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Colour – Turquoise

I’m not quite sure when my love affair with turquoise started, but it’s been going strong for years now.  Especially when paired with my other favourite colour, Red. So for this month’s deeper look into colour, we’re going to talk about Turquoise.

Turquoise seems to have had a time to shine.  I feel like there are lots of people out there who fell for turquoise.  But for some, it was just a passing phase and for me…not so much.  It is a colour that speaks to me and makes me happy, whether its a piece of turquoise jewelry or a happy accent in a home.  In this case, I’m lumping all the blue-green shades into this post – from aqua to teal and everything inbetween.

 

I love turquoise so much that I just bought a gallon of paint so that all our interior doors can be the prettiest shade of turquoise.  I’m also painting part of another on-going project with a little of the same colour, too.  I’m pretty excited! Also, my affection for turquoise makes an appearence in my logo – as much as I love red, I can’t envision my key in red, it had to be turquoise!

When turquoise is used in a home, it is considered a positive and uplifting colour that creates a calm and balanced environment.  It is commonly known as a beachy shade but it can also be very sophisciated, otherwise would Tiffany’s use this shade??

So where do I have turquoise in our house?  Well, the back of our china cabinet has foam core covered in turquoise wrapping paper.  I wanted to have a colour on the back but also didn’t want to paint it in case we wanted to change it at some point.  Our dining room rug has turquoise { and a bunch of other colours } in it.  Two of the many coffee tables that lived in our living room were turquoise, even if our current one is a barn door.  There’s turquoise accents throughout the kitchen, living room and dining room – from pillows to artwork to signs to parts of my antler weaving.

My top turquoise picks from the Benjamin Moore fan deck would currently be Tranquil Blue and Aegean Teal.  The Tranquil Blue is the colour I recently bought for the doors and it’s just a soft, but not too boring shade that will add the right pop.  And if I’m using Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint, I’m loving Kitchen Scale!

Are you turquoise lover?  Do you use it throughout your home?

Colourfully yours,

Lori

 

In Clear Day Farm/ Decorating/ Thrifting with Farm Fresh

Top o’ the Stairs To Ya!

Months ago I made some changes to the top of our stairs.  All because I wanted a full-length mirror somewhere. Our upper hallway is this awkward maze of doors and angles so there really wasn’t a good spot for it, except where the bookcase sat.  

You know how this story goes, right?  To move the bookcase meant I had to move the cabinet that was where I going to put the bookcase.  I shuffled some of the cabinet contents into either another space or the trash.  A million colouring books and dried up markers, my scrapbooks and a few other random craft supplies.  The space where that cabinet sat had strict requirements because of the folding attic steps that come down right there, so anything in that area couldn’t be deep. I had looked at various armoires with mirrored doors but they would be too deep or too wide to fit.  But the bookcase was definitely narrow enough.  The cabinet moved onto its next home, it owed us nothing, it did us well over the course of nearly a dozen or so years, I will miss the chalkboard doors though.

 

 

Old Bookcase location – note the angle on the top right of the picture – watch your head!!

 

New bookcase location!

So, move the cabinet out, swing the bookcase in and then rehang alllll my wooden shoes above the bookcase again.  I have a few.  I have a huge soft spot for old wooden shoes, especially those that have lost their mate.  A stray wooden shoe is almost guaranteed to come home with me if I spot it out in the wild.

 

That left us was a wide open space at the top of the stairs.  It felt huge.  I tried the handsome Mr. Byrne’s telephone bench there but it felt too big for going down the right hallway to the bathroom and the little back bedroom where Lena has taken up residence.  Back down to the kitchen it went….I would’ve rathered it went to the studio for a makeover but…..it still hasn’t changed…haven’t quite convinced him it would look fabulous brought into this century.

I drug out my wicker basket from the closet and tucked it there, just so my closet had more space and that corner didn’t look so empty.  Then I started keeping an eye out for a full length mirror.  I found a few in regular stores but never was 100% sold.  Then I saw one in Value Village but couldn’t buy it because I had a carload of kids.  And of course, when I went back it was gone!!  So, the search continued.

Finally!! Finally!!  Michael spotted one in the back corner of Value Village.  It was wooden, in great shape and had a perfect retro vibe to it.  And, the best part? $18.00!!  The other one I wanted was way more, like $65 or something crazytown.  Plus, I had a 20% off coupon!!  Score!!  I probably would’ve left a kid there to ensure I got this mirror, thankfully there was room in the car for everyone AND the mirror.

I was excited to take it home and get it hung up.  No, it might not be a proper full-length mirror but I can pretty much see all of me in it so that works!  I added an old kilim rug I had tucked out underneath and a cool stool with hairpin legs that was a curbside find.  I still think it needs a plant, but I think every area in our house needs at least one, if not 5.  But it’s a pretty lowlight area so I’m not sure what would survive there.

