The spring of 2020 was one of the most magnificent springs that I can remember. Quarantine had worn the world to a frazzle–it was a time of fear and sadness and isolation. Spring came and told us that everything was going to be okay eventually. What a gift!
We had just over an acre of land here, and every season I was surprised by what was growing. Wave after wave of flowers. Very overgrown, yes, with shrubs that were as old as the house, but I think the beauty of it all reached its absolute peak that spring.
I hope you enjoy these pictures as you join in this last goodbye post about this amazing house. (Yes, I’m finally done gushing about it. Maybe.)
All good things out come to an end, and this is it. The last post on the interior of my favorite house that ever was or ever will be. Not shown is the guest room–other than painting the trim, I didn’t have time to make over that room. Also not shown is another large space on the main bedroom level–a 10×30 storage room on the front of the house. I had big plans for that space that I never got to do.
I think I saved the best for last. The living space on the main floor was the heart of our home. We shared so many cups of coffee with friends on those sofas, lots of great conversations, parties, and joy. I will be forever grateful for this house. I thought it was our forever house, but still I am glad it was mine for as long as I had it. I hope you’ve enjoyed these posts about this incredible house.
One of my favorite pictures of this space–it captured the golden sunlight that would stream in. This space could just hug you!
We had just met with our real estate agent to sign the listing papers when our state ground to a halt. COVID-19 shut everything down. Our agent was not allowed to come back into our home to take photos or to even put a sign in our yard. I had to take these listing photos myself:
The house sold quickly, despite all of the COVID mess, and I am so thankful. (And sad at the same time.) This house was (and is) truly a gem. I’m glad I got to write a small chapter in its life history.
I learned from the daughter of the original owners that the front room, or parlor as they called it, was rarely used. It was a sacred space with fancy furniture that children weren’t allow to sit on. At first, I set it up as a traditional living room too. We never really used this room…except to fold laundry on the coffee table. It was a shame too–it had some amazing features–stone fireplace wall, lighted feature wall, and a brutalist wall sculpture of a sailing ship left by the original owners. Again, like the theme of the rest of this house, it was a very large space. Facing north, it rarely got direct sunlight. It just didn’t feel right as a living room.
We’ve house hunted enough to know that online photos of houses often show rooms to be bigger than they are in actual life. This house was the opposite. This was an enormous space.
My first attempt at a living room. Too small pieces in a volumous space did not equal cozy.
The antique barrister was a good start, but it wasn’t in the right place. All of the small pieces just made it feel cluttered. I had to learn to love having space between things. And I did. 🙂
The room wanted to be a home office/library. Once we thought about the best use of the space, it became a room that we used every day. (You might recognize the desk from my first attempt at a home office, just with a color change. Seems orange was seeping into my soul, and I couldn’t even be mad about it.) The only permanent change we made to the room was painting the window trim. Even that small change brightened the room quite a bit.
I know I use this word a lot, but this room was my favorite space.
The main level, much like the rec room, is basically one room. The dining room/family room is divided from the living room by a massive stone fireplace. There are large sliding doors between the kitchen and the dining room and the kitchen and the utility area that can close off the spaces. Other than that, it is pretty much wide open, glorious space as you can see in the blueprints:
Even though the room was large, the dining area felt cramped and dark.
It did have a fun feature–a built in barbecue station in the fireplace wall. So 1950s! The guts of the bbq had been ripped out at some point in its lifespan, and all that still worked was the light in the exhaust hood and the outlet in the wall inside the nook. This ended up being the perfect spot for a coffee station. It was even puppy approved!
After painting the cabinets and the trim around the windows and doors, the room felt light and bright. (The white dog hair everywhere just adds to the lightness. It’s intentional, folks.) The Hubs spotted these stacking chairs at my favorite thrift store. So fun!
What’s the big deal about a laundry room? Well, if you’d seen some of the laundry rooms in some of the homes we’ve lived in, you’d understand. The century old row home in Pittsburgh for instance–the dirt floor in the basement laundry room was crunchy from dead bugs. The rolled up lump in the corner of the “Pittsburgh Potty” –was it old carpet or a dead body? We will never know for sure. I recently found a Facebook post with a picture of that laundry room:
<involuntary shudder> Moving on…
The last laundry room we had before this magnificent midcentury house was just plain ugly. So, when we moved in, the Brady Bunch space with its lime green walls and avocado green trim was absolutely charming to me:
The wooden cabinets were the original kitchen cabinets that the former owners had moved into the laundry room back in the early 80s when the kitchen was remodeled. The owners documented everything, and we found a receipt for the contractor who moved them. The utility sink was enormous and fabulous. One side was super deep–I assume for a mop bucket. My favorite part was the old Delta faucet–I can remember having the same faucet in our kitchen growing up. One side of the room had two large closets. I turned one into a pantry and kept the other one for my large collection of painting supplies and tools.
