The day we walked in to the Mess Hall, we found homeowner Pam's lovely Hoosier cabinet standing in the far corner of the kitchen...
See it back there?
I've always had a thing for Hoosier cabinets, so I was really happy to find it waiting for me to decorate!
(BEFORE)
Before we got here, Pam told me her main concern was that the place felt like a great, big mish-mash of random stuff.
But sometimes digging through all that "random stuff", and picking out the things that play nicely together, is all it takes to create a pulled together look for less.
Since the vintage kitchen table Pam brought over has a yellow top, and the bar stools she re-covered are now blue and white, I went on a treasure hunt for things that worked well with those two colors.
Here's what I found in various nooks and crannies around the house...
(AFTER)
We brought the seaside-inspired flag we made this Summer, and hung it on the wall above the cabinet.
And we left Pam some room on top of her handsome Hoosier, so that she could have fun expanding on her collection of blue & yellow goodies! (And wouldn't a row of white ironstone pitchers look lovely too?)
"Wrangling" decor from around the house is one of my favorite things to do in the whole weird world. I seriously have a really bad habit of breaking out into Wranglefest 2010 mode within seconds of entering someones house. Do you do that too?
(Please tell me you do that too!)
I've found that most women are open to the idea of a quick re-fluffin', but that their hubbies sometimes get a little weirded out, what with me digging through their cabinets to see what kinda cool decor stuff they've got hiding in there and all.
Over in the "Twin Room", however, it wasn't quite as easy to pull together a fresh look for Pam without spending a liiiittle bit of cash.
(BEFORE)
She decided on a color scheme of blue and green in this room, so we went shopping for new bedding based on her inspiration colors.
We found a couple of pretty, reversible euro shams (for 50% off!) at Macy's.
One side has a colorful, floral pattern on it...
The other side is white, and has a little green detail around the edge...
The pillow case in front of it also came from Macy's (also 50% off!), and I'll have to post a closer up photo of it sometime because the pattern is TOO CUTE!
The throw blanket across the end of the bed came from TJ Maxx ($14.99), the white pick-stitch quilt on the bed came from Bed, Bath & Beyond (on clearance for $49.99) and the beige and white striped quilt was something Pam already had.
(Update: Pam got two sets of blue and white striped sheets this afternoon, and we look forward to putting those on the bed tomorrow!)
As for the rest of the stuff, we pulled the green, metal lamp in from the front porch, got the mason jar from a cabinet in the hallway, got the books from a bookcase in the living room, the flowers came from a bush in the front yard, and the shells came from a bag I found in the bottom of the Hoosier cabinet. The suitcases were already there, and the headboard (Pottery Barn) was purchased from someone on Tybee for $75. (We got two of them so both beds will match.)
But the green lamp in the photo above was sorta just for fun (we thought it photographed well), because Pam actually got two little milk glass lamps for each bedside table in this room...
I ran the idea of adding some blue (or green) trim to the top and bottom edge of the shade by her, just to give it a little extra sumpin' sumpin'if she felt like it needed it.
(Hey Pam! I photoshopped some trim onto your lamp so you could get a visual- check it out!)
Anywho, Wranglefest 2010 will continue at the Mess Hall bright and early tomorrow morning. We've only got three days to get the place done, and there's still LOTS of stuff to fluff!
Want more hoosier cabinet inspiration?
Liz decorated her pretty hoosier cabinet with stuff from around the house too!
The Mess Hall is on the other side of that same building, and we'll actually be staying at Screened Inn while we work on the Mess Hall side.
It's been raining almost non-stop since we got here on Sunday afternoon, but MAN does it feel good to be back here again!
After Googling "open houses on Tybee Island", and discovering this post on our blog, a sweet gal by the name of Pam wound up buying the place from Diane (who owned it while we worked on the Screened Inn).
Shortly after closing, Pam called us up and asked if we'd come back and re-do the Mess Hall side so that the whole place would feel cohesive.
Of course we said yes, and we're so pumped about the challenge she's given us!
Pam's already brought over lots of goodies for us to work with, and she's open to shopping for any additional items we might end up needing too. (a.k.a- a new couch, bedding, throw pillows, towels, etc.)
Should be a good time, 'cause creating "happitats" is my favorite thing to do!
Here are some photos we snapped of the place today...
When you walk in the side door (which is the door most folks use to get inside the place), you're in the living room/kitchen...
A teeny tiny hall leads you to the front bedroom...
It has two twin beds in it...
It's also got a little bathroom connected to it...
At the back at the cottage, you'll find the master bedroom and master bath...
We forgot to snap a pic of the bath though, so we'll have to blog about that one later. (Oops!)
