We have been blessed.

We have plans to remodel an old house in the country. If all goes as planned we will have a year(or more) to work on it as money comes along. My hubby said he gets to do up the "entertainment room". That's the room where he'll set up his sound equipment, the computer, t.v., etc. I get to decorate the rest of the house. I'm not complaing! Anyway. I have some basic ideas for every room. Second hand and homemade is preferable.

Soni, I sure appreciated you Martha Stewart thread. I loved reading your ideas on Soni's thread. I would love to hear everyone's ideas and helpful hints on this.

Gary will be doing all the work, including building on an extra room, except the roof and possibly the windows. He has started rewiring it. He does heating and A.C. and light electrical for a living. The house is in desperate shape as is the land-3 acres, two barns. We're going to let goats do a lot of the clean up work. This will be on ongoing project. Gary and I work well together.

Does anyone have any ideas how I could make the living room feel like your still outdoors-woodsie? Keeping in mind that we will heat mainly by wood and I like things cooler and not cluttered. I also have to take into consideration the chemical poisoning. Paneling and new carpeting are out of the question.

The kitchen will be blue and very early American, the bedroom fairly small plum/purple and Victorian, the bath green with a whirlpool bath. There is an upstairs but I haven't even seen it yet. It will be an extra bedroom and attic. We have 4 bookcases. No hallway. 5 outside doors.

Thanks for all your help. This will be hard work but it should be lots of fun as well.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), September 03, 2000

Answers

Sounds fun!!! This is my favorite thing to do!!Redo and make thinks!! I made my own shir curtains and they were just too plain, sooo I went for a walk in the woods and picked 3 or 4 doz. leaves all size and different shapes! Went back to the house and pulled out the fabric paint and used the leaves as you would rubber stamps! It turned out great!! They are in my bedroom because I wanted a light airy feel in the bedroom! I also wanted a "painting" behind my stove but I don't paint sooo I found a wallpaper border that I loved and cut out several things from it and made my own "painting" with the cut outs and put glass to protect it and EVERYONE who comes here wants to know who painted it!!!

I have lots of friend who are artist in there own field:one makes pottery, one makes baskets and one is a wonderful artist! I sew and do crafts so we trade things!!Maybe you can do this with your friends!

Just some ideas! Good luck and keep us posted!

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), September 03, 2000.

One of my favorites is to use tree branches for curtain rods. Then wrap cheescloth typr sheer fabric around the rod a few times and alow it to hang down the sides. Make your own lampshades and use tried leaves to decorate them. When the light shines through the leaves look lovely. Choose natural colors and remember at all times that form follows function and a homesteader needs functional rooms.

-- Cheryl Cox (bramblecottage@hotmail.com), September 03, 2000.

I painted a rug around the bed, we have plywood floors in bedroom, dining room, and kitchen painted SADDLE BROWN floor paint. $5.00 a room to paint. The rug is neat, western style like a saddle blanket, and people think it IS a rug till they get up close. You can paint things that fool the eye everywhere! And no rugs anywhere to get icky. Just wood floors that I bleach everyday. We have those very large army ammo boxes for coffetable, subwoofer, and storage things. You can paint them or not. I like all wood. Boxes and old chests are good for hiding all the vcr tapes, games, and all the stuff. I don't like all that sitting out, too much to clean. We used Luan for the walls in the kitchen, not panaling but just thin wood grain. Look at it, it's pretty. There is not one curtain in my whole house, just white shades only to keep the sun out when I need it and you can paint those too.I like all my windows open all the time, no one is close enough to see in. Keep us posted!

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), September 03, 2000.

Not to put a bummer on things , but it will probally take twice as long as you think to get everything done and twice as much .This is coming from experience .

I sometimes wonder how we stay married through it all ? Today wasn't to bad a new front door and 2 storm windows .Someday the sheetrock will all be done and maybe even bedroom doors !

As for your question , go to open houses , look in windows as you drive by at night , thumb through magazines and go to home improvement stores .All will give you allot of ideas .Last of all have fun and just go with it nothing will evr be perfect .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 03, 2000.

In my opinion, nothing brings the outdoors in like live plants. You should choose plants that can take a change in temperature with the seasons if you're going to be heating with wood, so delicate hothouse plants are out. I would suggest trees (yes trees) like Japanese maple or some such. They look nice ,take well to container living and can be put outside if they get out of hand. You'll also want to take them outside in the summer to let them "breathe", although I'd keep them in not-so-full sun because of the difference in indooe and outdoor light. For this, you'll want to have a handtruck/dolly on hand. keep it pruned and it should be just fine.

If you or a friend has an artsy touch, you may want to consider painting your favorite outdoor scene on one wall and then covering it with painted trellis from Lowes, etc. It gives it a real 3-D feel and is a wonderful conversation piece. If you put lots of containerized plants around it and out into the room, you'd swear you were outdoors.

Another way to achieve the indoor/outdoor look is to put in an indoor water feature. This can be as simple as a tabletop fountain in the living room to an entire wall given over to a waterfall with a "stream" cutting through the floor. (Mucho planning involved, but can be done - have seen it to great effect in restaurants and malls). To do something in between, perhaps try a half-barrel water garden with a bamboo pipe/recycled water flow. Just be sure you have a power back-up for the pump (solar mini-panel come to mind, like for battery chargers) in case of a power outage, especially if you put fish in it. Perfect for the foyer. Don't put it in the bedroom, or you'll be up to pee every ten minutes.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 03, 2000.

