Updating Mom's House #4: A Coastal Maine Table

My sister, Joanne, and I are updating and redecorating our Mom's condo for her while she recovers from a stroke and thought it would be fun to share our progress with you. We started with the Living Room, moved on to the Master Bedroom and Bath, and are about to start on the kitchen...

A COASTAL MAINE TABLE
 

It was almost dinnertime when we finished cleaning up from painting Mom's bedroom. We were tired and looking forward to a quiet dinner and a glass (or two?) of wine.
 

 

Our Mom's home is not just on the ocean, it hangs right over it!  Our little corner of ocean is Casco Bay in Portland, Maine. We're lucky to always have the table with the view...

 

 
 

When Mom originally chose the colors for her kitchen, she was inspired by the busy harbor outside her windows and decorated the room in red, white and blue.
 

Joanne repainted the kitchen chairs and picked up some new accessories to dress up Mom's table....red and white linen napkins, blue pottery dishes and crystal-beaded napkin rings...and was anxious to use them. So, amidst the messy paint buckets, drop cloths, brooms and brushes...

 

Joanne set a special table for supper.

 

We're lucky to be just a short walk from the local fish market...

 

Fresh fish, a green salad, and wine...served on a pretty table overlooking Casco Bay...what more could we want after a long day of painting and redecorating?

 

 

"Any time women come together with a collective intention, it's a powerful thing. Whether it's sitting down making a quilt, in a kitchen preparing a meal, in a club reading the same book, or around the table playing cards, or planning a birthday party, when women come together with a collective intention...

 

 

 

       ...Magic happens."  *     

 

*Quotation from Phylicia Rashad

 

 

This post is linked to:

Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps On the Porch

 Home Sweet Home at The Charm of Home

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Updating Mom's House #3: The Master Bath

My sister, Joanne, and I are updating our Mom's condo for her while she recovers from a stroke and thought it would be fun to share our progress. Here's the third installment!

We were so pleased with how the re-do of  Mom's bedroom turned out...the colors were perfect.

But...

It opened up into the dressing area portion of the Master Bath, which was still done in her original 1980's rose, ivory and blue color palette. And it was wallpapered!

 

Wrong colors but great look...a vintage lace tablecloth as a shower curtain!

The bedroom paint was barely dry when we (picture two disheveled sisters with a bit of decorating OCD here) had a conversation that went something like this:

Cheryl: "So we can live with the bathroom the way it is, right?"
Joanne: "Yah, I guess so. It doesn't show too much...unless you look around that corner over there."
Cheryl: "Let's just ignore it then."
Joanne: " Do we have any paint left?"
Cheryl: "Plenty for a bathroom".
Joanne: "OK...I'll brush, you roll."

Before we could start painting, though, it took us two full days to scrape off the wallpaper...inch by annoying little inch. Mom and Dad had apparently not sized the wall before they put the paper up.  (As much as I love Mom and Dad, I still believe there should be  a special place in h*ll for people who apply wallpaper without taking a few minutes to size first. To me, it's kind of like "paying it forward"...an anonymous gift to the person who will someday have to remove it.)

 

But now Mom's bathroom is painted in our BM "Quiet Moments" spa color and we love it!

New bathroom fixtures weren't in our budget but just the fresh paint color updated the room a lot.

 I spotted this couch table in the "Pit" at a local discount furniture store one day and immediately knew Joanne would love it. I sent her a photo on her on her cell (caught her on the Maine turnpike heading to New Hampshire!) and she said, "Go for it", so back to Mom's condo it came. Turned out it fit perfectly in the outer dressing area of the master bath.

 

 It provided a focal point for added color and accessories.
We played down up the 80's chrome fixtures by going with silver mercury glass candlesticks.

(Oops! We will take the plastic off the new lampshade...promise!)

 

We painted the smaller toilet area of the master bath as well. It is so small that we only had one shelf to accessorize in there. Joanne used some of Mom's pottery with sea glass and a starfish to create a coastal vignette.

 

 

 The whole master suite is unified now and updated with color...

 

 

and accessories perfect for a house by the sea!

 

 

 

I bet you thought we were done now, right?

Nope! Stay tuned...

 

 

This post is linked to:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Show Me What You Got Tuesdays at Our Delightful Home

Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Through Life

 

 

 

What's Your Birthday Color???

 

By now we've all heard that Pantone's Color of the Year for 2014 is Radiant Orchid...

...Radiant Orchid???

 

While I was surfing the web to see if decorators have figured out how to use Radiant Orchid in real homes yet, I came across an interesting article...

 

Here's What Your Pantone Birthday Color Says About You.

The authors suggest colors that best reflect your personality based on your date of birth. You can check the color for your birth month here.


 

According to the book, Colorstrology: What Your Birthday Color Says About You, "Colorstrology is a blend of astrology, numerology, and color theory that offers exciting new insights about our lives and relationships. Written by renowned astrologer Michele Bernhardt with the artists at Pantone, Inc., the global authority on color, the system features 366 "birthday colors" that illustrate who we are and how we behave."

Here's my birthday color: Cerulean.
It just doesn't feel  like "me". So...

 

I'm officially changing my birthday from October 25th to August 25th.
I like this Sun Orange much better!

 

Meantime, I'm still trying to picture myself incorporating Radiant Orchid into my home with all of its oranges and earth colors...

 

 





photo courtesy of style illuminated at Lamps Plus



 

 Have you introduced any of the new pastel colors into your home this Spring?

