I have been like  an expectant mother and it has taken almost exactly nine months, but at long last our family room remodel is complete! I’ve definitely got the decorating bug and even recently took an online interior decorating course. The family room journey started in January. We had used a large room connected to the dining room as a family room since we moved in. It was perfect when we had toys and videos and electronic gaming and lots of friends coming over. Now that the kids are older, it makes more sense to have that larger room be a living room for entertaining. The smaller room that we had used as a living room seemed perfect for a family room where my husband and I could watch TV together. It has a fireplace but didn’t have much else going for it other than hardwood floors. The shelves and mantel in place were old and not very functional and resulted in ridiculous amounts of dusting since the shelves were open. The fireplace was brick which I had painted years ago. We decided to switch the rooms.

My desire to switch rooms conveniently coincided with the Super Bowl which was my husband’s excuse to buy a giant curved TV we planned to mount above the fireplace eventually. We switched the furniture in the rooms and plopped the TV on the mantel. Then we struggled through finding contractors, getting estimates, choosing materials and living through what was supposed to be a one week renovation that took four weeks to complete. Then there was the eight week wait for furniture that turned into 11 weeks since one fabric was backordered.

Now, 9 months later I have given birth to a family room. As you can see from the photos, it looks nothing like it used to, which is a very good thing!

 

The Fireplace Wall

Since we are lucky enough to have a wood burning fireplace, we wanted to highlight it. Our fireplace had no doors, only a portable screen. I wanted doors, marble, a mantel and built-in cabinets with glass doors to keep some of my collections dust-free. I also wanted lighting in the cabinets.

The fireplace doors were a fairly simple thing to find and the installation was without drama. Marble for the fireplace surround was impossible to find. There is almost nothing in my color scheme and what there is was horribly expensive. We instead went with mesh sheets of pebbles on the fireplace surround and tile on the floor. They are in the green color and blue family.

The TV is mounted on the wall and all the wiring is inside the walls, so no cords show (something I wanted very badly!). All of the components are in one of the cabinets and my techy husband found a tiny little receiver that hangs below one of the cabinet doors so the remote will still operate the DVR box.

The Cabinets

Our contractor sent us to a kitchen design store to pick out cabinets. The designer there did a CAD drawing of the wall and came up with a price for having the cabinets built. The price for this was also ridiculous. Our solution was to just buy the doors there. Our contractor built the cabinets and shelves himself and saved us a bundle. We bought the doors unpainted because although everyone claims a paint store can color match anything, I found in our kitchen that it was not true. I have never been able to get a true color match to the cabinet doors in our kitchen and I was not about to go through that again. The contractor painted everything himself and it turned out beautifully.

Our contractor and I constructed the mantel using pieces of moulding. He just kept picking out pieces and holding them up and adding them when I approved.

I wanted lighting in the cabinets but I didn’t want glass shelves. I don’t care for the way that lights in the top of a cabinet cast shadows when they shine down. So we installed strips of LED lights on the front inside of the cabinets, to shine to the back. They are on a dimmer switch.

I wanted glass doors with no wood strip down the center to provide an unobstructed view and to end the endless dusting that is necessary when you have shelves with lots of stuff on them. We ended up with doors that are on a spring and meet in the center (you push them and they pop open). Getting this right took several tries (and weeks of waiting), but eventually everything fit and worked. No more dust!

I chose a teal color for the wall behind the fireplace while the other walls are a very pale blue. The fireplace wall color doesn’t show up accurately in these photos – it is softer and lighter than it appears here.

I bought a metal bin, the kind often used for storing beer or soda in ice at a casual party, to hold wood for the fireplace. I bought brushed nickel fireplace tools (and happily said goodbye to the brass ones with duck heads on the handles that came with the house).

 

Furnishings

I stayed with the green/blue palette for the room. I really wanted a couch with a chaise because the room is very small and a coffee table or chaise would just be in the way. The challenge with this is the wall it needed to go on is very short, since it is the opening into the room. After a lot of hunting we did finally find one that fit perfectly, but it took 10 weeks on order. I also ordered a teal recliner and a tropical floral print chair. All of the furniture was purchased during the store’s annual tent sale so it was all discounted. We reused a blue swivel chair and my great grandmother’s rocking chair. Every single table save one was bought at Home Goods (the other is from a sale at Pier 1). I went once a week for weeks hunting for the right pieces.  The sofa table was particularly hard to find since it needed to be as tall as the couch and this was a challenge, but Home Goods came through. The carpet is also from Home Goods and I went with white because the room gets little natural light and I really needed something to help lighten the space.

