ORC Lucky No 7 - Week 5

I almost titled this post 

"Sheer Panic!”

What the heck - let’s go with it!!!

This has been slow going and there hasn’t been a lot to show up until this point but it was so awful to begin with that I feel like every little thing is great progress!
 Or that’s what I keep telling myself!

 I have painted everything white that needed to be fresh, glossy white including the swinging bed and now I’ve moved on to the gorgeous green floor.

We have had a green porch floor for years but a friend recently gifted me with Amanda Lindroth's book Island Hopping and I'm obsessed. Like, can't put it down. And it confirmed that this fabulous green was just the color we needed for our porch floor!

I have a thrifted, vintage bamboo mirror for the fireplace wall. 

And I’m covering a lampshade.

And that's about it.
Here's hoping I get a lot completed in one week!!

See more ORC participants here.

 

ORC- Lucky No. 7 Week 2

This week is all about painting plus my inspiration and direction for this ORC challenge.

The "befores."  It can only get better!
(if you are just joining in you can read here  how this space ended up in such a sad state!)

First up - paint. 

The roof repairs are finished and the ceiling got a coat of blue paint. 

In the South we paint our porch ceilings soft, pale blue.

It's a Southern gal's Southern porch so the ceiling is blue - it's a given with me. 

SW Swimming it is!

I know it doesn't look like much progress but

it's been so messy and overwhelming for so long that this coat of blue paint has really given me hope that this porch will be looking so much better in a few short weeks!!

Next up, last (yes, last) November I found this beauty:

It was sitting in front of my Restore/Habitat for Humanity Store. 

I did not "need" it. The porch was under a layer of tarps.

It was in perfect condition. Perfect. 

It was 50% off furniture day. This wicker lounge was marked $120.00

 (already a great deal - it's huge and beautifully upholstered in this creamy yellow chinoiserie fabric)

 and it was marked through and labeled $60.00.

So I figured that was the 1/2 price already marked. 

Nope!

It was an additional 50% off. 

Yep, it was $30.00.

Okey dokey, coming home with me.

So this chaise is hopefully going to find it's rightful spot on this area of my porch. There is already a swinging bed on one side and it is staying, definitely staying. 

It is the best reading/napping spot ever. 

So we have to make the two work together in the space.

(a picture from before the leak invaded the porch!)

And see the fireplace on the center back wall? And the gas insert just sitting there?

My husband found  the gas insert at Restore at a different time. We want to fit the gas insert into the antique mantel/faux fireplace we have had on the porch for years. 

I will want to orient the wicker lounge chair and the swinging bed toward the fireplace. 

The swinging bed used to hang across the opening but we have moved it to the side of the space to allow for better furniture arrangement. Still plenty of room to gently swing and relax!

And then I'm hoping to add a few of these elements in a variety of ways so stay tuned!

Maybe a little zebra ...

 Some floor paint...

Bamboo, elephants and blue and white are always welcome on my porch! 

And some fabulous fabrics for pillows...

I'm scheming this week!
Follow along on my Instagram and Facebook as well!!

And be sure to see what all of the other ORC Guests are working on here.

First - Get Organized.

So much of social media and blogging right now is all about getting organized after the holidays. 

I feel inspired to purge, paint and organize at the start of the year. 

I'm off to a slow start because I missed the first several days of 2018 

because I had the plague :(

No kidding - worst flu or whatever. Ever.

But back to organizing.

I bought a faux bamboo china cabinet a couple of years ago. 

From seeing it online to texting the seller to loading it in my husbands truck 

was about an hour and a half. 

I do not mess around.

However, we had already turned our dining room into a Library.

Did we need a china cabinet?

The plan was always to put it in the Master Bathroom!

Yep, you read that right.

We do not have a linen closet or any storage space in the MB but we had a good sized L-shaped layout that would accommodate a big bamboo china cabinet.

My husband was less sure about this plan but we loaded it up, got rid of the cigarette smoke smell and carried it up to the MB.

And then a coat of fabulous coral deliciousness!

Sherwin Williams Ravishing Coral. 

And suddenly that dingy yellow-y cream china cabinet was ravishing.

I wanted the openness of the glass doors so I started collecting every wicker and rattan suitcase I could find. They all came from yard sales and thrift shops 

and not one cost over $5.00.

They hold a multitude of not pretty items and are easy to pull in and out. 

There are stacks of towels and a few decorative items but mostly 

there is just storage for all those odds and ends that are necessary in a bathroom.

This is one of my favorite storage solutions ever- china cabinet turned linen closet.

#itsthelittlethings

See more of this Master Bathroom here,

Christmas Tour-ish!

