Furniture, Fabric, and Flattened Flora

My junking trip into the
wild and woolly Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
on Thursday yielded 3 tables and a sweet old rocking chair.

There, in the back of my trusty minivan, is my haul.

This is the junk hunter's equivalent of tying the deer onto the hood of the car.

Yes, I actually took this picture backwards, over my shoulder, into the rear of the van

when I pulled into our driveway.  I am that lazy.


In my defense, I'd spent a lot of time on the road in Pennsylvania that day,
traveling at 12 MPH behind vehicles like this (the big green thingy):

I don't snap pictures while I'm driving, but the big green thingy had stopped.  I guess for a rest.
Therefore, so had the line of cars behind him, including me and Red Minnie, my van.

Anywho, the tables and chair are a little ... ummm ... cleanliness challenged,

so they won't be coming into That Old House until they get the spa treatment outside first.

Then we'll see what else they need.

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So Thursday was an excellent day. 

A successful junking trip into Pennsylvania, and then when I got home --

FedEx had delivered my fabric samples.  Yay!

I showed you the patterns in Monday's post.  (Click here.) 

#1 was the clear winner among the comments left on that post.

So let's see how it looks in real life, in the Pink Bedroom!  Please pardon the lousy indoor lighting.

 As is usual with samples, most of them were eliminated right away,

so I narrowed it down to #1 and #6, with the striped #9 as an accent if we use #1.  

Also briefly in the running: #3 and #4, but they were quickly eliminated.

That's #1 on the left -- a scattered old-fashioned roses print.

#4 all the way on the right -- nice color, but the fabric is very stiff and would not drape well.  Out!

#3 is on the left -- too many red tones, not enough pink.  Otherwise a really beautiful fabric.

So here is #6.
Yes, there is a lot of it.  I ordered a yard because the pattern is so huge.
Here, it's draped over the loveseat.

I am cuckoo about this fabric, and I'd sign on for it now except --- I'm not sure it's right for this room.

Fabric #1, which is a linen-type cotton and has a soft, antique, muted look, might be better.

Less dramatic, but maybe a look we can live with longer. 

  It also goes really well with the striped accent fabric.

 But if I use the cottage-y looking, more restrained linen-y roses fabric, what can I do with the big peacock fabric?

I left the Pink Bedroom in a funk. . . and then looked down our second floor hall and realized,

"Hey!  There are other rooms up here!"

Want to see a part of That Old House that no one has ever seen before?

Here it is, below.  The room our daughter Anne has dubbed "The Cell."

It's the same size as our hall bath, and also the walk-in closet for the master bedroom.

We aren't sure what these 3 rooms originally were -- since the house was built before bathrooms --

but they may have been small bedrooms, nurseries, hired-man rooms, or even box rooms.

It's about 7' x 12' and is in its original, as-found state; we haven't stripped paper and painted in here yet.

 Eventually I want a pretty daybed in here, and make it a cozy spot for reading or napping,

and a small single guest room to use in a pinch.

But I can't see Giant Peacock Fabric in here, can you?  Talk about system overload.

So, we move on to the Master Bedroom, where the walls are painted in Benjamin Moore's Palladian Blue. The curtains in here are quite restrained, a yellow and blue toile from Greef with a Chinese look.

 Yes, that's also a rice-carved bed, similar to the one in the Pink Bedroom.

Hey, what can I say?  I found two on Craigslist.

How can you not get them when you find them for $200 or less?

Now, let's bring in the Giant Peacock Fabric, our #6 from last Monday.

 Ah . . . the background of #6 matches the Palladian Blue wall color.  Well, what do you know?

This is what it would look like if you were tipsy.

But -- do I want to introduce pink into the Master Bedroom?

Must I consult with Howard about taking such a step or can I act,

as Hyacinth Bucket would say, unilaterally?

Stay tuned.  Any suggestions or opinions are very welcome!

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Now about that Flattened Flora in the post title . . . 

These below were upright Autumn Joy Sedum before the snow hit.

Would you believe we still have snow on the ground here and there?

 Along the sunroom foundation, the sturdy little wax begonias have finally fallen.  Squashed by the snow.

Last weekend that our big lilac was cut in half by its trunks breaking off with the weight of the snow.

But even our great big Forsythia, usually such an

enthusiastic mound of psychodelic color in the Fall, is looking a bit downtrodden.

