Beach House: End Of The Year Tour!: a house log
Beach house progress, both big and small, feels like it is happening so swiftly that we hardly have time to keep up with documenting it, but I did walk through the whole house yesterday and make a big ol’ video tour… which in short catches you right up to date! So excuse this post for only having around a dozen photos (we have thousands on our phones, but they’d take us all day to upload and explain, and nobody got time for that with Christmas being less than a week away).
First let us start at the front door. We hung a wreath (from Tar-jay) and put some battery powered LED candles with timers in the windows (so they are auto-pilot even when we are not there). Hallelujah, the house at last looks lived in! I mean, except for the whole it-has-no-landscaping-and-I-desperately-need-to-sand-and-stain-the-front-door thing. Also I still want to paint those white blocks behind the lanterns to match the house. Someday…
lanterns / wreath / house numbers / doormat / siding: SW Mellow Coral / ceiling: SW Breaktime / trim: SW Pure White
While things are far from wrapped up, things are even farther from where they were this time last year. This photo is from nearly exactly a year ago, and looking back is a pleasant reminder that wrinkly curtains and an unfinished pantry are far smaller problems to work through than THE WHOLE SIDE OF THE HOUSE BEING TORN OFF. Here is that whole story if you missed it (yup, we literally had to have 500 square feet took out and rebuild from scratch).
SO YEAH. It is looking a lot better at the end of 2017 than it did at the end of 2016. And weirdly sufficient that picture makes me excited to get began on the duplex, because as much as I enjoy having wrapped up walls to decorate and wrapped up floors to arrange furniture on, the process of planning (and dreaming about) all of the potential that is fills the air during a big demo/rebuilding project is oddly addicting. Cannot wait to share our duplex progress as soon as we have our plans approved and all of our permits pulled! But back to the pink house, where I am walking you folks through every room in a little video tour of sorts: If you cannot see this in a reader, click through to view it on our journal or you can view it here on YouTube.
If you cannot watch the video right now, I’d certainly recommend dropping back in and catching it when you can (a video is in short worth a million photos and I fairly much cover every crevice and explain a lot of extra stuff I could not squeeze into this post).
One recent update, after months and months of debate, is that we at last pulled the trigger and painted the railing. The vertical balusters had all already been painted (SW Stone Isle), so it was simply that top rail and the post at the end that were “wood.” I will explain why that is in quotes in a second. It is hard to see in this picture since that front post is getting hit with a ton of light through the open door, but we went with a deeper gray tone (SW Perpetual Gray) that is about 3 shades darker than the trim, so it accents the post and the top rail without being too crazy and compete-y with the standout stars of the whole house (those stained glass windows).
I know what some of you are thinking. NOOOO! How could you disgrace such old striking wood with paint?!?! Well, this railing had been covered in a thick paint-like brown stain that showed zero grain and was sticky, roughed up, and ruined in a bunch of places (covered in paint splatters, spackle globs, and decades of other issues). After attempting to sand it down, we learned it was a darker redder wood – meaning we’d never be able to stain it to match the lovely heart pine floors. So, we reasoned that a fresh coat of paint applied pleasant and evenly was a heckuva lot better than its current state. And it truly does look glossy and lovely in person, which makes us incredibly relieved.
The good news is that we do not have any shortage of wood tones in this house. We have original heart pine everywhere (we stripped and clear-sealed all of the original doors that we could, brought the original floors both upstairs and downstairs back to their glory, etc). This house’s middle name could be wood. Pinkie “Wood” House. Wait that sounds bad. Forget the middle name thing.
