Summer Home Tour

Hello!  Welcome to the While Wearing Heels home tour.   Don't worry, you don't have to wear heels to join the tour.

Step right up and come on in to our 100 year old house!

Don't mind the no soliciting sign on the door. 

Most of the construction dust has settled in our house.  We've changed every room in our house by ourselves and on a budget...and, now that I have seen some of the beautiful homes in the summer home tour, I might have to get out my paint brush and tool belt and start again!

Our dining room, since we moved in, has been transformed twice...darn pinterest! 

No sew black and white curtains, flea market finds and decorative trim make this room special and complete. 

Our living room...

Has beautiful built in bookcases.

Perfect for displaying family pictures

and our favorite flea market finds.

Instead of showing off my bedroom, which has been slightly neglected, I'll share one of my favorite space in our house...My closet.

The custom shoe rack is my favorite.  If you like my closet, you have to check out the before pictures, they are proof ANYONE could have a closet like this.

This isn't the only custom closet in our house, Grace also has a custom closet with her own custom shoe rack.

Grace's room is currently in the transition from going from a little girl room to a big girl room.

Some things will stay, like her Grace quilt, and some will have to be packed up for safe keeping.  

The transition to big girl room starts on Thursday so make sure to come back in a few weeks and see what changes we've made.

Let's heat things up and head to the kitchen.

Our kitchen was gutted down to the lathe boards and built back up. 

And, though I love our kitchen, especially the green house window we added...

I am looking forward to repainting and adding a chandelier (read:  momma isn't going to know what to do with herself when only child goes off to school).  

From the kitchen, you can enter my other my favorite space in our 100 year old house...the pantry, though it looked nothing like this when we moved in. 

Besides for the hand painted stenciled walls, the addition of the library ladder (including its charming hardware) makes me wish it was socially acceptable to entertain in this space.

Our basement has a few special nooks, where my $3.99 Goodwill chair has place of honor.

I also have a craft nook, nestled in between a treadmill and a weight set (hence the TV above the Ana White desk we built).

Though I do have to share this space, I have tried to make my nook my own.  In addition to my LOVE sign, I also have a custom While Wearing Heels sign the talented Holly at Full Circle Creations made me. 

 

Lastly, come on out to onto our back deck.  We finally got around to decorating and updating it this summer.

We hung some curtains, added some barn wood foxes and made cushions for the chairs we found on the side of the road.

But the most impressive While Wearing Heels house, is Grace's handmade dollhouse, which includes a custom replica of the nursery we brought her home too.

Thanks for visiting!

Don’t miss the other bloggers on the tour this week.  There homes are beautiful and impressive.  Here’s the full schedule.

Monday, July 22
Atta Girl Says
The Happier Homemaker
Rain on a Tin Roof
Better with Age
Top This Top That

Tuesday, July 23
Mom 4 Real
Cedar HIll Ranch
Practically Functional
While Wearing Heels
French Country Cottage

Wednesday, July 24
The Lily Pad Cottage
Marty’s Musings
Confessions of a Plate Addict
Town and Country Living
Adventures in Decorating

Thursday, July 25
Good Life Of Design
A Stroll Thru Life
Worthing Court
Back Porch Musings
The Rustic Pig

Friday, July 26
Our Southern Home
StoneGable
The Everyday Home
Recreate and Decorate
Sophia’s
Vignette Design

100 Year Old House - Back Deck

In preparation for the 'Summer Showcase of Homes', it seem only fitting I try and wrap up the tour of our 100 year old home.

One of the reasons we decide to buy our home was the screened in cedar back deck.

Ironically, though, for the past 6 years, we've barely used our back deck.   Distracted with renovations on the inside of our house, the deck was ignored...until this year.

This year, we invested in a new door.

And, we replaced the white ceiling fans with 2 new ceiling fans.

