French Wine Barrels for Sale

Guess what I found? 3 French Wine Barrels with the original markings from the Wine Makers and 2 of them have the year stamped on them-2006!!! Check with me for pricing or go to my FB page for details!

New Boys' Bedroom 2012

I managed to find pictures of my boys' room before we did some renovations up there. This was taken after we ripped out the carpet. It is a HUGE room on the top floor. The entire top floor was a studio, however the previous owners built walls halfway up and divided the studio into 3 sections. This was the bedroom, the middle was an office and the opposite side (which is now Chloe's room) was a second living area with a bathroom.There used to be a half wall straight ahead, you can still see the slight indent in the floor, but we took that out to open the space.
Dry wall hung to close in the office space and bedroom space

Started priming the walls for new paint. I love the large windows, it makes for great ventilation!

Color on and new flooring laid! We chose to do a POLO themed room, I love all those colors for boys.
My hubby projected the image on the wall! LOVE IT! My oldest was born in 1999 and my middle son in 2004, hence the 2 polo numbers

We were given this awesome dark blue trundle bed which was perfect when it was just the 2 boys! I chose the patchwork quilt bedding in 2 different colors from Pottery barn.
These pictures above were taken about 3 years ago!! The baseboards were not finished at that point and so the rooms don't look exactly like this today, but pretty close. Just wanted to give you an idea of the space we have to work with for our built-ins this year.
So we have narrowed the choices for our boys bedroom down to 2.
Thanks to PINTEREST I have been able to find pictures to almost exactly match the look we are going for.This one below is great as it demonstrates the beds built into the slant. We want to stack the beds as above, but into the slant.

With 3 precious boys, we are looking to add a space that they can not only grow in, but enjoy!
I plan on posting pictures as we begin the process of building new beds. Since the first pictures above, we added another boy to our family, so our intention is to move my oldest into the office space upstairs (which is now a relaxing area with a tv and bookcases) and moving the 2 youngest into these built-ins! So excited. Keep checking back!

English Cabinet Circa 1920's remake

So here is my latest remake. I just did my research on this piece that I knew was English, but I had no other info until this evening.

This is an English, circa 1920's mahogany cabinet. The distinguishing characteristics are the cabriole legs, claw and ball feet, fabric lined back and beautiful cornice work on the front. The key is so tiny! I thought it was a remake and then I found others on the internet with the same tiny key!

I painted it in Versaille, applied dark wax and distressed it. The hardest part was taping the front prior to painting! I love it and I am excited to put it up for sale. See the before and after photos of this piece!

After painting

Finished and ready for sale!

An upclose photo of the lock that says ENGLISH MADE. There is other engraving on it,but I can't seem to make it out.

Check out those legs and feet! Classic

Linking to Miss Mustard Seed for FFF

Old School Desk Ravamp

When a friend first asked me to redo her old school desk, I was somewhat concerned about how it would look as a finished product. The etched names were not my concern, it was the large, green ink spot at the top!

Thankfully after an hour of sanding, the top actually turned out just beautiful.

I am a sucker for before and after photos, so this is a great before shot:
And.....here is the after. Painted in a mix of blues and the top was stained in Jacobean beeswax from England. I had it finished in just under 4 hrs and my friend was thrilled!

Oma's Dutch Pie Safe Remake

I know that when some of you see my after pictures, you will have much preferred the original state of this piece. On this piece however, I took a risk and stepped outside the decorating box and created a piece that was "born to stand out". Sneak peek above.

This piece is so fun and unique and I am so thankful that I took a minute to have the vendor show me the inside, because that is where the real treasure lies!

You see, the inside is lined with this beautiful Dutch tile and it is all in pristine condition!
There is also a glass shelf (see in the picture it is lying on the tile). Someone also added a light, however I am not sure if I will keep it as it is not original to the piece. I guess the paint that I will add is not original either:)
It even has a drawer on the bottom!

Here is the piece just painted in Antibes Green, wow, it sure is bright!

And here is the finished piece after I heavily distressed, and only dark waxed it. I was going for that super vintage feel, like it had been tucked away in a cellar and forgotten for over 100 years. Not sure if I accomplished that look, but I like that is stands out in a color that most people are afraid to put on real wood. I don't mind trying something new. Now it is up for sale, so we shall see if someone likes it as much as I do!
I must get better at taking straight pictures, another blog thing I need to work on in 2012.