I hesitate to use the terminology "Christmas Tour" of my home considering some of the blogger tours out there!

So I guess it's a tour-ish! Sort of a tour...

Really just some peeks into our Christmas decorating...

We have a new (to us) greeter guy by the front steps.

I decided to cozy him up with a plaid scarf and Mollie gave him some sparkle with a "bouquet" of shiny ornaments in the shell he holds.

We are pretty smitten with him.

Just inside the front door is our most recent One Room Challenge project - our entryway.

It was fun adding some holiday touches to our "new" room.

The ceramic Nativity lights up but doesn't photograph well that way. 

I have been putting it on that chest for longer than I can remember.

I put a $4.00 pink poinsettia in a cachepot and added magnolia branches and evergreens to make it full and look good reflected in the mirror.

I'm a pink or white poinsettia gal all the way.

On the opposite wall in the entryway is my fabulous Brighton chair and table thrifting find from a few months ago.

To the left of the entryway is our Library.

 Formerly the Dining Room, about 10 years ago we started adding bookcases

 and morphing it into the full blown library it is today.

It is the only room that doesn't have white walls - they are high gloss black 

(Sherwin Williams Tricorn).

The Library is all about the blue and white chinoiserie ornaments on a mini tree. 

Oh, and wearing our furs. Faux, of course.

I hinted on Instagram last week that I was making a few changes in our downstairs powder room in preparation for a holiday brunch that Mollie and I jointly co-host.

It was supposed to be a quick paint job to  switch the green mirror for a different bamboo mirror I found the week before and paint it and the tan cabinet a bright cheery coral-y pink to coordinate with my flamingo print and add some pizzazz to the powder room.

We love the bright color (and by "we" I do not mean my husband) 

and it really adds a lot to the room even if I ended up not being able to use the "new" mirror after painting it and then having to repaint the first bamboo mirror from green to the new SW Grenadine pinky-coral color. 

This is why one should not start a project a few days before one has 20 women for brunch and why one should try mirrors to see if they fit before one paints them. 

Just sayin'

(And the towel is crooked. But isn't it cute?)

You can see the big tree on the screened in porch peeking in.

 A few pink bottle brush trees and some shiny ornaments for the bamboo shelf 

and we are set in this little room.

That concludes Part One of our Tour-ish. 

More to come soon.

I hope.

Come On In! Fall 2017 ORC - The Entryway

The Reveal!

First, let me say that if I had hired me to do this project I would have fired me!!

The indecision. Very un-me.

Major aspects changed. Changed again.

And the number of trips to the fabric store?? 

Seriously. 

Our Entryway really does not look like what I saw in my mind before I got started.

But Come On In!

 And let's see what you think...

A big, chinoiserie monogram welcomes you from the outside.

Looking in from the front door to the family antique chest, thrifted Gampel Stoll bamboo and pineapple mirror and a very heavy elephant garden stool found at an estate sale.

Looking past the mirror and chest toward the door to the family room 

and my very large DIY Audubon bird print.

(The walls are very white. Not pale, mint green!

Looking back across the chest to a piece of Haitian art that has hung in that exact spot

 since I got it over a decade ago. I love it there so it did not get moved.

(The chest is a family antique and it has a few spots and rings here and there,)

Looking from the front door into a previous One Room Challenge, 

our Black is Back Library.

(We unexpectedly refinished our entryway floors for the ORC and the yellow-y library floors will be next! This will help the flow with the vintage Brighton Pavilion bamboo chairs actually being in two different rooms.)

Looking from the Library toward the front door and the mirrored French doors. 

The bamboo shelf replaced the dusty, old hall tree that I did not love!

Looking down from the stairs: Library to the right, front door to the left.

You can go back to each of the previous weeks here:
Week1
Week2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
and Week 6 
to read about my plans and many changes. 
I'll be posting some more in the next week or so about where I found some of my great bamboo pieces, why I didn't use any of the fabrics I purchased, how this room changed from one with a lot of fabric possibilities and a gallery wall to a pretty neutral, understated space.
There are some really great deals in this space along with a lot of "shop the house" items!
I plan to share more soon.
Hopefully picture overload does for now - especially since I am just now getting this post out!!
Even though my "reveal" is technically late (and boy, are the reveals I've already scoped out fabulous) I do appreciate the motivation that the Calling It Home Blog provides for me to get a room "finished" in 6 weeks or so. 
I'm excited to have this pretty entryway to decorate for the holidays and then welcome my guests!
Update: Come see this Entryway decorated for the holidays!
Be sure to see what everyone else accomplished as well.