The lamps are Home Goods finds as well, except for the teal floor lamp behind the couch which I purchased at Pier 1 years ago and never really had a place for it. Drapes are also from Home Goods.

Wall Art

The room’s theme is travel. The large map was my grandfather’s and includes the lines he drew to mark the trips he and my grandmother took – to every continent but Antarctica. The map used to be in a frame he handmade, but to preserve it, I wanted it under glass, so we had it framed. It was the perfect color for the room and was the right size for the one big wall. I was sad to lose the frame he had made, bt my husband reused the original wire to hang it with, which is a nice touch. The other paintings are from our trips.

The Shelves

The shelves showcase three of my collections: baskets, pottery, and sheep, all of which have been purchased on our trips. I used several different height clear lucite stands to achieve different heights within the display area. I also mounted photographs onto the back of the shelves (using removable 3M mounting strips) to fill the empty space. Before I hit upon that solution, I had them just sitting on the shelves and everything was the same height with this big white space above it. You can see the before and after of this in the shelf photos. I am so pleased with how well I can see everything now. Previously, they were in very dark shelves in another room and I could never really see what I had.

History

I’ve already mentioned the meaning of the big map on the wall, my great grandmother’s rocker, and that everything on the shelves are travel finds, but there are a few other little things in the room that have a history. The basket holding the fisherman knit throw (which is from Ireland) was my grandmother’s and has special meaning to me. The round wooden containers stacked behind the couch were my great grandfather’s (he was a farmer) and used to take produce to the market to sell. They have his initials on them. The plant behind the couch is in a crock that was my grandmother’s. There is a very good article about using heirloom furniture in your decor plan here.

The Bookcase

I wrote about the little child’s bookcase I bought to hold our travel coffee table books here. It’s the perfect item in the little hallway that goes by the family room next to a closet.

I’m still looking for at least one teal colored pillow to put on the couch. And I’m trying to formulate a plan for how to make my Christmas decorations work in this room. I’m thrilled with the end result though. We are enjoying being able to sit comfortably and watch TV together at night and on the weekends. When the kids are around, there is plenty of room for them to join us. I have found the chaise part of the couch to be the perfect little reading nook for me during the day. It is right next to the window and feels like a window seat. The white carpet, which I was terrified of, has turned out to be a good choice for golden retrievers (of which we have two) – no fur shows at all. The remodel was a success in our books and we are so thrilled with the results!

I have been like  an expectant mother and it has taken almost exactly nine months, but at long last our family room remodel is complete! I’ve definitely got the decorating bug and even recently took an online interior decorating course. The family room journey started in January. We had used a large room connected to … Read more →

Do you have halls in your home that are empty and you don’t know what to do with them? I have two space like this in my house that I’ve been pondering. One of them is connected to a remodeling project we have been working on. We recently remodeled our family room and there is a small hallway, really half of a hallway since it only has one wall and the other side opens to the family room. It’s complicated even further by the fact that there is a closet that opens into the space, so I can’t block the door. When we first moved into this house I painted a tree mural on the wall. When we repainted the room, the mural was done and gone and I needed something to make this little space work for me.

I thought about this little space for quite a long time until I came up with a great solution. The theme of our new family room is travel (a post about this room is coming soon) so I wanted something that would relate. Everywhere I go, I try to buy a coffee table of photos of the area. These books ended up stacked on tables and never were displayed to their potential. A bookcase would be perfect, however the wall it could go is behind where the closet door opens, so it would have to be very narrow. So narrow in fact that the books would need to face out.

I did a lot of searching and even considered putting up some narrow shelves and just leaning the books on them. Then I stumbled on this bookcase.  Initially I thought the bookcase would hang on the wall, but when it arrived, I realized it is meant to stand on the floor and be attached to the wall so it won’t fall forward on children (and yes, it’s technically a child’s bookcase!).  It is the perfect depth. I can open the closet without an issue and it fits the space perfectly. All of my travel books fit and I can see their covers and titles. I’ve also stuck in a few photos for variety and plan to add a few things other than books as time goes on. I hung a painting we bought on our honeymoon above it to complete the space.

A bookcase ended up being the right solution for my space, but here are some other great hallway solutions.