Down in the living room, we brought in this cool wall-mounted bookcase, which instantly made us both say “Ahhh! It looks like an actual room people live in!” We also got to hang some cozy white curtains which need DESPERATELY to be steamed and hemmed. They are Lenda curtains from Ikea– I simply cut off the top tabs and make sure to wash them to pre-shrink them before hanging. We also have them in our home office and enjoy how washable and straightforward they are. Also, my secondhand brass grasshopper (aka: Brasshopper) is a total badass and I enjoy him more each day.
bookcase / blue pillow / curtains / rods / similar brass grasshopper
Also picked up a rug from New England Loom (if you do not follow them on Instagram you are missing out because they have so many lovely secondhand rugs to be discovered) and the colors and patterns and antique feeling of the rug is IDEAL for a room that will be assaulted with food and sand and everything else that a rental living room has to deal with, so I have high hopes for it holding up like a champ (seeing as it is decades old already, that truly does inspire confidence). That fairly blue pillow is from this Etsy shop (I enjoy all of her pillows) and the pink one is from Target a while back. And you folks know the sofa is the Ikea Karlstad that they no longer make, which is a straight up travesty.
We also updated the light in here to this gleaming beauty from West Elm. The old light was a one-bulb fixture that we hung and immediately said “this room needs way more light.” We enjoy the juxtaposition of this leggier modern light and the old-looking medallion (which is in fact from Home Depot – shhh). And the old brick chimney that we discovered behind the wall and exposed is likely my go-to feature in the room, along with the giant windows (this room is 9′ tall, so the windows are easily over 6.5′ feet tall – that is taller than John!). Do not mind that TV on the floor. We found something we think will work for in there, simply gotta get it out there in our next car load. #AlwaysRoadTrippingWithFurniture
rug source / chandelier / ceiling medallion /curtains / rods
The kitchen came a long way too, with the quartz island going in (it is Pearl Jasmine by Silestone and we ENJOY it so much) and a working sink. Cue the choir of angels! You can hear two ways we saved money on our quartz counters in Podcast Episode #74, which also covers why our original plan to do butcher block there did not work out. There are still some things missing though. Mainly, the backsplash that we will add after we hang the other missing element: shelves on either side of the stove under the sconces (likely two per side, not sure yet but we will keep you posted).
stools / quartz / butcher block / cabinets / range: secondhand refurbished / trim: SW Stone Isle / walls: SW White Heron
The back door was blue for a hot second, which some of you might have seen on Instagram, but as the room came together more John and I both realized that the same gray as the trim (SW Stone Isle) would let the pink stove do her thing and be the accent in the room that she has consistently been destined to become. Plus, we have a blue chippy door leading to the mudroom nearby, and one blue door + one pink stove is… sufficient. You know I did not enjoy painting that door twice, so if I did it, it had to be done. Ha!
green vase / wood cutting board / wood stand / hanging rod / hood / kettle / sconces / pink salt & pepper
Upstairs the bedrooms are coming along with some art up on the walls, layered cozy bedding, and even headboards. HUZZAH! Still need to hang all the curtains up there (once we do that the headboard will look exactly as wide as the window because we are tricky tricksters). Stay tuned…
rug / large art / lamp / side table / striped blanket / headboard / fan
This is another view of that front bedroom, which is the largest of the four (the bunk room is teeny compact and the middle bedroom and back bedroom are simply fine but not giant). It also has that exposed brick chimney that we discovered hiding behind the wall, and next to it you will see my go-to craigslist find of all time that you might have already “met” on Facebook or Instagram when I shared a swift shot of it this weekend. Yes, I truly did find an inlay piece of furniture on Craiglist, and yes, it is right now selling for $2,000 on Restoration Hardware (I got it for $400!). Insert that screaming cat emoji face here. Seriously, it is the score of a lifetime, and I am going to share the whole story, including how I fix up a few missing inlay spots soon. So… stay tuned. Again.
And before we move on, that sconce looks crazy small above the dresser (we simply hung it as a placeholder and it is looking like a placeholder, so we will likely get a wider double-sconce for that spot soon). Anyway, on with the tour! Or should I say “roll the next flashback!” This is that wall a year ago. Same house. Simply nekkid a year ago versus clothed now. With walls. You get what I mean.