Before you start thinking we've gotten all fancy on you, what with buying things like ceiling fans and new doors, we still have plenty of thrifted, free, flea markets and even roadside rescue items.

Remember the chairs my husband found on the side of the road (read roadside rescue).

We used them on our back deck.

And, we (as in me) made some custom cushions for those chairs.

As well as a few pillows.

We added some flea market finds.

We hung some pictures and planted some flowers.

And, we hung some curtains in the 4 corners of the deck.

The curtains provided a coziness to the deck and also helped define the space. 

And here is the view from the other side of the deck.

Including some more whimsical decor like a bull dog bottle cap opener and some of the woodaholic's wood creations (shameless plug...similar wood creations for sale in the While Wearing Heels Etsy Shop).

And now, the back deck is no longer ignored, it's become our favorite place to spend our days and our nights.

Summer Showcase of Homes

If you haven't already noticed, I added a button to my sidebar.

What might you ask is 'Summer 2013 Showcase of Homes'?

Well, it's like the MTV's Cribs for bloggers!  You'll get to peek inside 25 different bloggers homes July 22nd through July 26th.

Curious whose closets you get to look in, bathrooms you'll get to see, rooms you'll be inspired by?

Monday, July 22nd:
Atta Girl Says - The Happier Homemaker - Rain on a Tin Roof - Better With Age- Top This Top That Tuesday, July 23rd:
Mom 4 Real - Cedar Hill Ranch- Practically Functional - While Wearing Heels - French Country Cottage

Wednesday, July 24th

The Lily Pad Cottage - Marty's Musings - Confessions of a Plate Addict - Town and Country Living -  Adventures in Decorating

Thursday July 25th 

Good Life of Design - A Stroll Thru Life - Worthing Court - Back Porch Musings - The Rustic Pig

Friday July 26th

Our Southern Home - StoneGable - The Everyday Home - Recreate and Decorate - Sophia's

- Vignette Design

Oh, did you notice my 100 year old house is included in that list?  I better go organize my fridge for your visit.

Hope to see you back in a few weeks.

100 Year Old Dining Room

The house tour, I had hoped to complete in 2012, is now continuing into 2013.  So technically my house will be 101 this year.  

I warmly welcome you into our 100 {and 1} year old dining room.

Before you can appreciate what it now looks like, you'll have to take a peek at what it looked like when we bought our house {when it was a 94 year old dining room}.

Grace's first home improvement project was helping my dad and I add box moulding detail on the dining room's bare walls.

The addition of the moudlings gave this room some much needed character and charm.

Grace's second home improvement projects was helping me paint the baseboards and door frames white.

For any wood purist, before you gasp in horror.  The wood in our house was not in great shape.  Painting the baseboards and door frames white really opened up the room and brightened up the space.

We didn't stop with painting the baseboards and the trim either, using some Annie Sloan, I painted this cabinet.

Not only did it bring the back of the room another element of brightness, it also seemed to give this piece of furniture a beautiful second new life.

 Some of the other, simpler changes, was removing the dated ceiling fan

And replacing it with an updated light fixture. 

At one point, I had some burgundy curtains hanging in this room.

Actually, those curtains still are hanging in the dining room, I just turned them around and on the backside added no sew black stripes.

Some of my favorite decorating details in this room are the addition of a faux sheep skin rug to the top of my dining room table with a few of the globes I've collected on top.  Something about it makes me smile.

And a vintage English pond boat we found at a flea market.

And this area, as they say, is where the magic happens.  The blogging magic that is.  This is my Goodwill corner of the world.  The secretary is vintage Ethan Allen and hands down the most I have ever spent at Goodwill {$65}.  You may also spy my famous Goodwill chair there as well.

So, before you bid adieu to my dining room, here is the original view from my kitchen looking into the dining room.

Which now looks like this...

And that is what a 100 {and 1} year old dining room looks like.

*Like the paint color we used.  Here are the details: Behr Sag Harbor Gray.