Slipcover Sample Update

As I mentioned in my last post, Design Choices, I took a chance on putting a piece of "dry clean only" fabric through the washer to see if it was still in the running for chair slipcover material.

It threw it in with a heavy load of darks and washed it on cold.

It came through perfectly!

Before I washed it, I traced it on a piece of paper so I could measure any shrinkage. It was not one bit smaller.

Then, I decided that I'd put it through the dryer.

On high.

(I mean, if it's gonna get washed, it's probably gonna get dried. And we might as well see what she's made of, right?)

Want to see what happened?

Here's the before and after:

What do you know? No wrinkles, no shrinking, no scrunching, no nothing!

You can see a bit of fraying on the unfinished edges, but that's to be expected.

I kind of felt like the color faded a bit. But I couldn't tell if I was just looking at it too hard. The Before pic is a little darker overall, so who can tell.

Even if it did fade, I don't care.

And provided it gets the stamp of approval from my slipcover guy....I think we have a winner!

I'll stay out of those fancy stores, yet!

~Betsy xoxo

Design Choices

News flash: I am not an interior decorator.

I love design magazines.

I spend hours on Pinterest and Houzz.

I've read about a gajillion "Top 10 Decor Tips" articles over the years.

I can mostly tell when a room doesn't work....and sometimes even come up with ideas that would make it work better.

But when push comes to shove?

When I'm standing in the store and my whole family is shrugging their shoulders as I ask, "Well, what do you think? This shade of aqua or this one?"

I get a little panicky over my design choices.

Maybe if I were in those fancy stores with interior decorators on stand-by to help you choose between $10,000 Sofa A and $10,000 Sofa B, it'd be easier.

But I'm not. (I'm too scared to even go into those places!)

I'm fretting in the aisles of TJ Maxx, Target, and Home Depot.

I'm nervously making offers on Craigslist and hoping the pictures live up to the item.

I'm rooting around in my attic thinking, "Hmm...this could work!"

It's not that I'm cheap, per se. I'll be buying top of the line mattresses (comfort matters!), but throw pillows that cost as much as my first car?

No.

I just can't.

Frugality + A very specific vision for this beach house = Sometimes feeling like it's never going to happen.

But it also forces me to get creative. And pull together a look that is less "polished" and more "collected and eclectic."

Currently I'm hand-wringing over slipcover fabric.

There is some very beautiful fabric out there. Some patterns and colors that I just drool over.

But at $150 a yard?

Or in a delicate linen?

These are not the choices for me. I mean, who wants to come back from a wonderful morning at the beach only to have heart failure when the kids plop their sandy, wet, sunscreened selves on the chairs?

After much searching, I finally found a really cute, very hardy, and great-priced fabric. Here's the sample on some of the aqua things I've already purchased:

 

I really like it the way it looks. Do you?

 

It's Waverly Chippendale Sun N Shade Fretwork in Mineral.

 

Not only do I need to make sure the color works, but I need to see if the pattern works with my other patterns and textures.

 

I just bought the big tan colored rug (at a great price, but I can always use it at my house if it doesn't work for the beach house). I absolutely adore the smaller rug with the blues and greens (and need it to pull all the colors together). And I could not pass up the coral lamp! I think it all works together: 

 

 

Here's the downside: While the fabric is an indoor/outdoor, and is very durable (while still feeling nice), and another website says it can be spot-cleaned with soap and water.....it also says, "dry clean only."

 

Ummm.....dry clean and beach house just do not go together!

 

For that matter, dry clean and slipcover just do not go together.

 

So, I'm going to wash my little sample and see how it fares. If it shrinks a little, or wrinkles a little...I can live with that.

 

If it twists into an unrecognizable blob?

 

Sigh...I might end up in one of those fancy stores, yet.

 

Godspeed, little sample.

 

I'll let y'all know how it goes...

 

~Betsy xoxo

 



Treasures From the Sea {Part 2}

As I showed you in Treasures From the Sea {Part 1}, there is no lack of shells, driftwood, and goodies on Ocracoke Island's beach.

