...can't you just smell these lovelies?! They are Roseraie de l'Hay roses which are known for their heady fragrance and, happily for me, are growing rather nicely right now at our house by the lake... Yes, I'm still at the lake, dreading the end of summer and having to come back to Vancouver! Other than that, I've been having fun adding little decorative touches here and there in our house, as I mentioned I would in this post...
First off, I worked on a few additions to one of the bedrooms upstairs which has a lovely view of the lake and mountain beyond (which I definitely must take some photos of for you to see...); I painted the little folding table you see with some yummy chalky paint, hung some of the vintage paintings I've been finding at local thrift shops like the little floral one above (a favourite of mine which I've been dying to hang up somewhere because I have so many black-eyed Susies growing in my garden here and they also were one of my mother's favourite flowers...) and I made the curtains to frame the lovely view.
Now, I'm particularly proud of myself for having made the curtains because I'm never very excited about having to make curtains, especially ones for large windows because they involve working with long lengths of fabric which I really don't like doing! But, one rainy day last week, I hunkered down with my measuring tape and sewing machine and, after several hours of uninterrupted work (always surprising how long it takes to make curtains!), I had curtains ready to hang!
On the other hand, hanging curtains is something that I find fun to do because I love seeing how a room is instantly transformed as soon as curtains are hung; if the curtains are a good fit, I find the look of the space suddenly becomes more defined and the room, most importantly I think, becomes cozier, don't you think?!
So, the next little corner of the house I worked one was the landing between the two floors; this spacious landing is one of this house's features which I found so appealing when I first saw the plans for the house online. However, in the original plan, the window is flanked by two built-in bookcases and has a built-in bench under it; we might finish the space in this way some day in the future, but for now, I made my own version of the bookcase-and-bench look. I used a bookcase we no longer had room for in our house in Vancouver and a bench with a lot of sentimental value because it was my husband's first woodworking project back when he was in his 20's! I also unearthed another piece of nostalgia to complement the look: a crewelwork rug my husband and I bought back in the 90's when we were travelling in Kashmir, India. On the bench, I threw a bunch of crochet-trimmed cushions I made back here, placed a pretty wire basket on top of the bookcase and, in the corner, I just had enough room to squeeze in a vintage floral TV dinner folding table. Now, as you can see, I wasn't quite sure what to hang on the empty wall by the window so I pulled out a bunch of my thrift shop finds...
...and decided on real favourites of mine, a rather well-executed duo of vintage paint-by-number framed paintings of horses. What do you think?! I still want to make a rectangular cushion pad for the top of the bench to make it more comfy to sit there with a book but, other than that, I think the landing has come to life and a long way from when it was unfurnished! As you can see, there still is a fair bit of finishing to do in this house of ours, but I do believe that, in the meantime before that all gets done, my little decorating inroads are making the house more enjoyable... well, at least for me! I do hope you've enjoyed taking a peek at these little corners of our lake house and thank you so much for popping by! (Thank you also to all of you have purchased fabric bundles from my Etsy shop -- I will definitely have more listed in September when I get back to Vancouver and to all my precious fabric supplies!)
(Yay! I have zinnias blooming in my garden now!...)
