Sideboards

My idea of a beautiful sideboard. Lots of storage, yet not flush with the floor. Curves and straight lines for both masculine and feminine appeal. Not to mention some gorgeous crotch mahogany!
via sideboards.com

A sideboard/buffet/server just completes a dining room. They are so practical! It's a serving piece, storage unit, beautiful accent, and if all else fails...a room filler! Add a stone topper and you can even set hot dishes on it! Imagine....me liking something practical! Shocker, I know:)

I got to wondering what the difference is in those three pieces? Are they all the same thing? I ask because whenever I refer to a "sideboard" I often get a funny look here in the south. I'm then asked if I mean a "buffet". The answer would be "Yes". They are three in one, although the proper name is apparently a sideboard that is used to serve a buffet meal. For those of you who already knew that, ignore my ignorance/confusion. I have a sneaky feeling I'm not the only one who wasn't clear on this:)

"Sideboards are also known as buffets as they may be used to offer the dishes of a buffet meal to guests.

A sideboard is an item of furniture traditionally used in the dining room for serving food, for displaying serving dishes such as silver, and for storage. It usually consists of a set of cabinets, or cupboards, and one or moredrawers, all topped by a flat display surface for conveniently holding food, serving dishes, and even lighting devices. The overall height of the tops of most sideboards is approximately waist level.

The earliest versions of the sideboard familiar today made their appearance in the 18th century, but they gained most of their popularity during the 19th century as households became prosperous enough to dedicate a room solely to dining. Sideboards were made in a range of decorative styles and were frequently ornamented with costlyveneers and inlays. In later years, sideboards have been placed in living rooms or other areas where household items might be displayed.

In traditional, formal dining rooms today, an antique sideboard is a desirable and fashionable accessory, and finely styled versions from the late-18th or early-19th centuries are the most sought after and costly today. Among its counterparts in modern furniture styles, the form is often referred to as a server. Some of the earliest production of sideboards arose in England, France,Belgium and Scotland. Later, American designs arose.^[1] Characteristic materials used in historic sideboard manufacture include mahogany, oak, pine, andwalnut."

via Wikipedia 

I've wanted a buffet for a while, but... also typical of me....I haven't found one I thought was cheap enough. Darn my champagne taste! So, the search continues. China cabinets can be pretty, but since I'm not really in love with my china and wonder why I registered for it to begin with, there isn't much use for one in my dining room. A buffet would just be so much more useful for big family get togethers and having friends over. We aren't formal people, but we do use the dining room a good bit...for casual get-togethers. Everything is a help yourself concept around here when entertaining:)

My idea of a great buffet or sideboard is one with legs that doesn't sit right on the floor. When light is able to pass through underneath, it lightens the visual weight of the piece as well as creating more of an open feeling within a room. In order for it to not just be a console, though, it also needs to have good storage. Just because it's not flush on the floor, doesn't mean it's going to have a tremendous amount of space between the floor and bottom drawers. A good example is the Federal style sideboards that I love (apparently so does everyone else!). French Provencial runs a close second. In my hunt for the perfect piece, I've run across all kinds and styles, which I thought I'd share with you.

I SO wanted to keep this piece, but I needed it at the booth and of course...it was gone in no time:)
B.E. Interiors

I love this idea of repurposing old card catalogs!
via andreaolsen.wordpress.com

via roomandboard.com

via wantstudio.com

via therustichome.com

via sideboard.com

via sideboard.com

How cool is this concept of an extendable sideboard?
via alfredoharber.com

via restoration hardware

via handcraftedtable.com

via thialandtrade.net

via clarnerwoodworks.com

via fokal.com

via icollector.com

There's our lesson for today! I am like a sponge...constantly soaking up new info I run across, especially when it's related to home decor/design. I also discovered while image hunting that the subject of sideboards/buffets is quite a common post topic. BUT, what I didn't find was the main thing I was looking for...clarification on exactly what is what. Maybe it helps clarify the term for some of you:)

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Living on the Wild side!

Ok. I have two things to show you today. One is my inspiration board photo for this coming week (I've missed a few as my creativity was nowhere to be found) and the other is what I did this morning that was just a little on the crazy side! But you know what? You only live once!

First, check out this gorgeous scene I photographed today! I drove past this tree this past Saturday and had to go back up this morning to get the shot. With the light just streaming through the leaves, it looked like heaven on earth! The pictures don't due it justice. I'm lucky I got the shot because I had to park along a busy road and wait for the perfect minute to snap it with no cars in the scene! It also completely inspired me to do next weeks inspiration board for you.

"Golden Glory"
B.E. Interiors Photography

"Golden GloryII"
B.E. Interiors Photography

"Golden GloryIII"
B.E. Interiors Photography

The next thing I did was go from being blonde w/natural red low-lights to RED! Gads! Now, truth be told, I have a lot of red in my hair naturally, but I have down played the red and highlighted the blonde most of my life. I've felt like a change lately so I decided to enhance my natural color (which has gotten darker after having children). I bought a box of light auburn hair color and THOUGHT it was going to be a light reddish brown. WRONG! It's a very natural looking...RED!!! As I was drying it, I kept staring at it thinking that somehow it was going to lighten as it dried, but it didn't. The funny thing is, though, after the shock wore off, I realized I REALLY like it! Who knew? I've always suspected if I would just go for it, I would, but now I know. Little guy didn't get red hair from nowhere. There's a lot of it in my family, so now he just looks legit! Wait until the hubby comes home and sees what I did:) This ought to be fun. (wink, wink!)

