Okay, so I know I’ve been terrible about sharing pictures of the Cottage. It was a combination of wanting it to be perfect and wanting to debut it in person with my clients before sharing it on the web. So now that at least one of those things has happened (perfection is still a long way off) I’m finally ready to share.
It would be impossible for me to really sum this place up into adequate words. I really don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of anything in my life (with the exception of the little human beings I’m raising) and in many ways I’m quite sure I’m prouder than I should be. I love the space we’ve created but I want to be sure not to take all the credit.
This place would be nothing without my amazing husband who never even rolls his eyes when I start another off the wall idea with “so I was thinking…”.
Nor would it have even an ounce of the character it has without Heather who poured her heart and soul into this project over the last six months. Sadly, Heather has moved on to a full time job but I’ll never stop appreciating the work that she did on the Cottage. Seriously, everything here has her fingerprint on it. I tell her she’s like Moses…she got her people to the promised land but wasn’t able to go in.
Then there are my friends who came and painted every inch of this space. And my family members who show so much interest in the space, some hounding me almost daily to share pictures. (Sorry Grama!!!)
And of course I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Craigslist. And the Goodwill. The Cottage wouldn’t be half the woman she is without those guys!
So without further adieu…here’s my new baby…
That beautiful stained glass window was originally hidden by a coat closet. Can you imagine? At the suggestion of my client/realtor/friend/soon-to-be-part-time-employee Ginger, I had a handyman (ask me for his number…he’s awesome!) remove the doors and finish out the area. I love how it turned out.
Straight ahead when you walk in the front door you see this old doctor’s medicine cabinet that my Grama loved back to life decades ago. It was a part of my childhood home after my mom took possession of it, and now it welcomes our guests into the Cottage, housing some of my milk glass collection (again, compliments of Grama) and my vintage camera collection. It’s one of my favorite pieces in the whole place.
Here’s the view of the entire sitting room…
And here is the beautiful window that has already cast its beautiful light onto several handfuls of precious babies…
I was overwhelmed by the number of friends and partner businesses who sent plants and flowers for our grand opening. This gorgeous arrangement was compliments of Envy Boutique.
The chairs were Craiglist finds that I had recovered, and the beautiful painting in the background is a Life in Motion piece by Bekah Bynum (of Spirited Art fame). We’re thrilled to be partnering with Bekah on a few different lines of painted portraits, one of which is the Life in Motion. More about all of that coming to the business blog soon. =)
Facing the other direction in this room you’ll see our simple but quaint fireplace, made even more fabulous by a little ol’ 30×40 canvas of the cutest kids I know. And beauty full words painted on found wood by my dear friend Becca (not to be confused with my dear friend Bekah, above) whose small found object art shop Paint It Red I’ve been kind of obsessed with lately.
You can also see my penchant for colorful vintage hard-sided suitcases. And don’t be jealous but those fun wood grain chairs totally came from Starbucks by way of the Goodwill. One coffee shop’s trash is a photographer’s treasure!
If you look back through the arch into the other side of the room you’ll find yourself in the dining room turned ordering consultation room. You could say this is the room that pays the bills and keeps the lights on!
Settee by Ballard Design by way of Craigslist, library chair found on the side of the road, warehouse pendant lamp from Home Depot, end tables rescued by my mama, and rug and coffee table from Crate and Barrel.
And facing the other direction…buffet table, lamps, and lanterns straight from the Craigslist. Little bench found in my in-laws’ “barn”…which is a polite way to say the place they built to house all my father-in-law’s, ahem, treasures. (Love you FIL!)
(Are you tiring of the rundown yet? Better start skimming…this is gonna be a long one!)
Off the foyer/hallway is the first bedroom which we’re using to store props and other equipment.
This room is more function than fun. Except for…
the wall o’ baby. If that doesn’t kickstart your ovaries I don’t know what will.
The other two bedrooms are much more magical. Starting with the baby room…
Table and chairs set via Craigslist. The small crib was my mother-in-law’s baby bed…rescued from the “barn”. The rug was a find on overstock.com and the chinese lanterns were much cheaper on this site than they were at the Land of Nod where I originally fell in love with the idea.
The fun rocking horse was found by my friend and colleague Marla, who is the proud photographer currently working out of this super cool room…
Marla photographs teens and tweens so together we created Twist: One of a Kind Portrait for Tweens and Teens. Check her out and be sure to like the Twist page on Facebook! She also took the pictures for this blog post…thank you Marla!
Adjacent to the hallway that connects the baby room and teen room is the cute little bathroom…
which leads right to my office…
The office is actually attached to the kitchen but there’s not a shot of that. You can kind of get a glimpse through the mirror of the cut out window that connects the two rooms though. My office is a jumble of Ikea, Pottery Barn clearance, and Crate and Barrel. If you have a question, just ask!
As you walk out into the backyard you’ll pass through the back porch, which we had completely redone since it was in a pretty sorry (read: ugly) state.
Love that picture of Heather and Jude. One of my all time favorites, for reals.
And then, you walk into the backyard, whose landscape was completely redesigned by Chad Bostick of Bostick Landscape Architects. I seriously cannot recommend Chad enough. Another post all about that coming soon! All of our plants are still growing in but you can definitely get an idea of where we’re headed…
And turning back around to face the back of the Cottage, this facade was redone as well…
Here I am about five seconds before the first guests arrived at the grand opening.
I was a crazy woman. As in, I was on a ladder in heels with sweat pouring off my body while twinkle lights were shattering everywhere. That kind of crazy woman. I don’t know what I would have done had it not been for Heather, Becca and Lee Lee of Lyn’s Gracious Goodness and Susan from The Toy Place. They saved my sanity. They also probably saved me from breaking my neck.
In the end though, every single thing was beautiful. So much more so than I ever dreamed.
Our partner businesses were so generous and I had SO much fun giving away all these fun prizes. I swear, I felt like Oprah.
Every girl should get to feel like Oprah at least once in her life.
Lyn’s absolutely outdid themselves.
Everything was as delicious as it was beautiful.
But these ham and pimiento cheese biscuits? I think I ate half of them myself. Oh my goodness gracious. Or, as the case may be, oh my Lyn’s Gracious Goodness.
Notice anything missing from this cocktail table?
How about cocktail napkins? This girl forgot to get them. But luckily my client/realtor/friend/soon-to-be-part-time-employee Ginger happened to have 150 of those bad boys in her trunk. I think she and I are going to work out just fine.
So there you have it, almost everything you ever wanted to know about the Cottage all rolled into one epicly long post. Have any other questions? Hit me up in the comment section.
I’m prouder than I should be so I’m happy to answer. =)
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