Positively ledge-endary

Load me up on Americana and fairy lights

It all started a couple or three years ago, when Mari posted some pictures of a home improvement project.

I don't remember how long it's been because although I have attempted to find the post on Mari's blog, I have been unsuccessful.

Perhaps she can answer the question as to when her beloved Bob (Bon, to me) installed board and batten in their dining area.

All I know is that, when I saw it, I said: I want board and batten in my dining area.

The project was completed by the first week of April 2020

Ours is a 34-foot-long eat-in kitchen.

At the far end of our kitchen is the defined dining area, and when I saw what Bon had done to his and Mari's dining room, I coveted the same treatment for ours.

Not being able to import Bon to do the work, I turned to my own resourceful and more-than-capable TG.

TG went a shade pale when I explained what I wanted.

By late March 2020, the ceiling had been smoothed and the new light installed

But that was just because he'd never installed board and batten before, and also because he was worried about removing the existing beadboard wainscoting, which he himself had put in place many moons ago.

Turns out -- these are his words -- installing board and batten is not that difficult. Once you have asked a building contractor/remodeler buddy where to start, and found your tape measure, you're all set.

Unlike now, there was no lumber shortage fifteen months ago.

However, as with most of our projects and proposed projects, this one did not happen quickly.

That end of the kitchen looks very different today

Mari will be the one to set the record straight as to when I first saw the board and batten on her blog, but I'm going to say it was a couple of years before we went all copy-cat in our kitchen.

At any rate, during the winter of 2020 I impressed upon TG that it was finally time to actually remodel that end of the kitchen, instead of just talking about it. And to get a few other things done at the same time.

As in, a scraping and smoothing of the popcorn ceiling was not only wanted, but was absolutely necessary.

Here's your view from the front door, when you come to see me and I stand aside

I just couldn't stand how it looked, anymore.

TG had smoothed the ceiling in our TV room five years ago when we did some fairly extensive cosmetic changes to the house.

It's a messy job, he warned me for the fifty-eleventh time.

Yes I know, I reassured him. But it still has to be done.

Here it is from another angle. The door by the popcorn machine goes into the front room.

He knew it was true. And he knows how much I hate for my house -- especially my kitchen -- to be in disarray.

But sometimes you just have to suck it up. This was one of those times. And so the project began.

You can see from a few pictures I've included here that we had not yet started the work on TG's birthday in late January.

Or on Valentine's Day.

In mid February, the walls were still teal

Or on my birthday in early March, immediately after which we took a three-day trip to Raleigh, North Carolina.

Immediately upon our return from Raleigh, the pandemic thing started.

So it was that, in the evenings -- because he is self-employed and still works full time -- TG started on the ceiling smoothing plus board and batten installation in our kitchen.

I've included a few pictures of what my kitchen used to look like, this latest remodel being the third of its ilk.

In this photo of my birthday in early March, you can see the awning-stripe shaped valances

When we moved into our house (which was built in 1972 by the original homeowners, from whom we bought it) in 2005, the kitchen was papered in an '80s era busy, fussy, flowery navy-blue-and-pink wallpaper that was so offensive to me that I would not move in until it had been banished.

TG stripped all of that and painted the majority of the kitchen a pale butterscotch (Sherwin Williams Blonde, all the rage in the mid oughts), with a Chinese red accent color in the dining area.

First though, he installed the aforementioned white beadboard up to a chair rail in said dining area.

Andrew and Brittany gave me this for my birthday last year. You can see the unpainted boards in the background.

I have a couple of dozen metal signs which I mounted as a collage on my red walls.

At that time I had a casual but substantial dining set in white, with oak table top and chair seats -- not the big black-and-white glass-topped table that is there now.

(I had the table; I've had it since 1993. But it was in the front room, minus the family collage).

I found shaped valances in an old-gold color, with roosters in red and green and yellow, and contrasting piping.

The work had been planned but not yet begun on TG's birthday in late January 2020

My mother bought me a few cute rooster accessories -- plates to hang on the wall, and a ceramic clock which sat on a metal easel, and even a ceramic rooster.

I was so thrilled with my rooster kitchen. I'd dreamt for years of having a rooster kitchen.

Several years went by. I think it was early 2013 when I decided it was time to change up the color scheme.

Also I'd read somewhere that critter kitchens were SO out. I'd begun to worry that I'd seem out of touch with current design trends, what with the roosters everywhere.

On Audrey's birthday in late March, it was a work in progress

Besides, I wanted my walls to be a clear, lively teal blue color. And I wanted my accent colors to be black and white.