"Oh, Looocy! You got some 'splaining to do!"

 via blogs.edutech.nodak.edu

I told you it was RED!

I think I like this new do (now that I've picked my mouth up off the floor)!

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Salt Marsh Inspiration

I hunted for images to use as inspiration for a marsh scene painting (to go in the dining room) since I'm not close enough anymore to go take my own shot. I thought I'd share them:

via Palmetto Bluff Resort

Awesome Place if you want a great get-away!

St. Mary's River via protectingourwater.org

Tom Blagden, Jr. photograph

via gigisislanddays blog

via refugewatch.org

Susan Sinyai painting 

via beachchairscientist.com

via tripadvisor.bmp

via red bubble

Aren't those beautiful?! The first is my favorite by far, but the others all over more inspiration. If I don't end up painting my own, then a "frame" is going to built for the boy's existing  art. This will be one of those things that "may" get done... if time permits. I really want to do it, because it's been a long time since I did a fine art painting, but if the last few months have taught me anything, it's that I've got to be flexible and take it a day at a time... not planning to far out in advance:)

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Dining Room Reveal (Finally!)

My fall table scape.

Well, let's see. It's only been THREE MONTHS since I started this redo, but I finally have something to show you! Sometimes, when it's my own home, I can take a long time to get a room done. There's several reasons for that:

1. I'm a perfectionist (UGH!).
2. I want things I can't afford, so I have to come up with alternate ways to get the look...often meaning I have make them (time consuming).
3. I do all the work with absolutely NO help. I don't even ask the hubby, so that's not a reflection on him. His job is so stressful and he hates doing decor/reno stuff so much, that I don't even go there (and then I get fussed at on a regular basis for not asking!).
4. It's not my top priority. I have a family to raise and furniture to redo on the side. My personal home decor sometimes has to come last.

All that aside, I still can't say it's completely finished, but I've kept you in the dark long enough. So, ready to see where we're at? Warning: These are not the best shots I've ever taken by far, but due to time constraints, they're just going to have to work:)

Dining Room - unstaged! This is where it's at folks:)

Then I decided to rotate the table. I've got a problem in this room. That love seat is monstrous and really throws off the alignment in this room, but I've got nowhere else to put it. I'd just get rid of it, except I really enjoy sitting in this room! So, I just keep moving things around hoping somehow I'll find a way to make it work.

The foyer with the newly installed beadboard wallpaper and paint. I'm really liking how this area is coming along. See that fabric just draped over the table? I want more of it, but can't find it anywhere. It's the perfect colors to tie everything together. Eventually I plan to put a buffet here, thus the two buffet lamps siting so close together on a little table!

I'm still not really liking the white walls. I'm thinking they're going to go a shade darker (same as the foyer) and possibly a damask tone-on-tone stencil will be applied when ever I'm ready to look at this room again(!).

I decided to experiment with this room. I've ALWAYS stuck to white moulding and trim work. This time, I decided to switch it up. The walls went a soft creamy white and the moulding got the color. 

A tremendous amount of time was spent trying to decide to take the plunge. It's an open concept house, which means you see the family room, foyer, part of a hallway and part of the kitchen all from the dining room table. I was worried that if I started down the road of painting trim, it would turn into a nightmare as it would eventually drive me crazy that it wasn't all painted the same color. But, finally my curiosity got the best of me and I just went for it. 

I also put blue on the ceiling! Most of the time I've kept the ceilings white, but I love a blue ceiling, so up it went! Like I said, I'm experimenting. I'm still not 100% sure I like the ceiling color with everything else, but I'm going to live with it a while and see how I feel later down the road. One thing I am sure of...I absolutely love this trim color. It's a lucky find (excuse me... devine intervention!). $20 for a five gallon bucket of semi-gloss on the "Oops" shelf! After putting dabs on numerous paint cards, the closest match I've found is Benjamin Moore's Bennington Gray. It's so dead on, that I didn't even see the spot I dabbed on the card until the light hit it right.

via Curbly.com

Now, looking at these photos, I have to remind myself how it could have possibly taken this long to get this far! It's not a complicated room, BUT... What you don't see is the three layers of paint on the main wall, the three layers of paint under the chair rail, the time spent remaking the chandelier, making curtains and slipcovers, the two different sets of curtains I couldn't choose between, and rug hunting all on a non-existant budget! The biggest time killer was the painting, though, by far.