Do you have halls in your home that are empty and you don’t know what to do with them? I have two space like this in my house that I’ve been pondering. One of them is connected to a remodeling project we have been working on. We recently remodeled our family room and there is … Read more →

I went to Home Goods earlier this week (always a mistake). The Christmas decorations are out. October wasn’t even half over. The fall decorations have been shoved to the side and Santas and snowmen have taken over. I’ll admit I have no qualms buying Christmas decorations in October. In fact, if you want to get the good stuff, you’ve got to get to Home Goods NOW before it gets picked over, broken, and scratched. So I’m really ok with the appearance in stores.

My problem is Thanksgiving. I like to decorate for Thanksgiving. To my husband’s chagrin, we have three types of storage boxes for fall decorations. Some are called fall and include pumpkins, leaf wreaths, nut wreaths, and gourds. These come out in September and stay out until after Thanksgiving. Some are called Halloween (jack o’lanterns, ghosts – you know the drill). These come out in September and are put away right after Halloween. Then there are some called Thanksgiving, which includes turkeys and cornucopias. They come out after Halloween and get put away after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving decorations are hard to find, however. Home Goods has one little end cap with turkey plates. I am hungry for more! I just bought a little glass turkey candy dish at Michael’s for $4 so that made me happy, but the truth is Thanksgiving isn’t a a holiday most people seem to be decorating for. Since I host Thanksgiving, I like to have my home beautifully decorated for this holiday.

In addition to the lack of decorations, a big problem with Thanksgiving is that it comes too late. By the time Thanksgiving arrives, everyone is focused on Christmas and some people even have their homes decorated for Christmas by Thanksgiving. If Thanksgiving were a couple of weeks earlier it would still feel like it is part of fall. Right now it is merely the kickoff to Christmas.

 

I went to Home Goods earlier this week (always a mistake). The Christmas decorations are out. October wasn’t even half over. The fall decorations have been shoved to the side and Santas and snowmen have taken over. I’ll admit I have no qualms buying Christmas decorations in October. In fact, if you want to get … Read more →

Our daughter moved out this summer to attend medical school. While we’re so lucky that she has remained in the same area, we miss her terribly. But that hasn’t stopped me from doing cartwheels about all the added space in my house (in the pantry! In the bathroom! In the fridge! In the coat closet!) and from having fun decorating her old room. She took her furniture with her. Fortunately, I’ve been ready for this for years:) When my grandmother passed away, I inherited the bedroom set that was hers when she got married in the early 1930s. When I was a kid, this set was in her spare room and was the room I slept in when I stayed with her (which was often). I took not only the bedroom set, but the coverlet and the bedside lamp. It’s all been waiting.

After the big move happened, I spent three days painting the room (goodbye pink, green, and sparkly white stripes) and crying the entire time. I think my tears mixed with the paint. But it was therapeutic. We cleaned out the closet (she had left behind a few things) and then my husband and son moved the furniture in. It was like meeting an old friend. When I pulled open one of the drawers, I recognized the smell and it made me feel connected to my grandmother. My husband then moved his desk into one corner of the room (and out of our bedroom which freed up a whole corner in there for me to go nuts with – I might have bought a curio cabinet to go there) but the rest of the room was mine for the decorating. I was giddy. It has been years since I

decorated a room from the ground up, so to speak.

The furniture completely shaped my plans – whatever I did needed to look good with it. I decided to start with a rug and happened upon this cute (and very modern) rug at HomeGoods. This gave me my color palette – pale blue and white. I found some beautiful sheers at HomeGoods also for the windows and used the existing curtain rods my daughter had picked out in her princess stage. I had the bedside lamp, but I had forgotten it was a converted milk glass oil lamp. I love the milk glass but was not a fan of the glass chimney or the ancient shade with pom poms on it. I took them both off and after much searching, found a plain little shade that clipped onto the bulb. The lamp was transformed into something cute.

I also bought an Oriental lamp at Marshall’s that were marked down (you can see the red clearance tag is still on it in this photo!). This is where I got stuck though. I said goodbye the old matelasse coverlet that was in the room when I was a girl (it was now old and threadbare). I needed new bedding, but the rug really limited my choices. After ordering, chasing down, and buying 5 different bedding sets, I finally settled on this set from Bed Bath and Beyond which was nicely priced. I stumbled on a round throw pillow that was exactly the right color then I added a white throw pillow.

Accessorizing was easy. I did some in-home shopping. I brought in a blue Oriental planter that was my mother-in-law’s, a chamber pot that was also hers, added a couple plants, some photos and dug out a set of Spode vases my mother-in-law had gifted me with once. It was all the right colors. I had one challenge left. I love the sheers, but I like to have some kind of window topper. Finding a valance was not working – the blue color is so hard to match. Then I had a moment of pure genius. I pulled out the stack of linen embroidered handkerchiefs that belonged to my two grandmothers and my mother-in-law and draped them over the top. I had exactly enough for both windows and it was fast, easy, and cheap. And I think it looks pretty cute. My daughter is calling this the old lady room, but even though the furniture is very old, I think I spiffed it up with some modern accessories and linens.