The laundry room was directly off the garage and kitchen. It did have a large sliding door that could close off the utility area from the kitchen, but that would block access to the main floor powder room, and more importantly, the A/C filter. There was no hiding this room, and the circus of colors needed attention. Green, red, orange, yellow–it was all too much.
This room also took a while to find its stride. After a few unfortunate color choices and wall treatments, I decided that simplicity was the best path forward. The trim was painted in the same color as the kitchen cabinets, Sherwin Williams Divine White, with a soft neutral, Sherwin Williams Kilim Beige, on the walls. It still had the midcentury feel to me but without all of its previous chaos.
Not a day went by while we lived in this house that I didn’t marvel at this space. The custom front door, the midcentury pendant lights, the mahogany stairs and walls, the decorative panels–I was smitten! I was smitten even when the space was pinky orange:
The front door was a work of art in its own right.
Again, I cannot stress how much just painting the trim lightened and brightened the space. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the space itself was incredible to begin with!
The fourth level of the house was basically all one enormous room–the rec room.
The walls were all pecky cypress paneling:
The rec room opened onto a covered patio that led to the backyard. It also had a gorgeous stone fireplace and my favorite part–the decorative wall divider by the stairs. It was very orange!
It took a while for this room to find its groove, but when it did, it became one of my favorite spaces. I found the perfect vintage orange velvet sofa and loveseat seat at my favorite thrift store–they were practically giving it away. I can’t believe no one else had scooped it up! ;o)
We painted the orange trim in the same cream color as the rest of the house.
On the far end of the room, we set up our main tv space. It looks like it is a tiny little section, but it wasn’t–from the far edge of the fireplace to the back wall was 16 feet! What a house!
We had lots of parties and teenagers in this space during the short time we lived here. I know this is exactly what this space was made for!
I purposely avoided this room for months. It was filled with the stuff that only a teenage horder could love. It needed help! The Boy was back at college, but he begrudgingly let me do a makeover in his room. The girls were working on an interior design course in our homeschool, and we tackled this room for their final project. We began by stripping the wallpaper off the room divider. This room is identical in size to the girls’ room, except it was divided into two spaces with this wall-to-wall closet unit. (The weird green section is the back of the closet for the guest room on the other side of the divider.)
Other than the lime (AKA slime) green paint that was under the wallpaper, this room did not need much color correction. The wood on the closet doors was in great shape, so we left it alone. We just painted the trim and the door and added new wallpaper to the closet unit.
We added curtains, repainted The Boy’s dresser, and tried to find bedding that was masculine and cozy. (I ended up stealing the diamond checkerboard rug shown above for my own room, but it did look great in here!)
The girls had their own rooms when we first moved in to this house. Actually, those rooms were basically the same room with a cool midcentury divider that split the room into two halves. (You’ll get to see this when I write about our son’s room.) Our son had the identical space across the hall that had one huge difference–it did not have a divider all. It did have two doors from the hallway and a smaller modular closet unit, but it was one gigantic space. Located on the level directly above the main bedroom, this section of the house cantilevered over the lower level about 2 feet on either side. That made this bedroom an even more ridiculous 16×32. The boy did not use this room to its fullest potential (and he tended to stomp on the floor every night right over our heads), so we moved him across the hall to one of the “smaller bedrooms” and moved the girls into the big room.
We started updating this room by painting the weird fleshy pink trim a nice cream color. In the photos below, you can see the modular closet unit. The unit had seen better days, and this also got a coat of cream paint. What can I say about these walls? I know wood paneling, especially from this era, is a controversial topic, but the paneling in this room was gorgeous. Pictures will never do justice to the actual color of this wood!
We moved the closet unit to the far end of the room and flanked it with desks for the girls. The painted trim made such a difference! Even though the room was still darkish wood paneling, it felt so bright and inviting.
In the middle of the room, we set up twin beds. On the other end of the room, we created a media center and reading nook with cozy “Brady Bunch” chairs.
While we were searching for bedding and accessories, we found the best pillow ever. It just had to come home with us!
Cottage Prep 