Custom Fretwork? Score!

There is a very large open space between the front entrance to our new home and the two-story hallway.  With the newly open floor plan between the dining room and kitchen, I thought there needed to be something to punch up the space a bit.  I wanted to soften the hard edge of the ceiling meeting the extra long support beam, so I started a price analysis for some gingerbread brackets to cozy up the place.

I finally found an artisan who makes some really amazing and intricate works to order.  Beautiful work!  However, I definitely needed to negotiate a lower price to keep costs down so I wasn't sure that I would be able to get these right now.  But I did:-)  I have some gorgeous custom Victorian fretwork on it's way.  I think this will be a very pretty addition to our new space.  I'm very excited!  When we renovate our two porches we will probably contact this seller again.

On a less exciting note... I forgot to include a toilet thingie in my harware purchases for the powder room, ie:  the flusher, or whatever it's called.  (Ok, so maybe a silly fool like me might be a little excited over a pretty copper toilet thingie).  It will tie the theme together.  It's like jewelry for your toilet!  LOL.

Photo from faucetdirect.com

Powder Room? I Didn't Know We Were Renovating the Powder Room...

Our life has been a whirlwind of activity for the past 2 weeks.  I feel like we live in the home improvement stores.  Because of the water leak in the powder room sink, we have to renovate the powder room as we renovate the kitchen and dining rooms.

The only bad thing is that items must be on site by certain dates.  That means I can't do the comparison shopping that I would normally do to find the right product to suit the room.  I'm very limited to what can be delivered on time, and usually that means I have to buy something directly from a local store unless I want to pay for upgraded shipping.  I just spent $30 for upgraded shipping on the faucet, towel bar, and paper holder.  Here's what we selected:



Photo from faucetdirect.com

 This is the Danze Antique Copper Widespread Faucet from the their Opulence collection.  I really love the warm look of copper.  I wanted to get a hammered copper sink for the kitchen, but they were $3-5,000.  I wasn't going to spend that much money on a sink when we get one for free with the granite purchase.  The bathroom was a way to bring the pretty copper tone into our home without spending a fortune.  The vintage design of this faucet really appeals to us, and it is low lead compliant too.  We tried to buy a faucet that we liked better, but they would not ship the lead compliant model because we don't live in Vermont or California.  Apparently you must live there if you want safer products.  Ridiculous.

We purchased the coordinating Danze Opulence Collection Towel Bar:


Photo from faucetdirect.com

 And Danze toilet paper holder:


Photo from faucetdirect.com

 And for the vanity, we will likely purchase Celeste Vanity by the American Classics Collection from Home Depot:

Photo from homedepot.com

Jeff picked this one out.  He likes that it has a stone countertop and that it is made of poplar wood. 

We're going to get the coordinating American Classics Celeste Mirror:

Photo from homedepot.com

For the wall color we may choose a pale rusty/burnt orange color.  We already have some wall art that would look great with that color scheme.

I'm excited to see the progress at the house.  The triple window over the kitchen sink has been installed, and I can't wait to see it!  That is the one thing that we really wanted to bring more light into the kitchen.