let’s head inside.

Published on by Quandie

Last Wednesday I posted the first in what I’m planning as a series of posts touring my house.  I hadn’t updated the ‘tour my house’ page here on the blog in quite some time and rather than try to do it all at once I’m going to do one room at a time until we get through them all.

So today let’s head inside.

I painted the stairs and added ‘please watch your step’ several years ago (you can see that here).  In an attempt at full disclosure, the treads got ruined when I had my upstairs floors refinished two years ago.  The floor guys tracked the new finish all over the upper stairs and they look kind of awful.

I’m also not entirely happy with the all black treads anyway.  I love the way they look during the daylight, but in the middle of the night with no lights on, when you have to go downstairs to find the bathroom, they look like a black hole in space.  It’s rather frightening.

So one of these days I’m going to repaint them, but that’s a winter job.  Something to take care of when I can’t be outside instead.

This spot is at the foot of those stairs.

This is where my little cupboard with the IOD transfer resides.

And here is the view from the living room into the front hallway.

This is one of my favorite views in the whole house.  I just love the way the arched opening frames out the front hall.  I hung the Farmers Market bed rail sign above the arch when I re-did the living room last winter and it was a perfect fit.

Now, let’s get real for a minute.  Just to the left is our big flat screen TV.  I know a lot of people try to hide their TV’s in cupboards, but the reality is we pretty much only use this room for watching TV so there’s no point in hiding it.

Instead I have it sitting on an old rustic handmade bench.  My handyman Ken added the lower shelf so that we could put the DVD player somewhere other than on the floor.  Painting the walls dark really helped that big black screen fade into the background a bit when it’s not on.

Above the TV is another project I worked on recently but haven’t yet shared here on the blog (I’ve got a few small project posts that I’ve got photographed and written but haven’t found a time slot for yet).

Here’s a view of the room taken from the front hall.

Not much has changed since we redecorated back in February.  The sectional isn’t exactly in keeping with the rest of my style but it has turned out to be a very functional choice for us.  It has plenty of room for Mr. Q and I to both stretch out while watching a movie.  It maximizes the seating in a rather small and awkward room.

I do what I can to style it up with faux grain sack pillows.

The side tables that I painted last spring are still working out well in here.

I hadn’t planned on keeping them, but they were such a perfect fit in the room so they stayed.

If you were reading my blog back in February you may remember that I started out with a different standing lamp in the corner.  It looked great, but it was a reading lamp that didn’t add much light overall to the room.  So I brought back my old lamp but added a shade from Light Reading.  This lamp was chrome, and since it was February I couldn’t really spray paint it at the time.  I have since spray painted it gold to match the other fixture in the room.

I used the RustOleum Mirror Effect spray paint in Gold and it worked perfectly.

I’m still loving the restyled look on my living room shelves.

I’ve tweaked them a little bit here and there, like when I added part of Prima Marketing’s Somewhere in France transfer to the black toolbox.

If you’re wondering whether or not the dark walls were a good choice, I have to say that we absolutely love them.  The room feels warm and cozy in the winter, but cool and shady in the summer.  Down the road I’d love to repaint my q branch walls in this same color.  We’ll see if I get to that or not.  Maybe next winter, along with the stairs.

So, there you have our living room.

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  I’m not sure exactly which room I’ll be sharing next week, but be sure to stay tuned for that.  And in the meantime, check back on Friday to see what I did with that gorgeous serpentine secretary desk!

P.S.  For curious minds that want to know, I sold last Friday’s mid-mod piece yesterday.  I posted it on Facebook Marketplace in the morning and by the end of the day I had 4 inquiries so I changed the status to pending.  The first buyer was supposed to show up at 5:45 pm on Friday.  She canceled at 4:30 saying that she had only just checked the measurements and it was too big for her space.  I moved on to buyer no. 2 who agreed to come at noon on Saturday.  She then contacted me a couple of hours before noon and rescheduled to Sunday evening at 7 pm, but then was a no show on Sunday.  No apology, no message, no response to my message, no nothing.  I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt when they need to reschedule.  Some of my absolute best customers have been known to reschedule a time or two and I really don’t mind.  We all have busy lives and things come up, so I try to be flexible for people.  But it really is frustrating when someone strings you along for the entire weekend and then doesn’t even bother to let you know they’ve changed their mind.  This is a big part of selling online though, so I really work hard at not letting this sort of thing frustrate me too much (it’s a work in progress, obviously).

In the end, buyer no. 3 came through with flying colors.  She and her husband showed up on time, had cash in hand and a trailer to load the piece into.  That transaction couldn’t have gone more smoothly.  So it was definitely a case of 3 times is the charm and I’m happy that the piece has gone to a good home 🙂

26 thoughts on “let’s head inside.”

