When my eldest daughter heads off to college, it is a good opportunity to update her room with a more sophisticated look.  It is painted a pretty green and has all the makings of a young teenage girl’s room. As I consider different paint colors, would you ever paint a bedroom black?

The Before

Why Black?

In addition to green, her favorite color is black.  Hmmm. I do need to think this through. Painting her room black is a bold move.  But we have light floors (Canadian beechwood) and lots of white trim (baseboards, windows, doors, crown molding)…..to help break up any large expanse of black. So I take the leap!

When you first walk in, there are two arched windows overlooking the front yard. Without altering the window shape, new replacement windows from Marvin are added during the original restoration. They open in two ways~by swinging wide open or tipping into the room for top only ventilation.

These windows face east and get the beautiful morning light with an expansive outdoor view. Unfortunately I did not take pictures of the painting process, but here you can see the results.

Making Green and White work

I want to keep her green desk chair and furniture but finding fabric that combined THIS green, black and white is a bit of a challenge.

We’ve never had curtains on these windows. It took some time to figure out how to add curtains without hiding the beautiful window design.

After much pondering, I finally decide to do one big curtain panel. The large drapery pulls across both windows and tucks to one side when not in use. It has a black-out liner so my daughter is finally able to sleep in a fully dark room.

This panel is made by Smith & Noble, using their designer fabric line, Madcap Cottage.  I recommend getting a fabric sample and fortunately, this sample did match the black and green perfectly. The pattern is a bit of unconventional but playful and their turnaround time for delivery is less than 2 weeks!

The best location for her bed is in the alcove that has a port hole window.  The headboard and wall lamp are from Joss & Main; the duvet cover from West Elm.  I made the bed skirt with leftover Waverly fabric I found in the basement. The matching decorative pillow with Madcap Cottage fabric is also made by Smith and Noble.

En Suite Bathroom

Her bathroom needs a facelift too.  The original restoration is from 2001 and therefore it’s time for an update. We replace the tile countertop with a Carrera marble slab and repaint the base cabinet semi-gloss black.  The wall paint changes from green to a crisp white.

Since posting this we experience a major plumbing leak and use this opportunity to re-tire her bathroom floor with Carrera marble tiles.

Now the ensuite bathroom’s decor flows nicely with the bedroom.

Other Black Room Ideas

The Spruce has a great article about Beautiful Black Room ideas and you can find it here.

Now when my daughter comes home to visit, she enjoys an updated, more sophisticated room.  Though it was a big leap of faith to paint this room black, the overall feel is quiet elegance and chic. I am very happy with the results and glad we took the leap.

Desk and chair: Ikea

Door, window, trim color:  Van de Cane DEW354 (a Dunn-Edwards paint but created by Sherwin-Williams)

Wall Color:  Sherwin-Williams Caviar 6990

Drapery Rod and C-hooks: Smith & Noble

Fabric: Hello Hidcote/Nightfall (17910) by Madcap Cottage

Artwork: Original drawings by my daughter

I am guilty of having too many dishes. Quite honestly, I do not know how or why this dish thing got started. When I was in my 20s, I didn’t have two cents to rub together, however, I recall saving up to buy service for 12 of Royal Doulton Romance Collection in Juliet. How I love (and still love) these dishes. Since I store 90% of these dishes in a built-in cabinet in the basement, I want to make sure they are safe and do not get damaged from chips, cracks, breakage and dust.

Do Display Your Dishes

If you have a glass front cabinet or hutch where you can display your pretty dishes, please do so. Unfortunately I do not have anything like that, except our butler’s pantry. However, it is not big enough for dishes so primarily it holds my finer glassware.

Some Don’ts When Storing China

Newspaper~Newspaper is often a cheap and convenient packaging material, which is why it’s one of the first china storage ideas to come to mind for many people. Here’s the hitch — the ink used to print newspapers can bleed onto your dishes, meaning you’ll have to spend even more time washing them. The ink could even lead to damaged patterns if you have to scrub to remove it. Worse yet, newsprint could result in permanent staining. Brown packing paper, felt inserts or paper/styrofoam disposable plates work too.

Don’t Stack the Dishes too High~Bigger isn’t better when it comes to stacks of formal dishware. While it’s admirable to try to maximize space, higher stacks can result in plates getting scratched or broken if they slide. Additionally, all of those top dishes place a lot of pressure on the poor plate at the bottom. Therefore, it’s a good rule of thumb to stack no more than about eight plates. It’s also important to know that cups should never be stacked under any circumstances, unless you’re going for a look that involves chipped rims and handles.

