The Rest of the Room

It would be difficult to show you before shots of these same spaces because we tore down every single wall.  It's a totally different house now than what it was.  The dining space you see above use to be the old kitchen.

 

The vertical beam you see towards the left used to be under the old kitchen floor holding up the joists.  We recycled as many things from the demolition as we could.  We even made a candle centerpiece with one of the old floor joists:

 

 

The ceiling is made up of the old planks that used to cover the walls.

 

 

We initially intended to wall off the kitchen.  I kind of liked the idea of having a quiet kitchen to myself with maybe a helper or two and shutting the rest of the world out.  ;)  But we saw how much brighter the main area was with it opened up and we decided to keep it that way. 

 

Most decisions for the house were made on the fly.  The stairs used to go the opposite direction, and we had no plans to move them.  I went out for a day of errands and when I got back, my husband surprised me with "honey, we flipped the stairs!".  If I learned anything through this renovation process, it was to go with the flow.  I'm flowing still today.

 

 

Instead of a guest book, I made a "guest board" for our guests to sign their name.  It's a chalkboard, but I have our guest use a paint pen to write on it so it doesn't rub off.  The phrase "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" was taken from a favorite hymn of ours:

 

 

Moving on into the living room area... my husband built the built-in bookshelves on either side of our music room doors. 

 

 

                                     

 

Since we lack a coat closet, we desperately need a practical solution for our shoe storage when we enter our front door.  The cabinets at the bottom of the built-ins hold our shoes.

 

 

 

The paint color on the walls is "Seapearl" by Benjamin Moore.  The trim is "Clean White" by Valspar.

 

 

We used our antique barber shop mirror as a new mantle for our fireplace. 

 

 

 

I plan to show you a couple more finished spaces from the first floor in my next post.

 

 

 

Again, if you have specific questions, leave them in the comments box, and I'll try to reply.  Thanks for visiting!