A Bar at the Beach Place

Anyone who knows me and yes, that is most of the people who read this little blog, all know that there is always an open bar open at my place.  Any time of day.  I'm all about living in a "non judge zone" and figure why not continue my tradition?  So, my mission for the little beach place was to find something that could serve as a bar and also have a dual purpose of storage for linens.  I had been looking for just the right piece for some time and finally......Bingo.  Found something at a consignment shop. 

Not exactly sure why it is I cannot find "easy" at a consignment shop.  I loved the size and style of the piece and it was an older piece and solid as they come.  Made me think of the whole "Mad Men" trend, despite the fact that I have never seen the show.  My friends have told me about it, so I imagine the scene and anything that looks 50s-60s makes me think of that era.

Back to my find.  I see this cool little console, but it's almond wood and not in a good way.  Here's the before:

Open shelving inside, allows for the linens/pillows that go on the big hide-a-bed in the room.
The piece had been sitting in the place for quite a long time and it was marked down to $125.  Would have been great if I loved the color, but I bought it and had to have it professionally painted.  OK, so perhaps I could have painted it myself, but the truth is I am sick of painting just now and I really wanted to open the bar.  So off it goes to paint shop.
I then paid a delivery fee to haul it down to the beach, so another cha-ching.  But in the end,
when it was placed in the room, I thought to myself.....it's exactly what I wanted. 

Look at it now:

I had thought I would replace the original handles but they were solid brass and I really felt like they just belonged on the piece.  It's also on wheels, so can be easily moved to another location.  A moving bar - how perfect! My old PB tray from a former bar came back into my world too, as did the old ice bucket.  Some remembrances of the past are a good thing.

Didn't have huge a huge amount of time to take pics, because the workers were on site finishing up my to-do list.  Quite sure they were wondering why I was SO happy over this little bar (they are non-drinkers).  But for all my friends who have been known to enjoy a good glass of wine or martini with me.......heads up - the bar is officially open!



My $20 chair after 20 years

About 20 years ago I found an old chair at SA for I think about $20.  Might have been half-price day, so it could have been $10.  Anyway, always loved the classic shape of the chair and it has been in my life for a long long time.  OK, that makes me sound old!  I think I was about 20 when I bought the chair.  Kidding!

I don't have a true before shot of the chair before it was upholstered the 1st time, but this is what it looked like in it's former life.  It served me well and I have always liked it and used it at my many houses.   For a while, it was even at my sister's house "on loan", which is always what I say, when I might one day want the piece back. 

So first we have this, which did look ok for the big house, classic black/animal print and all:

 

However I needed a "sticky chair", as my sister calls a chair that visually takes up little space, at the beach place.  So, off my little chair goes to the upholstery shop to be stripped, I then paint it turquoise and started looking for a bold colorful fabric.  Believe it or not, I found just what I was looking for in a bold orange and white stripe at IKEA.  You just never know what you'll find there, which is why I go in for a couple of things and leave with a car full of shit.

I teamed the fabric with some blue and white paisley that is on a couple of other chairs in the room it will land in and I now end up with an upbeat look and feel on my old chair.

Figure I'm feeling upbeat and cheerful and my chair should reflect that feeling too.

Side note: not sure why the chairs look more "wild blue" than turquoise, but fairly sure it's due to the fact my photos suck.

 

 

 

 

 

Detail of trim:

 

 

 

The new chair will sit with a pair of these chairs. 

Maybe when I take shots with good light in the beach place the new chair will really look like the true turquoise that it is.

 

 

Can't wait to see the new addition at the beach place this weekend.

And if I can remember to take my camera and find time to actually take some pictures....

I might be able to post the entire room's progress. 

One question - Why in the hell does it take me SO long to finish a space?

After all Mary McDonald finishes a room in a week.  Right?

Then again, I don't think she has twins tagging along looking for their next meal.

 

From a Mess to a Guest

The "year of the merge" continues with the merging of two households, two families and two houses.  This summer we elected to concentrate on letting everyone just adjust to our new shared environment.  I'm pleased to report it went well.  We redecorated the twin's rooms (will show in later post/s) and decided to re-do the last room, after son G left for Grad School in Boston.  So, off he flies to start his next chapter in his life and my thoughts are - well, I really need to tackle that room before he returns for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Fast track to November with Thanksgiving and his arrival scheduled for next week.  Yikes!

Let me show you what I started with:

 

Sort of looks like a scene out of Hoarders!

 

But in fairness to a guy who keeps everything else in his world extremely neat,

I think it was his last hurrah at "let's have a mess".  Somehow he just crawled over everything and drove his father completely insane.....until I came up with a simple solution.

My suggestion - "Close the door until he leaves" :)  Worked like a charm!

 

I decide to turn this room into a guest room, that can function for anyone overnighting.....including him.   IF he can stand to walk into a room that has dramatically changed and keep it relatively clean, I think we are good to go.

 

Here's the revised version:

 

 

 

 I had all the built-ins removed, the Murphy Bed taken to the beach place

and now we have a nice comfortable bed for all to enjoy. 

 

 

 

While the room is not 100% done, I thought I had better take some pics before Son G gets home. 

It might not look quite this clean after his arrival :)

No, seriously - can't wait for him to get here and Thanksgiving fun, food and family time to begin.



Door Love

Can a woman be in love with a door?  Guess I should say doors.  Yes, this weekend I decided I had a serious case of door love. 

When we bought our little beach place and I was going through the list of items that I wanted to change, the doors were seriously on the list.  The problem was they were good wood doors and it seemed sort of a waste to change them when there were so many other things on the list too.  So, a little change up was requested of my "man who can do anything".  I love him....and no it's not my husband :) 

So here is the plain blond, but perfectly good door in a before shot.  BORING!

 

I thought about just painting them white, but then thought I would end up with a ton of perfectly good, but still plain and boring, flush white doors.  So, Mr. Patient (the man who can do anything) came to my rescue and we decided that we could trim them out and then paint them.  Of course the wood trim I wanted was nowhere to be found and had to be milled.  So, I waited and waited and kept looking at the plain 'ol doors.  Finally, the wood came in and last week - they were trimmed and painted.  Voila - I give you the after:

 

 

 

They are still in the process of final coat of paint, but you can get the idea.

Did I mention there were a ton of them to do and he did both sides of each door, except in the closets. 

So when I walk into a room and close the door, I see the same trim/detail on both sides.

This was a time consuming project and one of the reasons I love working with Mr. Patient. 

You can sort of get an idea of how many are down 1 hall in this shot.  This only shows a portion of the doors on one floor. 

I think there were a total of 12 doors.

 

 

 

Now I should not end the post without a little shot of why I love the beach place. 

After a weekend of R&R without any kids, we got up on Sunday morning to a beautiful day,

 took a nice walk on the beach and enjoyed these.

 

 

I love a Sunday morning without children and with a good man and a good Bloody Mary.