Organization leads to a New Shed

Charles says that I have taught him, if there is a place for everything, it's much easier to be organized. I probably learned that from my parents. Don't leave shoes in the middle of the floor, etc.

We live in a small house with small closets, but have a HUGE basement & a pretty big attic too. Our house is not lacking in storage space. That being said, I keep the main floor as well organized as I can, but the basement is our own personal landfill. I open the door to the basement, and chunk stuff down there. The basement is a finished basement, it's just not pretty. We need new flooring, and paint to dress it up. There is a full bathroom, and a small kitchenette area. Renovating the basement will be further down the road. Stay tuned for that!

This purpose of all of this is, we have decided to at least clean up the basement. Get all lawn equipment, paint, etc. out! As you see below, we have one cute little shed that matches the house. It is packed full. Charles is having a new, twin shed built today. I am showing the before pictures, and will have more pictures of the progress and finished product when we get there.

One shed will be for tools, paint, woodworking supplies, etc. The other shed will be for lawn equipment. We are still deciding which shed gets to house the Vespa. This is our backyard.

When the new shed is painted, we will have the doors on the first shed painted the new teal color on our front door.

The guy is here to start building, I hope it really does end up matching the other shed exactly!!!

I also wanted to show the before pictures of our dining room. I have decided that I am taking a break from black painted furniture for awhile. Here is a current picture of our table and chairs. This table came from my parents {I love It}, and the chairs are from my grandmother's dining room set.

This is one chair I painted Monday evening. I wanted to brighten them up, since I am going with a bright coastal theme in our little middle Georgia cottage. I am liking it so far. Will either cover the seats, or make a slipcover. More on that too...

Southern Living:: Smart Salvage Ideas

The new issue of Southern Living is out for September. I received mine yesterday. There are some great articles on homes and design. This home below, is a great cottage style design using reclaimed materials. The Pursell's searched for many of the architectural details in their home, and pieced it together.

I really like the style. An updated twist on the old English Tudor.


They found this old lantern that needed a little re-wiring.


They built the bench below out of scraps from beams and iron gates.

The iron chandelier really looks great in the courtyard.

The antique bricks are from old buildings that were torn down. The key to working with the different sizes is to lay the brick floor in sand and not concrete.

The Purcell's pieced together the salvaged doors. All parts are from other buildings or homes.

I mentioned "Pecky Cypress Wood" in a post last week. This is old wood pulled from the bottom of rivers, lakes, etc. Personally, I love white kitchen cabinets, but I think this kitchen looks great!

The trestle table was built with scraps from the floor boards. I love the benches too. Hopefully, the skirted fabric is a washable slip cover!

The wood floors are 1" think oak planks with various widths. The right floors can really make or break a house!

The old wood shutters are newly crafted with reclaimed wood.

I love all of the details in this home. Charles and I need to start collecting old wood and bricks for our future home one day! We do live in an old mill town, so might not be too difficult to do. Luckily, Charles just ordered another storage building for our backyard! {pics to come later on that}

Stella & Dot

Over at Janell Bealls' great

blog.

she is having a Stella & Dot jewelry give a way! I went to a Stella & Dot party recently, and they have the cutest jewelry. There were a few pieces that I really wanted! Here are some of my favorites.


Selma Brooch Cuff

Gilda Hoop Earrings & Garden Party Chandelier Earrings

And these great stackable rings.

Be sure to visit

Stella & Dot .

& Janell's blog,

Isabella & Max Rooms .

weekend projects...

This weekend we went to Atlanta for my sister's birthday, and had a great dinner at a French restuarant, Anis. We had to get home early on Saturday morning for Charles to go to a meeting, so I decided to tackle a few crafty projects I had on my list. The first one is my corkboard. This is the before picture. It hangs over my desk in my office. I have heard other bloggers call them "inspiration" boards. Mine was definitely not inspirational! Junky & unattractive...


My old plan was to make a frame for the board out of old trim from our house. Plans changed when I saw this idea, I knew it was {1} easier to make {2} cheap b/c I already had the fabric & nail heads & {3} the best looking board idea!

