Renovating a Cape Cod Style Cottage | Living Room Updates

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Happy almost weekend, dear friends! I hope you’re well! This week has flown by, with a ton of good intentions on my part to write, yet few actual free moments of quiet solitude to gather my thoughts and share with you some fun happenings & things I’ve been contemplating for our home. Several of you have asked to see the painted fireplace as it sits in the living room, surrounded by furniture and nicknacks, and since you’ve asked so nicely, here it is: 

A quick reminder of just how small this room is (14′ x 16′) and how this wall used to look like four years ago, when we moved in:

A lot has changed in this tiny room since we bought the house but we’re so close to the finish line, I can picture it all done.

The mantel was a DIY project inspired by early colonial style mantels I’d seen in old New England Capes. I wanted something simple, clean-lined and timeless, so when it was time to rebuild ours, I borrowed ideas from this southern house restored by architect Gil Schafer. There are still details here and there I’ve been mulling over, like adding a heftier shelf support, and a bit of extra trim, and paging through an old Mary Emmerling book – American Country Classics – I found exactly what I was looking for.

So, over the next few weeks I’ll be making some gentle tweaks to our mantel. Decorating – it never ends, does it?

from the beautiful book American Country Classics, by Mary Emmerling, with photographs by Chris Mead

And speaking of Gil Schafer, have you heard the good news? The wait is over – there’s a new book with his latest projects, scheduled for release in February 2024!!! Isn’t that wonderful? You can pre-order at the link below. His other two books are always within reach and rarely, if ever, leave my coffee table.

Home at Last – Enduring Design for the New American House

There’s another part to the living room that I have yet to show you – the wall opposite the fireplace, which contains the staircase. When we installed the living room shiplap paneling this spring, I was still undecided as to how to treat the staircase. Is it a part of the living room? Or is it a separate entity and therefore with its own type of wall covering? 

We replaced the turned wood balusters early on but, to err on the side of caution, we left the walls leading upstairs bare. I now regret being overly cautious because it would have been wonderful to have the paneling extend and encompass the entire view. (Right now the paneling stops at the stairs, covering the portion of wall behind the highboy, but not the back wall along the stairs. )

Maybe in larger homes one can get away with many different wall treatments blending on a single wall, but what I’m learning about our diminutive cottage is that for a pleasing effect, I must ruthlessly edit every eyeful. So, another project on the list is adding paneling to the staircase, hopefully within the next couple of months.

Last on the list of living room projects / decisions to make before all’s sort-of-done is a decision regarding window treatments for the living room bow window. Floor-length panels? Or cafe curtains, for a clean, minimalistic look? Right now I have some old IKEA lace curtains that once hung in my dorm room many, many moons ago. I keep them for sentimental reasons, but also because I like that they are sheer and don’t obstruct the views while still filtering the strong mid-day sun. But I’m also feeling their age and the need for something more modern looking (I can’t believe I said that 🙂 ) so I’m open to suggestions. Ideas are welcome!

A lo-fi photo of our living room, with a very sweet model…

Anyway, thanks for listening! Wishing you all a fun weekend.