Cottage Living 2007 Idea House- Custom Chalkboard Paint Color

Cottage Living's 2007 Idea House has always been one of my favorites.
Do you remember it?



The home sits at 4505 Camp Street- a historic neighborhood, in the heart of New Orleans. It has 2400 square feet of living space, three bedrooms and two baths.
Cottage Living teamed with the New Orleans Preservation Resource Center to build the modular "shotgun" style home, which was designed by Eric Moser of Moser Design Group...



The term "shotgun house" is often thought to be named for the tradition that if a shotgun were fired through the front door, the bullet would exit straight through the back door. Recent studies suggest the name may actually come from the word “shogon", which means “Gods House" in African.
Shotgun houses are typically made up of a simple, single row of a rooms that run perpendicular to the street. This compact style allows for more houses to be built per city block. They almost all have front porches, and they often have gabled roofs.

Cottage Living's 2007 Idea House is definitely one of the prettiest shotgun houses I've ever seen!
Even the exterior paint colors drive me wild...

Photo by Artsy-Craftsy

Photo by Artsy-Craftsy

One of my favorite parts of the house is the chalkboard wall in the kitchen...

Photo by Robbie Caponetto

Photo by Artsy-Craftsy

...and thanks to the custom chalkboard paint color instructions they listed in Cottage Living magazine, we're no longer limited to just black or green chalkboard surfaces. Their recipe allows you to mix whatever color you want, so you can create a chalkboard that coordinates perfectly with any palette.

Here are the steps...

1. Pour 1 cup of acrylic latex paint, in the color of your choice, into a clean, 1-gallon bucket.

2. Add 2 tablespoons of dry, unsanded tile grout mix into the paint. Mix with a kitchen whisk until the paint is smooth and clump-free. (Use plain grout mix without added pigments to prevent color shifts.) Repeat the mixing process until you have enough paint to complete your entire project. (For the pantry area in the Idea House, they mixed their chalkboard paint in 1-gallon batches)

3. If necessary, prepare the wall with a light sanding or priming. Apply the chalkboard mixture to any paintable surface with a roller or brush. (In the Idea House, they used two coats of chalkboard paint to build up a thick surface.)

4. Allow the paint to completely dry, then sand the surface with fine sandpaper until you achieve a texture that accepts chalk. Next, "color" the surface with the side of a piece of white chalk to get a chalkboard-like patina.

5. Wipe away excess chalk with a damp cloth.

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If you'd like to see more of this magnificent house, click on the photo below to take a video tour...



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We're in Virginia Beach today, and we've got a great view of the water from our hotel room. (I'll post photos tomorrow night) We're excited about shooting our "shopping day" segment tomorrow. If you'd like to see what we score in the stores by the shore, our segment will air, live, Tuesday morning on ABC Family.

Wish us luck!

Layla

House Tour - Union Springs, AL

Earlier this month, we took a trip to Union Springs, Alabama.
It's a small, laid-back town located about an hour and a half southeast of where we live. Century-old Victorian homes line many of the streets around town, and the ones that are for sale are priced incredibly low because of the towns proximity to the nearest large city (it's a 30 minute drive) and because they are in need of lots and lots of love.

Fun Facts about Union Springs:

Population: 2,989
Elevation: 522 feet
Antique houses: Tons
Number of seconds it took for us to fall head over heels in love with the house in the video you're about to see: One!

Isn't she beautiful? I swear to you, I've had two dreams about her since our visit!
:-)

Here's how the ad for the house reads:

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"Victorian House with lots of extras!
Columned porch with porch swing, columned entrance open to extra wide foyer, 5 mantles and hardwood floors throughout. Extra tall pocket doors and original wainscoting in the Dining Room. Large butlers pantry with built-in china cabinet, clawfoot tub in bathroom, irrigation system, magnolia and fruit trees.

Just needs a little TLC!
Sold "AS IS" but owner is willing to renovate more with price adjustment.
Fantastic Opportunity!"

$55,000

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Here are some photos we took while strolling around the house...