  1. Hi Q. Love the dark walls…i too try to sell on marketplace after closing brick n mortar…..i think its a game people play…..stringing you along….had it happen on Craigslist when i used them. All part of the experience i think. John fell down the last two steps of his daughters blackstaircase….never saw that last step….take good care
    Dee

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    1. We do try to be extra careful on those stairs, plus we are used to them. I think the bigger danger is for those who aren’t used to them. We’ll just have to avoid house guests until I get them repainted 😉

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  2. Hello Quandie,
    Thank you for sharing your private home with us. Enjoyed it very much. Also, glad you shared the realities of selling online. Every time I have a potential “buyer” who strings me along, by actively communicating with me then “ghosts” me, God will bless me with another sweet and appreciative buyer. I felt it was only happening to me. Thanks for sharing your experience.

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  3. Okay Linda,
    Your home is so beautiful! I Love all the beautiful features, wood floor, arches, just all of it! The thing about you I am so impressed about is your ability to create beautiful pieces and then sell them! I have mentioned it before that I would have my house jam packed if I could get my hands on your wonderful pieces! I know you have mentioned you don’t like clutter, and your restraint shows! I see open spaces where you could definitely squeeze more furniture in! LOL!!!!! I also know this is a side job to get travel money, but I am just freaked out how you can part with so many beautiful creations!
    I wish you could teach us the art of restraint! 😁

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  4. So lovely and the dark walls are something I’m aspiring to! I love all the architectural details of your home and how you accentuate them so beautifully. And people are just down right rude sometimes! No excuse for not calling and cancelling. But I always believe the right person ends up with the object🤗🤗. Can’t wait for the next stop on the tour!

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  5. I love your old house, your style, everything! I’m excited your dresser sold quickly! No matter where you live, people window shop online and want to buy, and waste your time. But the right person comes along eventually!

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    2. Have always loved your house…throughout all the many color and decorating changes. Especially love the way it has “matured” right along with the owners! Love the dark colors…and even if the stair treds are dark, they look great. As much as I love your house now, you always somehow get an even better idea though…

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  6. Good morning, thanks for sharing your personal space with us your readers. I must agree I love the shot from your livingroom to the entry with arched ceiling. We also painted a 20′ wall in the livingroom a dark colour this winter and love it.Thanks for the inspiration!

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  8. Thank you for sharing your beautiful home with us. I especially love that you use color on your walls. Everything I see on Instagram, pinterest, etc shows white walls, white furniture, white everything. It’s too much for me. I need a little color. The walls in your stairway are a beautiful shade.

    I live in an old farmhouse with all the original wood trim, floors, doors and pocket doors all thankfully unpainted – I like the contrast. I painted most of my home in a color called SW Breathtaking. It’s a blue, purple, silvery gray color that looks beautiful with the woodwork and changes color depending on the light. Not too dark or light (although it looks very intense if you google the color, but it’s really very muted in person). Also looks great with MMS Lucketts, in particular. 😊 The color works great with my collection of Maxfield Parrish prints, too.

    You are such an inspiration and I can’t wait to see the next room on your tour!

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  9. Loving the tour, like that you explain that the view is from the living room into the foyer, etc. Cannot understand why people hate having their televisions on display but then again, I have never understood those people who detest ceiling fans either.
    I will be over to shop your shelves, since my weakness seems to be smalls, expecially signs. I have to confess to you that my mind flashed upon painting golden stars, possibly with reflective paint, on your stairs. I know, I know, this is totally nutty but sometimes my mind goes to crazy places and I just have the thought that that would be super. So instead of falling into a black abyss you or your husband would be falling into a starry, black abyss. Seriously, tiny stars to mark the edge of each step…why does this sound like a good idea to me? Perhaps I need a nap or another cup of coffee.

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  10. Well Miss Quandie……sometimes when I lie down to sleep I’ll take “walks” around places that I’ve loved……and my grandmother’s house is one of those places I visit. It feels so cozy and safe there, being in those rooms, and I’ve never quite re-found the way the summer morning light came through the windows there any place else……a child’s confidence of happiness……Your house kind of reminds me of that house! The age of it and the size and the arched entrance…….so so nice for living ;-D I hope that I’m not out of line in making one suggestion: I think that your ornate chalkboard ( which I LOVE) needs to move UP a little…..maybe it’s just the angle of the shot but it looks like it’s almost sitting on the back of the sofa.

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    1. I do tend to like stuff a little lower myself, but it also is probably a little trick of the camera too. I take most of my photos from about waist high rather than up at eye level, so sometimes that makes things look different.

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