Foyer After

 These are the blood and guts of the new chandelier I chose for the foyer. I naively assumed it would arrive already assembled.

It took about 2 hours to hang all the crystals on that sucker.

It took another 2 hours (and a lot of inappropriate language) to hang it.

 We said a little prayer that the house wouldn't burn down and turned the electricity back on. So far so good...

Here's a reminder of what the foyer looked like before:

And here is what it looks like now: 

Now if only little elves will sneak in during the middle of the night and paint all the trimwork bright white.

Foyer Before

I had some time to kill while Chris was in Japan on business. Desperate to make some big changes with little time, money, and skill I decided to paint the front doors in the foyer. Here's a before shot:

I love the house numbers painted on the transom window and the wallpaper is growing on me, but I am not a fan of the brass chandelier and the once white doors with all those locks and deadbolts. Jeeze...and we thought this was a nice neighborhood!

I have a big challenge in keeping with the Victorian integrity of the house while still making it look current. I don't want to decorate it all with antiques and period light fixtures. It will end up looking like one of those old house museums where people dress up in costume and walk around churning butter and making horseshoes. I also don't want to ignore all the charm and character a house with this much history has. So the plan for now is to paint the doors, update the lighting, keep the wallpaper, and buy something a bit modern for the floor. Here's my inspiration: 



The rug is from Burke Decor, the chandelier is from Pottery Barn

Stair Rope Banister

I read a novel recently that described a New England home with a rope banister in the back stairway, and I thought that a rope banister would be a perfect solution for accomodating the tight corners of the back stairs in our own New England home.

We found a UK company on the interwebs called Stair Ropes that will make a banister to order.

There are lots of rope colors to choose from