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Beachside Church Charmer

by on April 28, 2013

Since my own renovations are coming along at a painfully slow pace (ack!), thought I’d feature a stunning little church renovation we spotted yesterday in Colonial Beach, VA. This church is St. Elizabeth’s of Hungary, attended by my husband’s family for eons.

This is the original church built in 1906.

STElizabeths1906

And this is how the church looked from 1963 – 2012 after its first remodel.

StElizabethsOld3

Now, after a 5-month renovation completed in 2012,  the church looks like this.

StElizabethsNew 

Exquisite, right? It’s back to the charm of the original historic structure, with beautiful white brick against gray trim, a mahagony door, rose window and illuminated cupola.

StElizabethsNew2

Here’s a comparison of the old structure and then the new from the side.

StElizabethsOldSide

StElizabethsNew3

Here’s a shot from the rear of the new church. I couldn’t find a comparison photo of the old church from the rear.  StElizabethsNewRear

I wish I knew the architects who designed this. The job is stunning. You can read details of the church from this link where I got most of the pictures. and this description of the work:

A new black 24 gauge metal roof replaced the old shingle roof, the fading brick exterior was painted a charming country white, the crumbling modernist bell tower was taken down and a lovely cupola with bells placed atop the church itself, with a gold cross crowning it all. Most importantly, the facade was completely remodeled and expanded, featuring African mahogany doors, a stunning rose window and gothic sidelights.

There are two other buildings owned by the church that were included in the renovation.

Old Church Office

ChurchOfficeBefore

Newly remodeled Church Office

 ChurchOfficeAfter

Old Meeting House

MeetingHouseAfter 

Updated Meeting House

 MeetingHouseAfter2

So if you ever find yourself in the Northern Neck of Virginia, make a point to stop in the St. Elizabeth’s of Hungary Church!

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Teeny Weeny Makeover on a Teeny Weeny Budget

by on February 27, 2013

Take a look at my half-bathroom wall…

This is the scene that greets you as you enter the room. Are you bored yet?

It’s impossibly lackluster and after two years it was time for a fix.

If you know me, you know my love for board-and-batten and all things cottage/farmhouse. (Not to be confused with “country” which is another thing entirely, and not my thing at all.) I wanted this bathroom to feel larger than it is, with a little “farm charm” and reminiscent of the aesthetic in my grandparents’ 1921 lake cottage in northern Wisconsin. (The most beautiful piece of paradise you never imagined in the North Woods.)

So began my transformation, starting with white paint on the bottom 36.5 inches of the wall, overlaid with lattice strips of wood spaced 10.5 inches apart.

I followed much the same  process as the board-and-batten in my son’s room you can read about here. And remember that faux Roman shade I made for the kitchen? I decided to try it out in this room for a different effect.

I cut each of the lattice boards to the exact length needed (my house isn’t exactly square) and then alpha-labeled each board so that my power tool recruit (aka good husband) would know where to place each board.

So the new, improved and not-so-boring-anymore bathroom is…

Half Bath Makeover 6

 

The map on the wall was the perfect size if I turned it sideways, so naturally I did. (Hey, when you think about it, we never use maps ONLY in their “North Up” position. They’re meant to be used in 360 degrees.)

 

 

For inexpensive artwork I bought a 1970s National Geographic map of the Great Lakes ($7 on Etsy), mounted it to foam core and cut it in quarters.

 

It reminds me of my childhood and wonderful summer vacations to Wisconsin and Michigan and those gorgeous lakes.

 

 

 

I pulled in a little nostalgia with a vintage Campfire tin my Grandmother gave me last summer. It had been in her kitchen for about 80 years.

 

 

I replaced the light fixture glass with seeded glass covers that cast really interesting shapes on the wall and give an artwork quality to the light.

 

The total cost for this space was $120 for paint, oval mirror, wood strips, a new towel hook, the National Geographic map and the foam core.

And so it is complete. I love walking in the space now!

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

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“Color Styling” the Bookshelf

by on February 8, 2013

This little bookshelf sits in my living room.

A lover of books, I like having the classics nearby even if I only manage a once-yearly trek through the beauty of Jane Austen.

But this bookshelf wasn’t doing it for me.

It’s a low, dark shadowy spot in an otherwise colorful and lifting room.

NOW, please prepare yourself for the easiest, quickest and cheapest bookshelf transformation of all time.

Do you remember how we used to cover our textbooks in grade school? Well I found some paper and some fabric in the colors of my living room (navy, yellow and gray) and just wrapped the books, holding them secure on the inside flaps with painter’s tape which won’t ruin the books if I ever remove it.

I left the Austen and Grimm’s books uncovered. One, because they’re navy blue and match the color scheme.  Two, because this is a house of children (fairy tales) and the aforementioned lover of Jane Austen.

The yellow and white stripes are single sheets of specialty paper from A.C.Moore and the blue/white quartrefoil was remnant fabric for $4 a yard at JoAnn’s that I’d bought for another project.

These little gourds echo the white/yellow striping.

Well, it was SO cheap and SO easy that I couldn’t just stop there. I wrapped a few more books in the entryway…

It adds a nice punch of color and pattern for, oh, pocket change…

 

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Make Your Own Spice Jars: A DIY Quick & Cheap

by on January 20, 2013

This was the straw that broke the camel’s back:

Four baskets randomly crammed with cooking spices.

It was my breaking point and the moment that I finally HAD to do something.

Looking around the kitchen I found these:

Hmm…small, compact, stackable, and I have tons of them from all the baby food we’ve been buying. (Right….because my reality doesn’t include puree-ing food the homemade way.)

The lids are more secure than some other brands (I tested them) and they could fall out of the cupboard without the top popping off.  That was pretty much the only credential that really mattered. :-)

So I grabbed a roll of painter’s tape, a pen, and went to work. Two hours later I had this:

Interestingly, one full bottle of a spice fit perfectly into these little tubs. If you want a prettier look there are all kinds of lovely templates out there for spice labels which are nicer look at, but these spices are hiding in my cabinet and the system just needed to happen fast and be functional. For me, this DIY cheapie does the trick.

You can see that these go 3 deep, so there are 5 rows stacked 3 high and 3 deep. That’s 45 total spice tubs with 9 in each row.

Here’s the view of the entire cabinet.

Now those 4 baskets of chaos have turned into only one small shelf in a cabinet.  When I made gingerbread cookies the day after this spice organization project, it only took me about 20 seconds to find all the spices for the recipe. That was a first for me!

Cost for the whole thing was $20 that I already spend for baby food. So it was actually a free up-cycle project!

Ahh…makes me all kinds of happy to have even this tiny space of my house completely organized.

 

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