*Grand * Lake Cottage Porch - Before and After

I need a little lake house fix.  I haven't been able to get up to our little cottage lately and I need some sunshine and some billowage, and I need it soon.  Billowage, dear readers, is a word I made up to describe one of my favorite things.  Billowage is what happens on a breezy day when the wind softly lifts the curtains up in the air - they billow up and down, over and over and it is like breathing.  

The house is breathing, I am breathing. 

It looks like this:

and this:

Even my sweet dog, Burly, likes billowage....  She knows just how to enjoy a billowy day.

These pictures are from our little sun porch.... it's a very tiny room with nothing but windows. 

Lots of billowage goes on in this room. 

Here's a nice Before picture:

The photo below shows the same wall, after.

The floor, the ceiling, the walls and the windows are all new.

These little chairs would make a great "Before and After" post, but, sadly, I never took any before pictures.  The chairs were given to me by my friend Diana, who was moving into the city and going with a much sleeker, chic-er, more modern vibe in her new house.  

That's the subject of a whole other post...

Anyway, Diana had stored these chairs in her garage for years 

and was kind enough to give them to me.  The ottoman was mine from way back when. 

I had it reupholstered to coordinate with the chairs, and then I made the little pillow.

The chairs have been re-upholstered in my inspiration fabric - 

an aqua paisley, indoor/outdoor fabric.  

I love the colors and I pulled the color palette for the whole cottage from this one fabric. 

I've also used it for these window treatments.

Kids plopping down in wet bathing suits are no problem for these chairs! 

I didn't want to worry about the "stuff" in this house.  

I wanted it to be carefree and relaxing, in lake inspired colors, and much more casual than at home.

Here's a close up of the Mariposa aluminum fish platter above that Mr. Grand scored at a garage sale one Saturday morning in Michigan.  Now before you go and get all jealous that Mr. Grand goes to garage sales with me, you should know that it is the only garage sale he has gone to in years!  I think he actually went along to discourage me from bringing more things home...

Reminds me of my brother Murf, who named his boat "Bait and Switch"  because as legend has it,  before he and his wife were married, he pretended to like the symphony or ballet or something 

and she pretended she liked to fish!  

Years later, once the honeymoon was over, so to speak, not so much for either of them... 

I tell you this because Mr. Grand and I have the same sort of issue.  

Fortunately, he still enjoys working on a good project and this little cottage has kept him busy!

 Here is another Before picture of the sun porch:

And here is how it looks now:

Here's the Moravian star chandelier that Mr. Grand installed, 

right after he hung all the bead board on the ceiling!  (Ok, now you can be jealous of me!) 

I like bead board a lot, almost as much as I like V-groove paneling.

  

 The chandelier makes the prettiest patterns on the ceiling at night.

 Careful observers may recognize this little Scallopy shelf below, from another post.

The sun room is just on the other side of the shelf...

Billowage usually happens on windy days, and windy days are also wavy days, 

and wavy days are another one of my favorite things. 

I love waves.  

I love looking at waves, listening to waves, and most especially, JUMPING the waves...

Heaven!

Hurry, summer, please!

 
Linking to Savvy Southern Style 

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Feature Friday

French Country Cottage