And I’m already starting to slowly take over the dresser drawers and closet space….

Our daughter moved out this summer to attend medical school. While we’re so lucky that she has remained in the same area, we miss her terribly. But that hasn’t stopped me from doing cartwheels about all the added space in my house (in the pantry! In the bathroom! In the fridge! In the coat closet!) … Read more →

I got a little creative yesterday and made these super simple Thanksgiving candle centerpieces. It is just popcorn and cranberries and a small votive. Next time I will try to find some colored popcorn (they sell red and black) to mix in for more color. Very easy to make and you can still use the popcorn afterwards!

I got a little creative yesterday and made these super simple Thanksgiving candle centerpieces. It is just popcorn and cranberries and a small votive. Next time I will try to find some colored popcorn (they sell red and black) to mix in for more color. Very easy to make and you can still use the … Read more →

I like artwork, but I have to say I don’t often like something enough to want to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for it.  I love and appreciate good art, so I’ve found some ways to have great art at little cost.

1. Notecards. I have several framed notecards that I’ve purchased while traveling. Great notecards are often found in gift shops at museums or artisan shops. This lovely flowered notecard was purchased at the gift shop at Glastonbury Abbey and it coordinates beautifully with a flowered border in our bedroom. I love it because it makes me think of English summer

gardens. The round mandala is from a the Kilkenny Shop in Kilkenny Ireland where I bought some beautiful artisan glass and couldn’t resist a 4-pack of this card for about $6. It is the perfect color for my office and I love the Celtic design. A lovely notecard I bought in Scotland perfectly depicts the Highlands better than any piece of art I saw while there.

2. Make Your Own Art. I’ve done this in my office by framing the bookmarks I buy while traveling. They provide beautiful and eclectic designs. I took a photo of my son snorkeling in Hawaii and

wrote one of my favorite quotes on it and framed it. It’s more personal and much cheaper than the inspirational quote artwork you can buy. We framed our wedding invitation and it is a meaningful and special treasure that hangs in our home.

3. Calendars. I am a huge fan of Deborah DeWit Marchant, who does lots of paintings that speak to readers, showing books or people reading. I would buy all of her work if I could afford it. Instead, whenever she produces a wall calendar (retailing for under $20), I buy it and end up framing several of the calendar pages.

4. Think Outside the Box. There are lots of beautiful things

you can buy that are artistic and fascinating, without being actual art on a canvas. I love this sailor’s knot trivet I bought in Maine, which hangs on the wall in our hallway and reminds me of Maine.  Pottery can also make great artwork. A bowl from Puerto Rico and a platter from Edinburgh hang on the walls of our kitchen. A shell lei hangs in my office from Hawaii. A glass tile I bought at the Grand Canyon for $5 brightens our entryway.

5. Photos. Frame your own photos and hang them on the walls. They can be family photos, landscapes, or experimental art. I have a whole wall of family photos on our stairway. For more impact, mat them.

6. Cheap Prints. When traveling, I always look at the $3 prints sold on the spinning racks on the sidewalk from tacky gift shops. These pieces of art may be inexpensive, but they can be beautiful, particularly if you frame them nicely. Our print of the Eiffel Tower came from a souvenir store in Montmartre and was about 4 Euro. Once we framed it, it looked expensive.

7. Maps. Maps are beautiful pieces of art. Frame a map of where you went on your honeymoon or of your dream destination. I have a map of the area of Maine where I summered as a child and where we went on our honeymoon hanging in my office.

8. Children’s Artwork. For many years, a fingerpainting my son made hung framed in our family room. It looked like a piece of abstract art. I still have my children’s handprints hanging in my office. Choose your

favorites created by the child in your life and frame them.

I like artwork, but I have to say I don’t often like something enough to want to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for it.  I love and appreciate good art, so I’ve found some ways to have great art at little cost. 1. Notecards. I have several framed notecards that I’ve purchased while traveling. … Read more →

The Junior League of Buffalo presents a Decorator’s Show House every other year. They select an empty huge mansion or home in the area, usually with an important or interesting past. Each designer is assigned one room to decorate. The home is opened to the public for a price (and not a cheap one – $20 per person) and is shown for a limited time period. 20,000 people come through the house each year they offer it and it is a highly anticipated event in my area.

