The farmhouse kitchen

I love everything about farmhouses, the freshness, the age and patina, the land. My house is almost a farmhouse, but not quite. Will definitely need something bigger, and older, on more land someday. In the mean time, I have tried to capture the farmhouse aesthetic in my decor and renovations in my little cottage.    There is possibly nothing better than a bright farmhouse kitchen. I don't think it's something you can fake. You can't pay a home renovator to create that look, and ever really nail it. You need to acquire the pieces one at a time, do the work yourself, scour flea markets and tag sales for just the right touches, and it helps if you're house is old. Some of the easiest ways to get the farmhouse look in your house:
1. Use an old table as your kitchen table
2. add a couple brightly colored antique chairs
3. An antique sign or two never hurts (don't go out and buy one of those awful fake ones painted "rustic" style on a piece of barn board that says something silly like "Live Laugh Love")
4. Creative lighting is choice. Have you seen those lights made out of mason jars? LOVE
5. Use a "found" kitchen island. Work benches, antique tables, and converted vintage sideboards all make great islands
6. You can never go wrong with fresh flowers or plants

Adding casters to an antique table is a great way to lift it up to workspace/counter height. I love the use of gray here as well.

Same table, different angle. (p.s. love the light fixture!)

Another fantastic light fixture and a good lesson in floral design- a vase full of greenery can be just as beautiful as a vase full of flowers.

I adore the bold green subway tile used here. The rest of the kitchen is kept white to avoid fussiness. 

I'm a big fan of a brightly painted vintage chair. You can find them some easily at flea markets, and they make such a great statement in a space. Also, are those countertops yellow? cause that's awesome.

my kitchen just after we put the floors in last year, but before I built my current kitchen island.

Another view. See that flower painting by the sink? That's a vintage oil on canvas that I got for $5 a few years ago. It's easily one of my favorite flea market scores ever.

This long bench fits in with the kitchen so well I almost thought it was built in seating. The bold dark wood of the table contrasts satisfyingly with the otherwise white interior.

Butcher block countertops and an overhanging farmhouse sink are so perfect together. Add beadboard and open shelving and it's like a master class in farmhouse chic.

Two for one. That pink fridge is undeniably awesome. I also adore the little school desk. 

See this is what I mean about taking time to collect meaningful and interesting accessories. The arrow above the cabinet is wonderful, as is the hamper/box/wire basket stack. 

I'm about to do a dining room table in the same way, with the dark dark top and white legs. Another nice detail here is the bead board on the ceiling. Basically, I just really dig bead board. 

Another view of my kitchen. The cupboard was a gift from a friend, those barstools were a tag sale find ($5each), and the "Enchanted Consignments" sign was a gift from my parents, who find the most amazing things for me at their flea market in Maine.

My new table

So here it is. Solid oak, and it weighs a ton. I just love the wood grain of the oak, it is so bold. The front side of the table has two working drawers, a feature I adore. I mixed the paint color for the body and legs myself. I wanted a deep saturated hue that was still a light shade. This color is a combination of mint green, spring green, and tiffany blue. See the copper wrapped feet too? So cool. I just need to put those little furniture pads on the bottoms of them so they don't chew up my floor. The debate now is what upholstery fabric to use on the new chairs. I bought two different types yesterday, an antique looking floral in a shade of minty green that matches the table perfectly, and a neutral organic-y looking sack cloth. I really really can't decide. What do you think? Before and After Below!

ta da!!!!

see the drawers! I'm not sure what i'll keep in them, maybe extra napkins?

Toni the cat wanted to pose in this one too.

Check out that wood grain. The old surface on the table was so gunky, you couldn't see it, and it didn't really pop until I stained it. I would have liked to have gotten the table top an even darker tone, but this was as much stain as the wood would take.

So these are just some temp chairs until I finish the new ones. I wanted to try the two fabrics by the table in various lights.

This isn't the dining chair, but it gives you a good judge of how the fabrics would look with a white painted chair. This is the mint colored floral.

And this is the neutral sack cloth. I love them both so much and I'm super torn.

Green farm tables

To wet your whistle for the reveal of my new dining table, I thought I'd show you some inspiration pics. As you may know already, green is my favorite color. I live for it. Like holy cow I have a hard time walking by anything that is green and antique or vintage. It's an obsession. So this new (antique) dining table project gave me a chance to bring yet another bit of green into my house. I just love the look of green paint and antique wood. Here are some other great antique green farm tables ~Enjoy~

Love the apple green paint job here

Not a green table, but look at those chairs! They're twins to the chairs I just got!! They look great in antique white! I can't wait to paint mine :)

I love everything about this dining room from the glass doored cupboard to the stunning painting on the back wall to the bistro chairs the green farm table. I adore this picture.