Where to Put Your Extra Fine dinnerware

If you are like me and don’t have a beautiful hutch or extra shelves available, my fine dinnerware is stored in our basement. Make sure to place your packed-away dishes in an area that doesn’t see a lot of traffic. This will greatly reduce the odds of china being damaged while it’s stowed in the off seasons.

The wall cabinets in the basement are actually from Ikea and were installed years ago. Narrower upper cabinets rest on the butcher block counter top of the deeper bottom cabinets. Due to the lower height of the ceiling and overhead plumbing in the basement, it makes sense to organize the cabinets this way. There are 4 double door cabinets on each the top and the bottom. As a result, the countertop is not deep, but it provides enough surface to load and unload the dishes.

Smart China Storage Ideas

The sky’s the limit when it comes to containers that can help you figure out how to store china safely. You can purchase both hard- and soft-sided cases for your plates, bowls and tea settings. For my dishes, I like to get the soft, padded cases that zipper close to protect my dishes.

Hagerty has a nice collection of plate savers and my most recent purchase is this set of 4 in blue. The set fits 4 different sizes (7″, 8″, 9″, and 11 1/2″), which works well for most dinner and salad plates. I use the smaller sizes for small soup bowls or odd items. In addition, this set comes with inserts to put between your plates.

In between each plate I put the dividers which can be made from felt or packing material. This helps prevent chipping and the plates from sliding.

Labeling and Identifying

Since I have over 50 containers of dishes/glasses, it would be a small nightmare to unzip and look in every container to find the dishes I want to use. On each container, I create a tag with a color copy print of the item inside.

Once I cut out the photo, I glue it to a small card stock tag using Elmer’s Glue stick. You can buy the tags or I just use index cards cut to size (actually I have used both). With a hole punch and a piece of string, I can attach the tag to the case.

On the back of the tag, I will indicate the number of dishes in the case~for example, 8 salad plates.

This decorative twine holder with scissors has a permanent place in my kitchen as it is so handy and attractive. The scissors are conveniently attached, too. Each tag gets a piece of twine.

With strings on all the tags, I can now label each container. I tie the string onto the hole in the zipper slider. This system makes identification of the type of dish and quantity available very simple and easy.

When planning to entertain, I first determine how many people, then go and see what dishes I want to use. Dishes and glassware are already clean so no dusting or re-washing is involved.

What About Cups, Glasses and Stemware?

There are many different style containers and I have a few that I use for my vintage stemware and finer coffee mugs.

There are padded cases for stemware storage where you can safely put 12 glasses in the same container. Investing in good storage containers is well worth protecting my cherished pieces.

Overall, I am happy with this system. All the seasonal and special dinnerware is in one place. Sometimes I moan that I need to go up and down the basement stairs, but it is another form of exercise, I suppose. If you don’t use it, you lose it, right?

How do you store your fine dinnerware and china? I’m always looking for new ideas that will improve my current system so please share what you are doing for this type of storage.

Even though the ground hog states we are getting an early spring, it still feels like winter here~cold, rainy, and windy. Below is a stunning picture my neighbor shared of a rainbow after Wednesday’s storm. The mountains are getting lots of snow and with this colder weather, soups and stews are on the menu every day. Happy weekend and welcome to another edition of Saturday Meanderings, where we chat about all good things.

Baby Chicks

After 3 plus weeks in a cage on the breakfast room table, the 15 new chickens are ready to go out to the hen house. Baby chicks are so cute the first week or so, but by week 3 they get a little fragrant.

Since we designed the hen house (see hen house post here) to have a separate section for new chickens, we did some work this week getting it ready for their arrival.

In this section of the hen house, all the hay is removed and the floor, roosting perch and laying boxes are thoroughly cleaned using a steam cleaner. This small portable one is perfect for this task. To learn more about this steam cleaner, click here.

Now clean and with fresh hay, half of the hen house is ready for the new flock. Of course their first night the temperatures dropped to freezing, but with the help of heat lamps, the chicks stay cozy.

Piano Lessons

Yes, it is true I am taking piano lessons. Years ago, I took a few lessons with our children’s piano teacher, Miss Eva. She is so remarkable, as a vibrant 85 year old. Am hoping that learning musical notes, scales and scores will keep my brain healthy.

We have a beautiful piano and it will be nice to use it again.

Unscheduled Project

The sitting room off of the master bedroom and home office has been a makeshift art studio for me (see that blog post here). Located on one end of the room is a rather large day bed, purchased many years ago. Is it ever used? No. But trying to get it out of this relatively small room is a complete pain in the butt.