I’d never been to the Show House, but when I learned it was at the Knox Summer Farm (more on that in a minute), I had to go. My daughter also loves decorating, so I got her the tickets for her birthday and we went together on a weekday morning. I was hoping to get some new decorating ideas. Although I read several decorating magazines, it is somehow different to see things in person in real rooms.

The crowds were so big that we had to park off-site and take a shuttle

to get there. We stood in line for an hour outside the home before we crossed the threshold. It was a long wait on a cold May morning! The show house had 55 decorated areas, counting rooms, closets, bathrooms, and porches/patios. There was so much to see and take in!

The Knox Estate

If you haven’t heard of the Knox family, you’re not from Buffalo. Seymour Knox was partners with Charles Woolworth, of Woolworth’s , when the company was formed. He went on to make money in lots of other ways as well. Knox and his family bought a large estate in East Aurora, NY around 1904 as a summer home. The huge mansion on the property was torn down and a new one built in the 1930s, with 14,400 square feet, in the Colonial Revival style. The estate is also made up of acres of farmland and pasture as well as barns. The Knoxes liked horses.

The Knox family intermarried with the Goodyears, which probably helped increase their wealth. Seymour’s grandson’s were the founders of the Buffalo Sabres NHL team, which is why most people in the area know the family.

The Knoxes donated the estate to New York state recently and the property has been used for events such as weddings. Getting to see the inside of this famous home was an opportunity not to be missed!

The Show House

Every room of the home on the two main floors were decorated for the event, including bathrooms, closets, porches, and hallways. The festivities did not extend to the pool and pool house, which we walked out. I wish they had done this because it is a lovely area of the estate.

No photos were permitted inside the house, so you’ll have to let my words create some images for you.

The home was certainly grand, but many of the rooms were rather small. Open concept was not envisioned in the 30s and this house reflects that! It did have wide hallways and open stairways. The living areas of the downstairs were grand in size.

I felt as though the decorators did a fine job coordinating with each other. There was a horse theme that went through several rooms and there were European touches – a London theme in the kitchen, paintings of Italy in the dining room, and French antiques. There were also a few Asian touches. All-in-all, it felt very appropriate to the home and its time period.

The rooms, for the most part, felt very livable. However, there were captain’s chairs in the dining room that were too tall for the table and with uncomfortable-looking metal rod backs I wouldn’t want to sit in. Many couches had nail head finish and I’ve cut myself too many times on nail head finishes to ever want that in my home. There was nothing else that screamed discomfort to me. The rooms also felt fairly functional (except for the bathrooms, more on that later).

Entrance and Outdoor Areas

We entered the hallway, which was not a grand foyer but was a large-sh entry space tastefully decorated with antique frames and urns. We were directed past a powder room and a giant full-size safe door (imagine needing an entire closet-sized safe!). The loggia was a room enclosed on one side with glass French doors and was meant to be a modern artist’s studio, with actual works in progress. The doors were original to the home and were perhaps half the width of a regular door. We walked through what was called The Outdoor Connection, a little walkway with a wooden arbor. The arbor was built directly under an existing pine tree, so that the branches of the tree would rest over the L-shaped arbor. It was artfully done and created a lovely shady walkway.

Next we visited a porch that was screened in on three sides. This made me sentimental. When I was a child, our home had a screened in porch and it’s not something you find today in most homes in the north these days. It had a fireplace which was a lovely touch, making the room usable into fall which I liked. The furniture was a dark wicker resin and a horse theme was evident with stirrups that were part of the furniture.

Living Areas

The entrance to the Great Room was through a HUGE door that was ceiling height and about 6 inches thick. When the door is shut, it appears to be just shelving. This room was also equestrian styled, but didn’t excite me. They had ropes arranged around windows instead of fabric window treatments. I wasn’t a fan. In contrast, I loved the connecting family room that had windows looking out over a lovely view of rolling hills, with a desk right in front of the windows. A little niche held a bar and the furniture in this room while over-sized, was comfortable looking. There was a pair of wing chairs that were modernized, so that the back was just a tad narrower, the chair back was much higher and the upholstered part of the chair ended much lower to the floor. It was a wing back design, tweaked. Definitely eye-catching (this was from Kittinger but I can’t find it on their site).

More Outside

We took a stroll on the outside patio which had big beautiful white wicker lounge chairs and several seating and dining areas. We fell in love with a fireplace table – a table and chairs with a square fire area in the middle of the regular height table like a centerpiece. We weren’t wowed by the Zen garden which was mostly pebbles and rocks. The patios were heavily populated with lilac trees which were all in bloom, adding to the serenity of the experience.