Oma's Dutch Pie Safe in Green

Linking to Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Feature Friday

http://shabbynest.blogspot.com

Come back and visit for my French remakes!

Home Improvement Goals for 2012

As we look ahead to 2012, my husband and I always talk and sometimes dream about the things that we want to accomplish in our home. It is always a subject that takes much thought and prayer because when you live in a home that you don't intend on keeping for the rest of your life, you must evaluate what is the most important and which will add value to the home. As American home owners in Germany, we must be extremely cautious on how we update our home because we know that in a few years, we will probably leave this beautiful place and we don't want to break the bank before we do! All that being said, our #1 home improvement for 2012 is a Viessmann heating system with Solar Panels. This certainly won't make the home any more beautiful, but with everyone going "green" we feel we need to jump on board.

Our current heating system works just fine, however the energy efficiancy leaves much to be desired. When we put our home on the market, we want a new heating system with solar panels to be a HUGE selling point!

Now on to the dreaming of our home improvement goals. Last year we had 4 estimates for French doors that we will use to replace our 2 very large sliding doors that go from our living area onto our balcony. I love the image below, however in German homes, we have rolladens, which are amazing, but it doesn't allow of all open windows like the one below unless you have taller than a standard ceiling. The best estimate we got on a set of 2 French doors and 3 windows that resemble French doors (our current sliding doors are HUGE!) are just under 5,000 euros!!! Ouch! However, it will be triple paned and help to keep the heat in much better!
These last 2 improvements are not expensive, or atleast not like the first 2, so we will certainly be able to fit these in the budget. I am jumping on the bandwagen of board and batten. I love, love, love it! I am so excited to report that my fav home improvement store carries MDF and so once I have my measurements, all I have to do is have the great guys there cut it for me! Pictured below is a new entry way, which goes hand in hand with the b & b. LOTS of German homes have white tile throughout! Don't get me wrong, white is my most favorite color, but white tile in an entry way doesn't work for this family of 6! When we renovated our bathroom last year, we put in the tiles that resemble wood flooring and I love it! I don't want wood floor where there will be lots of wet shoes coming in from outside, but I love the look of it, so this is a great compromise! Be still me heart when I see a beautiful stone entryway, so I am still toying with that idea as well, so we shall see, but the double layer board and batten is definitely going to happen!!!



Yes, another B & B picture, but this was meant to resemble what I am going to accomplish in my downstairs area! I love the look and I like the price even better. My goal last year, was to put up beadboard, which they DO NOT carry in German or France! and I even had my friends put 10 sheets in their shipment when they were moving from Louisiana back to Germany, but the packers took it out and said according to their regulations, you can not ship "building materials" with your household goods overseas! What a bunch of bunk! I was so disappointed! So I started searching for other looks that I like and found all these images of b & b. Now that I have an air compressor for painting, I intend on investing in a nail gun! We have SOLID concrete walls in this house, so we need some power! I hope to update my blog as we start and finish these home improvement projects. My next post will be our travel goals for 2012!! That is the best type of planning by far.



We already have our British Isles Cruise booked! So excited. My parents are meeting us in South Hampton to sail this cruise! England, Ireland and Scotland! We are big cruisers and my kids LOVE it! With a large family, it is hard to go on several smaller trips without spending a fortune, so we choose to hit the highlights on a cruise ship. More on that later!



Hope you had a fantastic start to your new year! Keep dreaming big, just remember God is Bigger!

English Goodies

A visit from our friends from England! Look what she brought????? Love me some chalk paint and homemade chutney!!!! Thanks Dawn!

Don' t you just love when friends come to visit? Especially around the holidays? We have some wonderful friends that live in England and they usually come to Germany after Christmas to go skiing. When they come for a visit, they bring lots of goodies from England and I wanted to share some of those on here!

Enjoying a meal shared between friends


This was the first time they met our youngest son!

Their 3 beautiful children!

Brayden and Jeremy

A box full of goodies, from Rich Christmas pudding, to clotted cream, roast and casserole to Cadbury chocolate and everything in between! We were overwhelmed!

YUM!

Oh my gosh, they walked up carrying this HUGE box of British magazines!!!! English home, 25 beautful homes and so many more!

There must be over 50 in there! YEAH

A perfect time of year to start putting new decorating ideas in place!

On a side note, we are headed back to France on Friday with a 10 foot moving truck to pick up purchases that we made last week! So excited to start painting again!