Camp house, Country Style, fireplace, Fun with friends, Texas

Plans for the Cabin

This weekend The Social Planner ( TSP), her hubby Larry, Mr. Math, and I spent the better part of a day cleaning up and making plans for the cabin we are getting.

There were so many more happy surprises on the first “walk through” of this project after the tenants moved out than we did on our Huntsville rental property.   The electrical was done properly.  There is an ingenious system for water in the house even though there is no well or city water. The house is well insulated. The appliances work. They did a good job of moving out without destroying.  Winner, winner chicken dinner.

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(We have a lot of stuff to move along.)

The problems with the interior of the cabin are mainly unfinished projects or space planning issues.

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The kitchen cabinets are unfinished at the bottom.
I would like some that look like this:

Cabinets

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But I wan them washed in barn red.

The top cabinets are warped, laminate-over-particle board office cabinets.  I hate them, but for now we need to make them work.  I will keep an eagle eye out for someone who is getting rid of   real kitchen cabinets and will haunt the ReStore for upper cabinets that will work.  I can be patient.

The wood burning stove sticks out too far from the wall, the cement backer board behind the stove is unfinished, and the stove needs to be painted with high heat black paint.
The dudes are going to move the stove back about six inches and fix the stove-pipe.  We ( The Social Planner and me) are going to paint the stove and I am going to attempt to install plank tile that looks like whitewashed wood vertically over the backer board.  Mr. Math will be my backup in case of disaster.

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(The picture above is of the place with the tenants.  It is cleaned out now, but I did not get a picture that shows the space between the wall and the stove.

Tile


The cabin is not too far from the Alabama Coushatta Reservation, and the area has a strong western cowboy history.  We are going to try our best to honor the area through our decor but with more of a deer camp feel.  We both have quite a bit of western stuff that will be coming in. Our bedding for the six beds will be a mix of plaids, solids, and even  couple of native inspired.  The inspiration from the cabin colors will come from these pictures.

I actually found some bedding really cheap on Amazon.

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A lot of what is going into the house is coming right out of my old lake house “bunk room” and The Social Planner’s stash.  These vintage canisters came from the stash.

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The flowered couch is getting a chocolate-colored slipcover that will make it work for us.  The bonus is that it is washable.  The love seat is going and a vintage vinyl western couch is coming in to join the brown couch. 

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I plan on doing a piece for the wall sort of like this one.

I found this letschipit.com color scheme based on a female cardinal.  It is exactly the colors I see us using.

It is going to be fun making this small space functional and FUN.

The journey continues,

Blessings,

Karen

Coldspring, Country living, Country Style, fireplace

Whitewashing a Dated Fireplace 

This was our fireplace at Providence Acres when we bought the place.  The photo is from our first walk-through of the house so the furnishings are not mine.  I found I did not have another picture… probably because I did not like the look of the fireplace very much.

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I have one word to describe the fireplace.  Dated.  Dark stained trim around the fireplace, reddish brick, and brass blower vents.

I decided that while Mr. Math was busy getting the flooring down, I should get busy whitewashing the fireplace.

Inspiration for whitewashing the fireplace came from a friend of my daughter who updated her fireplace and totally changed the look of her room.  I knew it would be the fix for the hulking giant in our family room.

I went to the source of all things home related for instructions- Pinterest- and found a ton of sites that explained how to get it done.

Farm Fresh Vintage

The Yellow Cape Cod

Heap of Love

I believe that there are two reasons that whitewashing a fireplace is so common on Pinterest:

  • There is not a lot of skill that goes into whitewashing.
  • The change in the look of the fireplace is quick and dramatic.

The process is very labor intensive, but there is not much skill required.

To quote The Yellow Cape Cod  “I apologize if you were waiting for a long, drawn out, step by step tutorial.  This project is too simple and easy for me to complicate.  If you are a fan of intimidating, stressful, complicated, multi-step, time-consuming, DIY projects that require a ton of special supplies and mad skills, this isn’t the project for you.”

Remove what you can before you start then cover everything with drop cloths and or blue tape that you don’t want painted.

Collect a bunch of cotton rags, a paint brush you do not love, and disposable gloves then get busy.

Mix one part water to one part latex paint.  Paint the watered down paint on in small sections then use a damp cotton cloth to blot the excess paint from the bricks until you get the desired effect.

One blogger said she did this in three hours.  I am not saying she didn’t, I am just saying that I worked as hard and fast as I could and it took me a little over 6 total hours and an Epsom salt soak for soreness to get mine done.  An additional hour to paint the trim and vent covers.

It is scary to start.  The contrast made me think I had lost my mind.

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Once I got going, I really liked the look.

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    The top is whitewashed the bottom is not.  The drips were a pain to clean up.  Drop cloths would have helped as I worked down the fireplace.
 FYI.  I painted the vent covers with Rustoleum White Heat Resistant Spray Paint.  No worries about the fireplace ruining the paint.

I love the look.

 The screws are now painted, but I lost the light before taking another shot.  We need lighting in that room!
The mantle decor for fall is not something I am crazy about but I am working with what I have this year.

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Lumi loves her bed in front of the fireplace.

I would love to hear from you.

Blessings,

Karen