And now, the back bedroom. Aka: our room whenever we stay there! Although the front room is the largest and has that lovely exposed brick, the back bedroom has its own bathroom (complete with my big striking clawfoot tub) and it has its own stairs that lead up to it, which are surprisingly useful. We originally thought those back stairs would be more of a lively thing for kids and a cool historic detail to preserve, but we were not sure we’d in fact use them quite much but we go up and down them all the time!
rug / fan / leather stools / striped duvet cover / pocked doors: SW Riverway
One of our bigger projects this past weekend was this built-in dresser that we brought in to the nook behind the pocket doors that you see above. We enjoy gaining some storage and function in that formerly blank area at the top of the back steps, and there is more than sufficient room to pull out the drawers and take like five steps back before you’d fall down the steps (you know I’d be the one to bite it all the way down these steps, so we have to make sure these things we are adding will not curse me later).
dresser / mirror / wood top / door color: SW Riverway
John would be swift to point out it is not complete. We ran out of nails for our nail gun, so the trim still needs to be attached, caulked, etc. But in short, a Malm from Ikea fit fairly perfectly in the space, so we made it look even more built-in by removing and reinstalling the molding around it (see below) and adding a few skinny filler pieces to each side (scraps from our kitchen install). We also popped some leftover butcher block counter from downstairs on top to tie into the pine floors and we are also planning to add some leather pulls to it to tie in the stools at the foot of the bed (you can see them in the shot two photos up). Cannot wait to finish it up and share the final pics!
Next let us move onto the en-suite bathroom, which is easily my go-to room because I get to soak in that big ol’ tub after hours of Hands-on and it feels so freaking good every time. Except for the first time. I had sort of a false start in there (more on that in this podcast) but now the tub and I are bros and only glad things happen when I am in there. And the kids enjoy it too.
marble table / floor tile / accent floor tile / wall hooks / blinds / tub color: SW Riverway
I am in short salivating while looking at this because we are back home and our house has two bathrooms that we still have to redo and two tubs that are about 10″ deep (half of my body sticks out like an iceberg) so I am itching to add a deeper bathtub into my life here at home.
The hall bath is still my boo too, thanks to my go-to vanity ever. The top is tiled with marble and the rounded wood drawers make it look like a furniture piece we converted to be a vanity but it came that way and WE SALUTE IT because goodness knows we have other stuff to keep us busy. Still on the list: making built-in bunk beds, building out the pantry and the mudroom, tiling the backsplash, landscaping, etc, etc. That big round silver mirror is an excellent (and recent!) HomeGoods find (the same one in brass hangs above our mantel at home) so if you are looking for one in either color, try HomeGoods. Target also has a truly similar one that is slightly smaller and thinner in gold.
vanity / faucet / drum stool / light fixture / floor tile
And although we have not built the wall to wall bunkbeds in our small-but-mighty kids room yet, we did hang art. And that is half the battle, right? (Nope, half the battle is being halfway done with the bunkbeds, but let me lie to myself for a second, ok?). That cute colorful painting is from our dear friend Lesli Devito (remember when we house crashed her wayyyy back here) and if you do not have one of her paintings or prints I highly recommend getting one. The door also got a sign that says Mermaids Welcome and it made my whole life to hang it up (also we took a poll among a bunch of kids and in short everyone is cool with mermaid and pirates, but do not get me began on how split the group was on dolphins).
marble table / mermaids welcome plaque / art by Lesli DeVito
So there you have it: a tour as of yesterday of the beach house (remember: watch the video! it has approximately 98% more info than some pics and captions can convey). Also, we hope you have a quite glad holiday surrounded by the ones you enjoy and delicious food and all the mermaid-related memorabilia that your heart desires. And if you have a tub where your whole body can be submerged, know that I, for one, now know what I am missing and am deeply deeply jealous.
P.S. To see the whole process of fixing up this beach house (from floor planning and demo to tiling and tiling and tiling and getting the floors redone) here is a full category of beach house updates for you to flip through.
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