Happy, Sunshiny Room!

It has been interesting to furnish and fluff the rooms at the Coral Cottage.  Many times the things I had planned for a room just didn't seem quite right and we rearranged until everything was to our liking.  There were a million details--little things like locating the right size lamp harp so the lamp shade would look right--and they all took time.

Here's where I left you hanging last post

The blue-striped side table was moved to the twin bedroom to use as a nightstand.  The coral lamp was added and the wicker lamp was moved to the other side of the sofa (still no shade) and some of the curtains were hung.

Jane Coslick and I kept tweaking--we swapped the tables on the ends of the sofa, got a lamp shade for the wicker lamp, and got the drapes hung.

A couple weeks later on my next trip to Tybee I brought some fun ottomans that had arrived from one of my online shopping adventures.

Three weeks later, here is the room ready for the Jane Coslick Holiday Tour of Homes.  We had gotten the draperies hemmed, purchased and installed the TV and DVD and a phone.  We also added some accessories.

This is such a wonderful spot in which to sit--it is possibly my favorite room.  I can just imagine myself enjoying a glass of iced tea and looking out on the back yard with the beautiful light shining in.  It makes me smile and feel all sun-shiny inside.  Relaxing.  Love it.

If you'd like to have a relaxing time at the Coral Cottage contact Jim Heflin at Tybeecottages.com  and he will be glad to set things up for you!

Not Too Bad For A Day's Work

Moving Day--fun, exciting, exhausting!  But it is fun to pull out all of the goodies that I've collected from Craig's List, eBay, flea markets, online stores, and Ikea and see them in the house.

Here are some possibilities for the sun porch--some made the cut and others were used elsewhere.

Once the Ikea sofa was set up, my sister-in-law Eleanor and I put on the slipcover.

At the end of the day, this is how things looked.  It would change--for example the blue-striped table was moved to the twin bedroom.

Not too bad for a day's work.  There have been many more days of work on this space and next time I will show you how we finished it up!

Living Large!

For a small home, the Coral Cottage lives large.  It has lots of windows and it boasts two living spaces--one is the living room and the other is a section of the sun porch that has room for a sofa, chairs and a TV.  Here it was BEFORE:

Not very inviting.  The house had been unoccupied for a while and this area was being used to store outdoor stuff.  We had Horton Remodeling to reinforce the area where the porch roof connected to the rest of the house.  Re-wiring, sheetrock, paint, flooring and trim followed this is what it looked like when we were finished:

View after rewiring, sheetrock, and primer coat of paint

With paint, trim and flooring

Ready for furniture!  I'll show you next time.

Fine Dining Finale!

The Coral Cottage had a nice long table that was made out of a door with legs attached.  It was long and skinny and a perfect fit for the narrow room but unfortunately 

it was damaged.

No problem.  I thought I had it worked out.  I remembered seeing a long, narrow white table at IKEA.  But IKEA discontinued it just before I needed it and there were none in stock in any of the stores.  Boo hoo!  

So I searched and this is what I found from Overstock:

Not as long as I'd wanted but it was narrow--a necessity in this narrow space.

The blue chairs came in a outdoor bistro set--three sets actually.  I drove around to several Target stores to round them up in an end-of-season clearance sale.

My sister Crystal is an online retailer and she sent me some beautiful cork placemats from her store, Crystal Griffin Home.  They are made by Rockflowerpaper and not only are they beautiful, but they are practical since they protect the table from hot dishes.  

Here's a closeup:

 And here they are on the table--you can see the curtains hung (they needed hemming in this photo) in the background.

A bowl of shells as a centerpiece makes it complete.

Want to come over for dinner?

Time For Fine Dining!

It's time for a little fine dining and I am here to show you part one of the dining room transformation at the Coral Cottage!  

Remember the little mid-century modern dresser that was being used as a sideboard in the cottage "before"?

Well here it is now!  We painted it with Sherwin Williams 6606 Coral Reef and doesn't it look cheery?  My friend Loretta also polished up the metal on the handles.

Next it was time for some art work.  I found some coral prints on Etsy by an artist named Tessyla.  She customized the prints for me with the color I wanted.   FYI she has lots of different designs in different sizes and colors and they are reasonably priced.

Jane Coslick and I wanted to avoid the room becoming too matchy-matchy so we chose to use a color for the mats that was different from the blues and corals found in the rest of the room.  I bought ready-made, matted frames from Target and, using a small rubber roller to give a smooth look, I painted the white mats with a small sample can of Benjamin Moore HC-1.  The framing looks custom and expensive but it's not!

Peter is hanging the pictures in a grouping above the sideboard.

Last, but not least, we added some pretties to the top of the sideboard.  My lamp has already been shown--it was the first lamp I ever owned, given to me as a wedding shower present by my mom.  I bought a new shade for it at Wal-Mart and it looks very happy.

One day in the summer I stumbled across this find at CostPlus World Market:

The coral serving pieces mixed with a simple clear plastic bowl from Target just make me happy!

Finally, we added a few flowers....

....and there you have it!

We will finish this up tomorrow!

Whine, uhh Wine and Dine

Without a doubt the sunroom at the Coral Cottage is my favorite space.  It houses a seating space and a dining space.  It totally sold me on the house but Dolly Parton's old saying rings true here:  "There's no such thing as natural beauty."   

Here it is before:

The light is fantastic due to all the windows--the porch used to be screened but was later enclosed.  We replaced all of the windows so they would operate properly and stand up to high winds.  The window unit came out because we put in a central heating and air system and we saved the sideboard but the water heater in the corner had to go!

After the room was made secure and the HVAC system was installed it was time for drywall! 

The old wood ceiling was to die for--I was sooo disappointed that I couldn't keep it (remember the 50% Rule?) but we couldn't crunch the numbers to make it happen and comply with the FEMA guidelines.

Next came primer--it looks nice already, doesn't it?  I'm almost consoled that I had to give up my wooden porch ceiling and beams.  Almost.

How do you handle the tough decisions about budgeting?  Are you resolute and accepting or do you grieve and whine (like me)?