For some reason this week, I decide I want this day bed out. In doing so, I realize this room is a mess. It’s time to repaint the walls, clear out the clutter and try to make it a real office/art studio for me. Have you ever started a project and wish you hadn’t?

Now the enormous day bed is sitting in our upstairs hall as we debate what to do with it. Since it’s hardly been used it is in excellent condition.

In the meantime I will paint goldenrod colored walls to something more neutral this weekend. Hope to show you some good before and after photos soon.

Trying New Recipes for the All Things Lemon class

I am having such fun experimenting with lemon and citrus recipes, in anticipation of the All Things Lemon class on Saturday, February 24th. There are only a few spots left so if you are interested please sign up now.

You will leave the class with my favorite lemon recipes and your own jars of limoncello and preserved lemons. If you want to get a sense of what a class here at Bella Terra looks like, check out this week’s post on our Valentine cookie decorating class here.

Did You Know?

I am familiar with companies like Stitch Fix and Rent the Runway but I wasn’t aware of Amazon’s Prime Try Before You Buy. Prime Try Before You Buy is a Prime-exclusive program where you can try eligible items from women’s, men’s, kids’, and baby clothing, shoes, and accessories before you buy them. You have seven days to try the items at home and you are only charged for the items you keep.

However, for an extra fee of $4.99 per use, you can have access to Prime Personal Shopper and allows you to work with Amazon’s stylists to find wardrobe pieces that fit your taste and budget.

If you’re looking for a wardrobe overhaul or to refine your personal style, enlisting the help of someone with styling expertise can take a lot of the pressure off when shopping for clothes online. Or if you are like me, I am not fond of clothes shopping.

The Difference between Prime Personal Shopper and Prime Try Before You Buy

Prime Try Before You Buy, unlike Prime Personal Shopper, is free as part of an Amazon Prime subscription and is available to all Prime members. The service allows you to do more or less the same things as Personal Shopper, including curating a selection of clothes, shoes, and accessories based on a survey and your selected preferences. The big difference lies in the absence of a stylist to help guide your selections or curate.

Has any one tried this? I have a question into Amazon on how one signs up for the Prime Personal Shopper as it isn’t intuitive when you go to their website. It seems like you will need to use the Amazon app? Will let you know how they respond.

From the Internet

I love finding beautifully designed spaces. Beth Webb, internationally known interior designer, is known for her serene and elegant style. If you feel stressed, just look through the portfolio of photos on her website.

Mary’s Must Haves

For the Face…

I have mentioned this product before and I did reorder it this week. Colorscience Total Protection Brush-on Sunscreen is something I use EVERY day. In lieu of face powder, I brush this on and enjoy the SPF 50 protection.

Yes, it is not an inexpensive sunscreen but the last time I ordered this was January 2023~13 months ago. If you amortize the cost over time, the initial price of $69.00 ($65.55 if you subscribe), equals approximately 17 cents per day. A bargain to protect your skin from sunspots or worse, skin cancer. I have never seen it on sale either. It comes in multiple skin tone colors. You can find it here.

Speaking of taking care of your skin, my dermatologist recommend I use La Roche-Posay Vitamin C anti-aging face serum to visibly brighten and smooth uneven skin tone and those dastardly wrinkles. Groan. After using her sample packets I just received my first bottle of serum this week. Hoping for good results.

Does anyone use a Vitamin C serum? I sure miss those days when I only used soap and water on my face.

For the Body

I exercise 5 days a week always live in yoga pants and workout tops. Truly, my inventory is old and so pathetic. Instead of looking like a ragamuffin, I finally purchase 3 new pairs of yoga pants in plum, olive green and blue. A bit of a color is a stretch for me as I tend to wear black and gray.

I am sporting the plum ones as I write this post and I like them~especially the high. thick waist and the pocket for your phone. Great color selection and are on sale (17% off) at a reasonable $24.99. They are very comfortable and hopefully will wash well. Makes me feel a bit dressed up! Ha!

Last Saturday, one of my subscribers, Corrine, commented about using Vital Proteins and how they have helped her. Do you supplement your diet with collagen peptides? I started using Vital Proteins about 4 years ago. Within 3 months, I noticed less popping sounds in my joints. Also my hair appears thicker too. Collagen peptides are great for your skin, nails, joints and hair.

Every morning I put two scoops into my coffee (equally 20 grams of protein) or hot beverage and it’s part of my daily routine.

There are so many different brands and flavors, but I use the regular, unflavored 24 oz.Vital Proteins. A new Vital Proteins Advanced is available too. Here is a link to a page that has several brands/flavors/sizes.

Occasionally, Costco will have the 24 oz. Vital Proteins marked down and limits the number of containers you can buy. That’s when we generally stock up so we always have it on hand.

