A Cottage Room Under the Eaves

Ho Kay Klass,

I'm back with my trusty old PC computer, so I have all my pictures back at my fingertips.

Today I want to show you guys a showhouse room I did eons ago in 1995...

 for the Cape Cod Academy...

 on the Cape,

 in Massachusetts,

 in the USA!!!!

This was the first showhouse I had done on the Cape, and not learning from my lesson.....

I did two more.

At the time I was working with my besty June, and she tackled this with me.

We tried to do it as inexpensively as possible,

so we moved the furniture ourselves, renting a U-haul and schlepping everything with the help of our decorative artist,

who was a guy,

 and we made him work real hard that day.

The van didn't have a middle seat, so we set a milk crate between the two front seats, and that's what he perched on.

He was a real good sport.

He lived through this experience.

I don't know where he is anymore....

I think he's in witness protection or something comparable for MIA decorative artists......

Since this was under the eaves of the house.....

it was on the third floor.....

and we had to carry everything up two flights of stars.

I'm lucky June lived through this, it was one of the hottest days of the year and we didn't have air conditioning in the house.

(and she's a leetle older than I am.......)

Sooooo.....

without more ado.....

here's the room.

Traditional Home Magazine 1995

The first thing I changed in the room was the color.
I had my painter paint the walls, ceiling and floor the same creamy off white.
The floor had been a dark brown paint, and painting it a light color really opened up the space.

We borrowed a needlepoint rug from Stark Carpet and used fabrics from Sanderson for the draperies.

I fell in love with that fabric, and justified the expense by reusing it in my dining room in Watertown.

Of course in was in the days before digital cameras, and I have no pictures of them.

I found the iron bed in a local antique store, and painted it the same cream as the floor.

Most of the other furniture I pulled from both my house and my Lake Sunapee cabin.

The few things I still needed I begged borrowed and stole, or bought for a song and resold.

As always, my trusty friends at Drape It helped me with the window treatments and upholstery.

In my purchase order I requested a valance with a two inch flat border bound with contrast welting, with inverted pleats hanging from it.

I had seen this in English design magazines, and thought it was very cool.

WELLLLLL.....

this is an example of not supplying enough information because you can't imagine another way to make something.

Joe had the workroom cover a two inch board with the fabric and outline it in the contrast welt.

My knee jerk reaction when I first saw it was.......

oh no!!!!!!!

That is not what I wanted!!!!!!!

I wanted the flat 2 inches to be just soft fabric sewn to the pleats. 

Once I calmed the hell down, I realized I really liked it, and started using it on other design projects.

Over the bed was a hanging bare light bulb, so I found an old glass shade for it,.

The space was wonderful with its beadboard walls and ceiling.

That's pretty much what sold me on choosing this room to do.

I wanted a desk by the bed.

June and I found this old dressing table on the cheap, and transformed it by  removing the mirror.

The waste basket is June's, and I'm still trying to figure out how to steal it.

Over the desk is a charcoal drawing of my Mother.

The red ribbon hanging on it I won in college in a horse show.

I was captain of the team.

We went to away meets and drank Cold Duck with our coach.

I think we rode horses too........

Traditional Home Magazine 1995

Since this was in the days before I knew I could paint furniture.....

I had my artist paint the chair green with some yellow and red details.

I wish I had a closeup of it, as it was wonderful.

I'm doing the best I can by blowing up the magazine pictures.

I like mixing  old scorched bamboo with cottagey antiques.

This look started when the English began trading with the Chinese and brought back furniture and pottery from the East, mixing it in with their English and French styles.

The way scorched bamboo is created is pretty cool.

Mud is spattered on the bamboo, and then the fiber is scorched.

Afterward the mud is washed off.

All the places that had mud, stay yellow, and the places that weren't covered become black from the fire.

Well, I have to make this short.

There's more of this room to come, 

but

I'm leaving pretty soon to fly away.....

Returning to Flerida for a couple of weeks to work with Connie.

She better let me start blogging pretty soon, or she'll be in big trouble.......

On that note

Latah, Gatah