All New Living Room



Old sofa with slipcover  in new living room



2011 brought new changes to our 1847 Carpenter Gothic southern home.  Often the layout of old houses entitles the modern owners to use the rooms in ways they were never intended.   I believe the only room in our home that is used as it originated is the master bedroom. 
Some of those changes took place before we aquired the house twelve years ago, but our greatest internal change was swapping the livingroom and diningroom in 2011.  During that swap we added hardwood floors to a portion of the house that had carpet, and put new hardwood in the kitchen after ripping up the original to reinforce the old bouncey joists.  The orignial floors were wormey chestnut, and i just loved them, but there was no subfloor.  Besides the bounce, winter drafts could be felt up to your knees.  Something had to be done, and the splintering boards were not usable for finished flooring after the joist project.  It is just part of old-house delimmas.


In an older post, I presented an album of the new diningroom, which also viewed the hallways to the bedrooms and the kitchen, all of which got the new hardwood.  By putting the diningroom in it's new location, it allowed for the arrangement of furniture so that we could pass through that room to our bedroom hall.  When we had the livingroom there, you would have to walk through the LR furniture and often in front of someone watching television.  No more.  Even though my husband and I do most of our TV watching on our sunporch, the visiting grands and family liked to use the LR for video games and DVDs.  I will try to show you how we found the remedy for this. 




New ceiling light replaced dining room light which I refurbished and moved into the new dining room.




Veiw of the wall oposite the sofa where I was finally able to display my Red Wing Pottery.  I've stacked a few more inside each other since this photo.




I brought two wingback chairs out of the bedrooms with intentions of slipcovering both, but still have not done it.




The former diningroom was painted peach with peach woodtrim including the fireplace, from the former owner.  All the years  we have been here I have longed to repaint this room.  White trim and white walls set off the hardwood floors and hardwood ceiling, and gave the room the vintage country  look I was seeking.




1800's handwrought copper pots make a simple statement on the mantel.




A primitive walnut table got a new home in the LR too.  This table was painted brown years ago, so I decided to strip it and found original old blue milk paint underneath.  I did my best to preserve what was left of the blue.




The walnut cupchair actually has a 3 foot walkway for access.  This cupboard was a TN estate find, with wavey glass door and plain crown molding.  I put  collection of blue swirl graniteware in the top.board behind the chair actually has a 3 foot walkway for access.  This cupboard was a TN estate find, with wavey glass door and plain crown molding.  I put  collection of blue swirl graniteware in the top.




A 12-tin pie safe that was formerly in the entry hall, now houses the stereo and cds and dvds.  On top is a vignette of old hunting items including antlers, old shot gun shells and box, Hopes gun cleaner and a taxidermy hawk.




My hubby's elk mount also found a new home here above a collection of antique black powder rifles.




An oil painting I did of my husband hunting with his Brittiany birddogs hangs below a 15pt buck.  I love the way the white crown molding looks against the natural beadboard ceiling.




The sofa also has a 3ft walkway behind it.  An old captains chair, a primitive sugar chest and a buggy seat line the wall and give plenty of room for the walkway from the kitchen to the front entry hall.  A stool that I had covered to match the wing chair from the masterbedroom, now makes a table in front of the sofa.




Love old ironstone and transfer.  This little ensemble makes a wall grouping.




Another favorite cupboard is this very old TN pine cornercupboard with wavey glass doors.




Tabletop includes an antique brass candlestick from my mother and hand needlepoint redbird coasters from my grandmother. 





My mother's sleeping kitten figure rests under the table.

 


I've added more redwing sizes to this grouping, but still love having a place to display them now.




One of my last oil paintings.  Need to get back into it, but making jewelry is some much easier to start and stop in our busy schedules.




The large platter is one of my favorites.




The top of the cornercupboard has a collection of blue transferware and ironstone.




The buggy seat has a vintage wool punch rug folded on the seat, which I have now put on the floor in front.




Love the one door top on the cornercupboard. 




