abeachcottage

A Beach Cottage, The Washington Post & Wardrobe Love

Howdie beach loving bloggy gals.  Remember that bed from Friday, that nice crisp, tidy percale one?  Well Friday night we were tucked up in it, me reading, drinking hot chocolate, Mr Beach Cottage making notes (he likes to write notes a lot).  So I thought rather than, you know, blow one's own trumpet, I would nonchalantly throw into the conversation the Washington Post mention (and thanks to those who emailed me about it, if not for you I would never have known).

Me:               "Do you know where Washington is?"

Mr BC:           "Err ye-eah, of course I do.  Why?"  writing while speaking

Me:               "'Cos our old cottage got featured on the Washington Post website!" (trying to voice a mix of nonchalance with you-should-be-impressed)

Mr BC:           without looking up:  "Oh that's good."   Carried on note-writing

Me:               "I mean you know the Washington Post, the place where the President lives"

Mr BC:           "uh huh, great" copious note-writing

Me                 getting irritated "do you think you'll ever be in the Washington Post?"

Mr BC:        "Nah"  

So that's the kinda recognition I get around here, this Beach Cottage Crew are a tad more interested in going down the beach or playing their various sports or writing notes than talking about old pieces of furniture or mentions in publications or decorating beach homes.  And that ladies is why I write this blog.  Do you feel my pain?

Talking about vintage furniture (please I hope you are not getting bored with yet another post of a piece of furniture) and after showing you all my bed on Friday here are some pictures of our new old wardrobe.  Would you believe me if I told you we got it for free?  You are probably thinking that I cannot possibly have come across another thing for nothin'?  OK well I'll pretend then and tell you I bought this for a few hundred dollars.  But that wouldn't be true. 

I came across this and arm-locked Mr BC into putting it on the roof of the car, this was truly a precarious job, but with his male-physics-tieing-on skills and my supervisory/instructing skills from below we made it home safely onto the drive of the Beach Cottage. 

I'm sure there were curtains twitching as a little circus of lifting and instruction then ensued to get the thing into the cottage, but to be totally honest, I didn't really care. 

Soooo, she was in great shape, and I was absolutely lovin' the plainness of this piece, the simple lines of the period, in particular the inlaid sides and rounded door fronts and the classic Deco adornment hinting of delicious old days gone by.  This was exactly what I had been looking for to tie-in with the floor and the bed and the cushions. 

Here's how she looked before:-

In not bad shape, but certainly needing a tidy up - a coat of primer, a couple of coats of my secret *wink hand mixed beachy white and a quick sand and distress...

I love her, and gave her a full-on Beach Cottage initiation - taking not very good pictures of her and asking her last night, if she had heard of Washington...

blogged for Susans Metamorphosis Event and Rhodas Round Up of Thrifty Finds

At Home in the Beach Cottage Bedroom

Edit:  One of my favourite photos, for the Blog Hop, cos my bedroom doesn't often look quite like this, with three Beach Cottage kiddos!

G'day fellow beach cottage lovers, how you all going?   A good week at the beach cottage, busy, but good, no trips to the ER or skate parks...nice winter weather, sun and running on the beach...and in case you missed it, found myself on Apartment Therapy (click if you wanna look)

 

So how about a little look at my new bedlinen?  I'm never going to be a Tidy Bedroom Queen - I'm telling you lovelies I had to do a huge amount of frantic scrambling around tidying up for these pictures, so you better give me some comment luv for my efforts.  Kinda the blog version of having someone over for dinner, you have to get your act together and get it tidy.  Purging was good though.  Once I'd started I got right on into it and threw out a large garbage liner full of clothes that I don't like, or ever did like and was for some eason holding onto.

Funny that isn't it, how you hang on to this stuff "just in case".  Rummaging around in the storage boxes under our bed I came across a black 50's style dress I had bought when we first came to Australia, it was trendy then.  Think Hepburn.  I was coveting scenes of me flitting along in said dress, tanned, carefree...cute little pumps...get the picture?  But hmmm, people, me and the dress, my white bits and the arms made me look far from Hepburn.  So there it stayed in the box.  See it under the bed?

Until today when I let go of it.  Ahhhhhh.  But then thought, 'what if I go to a fancy dress 50s party' (cos I go to so many of those), ummm I think I'll keep it. Whaaaaat the heck! You'll be pleased to know it went to Vinnies for someone else to wear to a fancy dress party or perhaps skip along the beach all carefree.  Someone with better arms. 

Back to the bed.  

I came across this wonderful bedding from Margaret Muir.  There's something addictive about white bed linen, is there not?   I instantly fel in love with the pattern on the crispness of the white and loved how it hinted of the romantic without that OTT feeling you so often get with that whole ruffly romantic thing.  

Do you like it?  I am pretty happy with it, though two of the buttons fell off the first time I used it so I wasn't so pleased about that, but the percale luxury is quite nice to climb into when you're exhausted at the end of the day.

And how about your weekend?  Well think of me, I am treasure hunting tomorrow and I am making these and these to fulfill my ever-increasing chilli-lovin addiction

....see you all next week

chair, free

vintage suitcase side table, old treasure found & painted 

bed, budget repro 

vintage door, garage sale $5

drapes, IKEA 

Pitcher, Wheel and Barrow

linen, Shabby Chic, Margaret Muir 

bolster cushion  IKEA

if you'd like to read some Beach Cottage bedroom decorating ideas on a budget, you can go here 

and come on over for a surf at Beach Cottage Inspiration

blogged for The Inspired Room and Kelly's Korner events, thanks

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