New Year's Eve Dining Room

 The tree in the dining room was given a more party-like, festive feel. It was decorated completely with New Year's Eve party necessities, including glittered top hats, noise makers and beaded necklaces. 

The night of the party, guests can take hats, necklaces and noisemakers right off the tree to wear and use throughout the night.

The mantle in this room got the same treatment as the tree. It's festooned with party hats and noisemakers.

A pair of glass hurricanes were filled with colorful glass ball ornaments.

I was also lucky to be able to find these glittered ball picks that I added to the garland to enhance the festiveness of the mantle.

New Year's Eve Living Room - Evening

 The New Year's Eve living room in the evening with the ambiance of the tree and mantle's lights.

The trunk below the tree was an after Christmas addition for our little boy. A new toy chest from his grandparents.

The muted metallics, glitter and paper ornaments all take on a golden glow at night.

New Year's Eve Living Room - Daytime

This year we are hosting a New Year's Eve party, so each of the rooms in our home are getting in the spirit with touches to ring in 2011.

The living room tree is decorated with muted metallic and glitter balls along with paper music ball and snowflake ornaments. The paper Happy Holiday garland runs through the tree.

I modified some of the paper music snowflake ornaments by adding small paper clocks, about to strike midnight, in the centers.

The mantle is adorned with vintage clocks collected for the past few months from flea markets and thrift stores. The large clock, new, on the fireplace was a lucky find last week and replaced a mirror that usually hangs in its place.

Mixed amongst the clocks are silver bottle brush trees and a collection of small books that have faded to a silvery grey, also a flea market find.

A pair of cast iron Santa's are used as door stops at the entrance of the room.

The Nursery: Before and After

Our baby's nursery has come a long way from start to finish. Although it was a painstaking process, mostly for my Dad who was faced with the challenge of uneven, un-level, floors and windows while he was trying to do all of the woodwork and mouldings, the end result was worth it. We love the room, it's bright, warm and cozy and a space the that baby can enjoy now and can grow with him as he grows.

Enjoy the before and after images of the room and all the changes that were made!

Before



One of the greatest challenges in this room was that it had no closets. So we decided to do an entire wall of built-ins so that there would be enough storage for all of the baby's things.



The plaster ceiling was removed and insulation was added, new windows were installed and a wall of faux brick was taken down. Shown here is the new blank slate as all the wood trim was being reinstalled.





The wide plank floors were refinished, even after refinishing them they were very, very distressed. We actually liked them that way and feel that that's part of the charm of living in a 250+ old house. It has that lived in, loved, well worn feeling. My Dad also laid the marble tile hearth. You'd never know that he wasn't a carpenter/tiler by trade!

 

The fireplace mantle was rebuilt around a cast iron insert that I found at a flea market many years ago. Here we are also sampling some paint colors, we were looking for a very pale shade of gray.



Here the closets are going up, we used a chest of drawers we already had and bought two sets of double doors to flank the chest on the sides.

 

 I had an antique pair of doors that I had my heart set on using, but they would have not made the symmetry of the above design possible or offered enough storage space. I'm going to have to save them for another project, maybe that built-in hutch I hope to do in the dining room someday!!!

We decided to do open shelving above the chest for a little added display space.

After



A true labor of love, both grandfathers worked diligently to get all the work done for the baby's arrival. Pop-pop did all of of the woodwork and trim and grand-pop did all of the painting.



The wall of built-ins should provide more than enough storage for all of the baby's things.

A blue and white striped glider/rocker from Pottery Barn Kids is the perfect place to snuggle up with the baby.
The door behind the chair leads to the back staircase.

The fireplace wall has a built-in bench for storage. The wainscotting in the room was painted ultra-bright white to help set-off the dolphin gray paint.



A small nook under the window allowed just enough space for a wicker drum to be used as a side table, also a flea market find. The cast iron duckling and small rabbit perched on each sill were also great finds that day.



This beautiful rocking zebra was hand-painted by a dear friend of mine. I adore this, it is one of my favorite things! The shades of blue and gray were a perfect fit for the room. It is definitely one of a kind. 



A close-up just to show my friend's amazing attention to detail. The eyes are gorgeous!



A antique oak chair is just right for a pint-sized reader.



A gift from grandmom, knit booties from Janie and Jack



A large, weathered, wooden whale, also found years ago, makes a great door-stop.



Iron crib in pewter



Christmas Decorationing Inspiration

Before I decorate for Christmas, I love to look through old (that I've saved over the years)  and new holiday issues of magazines. These are some of the images that I loved this year and helped to get me in the decorating spirit.

Images are from Country Living Magazine

Inspirational Rooms

I love this, it reminds me of our own back staircase. I wish ours had the extra storage shown here.

Love the double sinks!