So I picked out a color and TG painted it on the walls. Gone were the pale butterscotch and Chinese red and most of the roosters along with it.

In were the clear, bright teal walls and black-and-white awning stripe shaped valances piped in black, at the windows which were covered with white two-inch blinds.

I loved it. 

It was time for a change

Several more years went by -- you know; as they do, with alarming rapidity -- and then I saw Mari's post with the board and batten, and having seen it, I could not forget it.

Part of the charm of the board and batten, for me, was the ledge at the top, where I could put things.

Let's talk about things. As in, I have a lot of things to put.

Well over thirty years ago, my mother and I plundered a small antique shop in Northwest Indiana, where we both lived at the time.

The green '20s or '30s era armless rocker is nearly a century old

It was the late '80s and everybody was wallpapering everything, and Americana was all the rage for decorating.

We had a full finished basement that was a good size, and Henry wallpapered every inch of it above the chair rail, beneath which we painted an ivory/beige/tan color.

The wallpaper was a charming country print in blues and mauves, and we added (of course) a cute border just above the chair rail.

In the midst of redecorating my basement family room, I discovered a lady in my neighborhood who had a small garage crammed with antique and country accessories.

Make mine traditional American

Mother and I spent a happy afternoon picking through the stuff in that garage, and I came away with pieces that I loved, and that I still decorate with today.

There was a 1930s era armless rocking chair, painted green, that groans in a certain distinctive way when sat upon. It's as though the chair is objecting to being sat upon, while at the same time welcoming you to sit on it.

It now sits in our sun room. Andrew says that the sound of that chair is his childhood.

I got this cloth horse that day

I also bought at least thirty other objects, both old and new, that I've layered on shelves and window sills and tables and walls as accent pieces, for all of these years.

Things like my heavy wrought iron black pig bank, a wooden heart with blue wings that hangs on a rope, a small antique washboard, a tiny iron skillet, a cloth horse with thread-spool legs, an assortment of old bobbins, and at least a dozen glass apothecary bottles. 

And more.

Waiting on our no-bar plantation shutters

Back to our long-ago family room basement, newly papered and painted. After completing that project, TG and Henry built me a double row of pine shelves across the back wall, supported by pine corbels.

I had a blissful time decorating those many feet of shelves with books and my new country and antique artifacts.

So it was that when I saw Mari's new dining room design, I knew I'd love having a ledge in my dining area, to decorate with all of my stuff, both old and new and semi-new.

It's a long room and full of light

It was a happy day when TG realized that scraping the kitchen ceiling smooth wasn't going to be as difficult or labor intensive as he'd feared.

We have a small powder room off the kitchen, way down by the door which leads in from the garage.

I had bought a new pedestal sink and potty, in black, anticipating a remodel of that tiny space at the same time as the kitchen was repainted.

My board-and-battened powder room with black sink and round rubber-rimmed mirror

So he scraped the ceiling in there too.

Once that was done, TG started on the board and batten.

Meanwhile, I chose a new light for our kitchen ceiling.

It wasn't long before the board and batten was finished, and the painting could begin.

@powderroom

My vision was for the palest pistachio green I could find. I chose carefully, and held my breath as the first swatches of pale green were applied over my old teal color.

The color was perfect. Truly and totally, exactly what I wanted. In case you're interested, it is a PPG color named Silent Storm.

Meanwhile we had ordered no-bar plantation shutters for the two windows.

Plantation shutters over my black single-basin sink

They proved to be the icing on the cake and I cannot imagine this space without them.

So clean and minimal next to my layabout-laden ledges.

(My mother called knick knacks "layabouts" ... things one lays about.)

The best thing about my ledge is that it's deep enough to display small books -- of which I have more than you can shake a stick at -- and to put fairy lights all in and among the things. I love fairy lights.

Pretties poised along the ledge

The space above the ledge cried out for a huge clock, and I got one as big as would fit.

I love changing things around on my ledge, seasonally and any time I want.

I was so grateful, when the sorrow and trouble came in late summer and early fall and I was in Greenville with my mother half of the time, to come home to my pale, cool kitchen and all the pretties on my ledge.

And I was glad that Mom got to see it newly decorated, when she came to my house in late April, just after everything was completed.

All is calm, all is bright

She enjoyed following along with the project, as she loved decorating too. Who doesn't?

Remember that powder room I told you about? The one that needed a new potty and pedestal sink? That was finally completed too, but it took some nagging encouraging.