My favorite shell to find is the whelk:

Something about that swirly tip just gets me! I even have it tattooed on my elbow. Or my "shellbow" as the kids call it. Shell + elbow....shellbow...get it?  Any. hoo.

There are always loads of the whelk inner swirls around. Seriously, how could you not love that?

Both my boys have started sand dollar collections. And while we have yet to find a whole one, there are always tons of pieces. These were my youngest son's finds the other day. Is that a piece of coral? I think so.

My older son relishes finding the whole scallop shells:

 

I'm pretty partial to the driftwood. I especially like pieces covered with holes or barnacles....basically, anything that looks like it's had its own exciting journey through the ocean. Look at this beauty:

 

My fantastic husband drug that monster to the car, hoisted it on top, and brought it to the house as a surprise to me. Major points! (The way to this girl's heart is definitely not diamonds!)

Can you see it peeking out from behind the stairs in my "shell garden?"

"What's a shell garden?" you ask. When you have kind of an ugly bald spot in your yard....

And when you can leave the beach with several grocery bags full of treasures in an hour.....



And you've pretty much exhausted the amount of bowls, jars, and other containers of sea treasures inside the house....

Well, you might have to move your collection to outside the house:

 

And viola! A shell garden. 

 

Or free mulch.

 

Or when-beachcombing-consumes-you-and-you-simply-can-not-pass-up-just-ONE-more-treasure-as-your-family-is-already-back-at-the-car-waiting-with-the-one-bag-quota-you-gave-them-but-you-need-an-excuse-to-come-back-again-tomorrow-and-the-next-day-maybe-even-twice....

 

(Yes......I am aware that I have a slight problem.)
 

Goodbye, ugly bald spot! Hello, gorgeous shell garden!

 

And as always, thank you, Mother Ocean, for your wonderful treasures.

 

 

~ Betsy xoxo

 

 

P.S. When you visit Stranded on Purpose, feel free to add some treasures to the shell garden. And if your little one spies something that she just can't live without?  Please let her take it home.
Us beachcombers have to stick together, don't you know.  : )

 

Treasures From the Sea {Part 1}

I have always loved the ocean.

Even as a little kid I wanted us to take family trips to the beach.

I always liked the less commercial beaches. Boardwalks, rides, and towel-to-towel sunbathers just ain't my thing.

I'll take remote, unspoiled, and unpopulated any day.

The first time I stepped out onto the beach on Ocracoke I burst into tears. The beauty simply overwhelmed me. I had never in my life seen that kind of unspoiled beach and ocean.

The beach on Ocracoke is amazing.

So amazing, it's a national park!

Meaning there are no houses, no hotels, no condos on the beach or on the dunes. Just miles and miles (10+ miles) of sand, dunes, and ocean.

It's routinely rated as one of the world's top beaches.

But the absolute best thing about it?

The shells and treasures.

Oh. My. Word.

I have spent my life going to beaches where I set the alarm clock for 6:00 a.m. so I can walk the beach (with a dozen or so other hard-core folks) and gather a handful of shells....maybe even a small bag, if I was lucky.

Beachcombing on Ocracoke's beach is like shooting fish in a barrel. Seriously, look at all the shells:

You can find starfish:

 

And jellyfish:
 

 

And even fishy fish:
 

 

In fact, there's plenty of cool dead things in various stages of....dead. Here's a horseshoe crab that washed up on the beach (it might not be dead, it might just be an old molted shell...I didn't really pursue it):

 

 

This guy, on the other hand, was definitely deceased. Some sort of ray or skate, maybe:

 

 



 And probably one of the coolest things I've ever found.....a sea turtle rib:

 

 

Pretty cool, huh?

 

I love the anticipation of heading to the beach....wondering what gifts the sea will have left. It's pretty much better than Christmas for me.

And fortunately, there's a great section of beach with a lifeguard, a bath house, and a whole lot less dead things when swimming and sunbathing are on my beach to-do list.

 

In Part 2 I'll show you some more treasures.......and what I plan to do with loads like this:

 

 

Happy Beachcombing!

 

~Betsy xo


Click here to go to Treasures From the Sear {Part 2}.





