A Glimpse to the Past

The first of  December I was invited to a small gathering at the home of a friend.  It was a delightful invitation and I knew upon receiving the invite that I "had" to go.  The home dates back to the 1840's and is a Vernacular Greek Revival style.  As soon as we drove up I knew I'd be snapping pics all over the place and that hopefully she would say yes when I asked if I could wrote a blog post about it. These pics were taken with my cell phone and it was at night so please don't over expect or judge the quality of the photos.

The is the front entry that faces the road she lives on.  The pine cone garland was spectacular!

The side entry was is her most used entry point.  The glass work around the door appeared to be original to the home.

This photo includes views of two separate buildings on the property.   This is what we saw as we parked and walked up to the home.  The darker building on the left is her potting shed.  I'll talk about the other building in a moment.

Inside the potting shed, ya'll who doesn't want this?!  I do believe you could hear our squeals of delight through the neighborhood!  Most of the terra cota pieces were typical of what you might find but there were many that I'd never seen their design or make before.  We didn't stay outside as long as we would have liked as it was freezing!

In this photo you can clearly see she her garden is styled as and English garden would be.  This is where I hope to go back and take more pics when it isn't 35 degrees or at night!  Mostly what I'd like to point out in this photo is the building directly center.

 The summer house as she refers to it, was my fav part of the whole estate.  Let me take you inside.

Her selection of pieces through this building is nothing short of exquisite.

 Everywhere I turned I saw something more fantastic than the last. Ya'll know I love a Staffordshire piece and the pair of lamps took my breath away!

Inside it was warm and cozy!  There were three fireplaces in the home and all had a roaring fire. Shortly after she moved into the home she installed central heat and air, gotta have those modern conveniences!

This wall vignette, nothing short of perfection!  Be sure and notice the stack of blue and white platters below.

It is such a simple yet fabulous way to display the many blue and white platters that any of us might have.  This might need to be recreated here at Positively Southern!

My best guess is this might have been a sleeping porch back in the day.

Since I mentioned the walls, let me mention that this home had wall paper in every room.  The owner removed all of it...all of it... to reveal these heart pine walls.

This view is of the dining room, where she put out an impressive spread of scrumptious food for us!

The main bath had this claw foot tub, the  embroidered stool fit perfectly into the space.

This cabinet hung over the tub was filled with lots of interesting things.

We(me and my antique buddy) asked if we could come in the spring and see the grounds and she said we could!  It is my hope to bring back many more photos to share!


Sharing at: Savvy Southern Style

A Fresh Design for the Dining Room

It is entirely possible that I finally have the dining room the way I want it.  After 10 years of living here one would hope at any rate.  The dining room has seen more changes in paint than any other room in this house.  I refer to it as an identity crisis.  The Paladian Blue was beyond gorgeous, only I felt a bit constrained when it came to decorating for any holiday but especially Christmas.  Speaking of Christmas, I painted the dining room just before I put up the Christmas decor.  All through the holidays I shared the dining room over and over, not one of ya'll commented on the new rug or the new paint color on the walls.  Surely not everyone missed it?!

The new paint is called Creamy by Sherwin Williams.  I wanted something light and very neutral....mission accomplished!

We won't even mention the fact that I need a fern on the antique plant stand in the corner, I killed the one from last year.

See that little oil painting just above the table now serving as a bar car?  It is a darling little painting, everyone oohhs and ahhs over it....ya'll it was seriously only $1.  Yep you read that right.....a buck!  It was at a junk store in a pile of paintings, I should have gotten more!

The above are gorgeous watercolors that are very old, yet again a junk store find.

The paint is such a pretty color but I've had to work hard to make it not look stark, finding the right pieces have been a challenge!

This past weekend, before the weather came swooping in I made a quick trip to one of my fav antique stores.  The bird prints were just waiting right there for me!  They work very well with the gold sconce.  The plates around the print are Butler's Pantry by Lenox.

The tiered server is one of my all time fav pieces I've styled here at Positively Southern.  When I was a little girl my Mother let me play house with her Blue Willow wedding dishes.  Mother never EVER liked them, they were a gift which is meant to say she didn't select them.  Ya'll I played in the dirt with those dishes!!!  Most were lost over time and the rest Sister and I divided them as she loves them as well.  All of the pieces on the server were collected over many years.

Should I ever find curtains to put in the dining room just know these are coming down and being relocated. Having custom window treatments are not in the budget (remember we have a kid in college)so for now I just suffer with these!  They came from Tuesday Morning and they are great curtains they just don't really work in the dining room now.  Can I take this moment to say how much I loathe curtains with a grommet?!  That is all I see anymore and it is frustrating!