Dining Areas

We headed back into the house through the breakfast room which had upholstered walls (not just fabric, but padding beneath it). It was an interesting look, but not one I would want to maintain (do you steam clean your fabric walls? What happens if your dog paws at it and rips it? Too many questions). I love the idea of having a breakfast room though. This one had two walls of French doors that let in plenty of sunlight. Outside one wall, there was an area that was just rocks, behind some of the trees and shrubs, about 4 or 5 feet wide. It was an interesting look, but I wouldn’t want to keep the weeds from growing between those rocks!

The dining room wowed me with its 15 or 20  foot mahogany table. I would love to have a table that big (but first I would need a room that big!). What struck me is that if you have a table that large you can do several arrangements on it – some flowers in a few places and groupings of candelabras in several others. Just lovely. It made me consider trying this on a much smaller scale on my own table.

There was a stunning white marble carved fireplace and a lovely Asian triptych above it. I also fell in love with the tall plant stands in this room and the paintings of Venice. The room  had upholstered cornices over the windows, covering a large portion of the huge upper halves of the windows.  I loved that look – if your windows are large enough to handle it!

Kitchen Spaces

The kitchen area of the home was divided up with a very large butler’s pantry and a smaller kitchen. The rooms had original cabinetry with latches like these, something I recognized from the home we rented in Maine every summer when I was a child (I believe that home was built in the same period as this home). The top cabinets had glass panels in the doors, so the owner could display glassware. The butler’s pantry had some lovely aged wooden countertops that were original and others that were stained concrete and they coordinated quite well. The doors for the built in ice boxes and freezers were still present. I could have poked around that pantry for days. It also had a sterling silver storage room, with a special door to seal it. This was presented as a place to display china teacups and teapots. I would have loved to see the nook filled with gleaming silver as it must have once been!

The house had a gift wrap room off the kitchen, which apparently is how one defines opulence these days. I have to say, gift wrap rooms annoy me. I don’t have 4 rolls of gift wrap. I have probably 5 for year round use and then about 20 for Christmas. 4 little rolls on a wall are not going to work for me. And how do you measure how much paper you need to cut if the paper is hanging on a wall in front of you? I just don’t get it.

Another small room off the kitchen had a desk and an attached bath (I’m guessing this was the cook’s bedroom). They used two-tone paint to create a compass on a wall and glued a colored piece of glass at the center of the compass. That was interesting.

Bathrooms

All but one of the bathrooms in the home had the original white subway tile and octagonal white little floor tiles from the time period. Some designers added framing tile above the top edge of the subway tiles to give the room some color – a tip to consider if you have a bathroom with very plain tile that you don’t want to rip out. NONE of the bathrooms had any counter space, instead using pedestal sinks. Counter space is so important in a bathroom in my mind. The decorators who did the bathrooms tried to dress up these very small spaces by putting plants and flowers in the tubs – just silly in my mind. One tiny bathroom had a mirrored dressing table stuck in the corner, partially blocking the tub. I saw no interesting storage solutions for bathrooms, something I would have loved to see.

Several bathrooms had built in shelving next to the tubs – disguising plumbing. It actually was quite nice though to have some shelves to display items on. It was not actual storage, however, unless you could conceal your bathroom products in some boxes that would fit on the shelves.

The one bathroom without original tiling had been redone in a very Western and rustic manner, with stone walls and rough hewn wood cabinetry and a wash basin style sink. It seemed to stick out like a sore thumb in the home, but it was well done for the style it was.

One bathroom had beautiful flowered glass tiles hung over some of the windows to provide privacy but also to dress up the room. It was a very clever idea that looks very natural – almost as if the house was built that way.

Closets

This house had some amazing walk-in closets and closet rooms even. Most had the original built-ins with glass knobs and mirrored panels. They were to die for. One closet had an organizing system from California Closets. The closets that were most fun were those in the play room. One had shelves of vintage Fisher Price toys (Fisher Price is headquartered in East Aurora, NY and is a local company). The other had pulleys. You pull one and the lights go on and a curtain draws back at one end of the closet revealing a painted scene. The other pulley activated tinkling bells. It was magical.

Points for me. A gentleman’s closet had the interior wallpapered in maps. I have decoupaged the door to our basement with maps representing our travels.