I hold out hope that come Spring, our perennials and bushes and trees will

have all sprung back and recovered.  Let's hope for a mild winter!

Have a lovely weekend!  Howard is going flying,

and I am putting on my Mad Scientist lab coat and experimenting.

 Double, double toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble ... Cass

Link Parties!

At My Romantic Home, it's Show And Tell Friday.  Click here!

Feathered Nest Friday makes its home at French Country Cottage.  Click here!

The Charm of Home features Home Sweet Home on Fridays.  Click here!

It's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground.  Click here!
Miss Mustard Seed hosts the Furniture Friday Feature.  It's a must visit -- Click here!

And it's Fertilizer Friday at Tootsie Time.  See what's still blooming, or not!  Click here!

This IS Hallowe'en!

That Old House is noisy today.
Earlier, I heard what sounded just like a door slamming upstairs.

But I'm sure it was just some snow sliding off the roof.  Yes, of course it was.

What else could it be?  In an old house?  On Hallowe'en?

So far, no trick or treaters, but we are prepared with a big bowl of candy.

Unlike the U.S. Government, Dion and I do negotiate with terrorists.

But now for something completely different.
Fabrics.
"Hello, my name is Cass, and I am a fabric-aholic."


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Upstairs at That Old House there is a bedroom, painted Benjamin Moore's Soft Shell, a lovely pink.
Honestly, I never thought I'd ever paint a room pink.  Never say "never."

There's a big high rice-carved 4-poster bed; unless you are quite tall, or you are quite young
and can fling yourself upwards, you need a stool to climb into it.
My daughters say it's like sleeping on a cloud.

 This room still has the remnants of our daughter Alida's brief tenancy here,

before she moved to California in the summer of 2008 for graduate school.

 Bit by bit, her things are being boxed and stored in the attic.
Or sold, but don't tell her that.  Just kidding.  Pretty much.

I'm collecting rose-themed decor for the room.

Like this painting, found at a charity sale on eastern Long Island in 2010.

I think it was $5.

One of my mother's old slop jars serves as a wastebasket;

she used these beautiful old china oddities as wastebaskets in all her baths and bedrooms.

On the slop jar -- Roses.  Natch.

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Why am I telling you all this?

Because today I  wasted  spent a lot of time cruising my favorite fabric website, Fabric Guru.com.

Because our pink room, which my sister in law Doris has dubbed The Rose Room,

needs curtains.  And a dust ruffle (the old fashioned term for a bed skirt!).

Also a skirt on the vanity dressing table, and a little bit of slipcover magic.

Meaning:  Fabric.

I was going to use a fabric originally ordered for another room, but it's just not right.

I'm thinking that one of these, below, may be The One.

I have ordered samples of all of them, because computer monitors are never totally accurate as to color.

So . . . whatcha think?

#1 

#2

#3

#4

#5

(Yes, same as above, but different colorway.)

#6

(Okay, this is wild, but I love it; just don't know about a whole room with it!)

#7

(Probably not as dull as it looks, in person.)

#8

(This is a tapestry, may be good for rocking chair seat covers.)

#9

(Hope this might be a good accent fabric, or a lining.)

#10

(Yes, I have two pictures of this pattern, as I am hoping that I

can really, really love it.  It is only $3.95 a yard, and from a good maker.)

Hmmm . . . may not be pink-y enough.  Too much red?

Well, in 3 days or so I should have my samples.  Fabric Guru ships fast, and cheap.

It's hard to get the right tone of the pink walls in pictures of that room,

as the pink changes with the light, and often hovers close to peachy pink, almost pale salmon.

My last picture today was as the light was really fading, and the chandelier was off.

Well, what do you know?  That's probably the most accurate of all the wall colors!

Still no trick or treaters.

I think they've been told to stay home, because so many neighborhoods are without power.

We are so, so lucky -- we never lost power, despite our town being in what one of the

New Jersey newspapers called "the epicenter of the storm."  Who knew? 

Some parts of our town got 17 inches of snow; we didn't get that much, but we got . . . enough.

Happy Halloween,

from Cass and Howard and Dion and whomever else lives here at That Old House.

BOO!

Guess what?  An old picture from when the house
was being painted, before we moved in, shows the Soft Shell paint color best.

When we bought the house, the room was painted sort of white.

I'm not real big on white walls, and there were some (!) wall repairs to be made.
So the painters got to work -- this is the room with primer and plaster repairs.

That's all, folks!