It was finished in time for Thanksgiving. And guess what? I mentioned putting board and batten in there as well, and TG did not object, and the result is charming. 

More ledges to decorate, although so far there is nothing on them as they are narrower than the kitchen ones.

Such fun.

Get you some ledges and love them to death

If you're still with me and did not nod off somewhere around 2013, thanks for reading all about our kitchen decorating journey.

It's a chilly Wednesday here: driving rain and currently fifty-two degrees, dropping down into the forties before nightfall. 

Most unusual for South Carolina after Mother's Day, but then that's why they call it May: you MAY get just about any kind of weather you can think of.

Good thing I have a flannel robe, and socks, and I know how to use them.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Wednesday :: Happy Week

Last Mother's Day

This year's Mother's Day sign

I realized at some point in the recent past that I failed to share with you the few pictures I took on Mother's Day 2020.

So now I figure, what better time to show them to you than today?

Farmgirl Flowers from my son and his wife, last year

It's unfortunate that I failed to get photos of the actual people who were present at our Mother's Day lunch on May 10, 2020.

I don't know why I missed that; I was probably busy getting the meal on the table.

We hammed it up for Mother's Day 2020

But I do remember who was there: Chad and Erica, who brought their furbaby, Sibi, along; and Audrey, who brought her real baby, Dagny, along.

Dagny was all of five back then; now she's going on seven.

We were on a roll

Not exactly a baby, but you know how moms are. And Mamaws.

Andrew and Brittany were not with us but sent me a stunning bouquet from Farmgirl Flowers.

Mom's Broccoli Casserole ... the kids are all floret

I have no memory of our feast but from these photos it looks as though we enjoyed a ham with broccoli casserole and some rolls, at the very least.

I'm positive that we had more side dishes than that, but I didn't take a picture so it's anybody's guess what they were.

There is always cake at our house

There was a cake, which appears to have been store bought.

Nothing wrong with that. And a lot right with it.

I wish I remembered where we got these cookies

Louisiana Crunch Cake, from the looks of things.

And there were small cookie sandwiches, which I have only the vaguest memory of having bought.

We were shining

I wish I did because they look really good and I would like some more.

We also assembled a "candy bar" in the crystal jam jars, as we enjoy doing on special occasions.

Sibi the furbaby hung around outside

And although I don't remember anything much about the day, I'm certain that it was a wonderful time.

I did not have the pleasure of seeing my own mother on that Sunday; we had gotten together the week before.

Andrew and Brittany gave me this charming bottle for Mother's Day one year

Because it is what we always did, I know that we exchanged gifts.

(Mother's Day is a gift-giving holiday for us. I give each of my daughters, and my daughter-in-law, gifts, and they give me presents too, and my mother always had a gift for me.)

Flowers make everything happier

I do recall that due to Covid, I had not seen my mother for my birthday in March, as would have been our practice in all other years.

So when we got together in early May, she gave me both my birthday and Mother's Day gifts.

Our candy bar for Mother's Day 2020

I have no memory of what I got for her, but I know that she gave me a pretty box with some assorted things in it.

As I had no way of knowing that my mother would be gone before 2020 had slid off the calendar, I did not place any more emphasis on her last Mother's Day than I had done on all those that went before it.

My mother gave me the festive dinner napkins that we placed beneath my dollar store plates

I guess that's one of the reasons we make sort of a big deal out of such occasions.

You truly never know which birthday, or Mother's Day or Father's Day, will be the last one you have together.

The girls and I exchanged mugs with LOVE as their subject

I don't know what this Mother's Day will feel like, but I know what it will look like.

We are having a special lunch, with the same attendees as last year, except this time, our Erica is a mother.

I do love my coffee

We've planned several dishes, and I will be cooking for much of the day tomorrow, getting ready.

I'm making a few new recipes which, depending on how they turn out, I may or may not share with you next week.

Up-close detail of my Mother's Day tree in 2020

We'll go to church on Sunday morning, then gather in the afternoon to eat and celebrate.

The weather forecast is for lots of beautiful spring sunshine.

On the day after Mother's Day I relaxed with my own furbaby, Rizzo

Two of my children will be with me, and the other two will get in touch.

All four will be generous and thoughtful of their mother.

A million ways

I will miss my mother but I will on-purpose recall that we made the most of the Mother's Days that we had.

I will think of all of you and hope you are having a relaxing and enjoyable day with your children and, if still possible, with your mother.

We will remember to thank God for everything He has given us. Every blessing will be counted.

You will be among those blessings.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Weekend :: Happy Mother's Day