Wishing you a happy weekend. I will be painting as it is supposed to be raining all day Saturday with chilly temperatures. Would much rather be curled up with a book by the fire, but the art studio calls.

Here we go, another new year! Do you change your behavior or make resolutions? Does the month of January mean a new start? After an indulgent Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, this month is a time for me to reset. I am ready to eat a cleaner diet and get back into a healthier routine. There is something to be said for having structure in one’s every day life. Happy New Year to you and yours!

The Concept of Time

I clearly remember how time, especially during grade school, felt like it dragged on forever. Why does time go so slow when we are younger, and speed up when we are older? Perhaps the older I get, the more I value time and want to live more intentionally.

Theme for the Year

Some people pick a word or theme for the year. Last year my theme was financial austerity~trying to get a better understanding of where money goes and spending wisely. Not sure I completely accomplished that but I feel like I have a better handle on that responsibility. But this year, I am going back to basics.

For years, as a corporate executive, I faithfully kept a Franklin Press Daily planner. But the last few years, I played life by ear. I prefer to be organized and focused on accomplishing things so I am back to using a daily planner. Not just for work but also for pleasure. It seems I do not schedule enough personal time for me in my life and I’d like to course correct that in 2024.

Ann from On Sutton Place offers an attractive 2024 planner that you can download if you are a subscriber. In addition, there are weekly planning sheets that I have set up behind each monthly calendar. Simply put it all into a 1″ view binder and you have your planner for the year.

If you don’t want to download this planner, check out this very pretty and cheerful one from Rifle Paper Company. It’s a 17 month calendar and on sale now for $21.60. I actually might order one because it looks like the perfect size for traveling. Click on the link here.

Holiday Projects in January

One of the goals this year is to put our holiday decorations away in an organized manner. Not everyone organizes the same way and it can be challenging if two people, with totally different organizational systems, store the holiday stuff.

For years, I would put all the holidays items away and knew exactly where everything was. But now that my husband is helping, he has his own system~which looks very different from mine. The hope is that we can find common ground and create an organizational system that will work for both of us.

Another project is updating the holiday card address list. This is one task that I must do right after the holidays or I’m scrambling next November. Each card’s address will be cross checked with what I have on file for next year’s mailing list. Cards are not inexpensive and I certainly do not like getting one back with an undeliverable stamp due to an outdated or bad address.

Since we use Minted for our holiday card production, they have an online address assistant where we input our mailing addresses. It is so easy to update and any changes to this list are made electronically.

Annual Projects~both Big and Small

For those of you who own an older or historic home, you realize the house projects are never quite done. This week I am creating 2 project lists for the year~one for bigger projects (those that will take several days) to small projects (those that can be accomplished in a few hours).

My goal is to complete one big project per month and at least one, hopefully 2+ smaller projects per week.

A Focus on Health

Fortunately, I am blessed with good health. In the past my only trips to a doctor would include an annual (or every 3 years) physical. Anything in between would fall under an urgent or emergency visit (like my shattered big toe). However, since my unexpected kidney stone in October, the last two months are filled with follow-up medical visits, even though I feel perfectly fine.

Each visit, quite frankly, has been awful. Long delays, unnecessary tests, rude employees and the answer to my many questions is “well, you are getting older.” My health goals in 2024 are to be so healthy that I never need to see a doctor, strengthen my immune system so I do not get sick even when around others who are, and continue exercising and eating well.

Who’s with me?

Scheduling some Creative Time

On my new 2024 planner, I am marking out time on Fridays for painting. I love to paint but haven’t really done anything since 2022. The only painting I did in 2023 is a watercolor Valentine’s dinner invitation and a watercolor class with my friend, Tevia.

My art room is a bit of a mess which will take some organizing, but the goal is to paint 4 days a month and challenge myself to both bigger and smaller canvases too. Here is the only large canvas I have painted to date (in 2022).

I start this Friday and am looking forward to outlining subject matter and picking up a paintbrush.

Please share your hopes and dreams for 2024! I’m planning on it being a very good year.

When we purchased our cabin 12 years ago, I loved the additional space it provided to our family. However, every single wall is white and that not so attractive orange peel drywall texture. Since it is our 2nd home, it is always been fun to come up for a long weekend, then lock it and leave. One summer, many years ago, I paint two bathrooms~one a sage green and the other a cranberry color (what was I thinking?). Now after spending weeks here, I decide to try wallpapering the master bedroom water closet.

The Before

This is a small space, 3.5 feet by 5 feet, as it only holds a toilet. There are no windows so unfortunately most of my photos are under icky lighting. Yes, this is the sage green bathroom, but a slight upgrade from the stark white one.