Another gorgeous room, and I suspect the green paint on this table is genuine and antique. I had to fake it on mine lol.

Beautiful little table in such a soft delicate shade of mint. And you gotta love the polka dots!

Great proportions on this table. And another fabulous shade of spring green.

Antiqued kelly green on the table and the chair! And look at that soft aged surface on the table top. You just can't fake that kind of worn, well loved age.

more of a blue green than a true green, but still lovely as can be. And look at that floor! I have a client right now who I think would just adore a cobalt blue floor. 

A new project for me

Occasionally I have time to work on furniture for my own house too. About a month ago I got a wonderful pair of tables off craigslist. One of them is a to-die-for 19th century solid oak farm table (that is sadly too large for my little dining room). The other table is a wonderful solid oak early 20th century library table. Both tables have been patiently waiting in the garage/practice studio for me to have the time to work on them. On Monday I was able to sand, stain, and paint the oak library table. It's going to be our new dining room table. Once the table was finished, we carried it into the dining room and I immediately realized that our old dining chairs looked absolutely absurd with it. They represent the last holdout pieces of Bob's Discount Furniture that I foolishly purchased about five years ago (before I knew any better). The legs started wobbling about 6months after we bought them (that furniture is SUCH junk). So, as you might guess, I was more than happy to see them go. As luck would have it, I was able to score a fabulous set of five vintage cane back dining chairs off craigslist within hours of hauling the old chairs outside (for $55 for all five!).
I love these new chairs because they're a great compromise between elegance and cottage chic. I'm going to paint them white and reupholster the slip seats (either a soft cream or a mint floral). I'll post 'after' pics when they're done, and hopefully also post some pics of my new table tonight as well. stay posted!

New Acquisitions!

Sorry it's been so long since I posted. I'm currently working about 300 hours a week at my day job, and that's slowed me down on the furniture a bit. Saturday morning the tag sales were not fruitful, and I walked away empty handed *tears* but Sunday the flea market was AH-MAZING. As it gets warmer and the weather gets nice, the flea market gets bigger and bigger and bigger. On Sunday there must have been almost 250 dealers. I scored pretty big time. I got a great c.1870 solid chestnut chest of drawers, a c.1930 very ornately detailed sideboard on casters (it's soooo super nice), and a solid oak c.1910 pedestal dining table. For myself I got a nice little antique teal blue painted stool, an antique sign that says "OPEN" an antique row of hooks (to hold towels in our upstairs bathroom), and three necklaces. There was a green chippy paint antique dresser that I just loved, but I literally ran out of time and couldn't buy it. I had to work at 10am, so I had to move through the flea market pretty quickly.
The dresser and sideboard are both available to be re-done custom. The dining table may be going to a customer to match some dining chairs I'm doing for her. Enjoy!

Also included is a solid pine dresser that I picked up last week. It's huge and weighs about 7 tons. It should refinish spectacularly, and give someone a lot of extra storage!

I have a matching set of five school house chairs that this will look simply breath taking with! It has surprisingly petite dimensions, and is one of those things that if I just had the space, I would definitely keep for myself!

Solid chestnut and in wonderful condition already. I'm debating whether or not to paint it. I will do a light refinishing on the top, just to give it a little extra oomph, and possibly new drawer pulls, since those brass chippendale ones are not original anyway.

another view. The nice thing about antique dressers is that they are 100% solid wood. None of this yucky cheap particle board that you get today. 

Just look at the detailing on this sideboard. The drawer pulls are so fantastic. I would really love to put a barn board top on this, and then paint it some awesome exciting color- but I'll need a custom order to do that. Otherwise, it's going to be cream. P.S. I am obsessed with casters currently!

I adore those turned feet.

Sorry- had to take this pic in my basement. The chest is solid pine and soooo nice. I'll refinish the top so you can appreciate the beautiful solid pine that's under that paint, and then paint the case a fun color- maybe a swedish blue? a dove gray?

So this was what I got for myself. The little stool will go in the upstairs, maybe hold a vase of flowers or a potted plant. Don't you love the row of hooks? They swivel within that wooden structure- very handy!

I love the open sign. It probably dates to the 1940s. It's double sided, but the back side is pretty chipped away. Someday when I have my own barn to use as a workshop, I might hang it over the door.