It is fun to shuffle things around, move out a big cabinet that clearly was no longer needed and create a space so we could have a big mirror somewhere in this house.  This is all part of my urge to purge, to simplify what we have on hand and make sure everything is functioning up to par.  In fact, the wicker basket I mentioned? Well, it has since gone back to being a toy box and all the stuff I was storing in it got sorted through, some passed on to Value Village and the rest tucked away in a manner that makes more sense.  And by Hannah getting the wicker basket as a toy box, meant her larger, old wooden one also got gifted to someone who has put it to good use already.  It frees up floor space in Hannah’s room, plus it doesn’t hold as many toys so we sorted through those and dropped off a bag to…you guessed it, Value Village!

I’ll get all my projects tackled sometime! I can’t imagine not having something to work on in my spare time…

Colourfully yours,

Lori

 

 

 

 

1 In Decorating/ Life

Valentine’s at Rachel’s Place

There’s a fancy little restaurant in our area that’s only open certain nights.  We were fortunate enough to get in for their Valentine’s Day Special. I thought I’d share our night out with you. 😉

We’ve eaten a few times at this little diner called Rachel’s Place, it looks an awful lot like my parent’s house, although it seems to be ran by small humans that look a lot like my children but it can’t be them as one goes by the name Rachel not Lena. Anyway, the food is always delicious and the service is great.  So when we heard rumours about Valentine’s Day, we knew we wanted to go!

Over a month’s worth of planning went into this special evening.  Lots of text messages flew between Mom { Head Cook } and Rachel/Lena { Head Event Coordinator }, Pinterest was scoured for novel ideas of perfect decorations and tasty beverages.  Items from our house would disappear, only to re-appear at Rachel’s Place.  Whispers would be shushed so no secrets were let out of the bag too early.  Hannah used the majority of her #thriftingwithfarmfresh budget on this big night….decorations and a fancy new dress!  The bar was set high!

After weeks and weeks of planning, finally, it was the day of Valentine’s Day at Rachel’s Place.  I showed up earlier than my handsome date, giving me the chance to photograph the big event.  The decorations didn’t disappoint.  From the minute you pulled in the driveway, you knew you were in for something special!

The menu was definitely extra special for Valentine’s Day.  Cupid’s Float, heart-shaped rolls even!!  A tasty salad followed by meatballs on rice.  All so delicious, 5-star review for the cook!!

It was all so delicious, when I was offered seconds, I thought about it but had heard rumours about lots of choice on the dessert menu, too, so I opted to hold out for dessert instead.  I’m so glad I did!

All in all, it was a lovely evening together with my family.  We all talked about how much work and planning went into the evening and how we all wished it could last longer.  But we will always remember this special Valentine’s Day, it was one for the books….err, the blog!

To Mom, who worked along side the girls and let them run with an idea born out of their imaginations, thank you for cooking for us, yet again, and being such a fabulous sport in all of this!

To Lena and Hannah, I love your imagainations and ability to pull together an amazing dinner, complete with every last detail planned out.  I couldn’t be more proud of you both!

I hope that you all were as spoiled as we were last night!

Colourfully yours,

Lori

 

In Clear Day Farm/ Decorating

Snowball Effect

It’s a line I hear all the time – ‘It all just snowballed!’ You start with one thing in your home, sprucing it up and then the next thing you know, you have plans to re-paint every room and buy new furniture for three.  I know the effects of it.  In fact, quite often, I’m the cause of it!! { I do love my job!! }

My current snowball all started with organizing one small closet that is part of kitchen cabinetry.  You can read about the long, drawn out process HERE.  But what happened was that once I started thinking about how things functioned and what we actually use where, then I wanted to do more and more!!

As I mentioned, I moved some things into my new shelves which meant I had the chance to re-work the shelves out above the laundry area.  And frankly, all that did was make me realize how much I don’t enjoy that space.  It’s always cluttery and it is the first thing you see walking into the house.  We can’t even put a door on it, because then it would be pretty chilly back there and the last thing we want are frozen pipes!!

As you can see, the back door is right there that leads to the back porch and I’m standing in the front entry, taking the picture!  What you can’t see, is just to the right is the pocket door into the bathroom and the sink is actually just beside the back door.  So this space is very visible, well-used and gets a ton of traffic.

And, I do believe, this is the last remaining original wall colour in the house.  Everything else has been painted but this lonely, hard-working area.  Even the ceiling is begging not to be glossy paint anymore!  Crisp white trim alone would freshen it up.

But I have a plan!  Of course – lol!!  I did what any modern soul would do – start a Pinterest board!! I want two upper cabinets with shelving between.  It would be functional and pretty!  Then fresh paint everywhere.  And maybe shiplap on the wall behind the washer and dryer…or beadboard…I’m undecided.  I think a pretty slim budget and some elbow grease could make this space look and feel a whole lot better than it does now.  I have a light fixture to change out the bare bulb situation happening there, too.