Floored

Aside from painting, one of the other "whole house" projects we've tackled on the beach house is flooring. The house previously had sheet linoleum throughout....about 4 different patterns. While super easy to clean, it's a much more "industrial" feel than I wanted....especially in the bedrooms.

Originally I wanted ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathrooms (my husband has done tiling for many years and I have coveted some of his client's floors from afar). Imagine my surprise when he said no. After he explained his reasoning, I agreed.

You see, our house sways. It's on stilts in a hurricane-prone area. Last year we stayed in another house on Ocracoke (right on the Pamlico Sound). A wicked storm kicked up during the night and the house was a-ROCKIN'! And not in the fun way. In the lay-motionless-in-bed-clutching-your-spouse's-arm-envisioning-who-shows-up-at-your-funeral way.

While I was busy hyperventilating, Contractor Husband was attempting to explain to me how the house's architecture is such that swaying is not only OK, but necessary. If the house doesn't flex, it will break.

So, while flexing and swaying are good for the house's longevity, they're not great matches for ceramic tile--which tolerates zero flexing. Cracked tiles, loose grout, and the sound of walking on crunchy eggshells are likely results when you combine movement and ceramic tile.

Sigh. So....no tile for us.

For the bathrooms, we are going with sheet linoleum again. The color choices in this were not great but, again, Contractor Husband nixed the square sheets for being too prone to water damage at all the seams. I'll share the bathroom flooring in a later "Bathrooms Post."

The bedrooms will get a nice gray Stainmaster carpet. That I will also share that at a later date since we're still working on getting installers to the island after the Hatteras/Ocracoke ferry shut down due to shoaling.

So enough about what isn't....don't you want to see what is?

For the main part of the house--the living room, kitchen, dining room, and game room--we went with a Pergo laminate. Initially I was worried that it would have that hollow sound, but it seems they've eliminated that issue.

The color is (fittingly) called, "Driftwood." Look how much cuter than the old linoleum:

It's pretty easy to install, provided you throw out food for your crew at regular intervals:

The overall effect....with the aqua paint, the high gloss trim, and the white washed ceilings...is pure beachy perfection in my opinion! What do you think?

Cute, right? (I mean, minus all the stuff laying around.)

Bonus: It hides tracked-in sand beautifully and shines right up with a little wet Swiffer action.

Like Contractor Husband said, "I couldn't imagine this floor in any other house, but it's perfect here."

What can I say? When he's right....he's right.

(Just don't tell him I said that!)

~Betsy xoxo

P.S. We are almost fully booked for the summer months....only 1 week left in June and 1 week left in August. Grab 'em quick if you want to come have a fantastic summer beach vacation!



With Apologies to The Stones



I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black

 

- Paint It Black, The Rolling Stones

 

All week I've been humming this Stones song. Only modifying it butchering it to reflect my current situation....which is Paint It White. Not very "rock-n-roll" but pretty darn beachy.

Here is a load of kitchen cabinet shelves, bathroom vanity doors, furniture, and mirrors (with one coat of primer already done) waiting to be sprayed within an inch of their lives:
 

More furniture to be painted (in our newly expanded spray booth area!):
 

 

See that little white table up there? The upside down one? Want to see a neat trick for painting furniture like that?

 

 

 If you drill screws into the bottom of your piece of furniture it creates nice little feet. Your piece won't get painted to your drop cloth and you can back the screws out when you're done and no one will ever see it. Neat, huh? (My husband is wicked smaht.) This cute table has metal plates on the legs....that's the tape you see.

And ta-daaaa!

 Cute, right? I love the little metal pieces on the feet. I think I paid $50 for this table at our local antique store, Cabin Point Mercantile. You could probably find one just like it Pottery Barn for 40 kajillion dollars. Yeah....no, thanks.

We also did a handful of mirrors. Here's one before:

Here's the during:

 



translated from English to English

We don't cover the glass before we paint because it takes too long. We use this laser sharp scraper after it's dried:

 

 

It is seriously so fast (and scary sharp). Just get a little corner started...

