Yup...when I brought home this book, my husband looked at the picture on the cover and said, "That's the most awful book cover photo I've seen in a long time." I gasped...not in agreement, but in surprise because I was attracted to the book for the very reason that I loved the cover photo so much! I am one of those odd folks who is drawn to the forlorn, downtrodden, and paint deprived. I love the evidence of years and years of use. I love worn surfaces,
chipped paint, and especially those wide, wide boards that you only find in a truly old structure. For some odd reason, I always think I can make ugly stuff look good again. And...as much as my hubby doth protest, I can't imagine either of us being happy living in a brand new structure anymore. We've both become accustomed to the nuances of an old space.But back to the staircase. The photo on the front of the book in question reminded me of the bottom steps of our own staircase here at home. It's directly off the kitchen and it leads up to our bedroom and bathroom on the second floor. During the remodel of our kitchen, the bottom four stairs had to be removed and
completely rebuilt in a very customized manner. At one point, we had to climb a ladder to reach the remaining steps in order to get up to our bedroom at night(see photo)! The replacement left us with four bottom steps constructed of plywood that didn't look all that great. Ah....but my hubby can come up with some ingenious ideas 
when he wants to. Noticing some 1/4 inch thick material at our local Lowes Home Improvement store, he devised a plan to basically encapsulate the plywood steps with hardwood. It took a lot of intricate cutting which just happens to be his forte'. Once the boards were cut and in place, he glued them and nailed them, sanded and stained them. The beadboard 
wainscoting was something that came out of my brain, to solve the problem of adding trim between the new steps and the wall. Out of a necessity of sorts, came a decorating success. I absolutely love the way the wainscoting looks and it serves a good purpose as well, protecting the wall from scrapes and dings.Now if that danged primitive light fixture I ordered would arrive, I could show you a good view with proper lighting!
Also...check out some new aprons at my online shop.... http://www.apronsgonewild.etsy.com/
I love the cover of that book! I live in a 3 yr old home that I am every day trying to add age to.
ReplyDeleteThe staircase is just beautiful, a job well done! I like the cover of the book! My house is 37 years old and I must say, filled with the character of aging. Kinda' like me.
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful day and I can't wait to see your danged primitive light fixture.
Hi Nezzy!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your nice comments about the stairs. Just got an email that the danged light fixture is on its way. Yippee!
Take care,
Joanne
I can see why the cover of that book attracted you. It's simple and serene and I love it! Yes, it does look just like your stairs too! I enjoyed the pictures of your stairs, especially with the ladder. I'm sure it makes you appreciate the beautiful work you and your hubby have done so much more.
ReplyDeleteYou sound like me, I love to rescue very old and forlorn pieces to see what I can do to revive them.
Glad to hear that your light fixture is on its way too. I hope you post a picture of it. :)
Hugs & blessings~ birgit
Good Morning ~~
ReplyDeleteI love the book cover and the staircase. Cant wait to see the new light fixture...love seeing pic's of your great old home.
Hugs ~ Connie xox
I love the cover and the staircase is divine!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how people see things so differently. I'm with you on the book cover--I think it's really lovely! I haven't seen that book before. I'll have to look for it next time I'm at the bookstore. :-)
ReplyDeletewow -I love the way the stairs came out--so cute with the bead-board stuff. I find that happens a lot with old houses. (Now my house is not old compared to yours, Ha! mine was built in the 40's. But we do all kinds of quirky things to cover up things and mainly because we can't spend the money to do the job right.....actually we could spend the money , but we are saving for retirement. Some weird things I have done--when my back splash area in the kitchen got worn I just laid some tiles up behind the sink. There is a burned spot on the counter top and I have a corelle cutting board over it---I use the board all the time anyways!! I have occasionally stensiled that area when I haven't wanted the board there.There was a place we removed spindles on the upstairs landing so I filled it in and then stenciled over the area. There were holes in the kitchen/dining flooring where we removed more spindles (this house was and still is spindle crazy!!CRAZY) and we just covered it with a rug. There was a hole where the spindles attached to the wall and I glued a cool medallion type thing there....The funny thing is we get complements on the cover ups --Ha!! I always laugh when someone says they like my house because it is so old/worn/slanted/crooked. Oh yes and when we tore the rug out of our sunroom because we could not stand it one minute longer ,we discovered the tiles underneath were so worn and horrifying that we had to pull those off. This area has concrete! we were left with a sticky glue residue from the tiles and a big crack in the cement. I was panicing and my hubby was ready to commit murder on me. I tried in one area to remove the glue , hoping it would look like slate. This glue just didn't want to be removed,BUT then I realized that all those tiles and glue had left a nice pattern on the floor. Soooo we patched the crack and I used paint to match the rest of the flooring. Then I polyeurathaned over the floor. WE were scared because it took over a week with heaters and fans to get it to dry....must have been the glue thing interacting. But then the next coat was fine and we have gotten a lot of compliments on our old world floor--Ha!! I have a pic on my blog of it from last Monday, I believe. Well ..I better stop!
ReplyDelete