So, that’s one thing I want to do.  There’s something else.  Surprised?  No, I didn’t think you would be!  I want to add shelves to either side of the window above the sink.  I’m debating whether to do chunky live edge shelves, or simple white curved shelves.  I think more plants in that area would be in order, don’t you??  Lol!!!  All the places for all the plants, please!! And of course, another new Pinterest board started…

But, then that train of thought snowballed!!  Yes, shelves….but I was thinking of using those peel-n-stick tiles on the back splash until we get to re-do the kitchen properly.  Then I saw them actually installed and thought otherwise.  My goal is to cover up the pink and gold arborite!! Beadboard would be easy enough to do and would be a great nod to the country roots of this house.  But if I go to the extent of doing beadboard, then I want to upgrade the countertop first.  If you give a mouse a cookie, right?

So I started thinking about those changes to the kitchen.  Of course, then I would give the upper cabinets a fresh coat of white and at that time, spray paint the hardware to match what I did when I painted the island HERE.  I would also love to pull off a set of the high upper doors to have a little bit of open display but the cupboards aren’t balanced and the set that would really work have the light built into them over the sink.  Insert eye roll – I really want to break up allllllll those cupboards!

And I’d love to change the ceiling but then that leads to the fact that our upstairs bathroom needs to be redone and there’s no point in doing the ceiling now, until we’re ready to change that bathroom….see? It really does snowball!!!  I will however, get the light fixtures changed out to the awesome old school house style that I added to the studio during the One Room Challenge all those years ago, which you can see HERE.

I think my next actual project will be painting the interior doors a colour….turquoise I believe!! 🙂 But I would like to change all the door knobs then….lol!!!!  And the light switches and outlets to white….oy – does it ever stop???

I have some things to do around here.  The big, huge projects will have to wait.  But there are a lot of smaller jobs I can do now that will make our house feel a little better and continue on the journey of making it ours.  Ideally, I will be here until I’m a little old lady so I have lots of time. 😉

Do you have a list of small jobs around your home? What few, small jobs can you do to make your home a better reflection of your family?

Colourfully yours,

Lori

 

2 In Clear Day Farm/ Decorating

Closet Makeover

Do you have something in your home that just isn’t functioning to the best that it could? So frustrating, eh? We had ‘that closet’ in our kitchen.  And finally, 4 + years later, I fixed it!!

Our kitchen has a broom closet worked into the end of the cabinetry, beside the pantry cupboard.  It stored the central vac hose.  And the broom, swiffer, some cleaning supplies, the potatoes and the bag of flour.  And stored none of it well.  It wasted so much space, meanwhile other cupboards were overflowing and things I used regularly were a pain to access.

Brace yourself for crappy ‘Before’ pictures!

 

I had drawn up plans probably at least a year ago, if not longer.  I knew what I wanted to do.  Leave the top shelf, divide the lower portion in half, keep the hose and broom, swiffer, etc on the one side and then add shelves to the other half for more dedicated storage of small appliances, cleaning supplies,  potatoes and flour with worrying about the dirt falling off the broom into the flour bin.  It just needed to function better for me.

I also wanted to paint it all white.  It was old paneling and  a wooden shelf.  I mapped out my plan, bought the wood.  Then I primed it all way back in November…  And then progress came to a grinding halt.  I did nothing.  Well, I complained about wanting to do the closet over, I complained about how useless the space was and I moved those boards around my studio, out of my way, multiple times.

Then I listened to a podcast that made me think about the way I was storing things.  Of course, it came in January, with all the tidying rage that took place…not at my house but in general.  Every time I wanted the crockpot, I had to get the stool, climb up to the top cupboard, get it down and do the reverse when it was time to put it away.  And with the oven being broken { long story, long wait } we used the crockpot more than usual which meant up and down a whole bunch more, too.

After listening to that podcast, I put the last coats of paint on the boards and the inside of the closet.  I was on a roll! Annnnnnd, then nothing. Grinding halt. Again.

But then yesterday I reached that point where enough was enough.  I have lots of other things I want to do around the house but I wouldn’t let myself start anything new until I finally. Got. That. Closet. Done.  So, after supper, I took my final measurements, my little drawing and I went out to the garage.  Safety glasses on, the handsome Mr. Byrne to guide me on using our lovely new compounding mitre saw so I didn’t lose any fingers….I cut that wood into the exact sizes I needed and pre-drilled the holes!!  And I still have my fingers, so there’s that, as well!  All the wood and the tools I needed went into the kitchen and I got to work.

Guys, 4 plus years of wanting this closet changed and it took me maybe 3 hours altogether between painting and putting that darn thing together.  It isn’t pretty.  I mean, it’s shelving inside a closet.  But, boy, does it look good to me!!! Also, this closet is so hard to photograph, the stove is in the way, the lighting sucks, but here’s the best I could do!

Having this shelving meant I got to organize a few others spaces, too, as stuff that made more sense in this closet moved in.  It means the girls can reach the towels to have a shower without having to grab a stool or an adult.  Seriously.  4 plus years!

I hope if you have those annoying projects you want to get down around your house, this motivates you to just go and do it!!!  Stop putting it off!  You’ll be so thankful you did.  Granted, it might mean that once you finish that one, there may be 10 other jobs to be done, but, trust me, it’s worth it!!

Well, this isn’t the best post I ever posted, but I’m excited to share this bit of progress with you.  Closets are tricky to photograph!

Colourfully yours,

Lori