It wasn't until today that it finally hit me why this room has been so difficult to paint. Even though it has a humongous window, tons of natural light and faces east, for some reason, the light that comes in other than first thing in the morning makes it feel cold! Normally a room like that could handle fairly cool colors and be fine. Not this room! It just kept feeling cold and uninviting. It wasn't until I put the Oops! color on the chair rail in the foyer next to the warm creamy yellow above it on the wall that it hit me why I didn't like that room white - even a warm white! It needs a very warm cozy color. Trouble is, it needs to be warm and cozy but not too dark. So, eventually it will probably be painted the same color I have in the foyer and hallways - Behr's Informal Ivory. I'm absolutely loving the combination of that and the oops in the foyer and want to just take it on into the dining room. It's bright, but has a creamy yellow warmth to it...like being wrapped in sunshine. (Ironic! I'm sitting here typing about sunshine while it's night time and pouring rain outside the window!)

Just for fun, I took the current pic of the dining room into Photoshop and tried different paint colors on the walls. The other option...should I ever want to go dark on the walls would be a the warm brown I was planning to use and just haven't put up yet because I wanted to keep it light. Behr's South Kingston. And just for a little more fun, I put black on the walls!

Ummm! Wrapped in chocolate!

How daring would a warm black be on the walls!
If time (and money) was no factor, you better believe I'd try it... just for kicks:)
I know it would look great, but I'm not sure I could live long term with it.

So, what is there left to do? Well...I'm trying to make myself leave the white on the walls just a little longer, but I'm just not feeling it. I am almost certain it'll end up going the Informal Ivory - same as the foyer. I'm also not totally sure I want to leave those curtains. I'm still playing around with some other fabric ideas. The head chairs still have to be reupholstered and EVENTUALLY I want to paint a marsh scene to hang as the main art work.

Well, there you go folks. That's where it's at for now. I've spent way too long thinking about this room. A few more changes are still to come, but for now, it's at a stopping point. I've got to jump back on the furniture bandwagon. I've been down too long. It's amazing how grief and exhaustion can take a toll on your creativity. We're still not out of that stage by a long shot, but all those prayers are renewing my spirits. Thank you!

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Saying Goodbye is Never Easy

"Angel Wings"
B.E. Interiors Photography

¹ There is a time for everything, 

   and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 ² a time to be born and a time to die, 

   a time to plant and a time to uproot, 

 ³ a time to kill and a time to heal, 

   a time to tear down and a time to build, 

 ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh, 

   a time to mourn and a time to dance, 

 ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 

   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 

 ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up, 

   a time to keep and a time to throw away, 

 ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend, 

   a time to be silent and a time to speak, 

 ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate, 

   a time for war and a time for peace.

-Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

A long "To Do" list sits here staring me in the face as I type. I had so much planned to get done today, but not a thing on that list got checked off. Instead I spent the day doing something very unplanned and much more important... standing in a hospital holding the hand of a man who is slipping away. I'm struggling to wrap my brain around the goodbye process to a man I've grown to love more than I ever could have imagined 11 years ago. No, I'm not referring to my hubby, although the same would apply to him. The man I am writing about would be his grandfather.

Two years prior to getting married, I lost both of my grandfathers within a one month period of time. My world was rocked, to say the least. Both were in declining health, so it wasn't a shock, but I thought they both had hung the moon:) They could do no wrong and their passing was hard for me. Although very different in personality, they both embodied a spirit of Godliness that is priceless... especially to an adoring granddaughter who only got to see them occasionally. Both lived out of state and at least a full day's drive away, meaning visits weren't near as often as I would have liked, but it was all I knew.

When Hubby and I got married over 11 years ago, I suddenly had a new grandfather figure to help fill the void. He's the big, strong, gruff, intelligent yet stubborn/ornery sort who loves the Lord with all his heart. I instantly felt a bond with the man who so reminded me of my own grandfathers. I love him even more for the fact that he knows Jesus loves him despite his imperfections and shortcomings.  From what I've been told, he has a past, but he left it in the past a long time ago. I truly admire his faith in God's love, mercy, forgiveness, and faithfulness. What a blessing to have gotten to know this man (who was more of a second father figure to my husband than a grandfather) in the later part of his life... and to see the evidence of God's ability to transform and heal. Nothing is beyond His ability!

Over the last four years I have been able to experience what it would have been like to live close to grandparents. My children have had a chance to get to know their great grandparents (my grandmother and his grandparents) in a way that would have been only a dream a few years ago. For the last six months, I have actually been able to walk to both of their retirement homes with little guy in the stroller and Scottie Dog on a leash!

It's amazing how unimportant that "To Do" list suddenly becomes when faced with losing a loved one. Take the time to cherish each moment you have with your family and loved ones, because you never know when it'll be your last. I don't know how exactly how long we've got left with him, but I know it's not much and it's slipping away suddenly and fast. This is the first time my children have experienced losing someone close to them and it's difficult to prepare them for what's ahead. It's also hard to watch your spouse (and his family) go through losing someone who they are so close to.

So, bear with me if the posts are a little random over the next week or coming weeks, but rest assured, they won't all be morbid and sad. The wonderful thing is he is at peace with this more than we are and is very sure of where he will spend eternity. I know God has a wonderful plan for all of us and we are counting our blessings even through the tears:)

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.