Bedrooms

There were many bedrooms in the home. The master was decorated by the local Ethan Allen store and had some fantastic silver leafed Bombay chests beside the bed (I cannot find these on the Ethan Allen site, but the brochure states Ethan Allen provided the furniture in that room- I think the designers silver leafed a wood finish Ethan Allen chest) and some occasional chairs upholstered in gray houndstooth (I can’t find this fabric on their site, although they have houndstooth in other colors). I did not care for a collection of empty frames stacked and leaning against the bedroom wall in one corner. That’s one trend that I think can end now, please! I do love the look of a bench at the end of a bed, but there’s no space in my bedroom to achieve this.

There was a fun boy’s room in Sabres motif (a nod to Knox family history). A border was created of hockey cards. Old sports lockers were used to create a storage piece. The headboard was made of signed hockey sticks. A few years ago my son would have loved to have that room.

Another small bedroom had a really neat Murphy bed that has a drop down desk come off it during the day when the bed is folded up. The wall space where the bed would be upended was upholstered – a nice touch. It also had a floor length mirror on the wall that had a TV behind the mirror (when the lights in the room are off, you can see the TV). Loved that.

There was a bedroom George H.W. Bush slept in (he went to college with Seymour Knox we were told) and there is a table in that room that is a match for the table that is behind the desk in the Oval office, made by a local furniture company called Kittinger. The bed was a four poster (pencil post) with fabric panels hung at the corners. I liked the look of the fabric with the posts.

A tween girl’s bedroom had the same fuchsia sheets with white polka dots my daughter has.

Another bedroom had been turned into a library that was somehow rustic and industrial at the same time (not to my taste) but the closet had been made into a wet bar and the light fixture was a collage of wine glasses, hung upside down. It was creative and beautiful.

A child’s playroom had four or five rows of white gutters installed along one wall to hold picture books, so the covers could face out. If you have room, this is a great way to store books. This room also had a large clock on the wall that had Matchbox cars in place of numbers. It was something you could make yourself at home easily.

Home Office

The upstairs home office had been a bedroom, sharing a Jack and Jill bath with another room. It had a huge desk top (bigger than my dining room table!) with absolutely no drawers or storage and several completely white modern  office chairs around it. All I could imagine was how dirty they would get! There was some Ikea-style shelving (from Millington Lockwood) with blond wood, brushed silver, and almost-opaque doors. It was attractive and useful.

Other Rooms

One upstairs room was a sewing room. Another was a laundry room, with an antique wall storage wooden ironing board that made a statement. A hallway was done in a birds of paradise theme, with a painting and plant in this theme.

Paint

There were some fantastic murals – one was of the entire estate, showing all the buildings and pastures. It was charming. Another was of a horse and was pastel and faint, but pretty. There was some lovely wallpaper and a few interesting paint techniques. One room had white birch trees painted on a wall  – loved this. My favorite was the baseboards and moldings in a hallway – they were painted with a delicate bronze finish. I am currently trying to figure out where I can do that in my house! An upstairs hallway had a curved ceiling (so beautiful) with a mural of flowering trees and a few bluebirds on it. One room had turquoise paint. Another had a medium marine blue that was not too dark and just perfect.

One ceiling had a chevron stripe painted on the ceiling (my daughter coveted that). Another had wide yellow and white stripes on the ceiling. I have not painted the ceilings in my home, other than the faux tin ceiling in our kitchen which we painted silver to appear tin. I may have to rethink ceilings as a canvas!

The summer sitting room off the master bedroom had giant acanthus leaves painted on the walls. It was very modern looking and far too large for my tastes, although many people thought it was stunning.

Lighting

A summer sitting room off the master bedroom had Moroccan lanterns hanging in the center that were stunning (for candles only – I’m not sure how often you could practically use them). Numerous chandeliers throughout the home were amazing, including one in the dining room of Murano glass (although I wasn’t a fan of the yellow color). Another room had a crystal chandelier that had the bare metal bones of a lampshade hung around it. Creative, but not my style. The Bird of Paradise hallway had a light fixture made of a birdcage. Very whimsical.

Window Treatments

Several rooms had window treatments that did not cover the windows in any way. In the family room, drapes were hung on the walls between the windows and did not cover the windows, nor could they be closed. It was a new way to think about drapery – not functional in any way, yet placed to accent the windows. Even though I have some different styles of window treatments in my home, all do cover the windows in some way, even if only at the top. This is fantastic if you do not need to cover your windows for privacy (and this estate has no neighbors, so it’s not a concern).