All the trim is a natural wood as is the sliding pocket entry door. Ceiling is white. Flooring is 16″ square neutral ceramic tile~a pretty basic water closet.

Across from the toilet on the opposite wall is a mahogany 5 shelf etageré from the 1950s I picked up at a thrift store. I think the entire small room is rather depressing and fortunately it’s not a space where one spends a great deal of time.

Selecting a Wallpaper

Quite honestly, I didn’t shop around much. I really like Spoonflower and their wide variety of styles, patterns and types of wallpaper (and fabric). Being a cabin in the mountains, I am leaning toward nature patterns in nature colors. However, I do want something a bit brighter. One single overhead can light and no additional outlets in this space needs a bit lights and cheering up.

I choose William Morris ~ Willow Bough 2′ x 9′ Peel and Stick panels. Surprisingly for this room, their wallpaper calculator indicates I need 9 rolls.

The last time I wallpapered anything was with my mother, using the wallpaper paste and a long table. Since I have never used the Peel and Stick wallpaper, I am hoping it adheres to my not so smooth walls. It better as this wallpaper is non-returnable.

Prepping the Room

I remove the etageré, waste basket, toilet brushes, pictures, toilet paper holder and shelf above the toilet. After clearing out the room, I wipe down all the walls and begin.

Hanging the first Piece

Starting is always the most difficult, but I choose to begin at the far left side of the room, where the light switch is located. The edge wraps around to the door frame approximately 1.5″. You unpeel the backing from the paper about 6-10″ and affix the top of the paper. Then while easing the backing off, you push the paper onto the wall.

The first piece took a while as I need to cut out a section for the light switch…but I am not discouraged yet. Using a long level, I make sure the edge of the first panel of wallpaper is straight.

I continue around the room and by the 3rd panel, I’m feeling rather confident.

The Room is not Square

With each panel, you need to line up the pattern, which seems relatively easy to do. However, once I hit the next corner, the paper will not lay flat and the pattern, that matches at the top, doesn’t match at the middle and bottom. It’s due to the corner not being square. You can pull the paper off and try re-applying it, which I do several times to no avail. Now I think I have stretched the paper too much and I’m not happy with how it looks.

Since it is the least visual corner, I cut this panel close to the corner, and just get another panel that hasn’t been so manipulated. With a relatively busy pattern like this, I don’t think anyone will notice that the pattern, while matching near the ceiling, does not at the baseboard. Thankfully I have enough paper to make this adjustment.

Not only is this corner difficult, but I also am maneuvering around the toilet! As you can imagine there is a bit of cursing and working is this small room is just hot and challenging. The entire room takes 8 rolls and I have one complete roll leftover.

Finishing the Application

With a sharp knife, I cut the excess wallpaper at the baseboards and where necessary around the door trim, toilet paper holder and toilet plumbing.

The poor light doesn’t capture how pretty this wallpaper is and the fact it makes the room feel so much bigger. It looks busy in the photo but that’s not the case in real life.

Adding the Extra Touches

A bit of organizing needs to take place on the etageré. Small wooden boxes and a woven tray provide a pretty place for additional toilet paper, wipes, and a candle.

As you can see the wooden boxes have a fern pattern, but it’s light in color and scale and I don’t think it clashes with the wallpaper. They come in 2 sizes.

Between the mahogany shelf, etageré and toilet paper holder, they provide a few darker anchors against the wallpaper pattern.

What to Do with my Antique Prints?

Prior to papering, I have 5 antique prints hanging in the water closet.

The 1838 illustrations done by British landscape artist, William Bartlett are engravings with hand coloring. Bartlett drew scenes during trips to the United States. The subject matter is almost exclusively eastern United States landscapes, with most of them scenes of places in New York State.

I bought 5 of these from an antique shop and they are all the same size. The detail is beautiful and each print has a lovely sage matte and narrow gold frame.

It’s almost hard to punch holes in the wallpaper to hang them in the water closet now. Also, I think what I have in there is enough. I can easily find another place for these prints, but what are your thoughts? You can see how they look in the Before picture.

Summary

All in all, I am very pleased with how cheerful and bright (and bigger) this small space looks. Since Spoonflower recommends smooth walls to hang Peel and Stick paper, I am keeping my fingers crossed that it stays in place.

There is another bathroom I would like to wallpaper. But I am going to wait to see how this project holds up over time. It took me approximately 5 hours to complete this job. Perhaps it would have gone faster with an extra set of hands, which Spoonflower recommends.

Has anyone else used this Peel and Stick wallpaper? Did it stay in place?

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