What do you think? "The Lettered Cottage B&B"?
After all, the ad does say it "just needs is a little T(he) L(ettered) C(ottage)!"
;-)

K & L

Raised In Cotton

The other night after reading our blog post about our transom opening, I received an email from Carol of "Raised In Cotton". She sent us photos of the transoms in her 140 year old farmhouse.

We were so excited to see they looked just like the one we had just cut out!




Her transoms made us feel even better about the impulsive decision we made to cut a hole in our wall! :-)





Of course, because we're obsessed with fixing up houses, we asked Carol if we could see more photos, and if it would be alright for me to blog about them. She sweetly obliged, and emailed us a handful of photos that literally had Kevin and I gasping as we scrolled through them...



Carol and her husband, a.k.a "Mr. PracticalPants", purchased the farmhouse this summer. One of the first houses in Jackson County, Missouri- it was built in 1865 by a farmer and his wife, who at the time owned 500 acres. The home sits on one acre today- which sounds a lot easier to mow. :-)
Painted in creams and whites, with nine foot ceilings and crown molding throughout, Carol said she "pretty much lost it upon stepping inside the front door".
Among other amazing details, the home has three porches with stained glass doors, a center staircase and formal foyer, and the most spectacular antique chandeliers hanging everywhere you look. Carol adores a "clean, farmhouse style with a just a bit of elegance", so for her, this house is perfection!
She described the experience of buying the place as a "dream come true" and was so surprised to find out that it sat just 5 minutes away from their previous home.

Since moving in, they've been doing renovations, such as replacing the wooden lap boards on the exterior, and re-doing the master bathroom- which actually started out as a closet. Carol has so many ideas, and I for one will be anxiously awaiting her blog posts as they lovingly restore this fascinating old place!











The dining room has a darling built-in window seat...



Carol's cuddly dog "Belle" likes it too...







The family room also has a window seat. The attention to detail in old houses like this really fuels our passion to buy a much older home in the future.



From the original doors, stained glass, mouldings and chandeliers throughout, to the amount of natural light flooding into each room, this house is simply breathtaking!



Thank you for allowing Kevin and I to blog about it Carol, and good luck with all of your renovations. We're so happy and excited for you!

Layla :-)

This post was brought to you by:

Trendy Home Decor Wall Decals

HGTV Green Home Photos

I'm still reeling from our serendipitous trip to the 2008 Green Home on Friday. I almost feels like a dream. (Mom- did I really get to see it in person?)

It's currently up for sale, and the asking price is $589,000.

My obsession with this house runs deep. I've had this photo set as my desktop photo on my monitor for quite some time now...

And I have a recurring dream about this antique piece of furniture designer Linda Woodrum used...



The antique brass picture lamp on the middle of the tabletop is amazing. And check out the galvanized wire baskets in the lower right. (Those came from Scott's Antique Market in Atlanta, I believe) The combination of galvanized metal and milky-white china stops me in my tracks every time!

I was able to take a picture through the glass on the front door, and what used to look like this:



Now looks like this:



The windows on the back side of the house were heavily tinted, so I wasn't able to snap any photos of the Kitchen, Living Room or Dining Room (boo). I was really hoping to see this stuff...





...but the house has been re-staged and put up for sale, so none of the things I was excited to see were there. I heard through the grapevine that the woman who won the house last year wasn't able to keep the house because of the high property taxes she also "won". So sad. :-(

There is a big body of water behind the house:



We spotted an alligator out in the middle of it:



Do you see him out there? If not, here's a closer look! Scary!



Here's a photo of my Mom in the backyard:



I'll never forget our quick visit to the Green Home...




It was such a magical moment in time for me!

2008 Green Home Video Tour

Daisy Cottage

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way...things I had no words for."

- Georgia O'Keeffe

One of my favorite places to visit on the web is Daisy Cottage.

It's sunny...

It's cheerful...

It's refreshing...

It's tranquil...

It's precious!

(Photos: Kim at Daisy Cottage)

Dear Kim,

You have such a beautiful way of expressing yourself. You're so giving, and you contribute SO MUCH to the magnificent fabric of life. I am continually inspired by you, your home, and your astounding achievements. You are one-of-a-kind, and your words & photos always leave such a lasting and meaningful impression on me. Thank you for unceasingly inspiring us all to seek out the precious possibilities that live within us!

Layla