Timeless Farmhouse Guest Room, Makeover

After months of planning and sitting on the ideas forming in my mind, I was finally able to bring my vision for our guest bedroom to life.

While this room was cool to start, it didn't reflect my style at all.  It was dark and felt closed in.  I love bright, airy spaces, with a lot of white, and some wood to warm it up.  And the dark gold wallpaper, while kind of neat and cozy, just wasn't for me.

This room had so much potential from the start.  My favorite features are the original plantation shutter window coverings and the matching shutter door for the adorable little closet under the staircase.  I also love the higher ceilings, tall farmhouse baseboards, and the upper wall molding.  All of these features are full of character, and sparked my vision into gear.

Check out the before of this room.. hmmm.. 

My goal was to create a space that my guest's could feel comfortable in.  A place where they could retreat and relax after a long day of fun and adventure together.  A space of simplicity.  Uncluttered, yet perfectly placed details that invite and draw your eyes to the timeless pieces from the past.  I don't know about you, but I feel a peace that is indescribable when I'm surrounded by beautiful treasures that have hundreds of stories they could tell.  Our cute little farmhouse is 110 years, and I can only imagine what these walls would tell us if they could talk!  

When I was ready to start the renovation of this room, I made a list of all that I desired it to entail.  I have added this list of the key elements I used to create my timeless farmhouse guest room below. 

1. Shiplap walls

2. White painted walls

3. Antique wood dresser or trunk for side table

4. Vintage brass bed (and I happened to come across this gorgeous cream and brass bed!  Yay!)

5. Simple neutral bedding

6. Vintage lighting

7. Vintage gold mirrors and frames

8. Sliding barn door

9. Two rustic beams
10. Antique wall sconce
11. New antique looking desk for hubby
12. Original artwork in beautiful gold frames
13. Velvet and floral pillows to add some additional color to the bed.

You may be noticing that some of these elements are not yet in this room.  Well that is the fun part!  I will be able to share along the way as I add the next key element to my design.  Some of these pieces are already in my possession, and some I still need to create.

Before my first guests arrived, I went out and freshly cut some of my gorgeous hydrangeas to set on their bedside table.  It's all in the details right? :)

Isn't this gray washed velvet bedding luxurious!?  Its simple yet cozy, and the color is so soft and muted.

We are just waiting on our sliding barn door hardware to show up on the front porch, and then we can hang this beauty.  I will soon be sharing with you all on how we built this rustic barn door.

We still have several things to do to finish this room up.  In addition to being our guest bedroom, my husbands office will be in here as well.  I will be building him a custom desk to fit in with this space.  I will incorporate some antique turned legs as well as discretely house a two drawer metal filing cabinet.  I have already sketched out my design for this and cannot wait to build it! 

What would your dream guest room look like?  Are you into the light, airy look as well, or are you into the darker, moody look?

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to read today.. I hope to see you back here soon to check out our future farmhouse updates, custom furniture and restoration projects!  

Take care and God bless.

xo Jen

French Country Farmhouse Table and Decor

 Today I'm sharing my latest restored farm table set, along with all the little French Country tableware's and decor. I don't know about you, but by January 1st, I'm ready for spring and summer!  I'm just a sunshine weather kind of girl.  The cold, dark winter days are just not on my favorite things list. ;)  But don't worry, I do realize I have a few more months of winter! 

 

I wanted to give this farm table a rich country look, so I stained the top in one of my favorite chocolatey browns, called Provincial. (by Minwax).  I actually gave the top two coats of stain for a deeper, darker color.  I finished the top of the table and the benches with a wipe on Polyurethane.  The base of the table, benches, and the chairs are painted in the usual color of my choice, Vintage by Valspar.  I pick this up at Lowes.  It's just the perfect creamy white paint color.

 I built two of my custom Vintage Benches to go with the table.  If you ask me, a farmhouse table always has to have at least one bench! :)

With all of this cold and dreary weather, I decided to brighten things up a bit at my shop.  I wanted a lot of white of course, and just enough blue!  

 

 Below, I used an old tin bucket to hold some greenery and vintage utensils.  I stencil painted a blue farm cow on the front, and then drilled two holes on each side so I could add the rope handles.  I love this little bucket now!

 

 

When rummaging through things at a vintage shop last week, I found this really neat little fruit crate.  Table Grapes of California. It has warm wood tones, and BLUE writing!  Perfect for my table scape!  This crate was actually the inspiration for the whole look.  I found two of these, so I decided to keep one for myself :) 

 When creating a display at the shop, I try to build up as much as possible to create height and more display space.  So I built this mini farmhouse bench using scrap wood from my workshop, and finished it to match the table.  I think it turned out adorable and I'm definitely going to be making more of these.  I may try all sorts of fun colors too.

I threw in a few copper accents and these really cool French canisters with copper lids.  These are some of my favorites!  And then there are the white canisters with the black label writing on them.  This set is available in my Etsy Shop.

 I came across a couple of cute wooden chairs this past week as well.  One I left the original stained color, and the other I painted in a vintage creamy white and distressed it.  I threw in some blue and white ticking stripe, and whatever dishes I could find with that gorgeous blue patina.

 And then there is the burlap table runner with the blue farmhouse cow.  I am in love with this runner!  I will definitely be making more of these and listing them in my Etsy Shop as well.  If this is something you're interested in ordering ahead of time, feel free to contact me via email!

 And what's a French Country table scape without a little white cow creamer?  I just LOVE these cow creamers.  I get all giddy when I come across one!

