Green Cottage: Decorating with painted furniture, antiques & upholstered pieces

Located inside the grounds of Emerson Courtyard, Clara's Cottage or as we currently call it the Green Cottage is located on the top floor. This cottage is full of hand painted furniture. It is a good example of how to coordinate painted furniture with antiques and upholstered pieces.

The cottage is filled with light. It has 2 bedrooms, bath, living and dining area. But is has something more than that. It has the feeling of home.

This hand painted table and chairs is done in a variety of styles. From the checker board pattern to the crackle paint, to the tole painted fruit, it's just plain cute. It's topped with glass to protect the finish. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

The top looks like an adorable table cloth, only better. Notice the little sofa table in the background? Also hand painted in the yellow and green that is the theme of this cottage. It now houses a microwave and kitchen necessities, after all, this is the dining space.

Even the table base is crackled and each chair has that little checkerboard pattern.

Moving on to the rest of the cottage, the living room has 2 painted furniture pieces with it's green coffee table and yellow drop leaf table. (I must confess it was me that put that television on top of it. I am going to wall mount it as soon as possible.) These pieces are paired with a slip covered arm chair and the cutest crazy-bright checkerboard patterned couch.

I love this couch! I would never have purchased it but it is the most cheerful thing. And it's deep and cozy too.

The view out the window in the living room. It's like being in a tree house.

The master bedroom of the cottage houses 3 more hand painted pieces. The headboard is a picket fence with hand painted flowers, there is a rustic antique painted trestle table at the beside and an adorable hand painted shelf in the corner, all paired with an antique armoire. I'm going to do a separate post on the bedrooms, there are too many details to cover.

This is one of the twin beds in the cottage. The linens and details of this room are so welcoming.  I just want to move right in.

Once you walk through the doors here, you are hit with the lovingly decorated details that welcome you. I strive to achieve this welcoming feeling in my home. I think it is what we are all hoping for when we decorate.

Yellow Cottage Painted Bed

I know you have been wondering where I've been lately and I have to tell you, I've found my dream job. I am not a 9 to 5 girl, haven't been for years but this job I just couldn't pass up. I am managing this amazing property with 4 vacation homes all built around a central courtyard in the most stunning garden. It's called Emerson Courtyard. I had the pleasure of building their website and setting up their Facebook and Twitter accounts, now I get to manage it.  I have to tell you, I am in heaven!

Come take a tour of one of the vacation homes with me...

Vera's Yellow Cottage

The Yellow Cottage (or Vera's Cottage) is located in the courtyard. It is a studio with queen bed, sofa, arm chair, private courtyard with 2 person hot tub. Kind of a nondescript explanation for this adorable little private get-away cottage.

I'm seriously in love with this painted 4 poster queen size bed. It's a lovely pale yellow. 

The "breakfast-in-bed table" rolls away on the cutest little baby buggy wheels. It is all custom made and hand painted.

The bed posts, finial and scalloped headboard are painted and distressed in just the right places.

It's just dreamy, isn't it?

Here's the rest of the room. Sofa, arm chair, hand painted book shelf. It's just charming.

This room has beautiful hardwood floors, adorable coffee and side tables that look like little picket fences. The sofa is the type that you sink in to and want to curl up with a good book next to the adorable gas "wood" stove.

It lights up with the flick of a switch.  

Dried lavender from the gardens: 1 1/2 acres of manicured, formal English gardens located right here in Kellogg, Idaho.

The view outside the cottage door to the courtyard.  I am smitten with this place. I could move in to this cottage and write that novel I stared writing all those years ago. After all, it has a hot tub, refrigerator, microwave, coffee, wifi and that bed. What else would a girl need?

Would you do me a huge favor? Follow Emerson Courtyard on Twitter and Like on Facebook, it's me doing all that jazz...

National Paint Week: Tutorial Painting British Flag on Fence Boards

I made this British Flag inspired art for my nephew, Kirby. He is 18 and collects flags from around the world, so I thought this would go with his theme.

I started with 1 x6 Cedar fence board. I had Joe cut them down to 4 24 inch pieces and then we strapped them together using scrap trim molding we had left over from our bathroom remodel. I stained them with a solution of white vinegar and steel wool. I got all of these ideas from Girl In Air's blog for exact instructions on how to make it the vinegar stain see her website HERE.

We printed out a sample flag and Joe set to figuring out how exactly to draw it. Mr. Measuring Tape had all of these lines drawn all over the boards and I came in with my white acrylic craft paint and just followed them.

For the red lines, I used tape to make first the cross then the X. Have you ever really examined the British flag? The X is odd. The lines from left to right jump from bottom to top and the lines from right to left jump from top to bottom. I have never really noticed that before. I always thought it was just an X.

To make these lines, I didn't measure, I just created the shape with painters tape and filled it in with my red acrylic craft paint.

After it dried over night, I took my palm sander and 80 grit sand paper to it to rough up the paint and smooth out the fence boards.

This was a lot of fun to make, I have orders for a huge peace sign and a musical note from my daughters now, so I guess it's a hit.

Happy Painting!

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National Painting Week How to Paint and Glitter a Chair

Happy National Painting Week!

Keeping the Painting inspiration going today with my clipboard from HomeTalk.com entitled: Paint Inspiration, 18 Painting projects that are sure to get you painting see it HERE.


This lady does amazing stuff with paint. In this video she uses chalk paint, mod podge and glitter to restyle a chair.

What do you think? Are you doing any painting projects this week?

Happy Painting!