Friday Fun: House Project Updates!

 

Ryan and I found this little cottage on the lake in the fall of 2022, and as you may remember, we spent about five months cosmetically overhauling almost every piece of the interior before moving in for keeps in the early months of 2023. We’ve done quite a bit to the exterior since then, but we haven’t had to do much inside since that original overhaul.

                But as with any house, home is always growing and changing. We are forever looking for ways to make this space work better for us (especially since it’s so small and every square foot counts!) and to make it reflect our story.

                Last week we finally had a chance to make a few tweaks to the house, and today I want to show you what we did!

                One room I’ve not spent much time decorating is our main bathroom. Aside from seasonally swapping a piece of art on one of the walls, I haven’t changed anything in this bathroom since we moved in. But last week we added a piece of art, and we love it.

                When we went to Charleston in May, we visited the City Market several times. There were several artist booths at the market, and one of the artists sold watercolor prints of landmarks in the city. We chose a small painting of Rainbow Row, and I thought it would look perfect in the bathroom. And about six weeks later…I finally have it framed and hanging in the bathroom! (Found the frame in my box-o-frames, so it was a freebie for this project.) Not only does it bring some fun color to a small room, it also reminds us of one of our favorite trips!

                Back in December, when we were in Indianapolis for our anniversary, we did a little tour of thrift stores, and I bought this canvas at one of them. It reminded me of our tandem bike rides in Siesta Key (on our honeymoon) and on Mackinac Island last fall. I never quite knew where to hang it in our house, because my original brainstorm in the store ended up not working as well in reality when we got home. But I suddenly decided it would be perfect here on the Hoosier Cabinet, and I love it. A perfect fit.

                I don’t know that I ever blogged about it, but a few months back, we got this used table and chairs to replace the table and chairs in our dining room. The set we have had for the last five or so years was one we picked out together at the store and loved so much, but we bought it for the Bluffton house, and when we landed here at the lake, it just felt too big for the space. It was tall, blocked a lot of light, and when we extended it to its full size, it was almost impossible for people to get in and out easily to refill their plates.

                This little round table has two leaves, so we can seat a bunch of people, but for daily use, it’s little and perfect in our dining room. But the chairs were green, and everything in our house is blue. So…Ryan recovered the chairs! I picked out the fabric at Walmart and he reached back to his mattress-making skill days and recovered all four chairs. OH, how I love the way they look!

                He had enough material leftover to recover this little footstool I got at the church garage sale. I’ve been looking for a footstool for my glider rocker, and this one is the perfect size. And now the color works!

                I also bought this beautiful garland from one of the teens at our church, and it is a great completer piece for our fireplace. She did a great job making it, and I’m so happy to have her work displayed in our home!

                I have a couple more little projects that remain undone, so I’ll fill you in on those later, after I complete them. But today my heart is so happy for what we were able to do last weekend!