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Our New ‘Old Farmhouse Bedroom’ – A Bedroom Makeover You’ll Want to See!

February 5, 2018 By Laura 11 Comments

After a lot of dreaming, and then months of hard work by our own hands, an old farmhouse bedroom is finally a reality for us. 

You should know that Michael’s and my bedroom is the very last bedroom we have finished in the house. Three of our kids’ rooms were finished from new construction when we had the addition put on, and the fourth’s was a renovation. Finally (after 11 years of finishing the rest of the house ourselves), it was time for our own room to be done.  It’s a renovation and makeover all-in-one, and we are excited to show you all how it came out.

Now, it’s a medium size room, about 11×20’, so I hope we can all squeeze in there together. Let’s try!

COME ON IN!!

First things first!   Any good room makeover reveal cannot be fully appreciated, without first seeing the BEFORE photos. Don’t you agree? So with that said, this has been our bedroom for the past couple of decades or so.

BEFORE BEDROOM PHOTOS

** A HELPFUL TIP YOU’RE GOING TO NEED: For all slideshow photos in this post, click on the thumbnail photos, use the arrows under the photos with the description to see the NEXT photo, and then CLICK ON THE LAST PHOTO to CLOSE OUT the slideshow. And also, be sure to read the descriptions of course, to learn all you can about what we did.

More BEFORE photos . . . .

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02

So yeah, that was our plain-blah bedroom. I just kept the door closed all of the time, and especially if people were over. It wasn’t horrific by any means, but I wouldn’t want people to think that was my decorating style, or anything. LOL. It was simply a room not done. For just a few years (prior to our house addition), it was the triplets’ bedroom, as it was the only bedroom (of only 2 in the house then) that fit 3 cribs and then 3 toddler beds. During that time, Michael and I had no bedroom! We slept in the crawl loft of our living room on a mattress! We had to go up on a ladder to get up there, and all. After the addition on our house, as rooms were finished by us on weekends, we were finally able to reclaim our own bedroom. It was good enough, for the time being. We were saving all of our efforts for OUR bedroom, until it was our turn to renovate, after all of the kids’, of course.

That time came.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Home Decor, Home Improvement, Home Page, Home Projects, The Homestead Tagged With: antiques, bedroom-makeover, custom-built-furniture, farmhouse-bedrooms, farmhouse-decor-ideas, farmhouse-flooring, farmhouse-style, farmhouses, how-to-make-a-room-farmhouse-style, Minwax-Provincial-Stain, patchwork-rag-quilt, rustic-wood-floors, sliding-barn-door-shutters, sliding-barn-doors, steel-wrought-iron-nails

Old Junk – A Big Old Rusty Clock Makeover & An Old Cabinet

April 7, 2016 By Laura 3 Comments

Are you an ‘old junk’ lover? Do you love going looking for old junk, and get butterflies at the opportunity to bring some of it home? That’s ME to a T! Sometimes, I don’t even have a clue what I’m going to do with the old junk I’m bringing home. But I know I’ll think of something! (That’s the other part of the fun! Right?!).

Well, previously I shared in a post on our Facebook Page, a few photos of some old junk I picked up the weekend prior, of a big old rusty clock, an old cabinet, and a little bird bath/feeder dish. I promised I’d let you know what I did with them.

Here I am, keeping my promise, with a post on it! (Well, 2/3 of the promise, anyway.)
Since I have the most to say about it, we’ll start with . . . . . .

The Big Old Rusty Clock


Here is the clock, the way I bought it. Now, knowing photos tend to really confuse actual scale of objects, I want you to realize that this clock is actually a foot tall! So it’s bigger than it may appear, if you imagined it to be a close-up of the size of a regular alarm clock this style.

I actually ‘settled’ for this clock, in the antique store. The first one I saw was that old-style 50’s turquoise-blue-teal (you know the one?), but extremely chipped, worn, with rust coming through everywhere. I loved the look of that one, more than this unpainted one. The problem was, it just went out the door, in someone else’s hand! Ha haha! So, we bought this one instead, with the plan that I could create the same look as the one I originally wanted, with a little creativity. Somehow. As soon as I figured out how. Because the thing was, I just didn’t care for the ‘finish’ of this one, which to me, really looks like it was almost manufactured to appear rusty. The rust is far too….uniform, to be convincing. So, my plan was to try and fix that.

It did end up being one of those projects where, as soon as I got started and past that moment of ‘too late to go back now’, I got that sinking feeling like, ‘Oh no, what did I just do? What am I doing? I’m ruining it!“. But in the end, I was happy with it.