  The bowl tucked under the rest that has the sweet blue flowers on it is from France.. Just love it!

  

 

 

 So there you have it.  My French Country Farmhouse table and decor.  I'm in love, and I hope you had fun looking at my gallery of pictures!  There were a lot!  Have a wonderful rest of your weekend and a great week!  Thank you as always for stopping by!

xo Jen

Linking up at:
Miss Mustard Seed 

Savvy Southern Style

DIY Farmhouse Inspired, Burlap and Zinc-Finished Lamps

 

A couple weeks ago, I shared my Living Room Makeover Reveal from the One Room Challenge, and I promised a DIY tutorial on my new lamps!  You can catch that post here!

Today I'm sharing my tutorial on how I gave these dated thrift store lamps a complete transformation.  As you can see, I started with white ceramic and brass lamps.  I picked these lamps up for $5.00 each!  

  

First I taped off the switch, and the top part where the light bulb screws in.  I also wrapped tape around the cord at the bottom to keep paint from spraying on it.

 I gave each lamp a couple coats of spray paint using Rust-oleum Flat Antique Nickle. (You will want to do this outside, or in a place where its safe for a little over-spray. Not in the house!!)

Next, I watered down some white paint I had on hand.  The consistency should be fairly liquidy after adding water and stirring.  Using a paint brush, I covered the whole thing with the watered down paint.  I then switched to a clean, dry paint brush and started making my way around the lamp, horizontally, making sure to dab excess paint off as I went.  This is what gives you the streaky look.  The paint seems to dry pretty quickly, so I then just used my dry brush to go up and down and side to side to give it a neat blotchy texture.. You'll just have to play with it at this point to get the look you're after.

After I finished the painting of the lamps, I wrapped the bases using jute rope and a hot glue gun.  I wanted a farmhouse, and kind of beachy look as well, so I feel like the rope gives me that look.  Plus it ties in well with the burlap shades I picked up at Hobby Lobby!

So there you go!  I hope you get to try this out on a cool thrift store lamp or two!  With shades and all, I made these lamps for only $22.00 a piece!  I was able to create one of a kind lamps and have fun doing it.  

As always, thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

xo Jen

Living Room Reveal!! - One Room Challenge

My, oh my, oh my...  Okay, from now on... when I say check back tomorrow for my post, just come back a week later! ha!  It seems I have made a habit of this.  Problem with promising something a day later, is that I have no idea what tomorrow brings.  Unfortunately my tomorrows brought dark days, and when the sun was finally out and pouring into my living room, I was stuck away from home. So, here we are, a week later!  Thank you for your grace everyone!! :)  Moving onto the REVEAL!

If you'd like to see the process from start to finish, you can catch all the posts below.

WEEK 1   WEEK 2   WEEK 3    WEEK 5

Here's a little refresher on what we started with.

And here is what we ended up with!!!

 I did a pretty simple mantle scape this year.  I left some of the summer items up, and then incorporated the fall wreath, and porcelain pears.  

 The living room is so cozy and inviting now.  And definitely reflects my taste for style.

I'm in love with the horizontal planking we did.  It adds so much charm to the room.

And the wall that our large sofa is on is totally different now!  I built two matching farmhouse end tables to go on each side.  I will post a tutorial on these soon :) 

 I also diy'd some thrift store lamps to go on each table.  I was ready and prepared to just buy a couple new ones and spend the $150.00, but I saw these two sitting in my garage and thought, well, may as well try to be frugal where I can!!  I honestly love how they turned out.  They keep the room casual, yet elegant? 

I'm a little disappointed that my table top isn't just a touch wider.  My favorite birdcage BARELY fits!  I tried to place it in other places around the room, and it ended up back here.  I can live with it being a touch crowded. haha

I didn't have to purchase too much to accessorize this space.. Most everything I already had on hand.  The wire and metal basket on top of this shelf was new from Tai Pan.  Love that store!

I hand made the Floral Pillow Covers you see on the sofa and chair.  There are more available in my Etsy Shop!  As well as the Deer Silhouette Pillow Cover!

I used cut limbs from my own trees for the foliage in the basket, on the shelves and in the concrete pitcher.  The colors were perfect and I love the texture it brings to the space.

I didn't end up adding anything to this wall.  I just simply changed out the decor inside the birdcage.  Once the shelves were completed and staged, I realized it may be too busy to do much on this wall.

I love using architectural pieces in my decor.. Old corbels, chipped up leg posts, crates, etc.  Anything with a vintage worn look.

So there she is!  Glistening in her glory! ;)  My husband and I seriously walk in and out of this room for no reason other than to just take it all in. lol  He actually didn't even care to do anything to this room, but rolled with it to make me happy and ended up being pretty pleased himself.  Love it when that happens!

There are still a few things we need to do in here.. Like put a fresh coat of paint on the fireplace stove, and then put up a new fire screen.  Put a fresh coat of paint on the walls.  Maybe a new rug?  It would be a jute rug if I decide to put one in here.  I also didn't find the time to complete the entry way.  But the one room challenge is only "one room" right?  So oh well.. I'll get to it soon enough!  Thank you so much to Linda over at Calling it Home for hosting this challenge and encouraging all of us weekly!  We are grateful!  And thank you to all who have followed along with me and left me encouraging comments and support!  We all love and need that :)  Until next time, take care and enjoy your week! 

xo Jen

Linking up at:
Imparting Grace 
Miss Mustard Seed 
French Country Cottage 
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating