How's your summer shaping up? We've got travel plans and renovations going on, and while I was meant to pack up this weekend I found that I didn't accomplish much... I'm bringing wellies and layers on holiday as our focus will be walking, hikes and picnics. I may only bring one dress/shoe combination, clearly I'm not in a Fancy Mood these days.
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| Not excited about the shoe options for this dress. |
I tried to create some wardrobe excitement around packing up but it was not meant to be. This dress from JCrew did nothing for me. Was it the piping at the waist, a lack of fullness in the skirt? The polyester lining?
MrBP will be in Fancy Dress Mode like it or not...or at least his boxers will tell a tale of Summer Whimsy:
My house is somewhat ready for summer and our house guests from Sweden who will be taking care of the old homestead while we are away.
I switched out my Feu de Bois candles for lavender which makes a nice pairing with some lavender potpourri, don't you think?
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| Diptyque Lavender |
I ordered a picnic backpack from F&M. It means business:
We made a simple change to our living and dining rooms that has had a huge impact on the rooms... we had the ceilings painted:
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Living Room Ceiling
Benjamin Moore Crystalline AF-485
Main wall colour: Benny Moore Richmond Gold HC-41 |
The bottom of the crown moulding needs a touch up but you can see the effect is quite pretty:
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Dining Room Ceiling
Benjamin Moore Wind Chime AF-465 |
The colour draws the eye upward which creates a "prospect", or feeling of spaciousness. These are the sorts of changes I'm interested in implementing in order to make our home seem larger... more attention to detail with less furniture, finer finishings and the correct combination of cozy space to outlooks.
I know older homes are not for everyone but I love living in one... the renovations can sometimes turn up a bad surprise, true, but then there are the interesting discoveries:
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| 1915 wallpaper |
We've gutted the powder room on our main floor which was originally a spacious coat closet... under the plastic tiles and built in cupboards (circa the 1958 powder room conversion) we discovered the original wallpaper and a ceiling height in keeping with the rest of the main floor.
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There was a drop ceiling installed which concealed the high ceilings.
Check out that oldie time wallpaper border. |
We're going for some subtlety in the new powder room which is newly spacious... we are installing some streamlined yet traditionally referenced fixtures in white along with the existing heated marble floor.
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Heated marble feels smooth and delicious on bare feet.
If you are installing tile of any kind I recommend it, it's not as expensive as you'd think. |
The wallpaper will be replaced with a new pattern in a very subdued taupe on taupe pattern. You can see I wanted to match the marble as best I could:
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Pierre Deux Matin Et Soir
It's been discontinued but I found it here.
Thank goodness because it was one of the only ones MrBP liked. |
I hope your summer is brilliant. I may not be around much as I'm toying with the idea of an extended break from technology. I've been feeling really nostalgic for the time before computers and the internet so I am enjoying the thought of going laptop-free for a few weeks. Have you ever thought of doing something similar?
Be well my friends,
xoxDani
