q is for quandie

Another rite of spring at the Carriage House is the opening of the summer house.  I call it the summer house because it sounds fancy.  I base it on this definition:

A summer house or summerhouse has traditionally referred to a building or shelter used for relaxation in warm weather.^[1] This would often take the form of a small, roofed building on the grounds of a larger one, but could also be built in a garden or park, often designed to provide cool shady places of relaxation or retreat from the summer heat.

We’re pretty sure that this little shed was used as a play house by the previous owner’s daughter, although it was nothing more than bare wood inside when we bought our house.

We added the window at the back and a potting bench and originally used this as a potting shed.  But, it turned out to be impractical because it was hard to get the dirt out all the time.  I am a messy gardener.  It’s easier to just pot things up in place in the garden.

So, I decided to turn it into a cute little summer house.  It’s very pink and girly.  I keep my favorite bird china out there.

But, it needs some freshening up this year.  I’m kind of done with pink.  And the thing is, I rarely actually take the time to just sit out there.  I’m far too busy for that.  So I’ve thought about going in a whole new direction.

I feel like the sky is the limit with what I decide to do out there.  It’s just a shed.  I can go a little crazy if I want to.  To be honest, that is almost a problem because I can’t decide what direction to take.

How about a writing shack?

This would look really cool, but I don’t have a laptop so I wouldn’t likely do much writing out there.  I’m pretty sure Mr. Q wouldn’t drag his stuff out there either.

Perhaps a comfy spot for napping?

I have taken a nap or two out there though, and in the end it kind of creeps me out.  Anyone could just sneak up and scare the crap out of me.

I’ve also thought of a little al fresco dining pavilion.

But it’s a little small.  We could probably only fit two diners comfortably.  I have a very nice patio dining set already, just steps away.  We dine al fresco all summer long.  It could make a nice alternative in case of rain, but if it’s raining do we want to dash from house to shed with food?

I could really use another bathroom!  Secretly I kind of love the idea of an outdoor bathroom.

In this climate, it would never work.  I could only use it 4 months out of the year.  The pipes would freeze every winter.  And I don’t even have electric out there, let alone water.  Obviously this is never going to happen.

After considering all of my options, I think I have come up with a plan.  I could paint the walls and floor white, and haul pieces of furniture in there for photo shoots.  It will become my tiny little photo studio.  One problem is the window in the back, I would need to cover that up to avoid back-lit photos. I could build a backdrop wall with vintage wallpaper like this fabulous example from pinterest.

 I’m sure I can come up with some sort of plan for that.  I’m not quite sure how difficult it might be to get the furniture in and out of there, but I’m pretty sure Mr. Q and I can handle that.

I wish I could say that I’d spend a lot of time leisurely dining out there, or taking naps, or writing a fabulous novel, but I know myself and it ain’t gonna happen.  So, why not turn it into a space that I could really use?  I think I’m going to go for it.

What do you think?

 

One of the rituals that tells me spring is here is the opening of my front porch.  As soon as we start getting warmer days, I clean it out, open the windows for some fresh air and Mr Q and I start spending evenings out there.

The Adirondack is his, the wicker chaise is mine.  I catch up on magazines, or both of us just read.  I may consume a fair amount of wine out here too.

There used to be a matching wicker chair for Mr. Q, but you know I have given up matching furniture.  Plus, he wanted the Adirondack because it’s really quite comfortable.  I have a pair of them, the other one is outside.  Ken, a.k.a. handyman extraordinaire, made them.  Just to explain how skilled he is, he just took an old Adirondack chair and used it to make a template for building more chairs.  He then made quite a few of these, I did sell several at my occasional sales.

Nearly everything else on the front porch is a garage sale find.  One of my favorite finds is the glass globe on the ceiling light.

When we moved into our house there weren’t very many original light fixtures left (my house was built in 1904).  The one on the front porch was fab though.  It had that vintage schoolhouse look.  But it got broken in an unfortunate mishap with an extension cord, don’t ask me how, I wasn’t there.  Anyway, a while back I found this globe at a garage sale.  I think I paid $12 for it.  I knew it was a gamble because it might have ended up not fitting the fixture, but it worked like a charm.

The light is just outside the door into the house.

The cabinet on the end came from a garage sale.  This was one of my earliest furniture rehab projects, from back in the day when I painted pretty much everything white.  I recently repainted the inside aqua.  It used to be pink.  This summer I plan to change it up with something different in the ovals panels on the sides.  I decoupaged them with map paper, but it has faded badly.  Not sure what I will do instead.

I have some of my aqua pottery and chintzware inside, plus some lovely vintage aqua glasses.  To be honest, I ultimately wouldn’t mind switching this entire cabinet up for something else.  When I come across just the right thing, I think I’ll know it.

Just next to the door is this oak washstand which was a craigslist find.  I’d like to repaint this with Miss Mustard Seed sometime this summer.  We’ll see if I get around to it.

The New Orleans watercolor hanging above it has always been a favorite of mine.

This set of small TV trays was another garage sale find.  I can’t even remember what color they were originally, but I painted them black and numbered them.  I originally planned to put them in my Carriage House Sale, but they are so darn useful for holding glasses or wine, or cups of coffee.

You may have noticed my black and white floor.  I painted this myself, and in fact this is my second version of a checkerboard floor on the porch.  The first time I painted it in shades of green.

My process was to just paint the entire floor white, then draw the lines for the squares using a yard stick, a square and a pencil.  You can see I ran a chalk line down the center to help keep them straight.  Then I  just painted in the black squares by hand.  I have a pretty steady hand.  It would have driven me nuts to tape all of those squares.  I know I broke some rules by not centering the squares from one side wall to the other, but oh well, sometimes I’m a rule breaker.

I am really fond of this floor, although sometimes I wish I had gone for a more subtle combination of grey and white.  I might try that on another floor somewhere … who knows.

And I almost missed sharing one of my favorite things on the porch!  The quote above the front windows.

A good reminder for those lazy summer evenings spent drinking wine and reading a good book.