 

 

And viola! The after:

 

 

Way easier and faster than trying to curve tape or paper around all those bends in the frames. 

 

Wanna see some pretty after pics? Eeee...I know I do!

This headboard was pretty beat up. Now it looks brand spankin' new:

 

And here's a whole load of goodies all decked out in white--looking pretty good against those aqua walls and....oh...yes....on some new flooring!

 

 

 Oh my word....I just love it. Do you?

And here....just to keep it a little rock-n-roll edgy....a Paint It Black sunset over the beach:

 

 Oh, Ocracoke...you never disappoint!

 

~ Betsy xoxo

Just keep painting, painting, painting...

Work on the house is coming right along! My husband Chris, his buddy Jamey, and my father-in-law John spent an entire week painting the interior. I was dying to see the results. I tried to convince the family that Santa would find us just fine in Ocracoke....they weren't having it.

Finally after several weeks of waiting (with only a few phone pic sneak-peeks to hold me over) I got to see this massive undertaking in person over New Years.

Oh, mama.

It is fantastic!

All the dark wood is now white or whitewashed, and all the off-white walls are now a pale aqua. The yummiest, beachiest, cleanest, crispest, pale aqua.

I was askeered of that color, too. I hate picking paint colors. Too much variation from the paint chips, too much room for error, too much oh-my-god-now-the-whole-room-looks-like-dooky-and-my-husband-is-gonna-flip-if-I-say-it-has-to-be-redone.

I don't have great pictures of it...we've still got holes where receptacles, switches, registers, etc. are getting replaced, but I can't leave you all hanging, so here's a little sneak-peek:

 

 

Whattya think? Do you love it as much as I do?

Those French doors were all brown wood, the wainscoting was all brown wood, the window trim was all brown wood....and it all had the effect of a mountain cabin for me. It also made your eye naturally stop on it. Now your eye skips past and it and sees right out the window. When we're talking fantastic sunsets from the dinner table that's what I want to focus on! 

 

There is still a lot more painting to be done. This past week we tackled the kitchen cabinet doors and drawers, the bedroom doors, and the louvered closet doors.

 

We started out by creating an enclosed paint booth under the house. Or as I came to know it: My cell.

 



 

 

We laid down a heavy blue tarp over the floor and secured it with boards and cinder blocks. We stapled heavy painters plastic to the rafters to create the walls.

 

Chris created a giant "easel" for us to lean all the objects against:

 



 

Here are all the kitchen cabinets laid out ready to spray:

 

 

Even the little spice cabinet and cutting board doors got space on the easel with the addition of a couple extra screws:

 

 

When you're mixing 5 gallons of paint a wimpy paint stick ain't gonna cut it. You need the drill with the paint stirrer attachment (I've been told this is actually called a "bunghole mixer".....I....err........right, then):

 

 

You also need to protect yourself from all the paint over spray (tiny little droplets that hang in the air and will land on your hair and clothes and in your lungs as you breath). A Tyvec suit and a respirator are not only necessary, but highly fashionable:

 

 

As an aside, that sprayer I'm holding (an air sprayer) was abandoned in favor of the big-daddy airless one. It was too cold in our garage and the paint was too cold and thick. We needed the big guns.

 

Here are the doors before:

 

 

That's a can of denatured alcohol on the ground. We prepped all the wood by wiping it scrubbing it with that. It gets rid of all the dirt, grease, and grime that prevents the paint from sticking to the wood.

 

Here are the doors after:

 

 

Bright, glossy white. ::swoon::

 

We did the kitchen cabinet doors and drawers in a semi-gloss white. I have no after pics of those...it was much too late and I wanted out of my cell.

 

Next we'll be painting the rest of the kitchen cabinets (the parts still attached to the kitchen walls), the kitchen ceiling, and lots and lots of furniture.

 

And, if all goes well, we'll be replacing flooring. (Which we picked up yesterday. I can not wait to show y'all the flooring. It's called Driftwood. 'Nuff said? Yes, indeed.)

 

It's starting to feel pretty beachy up in here!

 

Maybe it's just the fumes...

 

~Betsy xoxo