Cottage Accessories

It's been a while. With the changing weather, I've had to deal with some health problems so I've just been shuffling around here like a little old lady and haven't managed to get much accomplished. First hip problems, then my neck went out. Joy. We're still painting all those pine planks that will be installed as our kitchen ceiling. The color is called "Pale Bloom" and it's a pale creamy white. We have about 10 more painting sessions to go...painting 15 planks at a time. That's all the space we have to work. When they are dry we, stand them up on end to cure and will eventually bring them into the house to acclimate before we install them.

So in between painting sessions, I've just been puttering. I've collected lots of cottage accessories over the months and thought I'd give the empty space above the cabinets a trial decorating run. Everything will have to come down soon when we work on the ceiling (and we still have so much work to do in the kitchen...I just got the decorating bug that day, I guess!), but it was fun to experiment and get some ideas of how to display my wooden bowls, baskets, and "white" items. I bought some thin little long twigs to put around the edges and this gives kind of a rustic, natural look. I may need to elevate some of the items a bit...we'll see.

Oh, in case some of you are wondering about what I've decided to do with the backsplash, I've made a decision! My choices were beadboard or painted and antiqued brick pavers, or 1 inch travertine tile. I was really, really leaning toward the tile because it just matched perfectly with the countertop we've chosen. Upon further consideration, I felt that it might just be too busy with all the other patterns we'll have going on. Some also felt that it might look too modern for a cottage. Since we'll be putting beadboard halfway up the kitchen and dining walls, I felt that also using it as a backsplash would be a little redundant. So to add more texture and for that old-fashioned feel, I've decided to go with the brick pavers. You can see a couple in the photo below that I've painted up and antiqued.





Gotta love red flowers! I'd like to paint that planter an antique brown or antique white. I picked up that gumball machine at a yardsale last week. I did *have* some chocolate malt balls (Whoppers) in there, but they didn't last long.:)



I found a home for that 100 year old painting of a cottage I bought a few weeks back. I put it above my armoire in the bedroom. There's just something so home-y about it. Ah, and the bedroom furniture. Yet another painting project for the future. Am I obsessed or what?!