Cody approves of the new rug!  Did you see it on the blog yesterday?  In case you missed it take a look here.

The lighting in the dining room makes it impossible to get a really good, true photo of how the paint color looks in here.  It is a warm shade of cream but in most of the shots it looks white.  The vibrant colors in the rug warm the space of visually.

I'm positively delighted that you dropped by to take a look at the updated look of the dining room!

A Persian Rug for the Dining Room

For ages now I've wanted to upgrade the dining room rug to something a bit more formal with a variety of colors.  Each time I went online or to Scott's Antiques to look for one I was completely overwhelmed with the choices, not to mention the prices!

A friend mentioned she was gonna sell one of hers.  The colors and the size were ideal for our dining room so I bought it from her!  Obviously, I think it is gorgeous!

Tomorrow I will be sharing the mini-makeover that the dining room has undergone!  Be sure and stop back by!

Living Room Updates

Our living room gets tweaked often.  A lamp here, a new chair there.  I realized I hadn't shared some of the tweaks lately, If you'd like to take a peek at how it looked when I first started this blog, click here!

The built ins remain one of the best additions we have made to this home.  The storage was sorely needed.  The cabinets are jammed pack!  Maybe one day I'll share those but not today.

Here is an honest moment, when I get things on the shelves the way I like them..I resist changing them.  As a blogger I should love rearranging them, that just isn't who I am!  The leather bound books on the shelves are some of the pieces I've collected for the last year.  I try so hard to work on completing one room at a time. Last year I tasked myself with finding leather books to replace the assortment of John Grisham and other books that were taking up real estate here.  Just as the year ended I had found my books, don't you just love scratching items off your to do list!

Did you notice the ship pic is back in the original spot?  Just this week I moved it back.  The dogs are off to another place here at Positively Southern.  The girandole that you see behind the chair, I love these but after getting them(there are 2 more) I truly had buyer's remorse as I have yet to find all of them a home.  I do like it on the table so, for now it stays there.  The little table beside the chair, I'm not sure if I've shared that before.  Picked it up at a junk store last year.

Notice the table beside the sofa, yes it was serving as a bedside table in Andrew's room....until I changed that before Christmas.  The tole lamp was such a bargain, I feel like I stole it really.  I'm almost ashamed to tell ya'll I only paid $35 for what would normally be probably a $300 lamp new.  This is why I thrift!

  Ya'll this room is not large, it is amazing what a wide angle lens can do!

The last few weeks I've changed up spots here and there all over the house.  Being self imposed house bound the last few weeks in some ways have had its perks.  In case you missed my Instagram post, early in the new year I had to have my welcome to the 50's club colonoscopy along with an esophageal dilation...aka they stretched my esophagus in you weren't familiar with those terms.  This was the second time I've had that done and I'd like to say it was easier but for sure it was worse.  I've lost a much needed 15 pounds the really, really hard way.  I was a bit afraid to get out around people due to potentially being exposed to anything.  I'm beginning to get better and am able to eat more solid foods that I can swallow which is really good.  You can sustain life on Eggo Waffles, baby food and Egg Beaters, should Kelloggs, Gerber and ConAgra being reading my blog I'm surely open to sing your products praises!  So thanks to all of you that have messaged, emailed and called, I'm so grateful for all of them!

Sharing at:
Savvy Southern Style

Kitchen Refresh

Recently, I shared my kitchen on MJones Style Kitchen Keeping Series you can visit that post here.  Shortly after that I realized I hadn't shared the kitchen on my own blog in almost 2 years!

 The kitchen was updated a few years after we moved in, if you'd like to see how it looked before take a peek here.  The appliances along with the counter tops have been changed out.  Stainless is still all the rage but, but the upkeep drives me insane.

This is the door to the pantry.  The plate rack above the door was actually from an old church pew that I picked up for cheap ages ago.

The toaster oven and both coffee makers stay on the counter tops year round, this is real life ya'll!  The curtains were custom made a few years ago and to be honest, I'm not crazy about them...never was!  It is entirely possible that they will come down in the no so distant future.

The pieces in the glass cabinet and on top of the counter are items I've collected over time.  If you've followed the blog for any length of time you know I adore Blue Willow so you see it all over the house!

Let's talk about the light fixture.  It is a very nice fixture, that is too big and I should replace it.  Here is the problem, I'm not sure what I want exactly.  For now, this one stays.  Let's talk about regret for just a bit.  When we had the granite installed I made the mistake of not getting a new faucet for the sink.  This one was only a few months old, was selected because of the holes that were cut for the existing faucet.  This goes down as one of my biggest fails!

So that is it....the kitchen!  I'm delighted to share my kitchen, my home with you!