. The wall to wall carpet has been replaced with handscraped wood floors.  A new window was added, there is now a vaulted ceiling, a skylight was added, wainscoting and wallpaper were removed, the trim was painted....you name it and it was done.  I dubbed the new look organic modern.  What is that you say?  I would define it as clean, simple lines and lots of natural textures - brick fireplace, rustic barn wood mantle, and oak floors with the wool shag rug.  The result: I'll let the pictures speak for themselves but I'm proud of the new look. 

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

The piece of wall art shown above was found at a consigment shop and is actually an old door to a confessional, (my Catholic clients got a kick out of that) but I loved it for all its character!

Oliveira Living Rm

Oliveira Living Rm by MRShadrick on Polyvore.com

Oliveira Living Rm

Oliveira Living Rm by MRShadrick on Polyvore.com

Before & After

One of the things I love to do - as most creative types probably do- is finding unwanted furniture and breathing fresh life into them.  I don't have a whole lot of time or space for that matter to really collect as much as I would want, but I do have some pieces that I will try to complete in the warmer months ahead.    I will be posting these projects from time to time as I finish them. I hope to inspire others from discarding otherwise good pieces of furniture if all they really need is a good coat of paint or new upholstery.    


I'm kicking this off with one of the first pieces I refurbished.  The before pic is actually mid process- tan brown wood stain and the ugly peach velour upholstery aren't shown, but you can still get a great idea of the change made.  I actually toyed with the idea of leaving the wood stripped as shown in the "before" and upholstering the seat with a light colored, linen fabric, but I love injecting some good old vibrant personality into occasional chairs.   The floral fabric is from Anthropologie, but is not longer available.  Yes, its not well advertised, but you can buy cut yardage from select Anthropologie stores!  

BEFORE

And the after......

Vintage Kitchens Abound

Well, over at House & Home Magazine's blog, Michael Penney was blogging about retro pink kitchens.  The look oh so feminine and fun, but who would be courageous enough to do it!  He included some of kitchens of yesteryear, and to my shock I saw this picture:

Now, I knew my kitchen was original b/c of the state of decay the cabinets were in (you might notice a missing drawer face in one of the shots),  but when we looked into renting this place I loved all the vintage charm and light it had.  What I didn't know is that it actually still has the original hardware as well!  Look at the picture of my kitchen!  I have to say the cabinets & hardware are really a love/hate thing for me.  Everything is pretty beat up and dated at this point in its 90 or so year life, BUT I would so much rather have the kitchen I have than some dark wood veneered cabinets from the 80's, or even 90's. I'm a sucker for a white kitchen.   I suppose there probably was a cool retro stovetop at some point as well.....too bad it has been replaced only for the fact that these stoves give it that oh-so vintage vibe.