my home

all about the renovation of our 100-year-old home.

My husband and I, along with our four small children, live in a 1919 foursquare in Fort Worth, Texas. We have been renovating it for six years, and yes, we have lived in it the whole time! Chapter by chapter, while dealing with white dust and blocking off parts of the house in plastic sheeting, our adventures are chronicled here.

April 15, 2014

I have pretty much decided no construction project would be complete without a bit of angst.    (I know many of you who have done projects big and small are nodding your head right now.)  As much as I truly like and respect my contractor, he cannot be everywhere at once, and as someone with an eye for detail in design, I am going to pick out every little thing that is not quite right. For example, we got the plumbing hardware installed in the shower (can't wait to show you, but everything is covered in plastic sheeting right now because they are painting), and I noticed the little button with the pretty lettering would turn whenever you turned the knob.  (there are three of these knobs, and they were all turned in different directions)  Therefore, the letters always looked like they were diagonal, and it was driving me crazy. When I mentioned it to the plumber, he kind of shrugged his shoulders and made some comment about "how it was a little loose".  My reply:  "Yes, but what can we do?"  His response:  Shrug. Little did he know he was talking to someone that would forever be bothered by the crooked letters.  "I'll be right back", I said. A few minutes later, I showed up with two supplies to remedy this problem.  There has to be a creative solution to this complication, right?
April 8, 2014

AStoriedStyle.com If you follow me on Instagram (@astoriedstyle - following me on Instagram is a great way to keep up to date on my projects and installations), you saw the above sneak peek of our Master Bathroom floor.  This design was a collaboration of ideas between my husband and I, and consequently was the only design element of the room I felt a little insecure about.  Although in my head it looked fantastic, I could not find a picture of this type of look on the Internet anywhere.  Oftentimes, I feel a little sad when I have what I think is an earth shattering idea or plan, google it, and see it has been done a million times over.  So it was nice to feel unique and a little scary that I could not see a real life picture. In case you are new to A Storied Style and the renovation of our Master Bathroom, you can play catch up by reading this post about "The Plan",

AStoriedStyle.com

and also by reading this Master Bathroom Renovation Update post. AStoriedStyle.com We decided to incorporate wood in the bathroom because the room you step down into from the main bathroom had the original 1920 floors.  I thought it might look strange to do all marble or tile and then step onto the wood.  Thus the idea for the wood squares surrounded by marble was born.  You can see the original (dusty!) wood floor in the below image. AStoriedStyle.com I love French chevron wood floors, and I love the raw, natural wood look, so I had my fingers crossed that when our original wood floor was sanded, it would be a beautiful organic looking color.  Once I saw the difference in what was sanded and what had the oil stain on it, I seriously wanted to sand my entire house.
April 4, 2014

AStoriedStyle.com Here we are today picking up where we left off.  In case you missed it, you can read all about my DIY shelves you see in the photo above in this post, and you can learn how to create a baby's breath flower arrangement in this post. So now...on to the malachite chairs.  I love blue and green, and there is so much blue in the rest of the house, that when we added the room off of the kitchen, I knew I wanted to incorporate a lot of green in there to play off of the greenery that comes through the windows surrounding the room. I found these vintage cane chairs at an estate sale last March.  I LOVED the large scale caning, and it was in perfect, I mean, per-fect condition.  The chairs are heavy, and I really liked the bamboo accent on the arms and legs.  These are classic chairs which will always look stylish and can work in a variety of room styles.  Best of all, the chairs still had the little "Made in Italy" brass tag on the bottom.  I love little details like this! I was on the fence about selling them, but they were listed and sold in a matter of hours.  I will tell you, I was a bit sad.  Although I can't remember what happened, the buyer decided to buy another pair of chairs, so these were on the market again.  My dear friend, Kristen, told me I would regret selling them, and she was so right! (thanks girl) So I kept them. Clearly, the burnt orange velvet material was not going to work, so I needed to decide what to reupholster them in. I have long been a fan of malachite.  I can clearly remember going to a friend's house in the 80's for a family Christmas party and thinking their malachite dinnerware was soooooo pretty.  Anyone have these back then?
March 11, 2014

When I was in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, I got to tour a modern loft outfitted with furniture solely covered in Sunbrella fabrics.   The loft was beautiful, but I was especially taken by the baby's breath flower arrangement.  The lighting is not the best in this cell phone pic, but the arrangement was really interesting in such a modern space.  And it looked good, folks.  Real good. AStoriedStyle.com I know, I know, baby's breath has gotten a bad rap.  But it can really be beautiful.

the knot

Baby's breath, also known as gypsophila, was introduced in the US in 1828 when gardeners from Britain introduced several of their favorite garden flowers.

first come flowers 

An instant hit in the States, baby's breath became a symbol of everlasting love, innocence, and purity.  Opinion differs on how gypsophila became "baby's breath".  Some say it was  given the moniker because of the sweet smell, and others say the name was prescribed because of its delicate appearance.

[caption id="attachment_8305" align="aligncenter" width="360"]martha stewart martha stewart[/caption]   The arrangement in Atlanta stuck with me, so the week I returned home, I bought three bunches of baby's breath and got to work.

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