We're back from our whirlwind trip to Junk Bonanza and boy does it feel good to be home!
The trip was a blast, and I'm excited to finally have a chance to blog about some of the great junk we scored!
But first, I have to rewind back to Wednesday, September 15th.
That was the night I got into some bad shrimp posted this video...
Well, shortly after I posted that, a cute couple from Minneapolis named Alex and Carla responded to our vessage (that's "video-message"), and we were able to spend a fast-paced couple of hours shopping with them at Junk Bonanza on Friday.
(Kev, me, Carla & Alex)
And lemme just tell ya- the whole place was pure awesomeness !
(I'm seriously considering setting up a booth there next year with my friend Mary!)
Since we were on a mission to shop for things for Alex and Carla's guest bedroom, I only got a few small things for our house while we were there. It's all good though. Things probably woulda' gotten pri-ty crazy, pri-ty quick, if we had had more time to shop!
We bumped into (sometimes literally) TONS of other friendly bloggers while we raced around the place.
It's always fun to meet (and hug!) the folks behind the blogs we love!
We ran into (not literally) Amy, from Whisperwood Cottage during lunch on Thursday...
And by "Amy", I mean, "Amy-with-the-FAB-master-bedroom-closet-door", Amy.
BEFORE...
AFTER...
LUH. SHUSS. NESS!
On Friday, she took some pics of us filming a segment with Carla. (Thanks for sharing these with us Amy!)
We were interested in a pretty, little aqua blue-colored table she had sitting underneath the big, green trunk we're standing in front of...
But in the end, we decided to get an old, white, commode-style cabinet from a vendor called Junk Style Home instead.
And when we got back to Alex and Carla's house, we moved this tall, skinny guy out...
and moved this short, chunky fella in...
Isn't it precious!?
Thank goodness Kevin remembered to measure that area before we left their house that morning- and thank double goodness he spotted that sucker amongst all the other amazing junk it was buried under!
He's becoming quite the "picker" I tell ya!
("Junk", not "nose". Lead singers (Kevin) never touch their fingers to their noses or mouths for fear of catching a cold and not being able to sing. I have no idea why I just shared that little nugget with you. Oh gosh. There I go again.)
Oh, and I should mention-
The production company filming us was primarily interested in capturing our junkin' adventures, and seeing how we did on camera- so we didn't have a chance to shop for a lamp to use on top of the nightstand. (Boo! I bet Carla's got one on there by now though!)
Also, we only had a couple of hours (and $200) to shop, and we only had about 30 minutes to put the room together before we revealed it to Alex and Carla.
Nothin' like a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am style "room fluffin" in front of a camera crew to get yer pulse a'racin!
Anywho...Alex and Carla also bought the little black box ($10) sitting on top of the cabinet in the photo above. And I talked Alex into clipping those pretty, pink flowers from their front yard. (They were covered in bees, and I do NOT do bees.) The white vase they're sitting in came from their kitchen. It was previously full of flour, but I convinced them that temporarily storing your flour in a zip-loc bag while a camera crew films your guest bedroom is more fun.
They also scored a chippy, old, aqua-colored chair (for $30), a light blue, tin container ($10), a huge piece of ceiling tin ($20), and a vintage jar ($9) for the desk area of the room...
BEFORE...
AFTER...
...and since she's such a cute little fashionista, Alex surprised Carla with the vintage dress form ($100).
(The flowers came from the grocery store and the mail holder came from another room in their house, and as you can see, there wasn't any time (or $) to add pretty, new window treatments either! Boo!)
To fill up the wall to the left of the bed, we hung a small, old bed spring Carla got at the Bonanza for $20...
BEFORE...
AFTER...
It's going to serve as a big, interactive art piece. They can clip little notes, cards, photos and other lightweight momentos to it for their guests to see, and hopefully they'll find some surprises from their guests once in a while too!
I forgot to mention it to Alex, but I think it would be cool if he built a wood frame around it. Sorta like Jen did in her daughters' room...
(Click on the photo to check out the rest of their precious room!)
We forgot to take a photo of all the black/gray/white/natural colored bedding we snagged from other rooms in the house used on the bed.
I did snap this one with my cell phone though...
...but as you can see, the quality is pretty "wah,wah,wah."
(I'm sure Carla will post some better photos on her blog though!)
Last, but not least, Kevin put together a little video montage of our Junk Bonanza experience so that we'd always remember our spontaneous trip up to Shakopee...
Good times, good junk!
Well, now that my retinas are officially fried, I'll bid you a toodle loo and wish you a very happy weekend too!
Wanna see more beautiful junk?
Here's a little video I found online that features some GREAT ideas from the lovely and talented Ki Nassauer. (The brains behind the Bonanza!)