Floors

Many rooms had original wood flooring that was restored and all of it was a lovely deep color. Several rooms had animal hide style throw rugs I did not care for. The formal entertaining rooms had Oriental or modern area rugs that were attractive, but not stunning.

Odds and Ends

Many rooms in the home had gaming tables. All were beautiful marquetry. One room had a green felt card table.  A room called the Withdrawing Room (off of the dining room had a spectacular “shelter” sofa, modeled after one at Knole House in England. You can see the style here. It has high sides and back and one long cushion on the seat. It looked like a sofa you could sink into with a book on a rainy day and never want to move!

The Withdrawing Room also had a red British telephone booth had been converted to a bar. Adorable (and it went along with the London theme in the kitchen area).

One closet/dressing room had a white quilted, padded cover over the large radiator. It blended into the decor of the room well.

A low window seat was used not for seating, but as a display area for urns and vases in one room. It was a think outside the box display.

I will soon own one of those giant square footstools you put a tray in the middle of. I’ve wanted one for years and seeing several in this house is going to push me over the edge!

I came away with SO many ideas and inspirations from this visit. My daughter and I have very different tastes, but can each pick out what the other will like and appreciate it. We do, however, always agree on what is heinously ugly. We had a fun morning together and I know that someday I will visit her in a Hollywood glam home with mirrored dressers and plenty of black and silver!

The Junior League of Buffalo presents a Decorator’s Show House every other year. They select an empty huge mansion or home in the area, usually with an important or interesting past. Each designer is assigned one room to decorate. The home is opened to the public for a price (and not a cheap one – … Read more →

It all started with the carpet. Our stairs and upstairs hallway has pink carpet. It’s horrific. And guess who picked it out? Me. Yup. When we moved here, we replaced the carpet in our bedroom and hallway. It made sense to make it all one color. The dusty pink is perfect in the bedroom which has a kind of English garden theme going on, plus you don’t really see much of the carpet in that room. But in the hall and on the stairs, it’s awful. It’s also gotten dirty and worn over the years.

Replacing that carpet has been on my wish list for several years. Last year we went and picked out replacement carpeting. We never got around to having someone come to measure, because the dominoes started to fall.

Before we replace the carpet, we really needed to paint the metal railing the runs along the upper hallway. We pondered if we should replace it and went to look at replacements which couldn’t hold a candle to this. It’s actually very pretty, with scrollwork, but over the years the paint has chipped and dogs have been known to rest their mouths on it. It needed to be painted. And it would need to be painted before we replaced the carpet.

We then  realized we needed to paint the baseboards in the hall to match the railing. And then we would need to do the doors in the hallway (4 bedroom doors and one bathroom – several of them have big chips and since the paint in this house is over 40 years old, nothing ever matched it for patching). But then what about the hallway downstairs? We have area rugs there that match the living room carpet. Replace those? Paint down there?

This was a project that kept expanding every time we talked about it.

Finally we found a painter and got an estimate for the upstairs and downstairs halls and the stairway. We ripped up the carpet so that he could do a thorough painting job. And in doing so, we remembered it’s all hardwood underneath the carpet. It was also at this point that I realized we would have hallway carpet that butts up against carpeting in several rooms – it would look like a patchwork of carpet, all different colors.

Maybe we should just put runners down and leave the hardwood to avoid this problem? The

wood was in very good condition it seemed. So off we went to the store and picked out runners. Then we finished ripping up the carpet and discovered two major problems:

1. Some of the hardwood doesn’t quite make it to the walls, so we would need to add shoe molding

2. The strips of wood and tacks around the walls leave giant, awful holes in the hardwood when you remover them. There are also huge holes around the posts of the railings where carpet had

been tacked down. It was really awful looking.

So if we wanted to go with hardwood, we would need to have it repaired and refinished. We thought about this for a bit but then realized that all of the hardwood floors in this house run into each other. If we’re going to redo them, it would make sense to do them all at once. Suddenly the simple project of getting a small amount of new carpeting was expanding to a major remodel.

After painful financial calculations, we gave up and ended up where we started: we’re putting in carpet in the hall and stairs (waiting for it to come in – I’ll post pics when it is finally installed).  We had both halls and the stairway painted and we’re calling it a day. It’s not perfect, but at least I no longer have to look at that horrible pink carpet.

Do you have any home repair projects that take on a life of their own like this?

It all started with the carpet. Our stairs and upstairs hallway has pink carpet. It’s horrific. And guess who picked it out? Me. Yup. When we moved here, we replaced the carpet in our bedroom and hallway. It made sense to make it all one color. The dusty pink is perfect in the bedroom which … Read more →