 

 

Linking this post to:
 Sew Darn Crafty Linky Party at Sew Many Ways

 

 

 

Updating Mom's House #2: The Master Bedroom

My sister, Joanne, and I are updating our Mom's condo for her while she recovers from a stroke...thought it would be fun to share our progress.

THE MASTER BEDROOM

Once Joanne and I saw how good our Mom's updated living room looked, we just couldn't stop there.
Mom's bedroom needed a coat of paint as well. Instead of sticking with the same off -white Mom has throughout the condo, we took our inspiration from the ocean (actually Casco Bay) outside the window and chose a very soft grayed blue/green color, Benjamin Moore's "Quiet Moments" .

It always amazes me to see how fresh paint transforms a space. I love this color!

 

 We repaired, polished and rearranged the furniture to open up the room.

 

Mom and Dad bought this mahogany bedroom furniture shortly after they were married in 1946.

 

 We found the perfect area rug at the Curtainshop.

 

Joanne bought this chair at a local consignment shop and finished it off with cushions she found at home.  The stool, made in India, is from Home Goods.

 

We love the way these lacy curtains catch the sea breeze...

 

They have just enough of a beachy look without being too predictable. We found these at the Curtainshop, too...thank goodness for our  shared stash of 20% off coupons!

 

Joanne liked the curtains so much that she went back for the runner for Mom's dresser...

 

 

Which is edged with shiny little shells and beach rocks.

  

 Joanne reused pillows from other rooms (and even one from the deck!) to add color to Mom's wicker chair...

 

And created this side table from a discarded cement pillar and a round piece of glass she found stored in Mom's hall closet.

 

All that was left to do was to accessorize.

Mom and Dad loved antiques so there were plenty of interesting collectibles around the condo to choose from. 

 

 

Travel collectibles, from Maine, Mexico and St. Lucia inspired this bedside vignette.

Dad's old binoculars, clocks, and cameras add a bit of a steampunk vibe to the room, while a piece of collectible folk art overlooks the scene. 

 

 

Joanne collected simple pieces of blue glass from around the house and grouped it on Dad's dresser against a backdrop of vintage postcards. 

 

We're both happy with how the bedroom came out... but of course, we couldn't stop there. Stay tuned to see what we decided to take on next...

 And now...the "Out Takes":

What we found when we tried to move Mom's dresser to paint...guess our parents believed in the adage that "necessity is the mother of invention"...

And, even worse, what happened when we moved the bed...Oops!



(Wall color before we painted; ignore the fact that the bed fell totally apart!)

 

Happy Decorating!

 

Linking up to:
Saturday Nite Special at Funky Junk Interiors
Flaunt It Friday at Chic on a Shoestring
Show & Tell Saturday at Be Different, Act Normal
Thrifty Things Friday at The Thrifty Groove
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On the Porch
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

 

Updating Mom's House: #1 The Living Room

My sister Joanne and I are updating our Mom's condo. I convinced Joanne that we needed a little "occupational therapy" to cope with the stress after Mom's stroke. As usual with the "Smith sisters", things soon took on a life of their own. Two months later, we're still at it...redoing the whole condo that is! 


THE LIVING ROOM
 

Mom's living room was off-white and she likes the color. We color-matched her paint and put two new coats on all the walls and trim. Her color scheme still worked with her "shabby chic" things but relied heavily on 80's rose and blue. We chose to update it by eliminating the blue and heading toward orangy-red instead of pink for accessories. That way, we could still incorporate most of Mom's things, but with a new twist.

 

 We went a little crazy and decided that Mom really needed a colorful accent wall to set off her fireplace and mantle. A quick trip back to Sherwin-Williams and, before we could second-guess ourselves, it was done.

 

But then, Mom's TV stopped working.

 Off to Best Buy we went. The next day the Geek Squad arrived with this baby. We decided Mom deserved a 46" Smart TV mounted over her fireplace! 

 (See what I mean about one thing leading to another?)

 

 

Years ago, Mom cut roses out of her living room curtain fabric and decoupaged them to the wall as a border over her fireplace. When it came time to paint the accent wall, we felt bad taking them down.

 

Our solution was to frame them in a shadowbox and display them in the finished room.

We got all of the carpets professionally cleaned and started to put things back in the room.

Joanne bought a slipcover for Mom's faded wing chair and added a textured throw cushion the color of our new accent wall.

 

She also replaced the throw pillows on Mom's couch.

 

 

 Mom loves wall groupings so it took quite a while to carefully replace all of her artwork after painting the walls. Luckily, Joanne is a perfectionist.

 

 

 

We moved a few pieces of furniture around and edited the accessories...respectfully decluttering and organizing where we could.

  

 This clock has told time in the Smith household for over 60 years...it was always in Mom and Dad's living room.

 My sister Joanne definitely inherited Mom's decorating gene. She arranged this vignette on the top of Mom's piano...it's one of many she has carefully arranged since we painted.

 

 

We thought we were about done redoing, refreshing and repurposing Mom's living room when we saw this rug at the Curtainshop last week. Yup...it came home with us.

 

It pulled together all of the colors in the room, old and new, and provided the finishing touch. Mom's rose is there...along with the oranges and reds we added.

The fabric swatch on the chair is the start of yet another DIY project!

Joanne found the foot stool, made in India, at Home Goods.

 

We hope that Mom recovers enough to enjoy her "new" living room. We're pleased that we were able to update it while honoring her amazing sense of style.

 

I guess that with a view of Portland Harbor like this, the living could have stayed empty and still been beautiful.

 

Next up? The Master Bedroom...
 

 

This post is linked to:

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On the Porch

p.s. Meet my "little" sister Joanne...here with our Mom in 2009...