But quickly, here was my thought process, getting to the happy point.

I got thinking about where it would ultimately be put, and, I realized that old teal color wasn’t the ideal color. I mean, I did have a choice at this point! I didn’t have to make it the same color as the one I originally saw. Considering where I knew I wanted to put it, the most ideal color would be a cream. I did the best I could to replicate the texture of the look of the original clock I saw.

And here is how it came out . . . . . . [Read more…]

Filed Under: Home Decor, Home Page, Refinishing, The Homestead Tagged With: antiques, home decor, junk-makeovers, old-cabinets, old-clocks, old-junk, refinishing

Old Antique Bottles

October 7, 2014 By Laura 6 Comments

My family and I live on the south shore of Massachusetts, now. But I (Laura) was born and raised out in western MA, in the city of Westfield. Most times when I go back home to my parent’s house, my father urges me to take anything in the house that I want, for myself. “Anything at all”, he stresses.  I most always dismiss his invitation because, frankly, I want everything to stay there, just as it is.  Forever, really. But at least, for as long as possible.

You see, my mother passed away in 2005.  It’s so hard for me to believe it’s been that long already.  But what’s harder for most others to believe, is that my father has kept everything in the house, just as it was when my mother was there.  He even keeps it clean. Vacuumed, dusted, the dishes done; everything. You’d think she was still there.

It’s a 100 year old 3-story, 2 family house. Walking into that house, [Read more…]

Filed Under: Home Decor, Life In General, Re-Purposing, The Big Picture, The Homestead Tagged With: antique-bottles, antiques, knobby-milk-glass, milk-glass, old-bottles, Westfield-MA-Massachusetts, Whip-City

A Horseshoes Post

June 10, 2013 By Laura 16 Comments

Awhile back, my sister-in-law messaged me asking if we might have any use for some horseshoes.   She lives out in Arizona, and found a bunch on her property from some horses they had boarded. She thought maybe we could use them for some creative project or other.
She even sent a quick photo of them . . . . . .

I thought it was really nice of her to think of us, and offer them. I said “Sure!”, of course.  Although I really had no idea what I’d do with them.  I loved the idea of creatively using horseshoes for something, but nothing was coming to mind.   The HEAVY package arrived, and I took a look at them. And then I put them back in the package, and it sat under my desk in view, reminding me every day to brainstorm about it.  Still . . . . . . nothing popped in my head.  So then I Googled, and looked on Pinterest, hoping to find some inspiration, or even an idea I really liked.  I did find lots of ideas, but none of them struck me.

And then one day, I had an idea, and [Read more…]

Filed Under: Home Decor, The Homestead Tagged With: antique-horseshoes-commercial-display-stand, antiques, horseshoes, horseshoes-decor, ideas-for-horseshoes, mailbox-post-decor, mailbox-post-ideas, the-american-wringer-co

Our Antique School Desks and Books

May 21, 2012 By Laura 19 Comments

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Lately, I’ve been putting time into some things I can’t speak much of, yet.  Well, I could. But there has been too many time in my life, when I have spoken too soon, about many things, that never really came to be, in the end. So I am finally starting to remember to keep my mouth shut about some things, until they are a little more certain! How about that, huh? I’m only in my 40’s.  Anyway, just so you know, I’ve been more creatively productive than it has seemed lately. ; ) Doesn’t it bug you when people speak so vaguely? Me too. I’m sorry. I do hope to share  more with you all, soon.

But today, I wanted to show you a couple of home treasures of ours, that I love.  They are some old little school desks. If you like antiques, and/or you like old school things, you may find these pieces interesting.

002_vintage-antique-school-desk This first school desk is one my husband, Michael, picked up at a yard sale he stopped at.  He saw it, and knew I would love it.  Because I not only love antiques, but love all things ‘old school days’ related! He paid $15 for it, and once he did, the seller told him it was made around 1932.   It’s all solid wood, and pretty small, as it seems most school desks were back then.  As you can see, I just have it set tucked in under a wall table.  

 

003_antique-books Just inside the desk, are these two really old books.

004_antique_vocabulary-school-book

This book, Twelve Ways to Build a Vocabulary, is by Archibald Hart, with a foreword by Johnson O’Connor.   I came across it at a tag sale, on a table with a lot of other books, and bought it for $1.00!  The kids and I love vocabulary, and this book is just interesting to read through.  Printed in 1939, it has an old worn linen cover, fragile binding, and yellowed pages throughout.

