Mantel Trouble & Updates

I realized the other day that it’s been a while since I shared updates on our home renovation. In the past many of you have expressed an interest in seeing “construction” and behind-the-scenes images of the process (thank you!), so I thought it would be fun to talk about some of our latest projects. As a warning, these are not pretty images, nothing is finished yet as we’ve been pacing ourselves time-wise and budget-wise to make sure we’re up-to-date with our financial goals and we’re not investing too much too soon into a house that is already at the higher end of prices for the neighborhood we’re in. But we do want to change things here and there, seeing that the house, as pretty as it is on the outside, is literally a 1960s time capsule on the inside, warts and all. The bones are good but the interior architecture is lacking the kind of interest that suits cute cottages like this one so we postponed purchasing the more expensive pieces of furniture until we’ve gotten the envelope, the architectural elements of the house right. 

So… the last time I shared updates we left off at the end of September when our contractor helped us rework the floor plan a little bit. We had French doors installed between the living room and an adjacent bedroom and that has changed so much the flow of the house and how and where we live, even though we’re only halfway through the process.

Unfortunately, during that project we discovered that our house lacks exterior insulation (yikes!!) and New England winters being what they are, that needs to be taken care of asap. Adding insulation is supposed to be a relatively easy procedure (though it can be costly), but it does involve opening up the walls which means postponing the installation of any sort of wall paneling. It also means I have more time to ponder on my design and perhaps even change my mind (the risks of writing about so many beautiful rooms :)) Anyway, Mass Save is coming over on Friday morning for an energy efficiency consultation and we’re excited and curious to see what their suggestions are. We also had the popcorn ceilings removed in the living room and what’s now our home office/library/ family room and had the ceilings painted a luminous white in a satin finish. It has enough sheen to reflect the light and increase the luminosity of the space but it is matte enough to hide any imperfections in the plaster. Not that there are any, our contractor did a beautiful job, but anyone who has lived in an older home knows that no wall is perfect. Or straight.

And while we were waiting for our energy efficiency appraisal, we did get a few of the smaller projects off of our lists. One of them was purchasing and installing sconces for the living room. The other was replacing some of the trim. For the French doors, I had chosen simple 2x4s and then carried them throughout the room, as trim around the window and doorways. I was greatly inspired  by images of Olson House in Maine and kept the trim clean and simple. We’re planning to replace  the baseboards next, followed by crown molding early December.  

Deciding on paint color… I did like what we had before on our walls, BM’s Linen White, a lot, but I also wanted a bit of contrast and drama and felt that the black sconces, off-white shade and cream walls were not doing it for me. Enter FB’s Old White. This photo doesn’t do it justice, it is less pink and more of a grey, green soft neutral that is warm too.

One change I am really excited about that I hadn’t had time to share with you yet is our fireplace mantel makeover. We were lucky that our living room had a well-maintained, wood-burning fireplace but the mantel wasn’t really my style and was ridiculously out of scale with respect to our ceiling-height and room dimensions.  Initially the mantel was 5′-5” high compared to a ceiling height of 7’-8” within a 11′ x 18′ room. What to do?

Removing it completely and getting a new one ( antique or reproduction) could be a little bit tricky and perhaps costly too but I did originally try to go this route and even found a few Etsy sources for custom mantels (let me know if you’re interested and I’ll gladly share them with you). But I did want to try and preserve as much of the original piece as possible so, after looking at a lot of mantels online and in my inspiration files, I realized that not all is lost and that there is a chance to salvage what was there. So we decided to begin by removing the shelf and dentil molding that felt a bit too dressy for our simple cottage. Once we did that, the fireplace looked even worse than before! Whereas before it was too high and detailed, now it felt flat, too low and too wide. It needed a bit more height and just a tad more detailing. 

Long story short – based on dozens of fireplace mantel designs and precedent I’ve looked at, I felt confident to attempt a fix- thinking that if it won’t work we’ll just shop around for an antique one that fits our firebox opening, at one of the nearby salvage stores.  I designed things to-scale on paper, got a few additional pieces of lumber and had a professional assemble them on site, at a fraction of the cost. It is not perfect and it still has two side pieces missing that we still need to add for it to be complete but I do love how it turned out in terms of look, shape and scale. Right now it’s painted Farrow and Ball’s Old White just like the rest of our living room walls. The French doors, front door and trim went Benjamin Moore’s Linen White in high gloss. 

A view of the fireplace from the library/family room. The French doors are being painted these days (which is why the plastic still covers the panes. It’s not dirt you see below, just to be clear 🙂 ) and I’ve (finally) landed on hardware.

The new mantel shelf displays our ever-growing collection of oversized conch shells and corals and it’s one of my favorite details in the room. I like that the wall color reads a most beautiful greige that changes with the light and time of day. It feels warm and cozy and I’m now ready to start dealing with the window treatments and drapery rod, get art up on the walls and fill in the gaps in the furniture plan. I’m still looking for the right secretary desk/hutch and I got closer to buying something but the seller was near Boston and the timing was off and it sold right before my eyes. I am finding out that patience is key in waiting for the right piece at the right time and within budget (many constraints) but that’s also what makes the hunt that much more exciting 🙂 

Above, the desk that got away…

We also got around to replacing the window trim and had a wider sill installed for all my flower and herb pots. Will be sanding, priming and painting it as soon as I’m done with today’s post 🙂

Anyway, that’s about it with our updates. I apologize for the lack of pretty pictures in today’s post. I’ve decided to get a professional camera soon and learn a thing or two about photography (it’s about time, you say?) but in the meantime thank you for reading! Will be back tomorrow with something prettier to share!