Willow & Twig

I started compiling this post before we even moved out of our Madison house, and it’s sat here in my archive of unfinished drafts for nearly nine months. The house is no longer the bright cheery yellow, but a dark blue with cream and red trim. This post is my ode to the Madison. A quick overview of how we left her, better and more loved than when we came. 

Like many good things, this house was an unexpected find. In 2015 we decided to sell our newly renovated house and buy a duplex. We had just found out we were pregnant with #2, and the income from the second unit made it possible for me to leave full time work and stay home with the two littles. One of the benefits to living in a huge historic neighborhood are the walks. On one such walk during the summer of 2016, we noticed the Madison house for sale. Weeks passed and there she sat, empty and still for sale. Being that the market was hot, I couldn’t figure it out why it wasn’t selling. I called on it, we walked through. The photos online were terrible- like…I understood why it hadn’t moved. Once inside, the reality was it was gorgeous! There was so much original woodwork and the house felt solid. My parents walked through it with us, and I’ll never forget my Mom saying, “Andrea, you have to buy this house.” Coming from a woman to whom decisions are not made easily, it was a significant confirmation. We offered 20k below asking, but it was what we could afford. A little go-between and by October, she was ours.

The Kitchen

The kitchen, when we started, looked a little more like the photo pictured below right. The back stairwell was closed behind the wall and the stairs went to the outside (not the original layout of the house). We opened up the wall and twisted the stairwell back into the kitchen.

The cabinets and floors were in good shape, but the colors were bad. I painted all the bead board Sherwin Williams Snowbound, along with the trim. The walls are Sherwin Williams Realistic Beige – but don’t let the name throw you – the color has a purple undertone and neither looks definitively beige or gray. It’s a mystery color. We actually used this color in the front entry way and brought it up the stairs to the second floor landing and hall, and back down the back stairwell. Full circle with Realist Beige. The cabinets are Sherwin Williams Wolf Grey.

The back-splash is a whole other post (literally, you read about the process here). I fell in love with a cement tile in a pattern and color combination called catalonia gray. Each tile ran $7.40/each, and I know myself well enough to realize I’m attracted to loud designs that I will likely want to change in the next five years. What better time than to try my hand at stenciling? So, in came $0.20 tiles and tile paint (before I drag you into the details, see sister post).

The Entryway

The entryway. There’s nothing I can take credit for here. It truly is a relic of craftsmanship – the hand carved details, frosted glass windows (which appear throughout the house as a theme), the paneling, etc. Stunning. We did find that fantastic chandelier on Craigslist. A hobbiest had an attic filled with antique fixtures he intended to rewire, but ended up selling most of them as his schedule never allowed the time. We also found the kitchen brass light and the dining chandelier in his collection, and Simeon rewired the fixtures. The hand painted mural on the main wall was my attempt to make a focal wall. Love it or hate it, I liked how the modern design juxtaposed the victorian staircase and 9’ pocket doors. 

The back stairwell had a small little landing as well, and inspired by Vintage Revivals bathroom wall mural, I copied her amazing tutorial, in which Mandi even provides the paint colors.

Kids Bathroom

This was one of my favorite transformations in the house. The floor was a beige and brown basic tile that was poorly laid, however the walls still had the original wainscot. Knowing I wanted to stay true to the era of the house, but also acknowledge my bend toward the eye-catching, I settled on traditional 1″ hex tile. I bought 12×12 sheets of white and black tile from the Tile Shop. Here’s where it gets tedious: Once I determined my design. the repeat wasn’t every 12″ – meaning every sheet wasn’t the same. So I would lay out several sheets at once and with a sharpie, I would X out the hex tiles that needed to be punched out of the mesh and replace it via glue gun with a black hex tile. 

Fortunately, Simeon and I were in an audiobook phase and had recently downloaded The Brothers K (by James Dean Duncan, we have two friends that have named sons after the characters in the book, both lit majors). It’s a 645 page novel and I will forever associate Duncan’s descriptive and crafty humor to plucking and glueing tiles.

Living Room and the Reading Room

The living room was my favorite room for one simple reason. THE LIGHT. Oh you guys, the light that filtered into this southwest facing room was beautiful, it felt like you were living in a southern California photo shoot on even the cloudiest of February afternoons. We ended up touching everything but the windows in this space. We had the ceilings skim coated, replaced the carpet with the tan herringbone carpet (pictured at the bottom the post, the old carpet is still featured in most of these photos). I found the white cabinet from a discount store, the Geode pulls from Hobby Lobby of all places. Simeon mounted the cabinet to the wall and built in the bookshelf and base around it. We never like the look of a TV being the most promenade space in the living room, but the layout left us little choice. So compromise, we mounted the tv over the bookshelf.

For the adjacent reading room, we went with a dark teal. I wish I had more photos of this room that justified it’s cozy draw. It was connected to the main living room via a large arch. It also had a 3” oak pocket door that led to the oh-so-grand entryway. 

I’m not a fan of brown tile. But I’m even less of a fan of changing a fireplace surround that has survived for 120 years. Once styled, the brown fireplace didn’t bother me so much. Walls we painted Sherwin Williams Rainwashed, a sister shade to our go-to color, sea salt. 

Bedrooms

Dining Room

The pocket doors are the most notable attribute of this space. Solid oak, each door is nearly 3” thick, we had two: one between the dining room and entry way and one between the dining and living room. They rolled like a charm and functionally were awesome. If we had dinner guests and the kids were watching a movie, zip…separate rooms. Every piece in this space is second hand. The table I found for $80 on Craigslist and painted it. The chairs – which are beautiful black lacquer, I found for $180 (set of 6) and the credenza, hardly visible under the gallery wall, I purchased to convert into a vanity but ended up using it in the dining room. Furniture grand total: roughly $360 PLUS paint.

And that’s nearly a wrap! I didn’t show pictures of the master bath and closet, which were so cool but we didn’t refinish it before moving. 

Georgiana, age 5, asks me regularly if we can buy the house back again. Before I let the question break my sentimental heart, I must remember that she most certainly is a grass-is-greener type of gal. Just last week we came home from a 7-day trip to Florida and I found her weeping in her bedroom because she missed her real home in Florida. I digress. Leaving with a few house details which prove that old houses > new houses.