 

005_antique_handyman-book This one, titled The Complete Home Handyman’s Guide, was Michael’s grandmother’s.   I couldn’t tell you if she ever read it, but I did have the blessing of getting to know her in the years before she passed, so I can tell you this much; she was as good as any handyman around!  She did all of the work of the greatest of handymen, and well into her 70’s!   Michael said he grabbed this book out of a box of others his parents had. It was printed in 1948.

We have other wonderful old books in our home as well. Some more meaningful than others. But all of them make my nose tingle, when I flip through them. What’s up with that?

006_antique-vintage-school-desk-kenney-bros-ang-wolkins
Our second desk is a little more sentimental.  Michael used this desk as a little boy.  He tells me that it originally came from his aunt’s home, who had 5 girls.  He recalls when he was little, that they had about 3 of these little desks, as well as teacher’s desk.  They did not home school, but just used all of the school furniture in the playroom, to pretend with.   At some point, one of them ended up coming to Michael’s family’s home, and he used it in his bedroom, while he was in early elementary school.

 

007_antique-vintage-school-desk-kenney-bros-ang-wolkins

Through the years Michael and I were dating, Ido recall seeing it in his parent’s basement. It was of no interest to me at the time. When his parents sold their home and moved away, Michael took the desk, and it then sat in our own basement for years. Eventually, I fell in love with home schooling, all things from old schooling days, and antiques in general. When I remembered we had this old school desk of Michael’s in the basement, I couldn’t wait to bring it upstairs!

 

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Although I have to admit, we truly have no room for it in our school room, and it is constantly in the way! It’s far too small for any of our kid’s to really use. And believe it or not, it’s heavy! Still, I love to see it.  It’s charming, isn’t it?

Well, most of it. There is a reason I have only showed you the desk on this angle, so far.

Here, let me show you the other sides……

009 Can you believe this mess? Guess who did this? Michael! When he was little, and the desk was his in his bedroom, he put all of these stickers on it. He says they were the stickers he got in school from the teachers, and when he came home, he would put them on his desk.

 

010 I think for the years this desk was in the basements at his old home and ours, the stickers is all I saw when I looked at it. It’s pretty much baffling to me. I have always told my kids, “We only put stickers on paper! Never on walls or furniture!”. Guess Michael never got that memo.  Even the kids were like, “DADDY did that? Oh my……gosh!”.

 

011 I told Michael, “Guess who’s cleaning them off? I don’t care if you’re 43 now.” ; )  Of course, they are still on there, so far.  He’s not that afraid of me, much. But I haven’t really put my foot down yet either.  In a way, I find it endearing to know he did all of this as a little boy. I bet he was so cute. And now we have the whole piece in our home, with 4 of his own little children.  But then, did you really look at all of the stickers closely?…..

 

012 What-in-the . . . . . .  Really?  A teacher was passing these out in school?  Lord have mercy. That’s a little disturbing. Don’t you think?  I don’t even get it. What does it mean?  I do know, that every time I look at it, I look for the woman’s arms. Where are her arms? Further disturbing.  Yeah, he needs to clean these off.  It would be nice cleaned up and refinished to it’s natural state anyway. Meanwhile, I keep this side turned to the wall.

 

013_antique-vintage-school-desk-kenney-bros-ang-wolkins

Another feature about this desk, is that it’s on boards.  I guess they used to screw the desks to the floor, so the kids weren’t moving them all over the place.  Or something.  I just tell mine to sit still. Anyway, this desk is so different than our other one we showed you, that is all wooden. Isn’t it?

 

014_antique-vintage-school-desk-kenney-bros-ang-wolkins I have no real year of this desk, but we can see on the base that it was made by Kenney Bros. and Wolkins, a manufacturer in Boston.  I did some research online and looked at hundreds of photos of old desks, but never found any just like the two we have. Still, I don’t imagine they are anything that unique or valuable in worth.  They are kind of special to us though, and that makes them worth something.

Could you tell us anything about the two desks we have here?  Do you enjoy antiques, or love old school pieces too? I really do. I bet there are other home schoolers who do, too.  If not, we hope you at least enjoyed seeing ours, today.  Thanks so much for coming by, and visiting us.




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Filed Under: Home Decor, Homeschooling, Language Arts, The Homestead Tagged With: antique-school-desks, antique-school-furniture, antiques, archibald-hart, decorating-with-antiques, home decor, Home Schooling, homeschooling, Kenny-Brothers-and-Wolkins, old-books, twelve-ways-to-build-a-vocabualry-book, vintage-finds

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