A few transfer pitchers line the shelf with the graniteware





I was glad the ceilings
 had never been seen paint in here.  All of the interior doors have transomes.  A hint of the hall chandolier is seen behind the transome.




View from the kitchen door.




TV sits on an old wood shipping trunk.




Little kitchen entry hall between kitchen and livingroom.




Old beveled leaded glass kitchen door.

 Come back for a tour of the new entry hall and kitchen coming soon!! Thanks for visiting!!

The Remodel Complete Part 1

This is our new dining room.  This room used to be our living room, but when we did the renovation, we decided to switch rooms.  In old houses, often the rooms can be multi-purpose, so we took advantage of the opportunity to make the swap.  Doing so, placed our living room on the front of the house by the front door and next to the foyer, and allowed our dining room to be immediately off the hall by our kitchen. It now backs  up to our sun porch where we spend most of our time.  We also have to walk through the dining room to get to the hall that goes to the bedrooms.  We like this arrangement, and find it is working quite well, even though I had to convince my husband that he would like it better.  He does.

The books shelves from the former living room now display a collection of ironstone and yellowware.  Even though I had some of this on the shelves previously, I now use the shelves entirely for this collection.  In order to keep it from being "too" busy, I tried to put just one or two pieces per shelf.  With my cupboards having display as well, I knew it could all quickly become overwhelming and lose effect and impact.  This little sideboard is one of my favorite pieces we brought with us from Kentucky.  It is a period walnut piece, and works so well to serve or display from. 

This view is the doorway to the hall leading from the sunroom to the kitchen.  This room was painted a new deeper gold tone, one of the new Nashville series paints by Sherwin Williams.  All of the rooms got new hardwood, "Saddle" 3/4" oak by Shaw Flooring.  My husband and I put down every last piece .  Some days I worked by myself while he was at work, just to keep making headway toward completion. 

This little vignette sits on top a cherry dresser which houses my table linens.  An antique spice box with individual metal boxes each marked with names of spices, was an estate find when we first moved here in 2000.  A miniature lamp sits in front, but it is really a vaporizer.  A little pan would sit above the chimney, where medicine, like Vics, was incerted and heated up by the oil lamp.   A little miniature oil painting was done by me many years ago depicting a primitive scene of my family playing together in the front yard of my childhood home in Wisconsin.




I really love my cherry stepback cupboard.  It too, is a period piece with nice chamford doors, and has excellent storage for glasswear and dishes.  It now houses my grandmother's red and white Crown Ducal.  I remember my aunt serving Christmas breakfast on it when I was a little girl.  Her home was also decorated with primitives, which I always admired, and believe that is where I developed my love for them. 

I often use my oval ironstone platters on the bottom shelf.  I have several very large ones, but they all have great uses from grilling out to plates of cookies for sandwiches.  The red and white transferware makes a nice contrast with the gold walls, while the white ironstone stays crisp and clean looking.  I have collected ironstone for many years before the popularity of recent years. 

The little dented up silver cup was mine when I was a baby.  According to my mother, I used to beat it on my high chair tray.  I must have beat it alot, because it is dented big time!

My husband built my dining room table when we first moved into the house.  It is 8 1/2' long and made with 2  very wide plank poplar boards with biscuit board ends.  It easily sits eight people, but we can pull up more chairs and pack them in!  

This was the light fixture that was in the house when we bought it.  We took it down to move it into the new dining room, and while it was down I painted it satin black.  I had wanted to do that for a long time, but finally got the go-ahead from my hubby.  We both like it so much better. 

We bought this pewter cupboard in northern Indiana while visiting my son and daughter-in-law.  I don't have much pewter, but it still has nice rimmed shelving and bottom.

The two dining room windows look out onto the back sunporch.

One windsor high chair holds a rack of milk bottles.  This still works great for the grandchildren too.
More pictures are on their way of the new livingroom, master bedroom, kitchen and master bath.  Thanks for cominb by!