Knock, Knock

Oh, door, whatever shall we do with you?

It all started with a door.  Somehow, in the course of renovations, we ended up with an extra door.  I can't remember where it came from now, but there it was - a lonely door just crying for someone to come do something with it.  It was a rather plain door and lacking its own doorway.  Thank goodness for pinterest because apparently a door is not just a door and using doors in doorways is just rather passé, don't you know.

So the woodworker decided to make a entry bench out of it and promptly added a box to the bottom and a shelf to the top, never mind that we didn't really have an entryway to put it in.  The closest we had was the short hallway in the Dogwood Room, so there it would go.  I painted it a soft green first, then did a second coat in cream and sanded the whole thing down to distress it properly.

Since it would go in the Dogwood Room and the face of the door was just a big blank space and asking for some decoration (does your furniture not speak to you?), I added an approximation of a branch of dogwood blossoms.  Our dogwoods bloom green and white, but many bloom with pink, so I did these with pink so they would show up better.  It also had the unfortunate consequence of making them look a little like cherry blossoms, but they are *clearly* not as cherry blossoms have five petals and dogwoods have four.  Clearly.

The green coat, painted on the porch because it kept raining and, apparently, rain and paint don't mix.

The cream coat, painted inside because paint and blowing rain mix even less well. Or perhaps too well. No telling.

Hand painted cherry-er dogwood blossoms

Of course, we put the entry bench up in the Dogwood Room and it looked a little lonely.  The woodworker also started making noise about an armoire.  There is, for the record, a perfectly nice cedar lined closet in the Dogwood Room but it is, in all fairness, a very large walk in closet for overnight guests and the doorway is slightly low.  As in, my generously measured 5 feet and 6 1/2 inches barely clears the top of the doorway.  Okay, so fine, lets get the entryway door bench some company, but we need another door.  Yes, our environmentally conscious reusing of a door has now necessitated us purchasing a new door.

One second hand shop later, we were the proud owners of a new old door to be cut in half and turned into armoire doors.  Too bad the door we purchased happened to be hollow.  Okay, so several tedious hours of rebuilding said door later, and we had the armoire doors ready to go, followed a few days later by the rest of the armoire.

Fully constructed armoire and reconstructed doors, ready for paint.

The inside of the armoire was painted light green and the outside green overlaid with cream

The infamous door, painted green then overlaid with cream and distressed with a sander

Fully painted, it was time to move the whole thing upstairs.  Did I mention that it ended up being quite large?  And the stairway is not?  It was easy really.  It was so large it kept getting stuck, so there was no danger of dropping it, at least, and only minor disassembly and mild cuss words were required.  At last, it was wrestled into place and after a bit of fussing and adjusting, it does look quite nice, we think.

Welcome to the Dogwood Room

Poplar Room

Of the three room in the Inn, the Poplar was the room with the least amount of issues.  The hardwood floors were still in good condition and warm wood paneling covered the walls and slanted ceilings.  The room needed very little except cleaning and a new light fixture.  The bathroom, this one a faded lemon yellow, needed the same attention that the rest of the bathrooms had with a yellowed sink and outdated, peeling laminate flooring.

The empty Poplar room, as purchased

Built in cedar lined closet

The second closet in the Poplar Room - at least it is blue and not green!

The 70's yellow bathroom, complete with yellow shower, creaky shower door and a wall mounted sink. Note the bucket under the sink for added ambiance

Vinegar stained vanity. The whole vanity is built of the same wood, but the reaction of the vinegar to the tannic acids in the wood gave us some serious color variations.

The main challenge with the Poplar room was furnishing as the low ceilings take away usable space in an already compact room.  Since furnishing was not a priority during early stages of the renovations, we started in the bathroom, pulling out all the fixtures and taking out the laminate flooring.  Next, we painted the walls with the same faux stone finish that we used in the half bath downstairs.  We wanted to use the same finish in this bathroom and the pink bathroom next door in the Dogwood room in order to reduce waste, so we picked a sandstone color that would hopefully look good if any of the pink or yellow bled through.  The color did not bleed through, but we picked such a coordinating color that the base coat was almost the same shade of pink as the Dogwood bathroom, causing just a little stress as to the finished product.

In the end, the color worked well and we moved on the building a custom vanity and mirror to fit into the space beside the shower.  Once they were built, we aged both pieces and stained them with a homemade vinegar and steel wool stain.  Then we re-enameled the shower stall white and replaced the door with a curtain.  A new floor was laid with ceramic tile and a few finishing touches later - curtains, a new towel bar, and a repainted door - and that bathroom was done.

Handmade vanity and mirror for the Poplar Room

Finished Poplar bathroom

With that, we turned our attention back to the bedroom.  Of course, we had to walk past that pesky extra closet to do that...  What ever could we do with that space?  Oh, right, maybe this -

Cozy reading nook in the Poplar Room

So, can we get a bed in here, maybe?  After much deliberation and a whole lot of time spend on pinterest, we decided on a four post bed.  Since the bed was going under a window, we couldn't do much in the way of a head board, but went with some nice detail on the foot board instead and color scheme of cream, chocolate brown, and deep red.  A couple of bedside tables and a matching cafe table with chairs along with a narrow shelf under the television finished the furnishing of the room.

Every time we finish a space, it becomes my new favorite and the Poplar Room is no exception.  Although our smallest room, the clean furnishings and light colors make it cozy and relaxing while the view of the upper lawn and poplar tree from the private balcony is expansive.

Welcome Inn, y'all, we hope to see you soon!

Welcome to the Poplar Room

Enjoy the mountain breezes through the balcony doors and relax in your private getaway

Around the World in Twenty Spoons

Yesterday, I spent the day stripping paper out of kitchen cabinets, scrubbing shelves, and reorganizing pans.  Today, I was supposed to start scrubbing the laundry room, but I rediscovered a bag of collectible spoons while emptying out drawers in the kitchen and decided to work on a display case for them instead.  The spoons themselves appeared one day in a care package from home (thanks, mom!) and cover countries all over the world.  Some are stamped with place names such as Monaco, Istanbul, Montreal, Luxembourg, Ireland and Texas, while others require guessing like the windmill that is probably from Denmark, and a couple of spoons whose finishes suggest that they might be from China or Thailand.

Growing up, the spoons were all displayed in a special case, but the case is now gone.  I did, however, have three picture frames, all missing their glass.  Hmmm....

The mismatched picture frames, all missing their glass and somewhat worse for the wear

I sorted and polished all the spoons first, with varying success, then started prepping the frames.

Step one - spray paint all the frames antique pewter.

After painting the frames, I covered the backing to the frame in black felt and then began experimenting with how to attach the spoons.  I started using glue dots because they are removable, but turns out they are a little too removable. Some of the spoons began to slid once the frame was stood up.  I added a touch of glue under the dots and now it holds beautifully.

Attaching the spoons.

First frame