I found the idea to cover with fabric & nail heads from Erika @

Urban Grace Interiors .

Her board in her office is basically the same. Light fabric with dark brass nail heads.

There is nothing better than starting a project that you already have ALL of the required tools! While Charles was at his meeting, Lane & Sophie helped me put this thing together. They mainly helped by walking over it! I had to do two layers of the white linen, because it was a little see through. Then, I used a staple gun to put the fabric on. The last & longest step, was to push in each nail head into the cork board. It is very hard to get them straight & evenly spaced!


This is the final result! I love it, really brightens up my {already bright} office! Now, all I need to do is hang the board. It has been propped up on my desk for 2.5 years! I tried to thin out the things I have on the board, and left space to add more. I am so happy with the look of the nail heads!

The next project was to turn this old ceiling tile into a chalk board for our kitchen. I bought this tile about 5 years ago at Lakewood Antiques Market {when it was still on the southside}. This thing has been moved all around this house, and my old house in Newnan. It mainly resides in our attic. I have never been able to figure out what to do with it. Thought about painting a "J" on it, but knew I wouldn't make it look right. Saturday, it hit me~paint with chalk board paint, so I did. Here is the before.

Here is the after. It is a small chalk board area, but I thought perfect for the kitchen. I think it works! Charles likes it too...

The last project of the weekend, was the front door knocker. Will post on that later this week! Off to have my truck towed with it's dead battery, fun...

Our House Renovation:: In the very beginning...

I can't believe how long it's been since Charles and I renovated our home. Well, when we started, it wasn't "our" home, but "his" home. Last summer my computer died, and I lost tons of pictures. This morning, I decided to check my cd's while keeping my fingers crossed that I had saved the real before pictures of our house. Looking back, I am so proud of how far we have come. I never thought we could make the changes we did! So here is round one of the real before pictures. This is the exerior. Do you think we made the right choices?


{You will notice Sophie & Lane helped out a lot during this process!}


Beginning to replace rotten boards so we can paint.


Our rear view hasn't changed much. On our "to do" list is to add large planters on wheels on the ground level to dress up the space under the deck.


French doors from my office to the deck. Also on our list, replace french doors with solid wood ones!


Original screen door from back porch. This is now our mud room with a solid door. Will post those pics round 2.


Our front porch. This is now our master bath and closet.


The beginnings of choosing paint color for the exterior.

This new color! Ralph Lauren "Master Room". We had it colored matched in Behr paint.

Sophie likes the new colors!

The red doors didn't last too long. After we got married, I convinced Charles to let me paint the doors light blue. This was after a trip to France where we saw blue doors everywhere!

Dinner & Dinner...

Charles & I did go to PTC last night. I won't name names, but we had dinner at a place that didn't have the best atmosphere. We had an appetizer, and then we left. We decided to have the second half of our dinner at the restaurant we originally planned on going to. It was much better! Needless to say, we ate a little too much.


Got my bag too, it will be perfect for tailgating now!



Before dinner, we drove through my favorite neighborhood in PTC. If we had to live there, and had too much money~this would be the place! My pics aren't great, because we drove through, and the houses are so close to the street.

This house reminds me of New Orleans of Savannah with the iron balcony.

This is a terrible picture, but this house is very Charleston/Savannah. It is a narrow house with a side courtyard area. This proves you don't have to own a large lot to have a cool yard!

Courtyard gate.

This house is on the lakeside.



If your gargage has to be on the front, this is a good way to do it.

Dinner & Napkins

Charles and I are heading to Peachtree City tonight for dinner at Grinds 'n Wines, and to swing by Swoozies. I have a cute, red market bag {similar to the ones above} that has been monogrammed. It will be perfect for football games that are just around the corner! {Thanks, Amanda, for my fab bag!!} I will also pick up a luncheon sized pack of my chevron napkins. Hopefully, this size will fit perfecto in my dining room bookcases. More to come on that......

Also, I am planning to get pics of some houses in my favorite neighborhood in PTC.

Happy Wednesday!!

*picture from Garnet Hill