Oh yeah, I just remembered: A really great look is to imprint leaf and other botanincal prints (fern, grass) into wet cement or handmade tiles (see your local cont. ed). This makes a nice walkway or tile floor and is a really nice way to spruce up a plain jane concrete slab floor, along with the other options of pressing slate-like textures into it and/or using a pointed dowel and straight edge to make tile "grout lines" in the wet cement. You can also lightly tint the pressed imprints with natural plant dyes for a bit of color.

For an exotic look, you could also go the slate texture route and imprint with shells and fish skeletons (local butcher or handy fisherman), giving the appearence of fossils. Ferns would look good with this, too, although for maximum authenticity, be sparing, and no leaves or flowers, as they tend not to show up in marine fossil sites. Also remember that overly deep impressions will attract dirt and be hard to clean, so choose your imprints wisely, or (in the case of shells) simply imbed them round side up in the concrete just over flush, but not so high that they will stub everyone's toes or trip them. Be sure to fill the shell with cement if you do this so that it doesn't collapse if trod on. This will produce a slight relief and look absolutely authentic with slate texturing and a blue/charcoal coloring of the concrete. Any broken or cracked shells would look perfect done like this, spread out as if they were damaged in the process of fossilization. You can also purchace fossils at science and educational toy stores and use them to decorate the rest of the room to bring it all together. I plan on doing this sort of thing, when I get my own place, in the library/den, for which we have already stocked up on maps and other "world travel and history" accessories on sale, like reproductions of antique sextants and old- looking globes. I just love the look, sorta Leonardo da Vinci-ish.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 03, 2000.

Has anyone tried the "stamping stencils" at Walmart and such? They dont look nearly as fussy as regular stencils, and come with ivy leaves and different sorts of flowers, etc. They look like they would be fun, and a lot cheaper than some of the wallpaper borders...

-- Leann Banta (thelionandlamb@hotmail.com), September 04, 2000.

I got a bunch of old maps out of Nat'l Geographic at a yard sale one time. (Ex) Hubby and I used them to wallpaper a bathroom - varnished over them to prevent water damage. Looked really neat. I wouldn't want to do a BIG room in them, however.

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), September 04, 2000.

i've always thought it would be neat to have a combination living room greenhouse type of room. Most living rooms are places you have to worry about not getting dirty,etc. Why not have a big planting area between a corner and forming the back of the couch, planted with hardy houseplants, maybe a small tree and a few herbs, such as a bay tree,thyme, etc.The planting area could be made out of rock and concrete, the couch benches could be out of weathered wood, covered with washable cushions in some nice, practical fabric. or maybe the living room could be connected to the greenhouse area in such a way that it's hard to tell where one leaves off, and the other begins. the more utilitarian plants and vegetables could be farhther away, while the houseplants would border and spill into the living room area.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), September 04, 2000.

Hi Cindy,

All the ideas of plants are great, but plants can be a source of mold, so with your problems, keep it in mind.

In my living room, I did a half wall of rag paint and then stenciled on top line with morning glories. On the hardwood floor, I stenciled different morning glories in blue at all the door openings (hall, kitchen & patio doors) and around the woodburning stove. I also stained all the woodwork blue. It really brightened up the room.

Glidden paint has a low odor content.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), September 04, 2000.

Patty, we only plan on having the house livable in a year. With all the work, we figure it will be at least five years before we get the first real settling. We've known about this for over a year now. But just started any major work about 5 months ago. It has to be emptied out of antiques and lots and lots of other stuff. It hasn't been lived in for awhile. With little time to go out there and having to cut the grass (there's two houses), we don't get much done. It's only about 20 minutes from here.

I really appreciate all the responses. Gary especially liked the fountain idea.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), September 05, 2000.

Cindy , being close by helps .We bought are farm and it was 6 hours from were we lived . It's been 5 years and still don't have alot done ! The words liveable mean different things to different people , my husband and I are 2 good examples .Hope it doesn't take you as long .

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), September 05, 2000.

Cindy, Here's an idea that I've loved since I was a little kid. In my Great Aunt's house was a wall that was done as an outdoor scene, as if looking into the woods. It was done with wallpaper, which I know is still avalable. Anyhow, the "view" was framed with the same wood mouldings one would use to surround an actual window, and a curtain was "hung" in front of it. Pull back the curtains, and it was as if you were looking out the window into the woods. Talk about an amazing effect!! My Great Uncle (her brother) was always coming up neat little ideas like that for her. My Dad has carried on the "tradition" In Mom's kitchen, the ceiling needed redone. We're talking about a 100+ year old Victorian home with a 12X25 kitchen with a 12 foot ceiling. He took 4X8 sheets of particle board and ran them lengthwise on the ceilng. He painted them white, then covered the seams with 2 inch by 3/4 inch firring strips painted chocolate brown. The border around the ceiling is the same firring strips "on edge", so to speak. In other words. attached to the wall around the perimeter of the ceiling. With the texture of the particle board, and the color contrast, the effect is incredible!! He's gotten more compliments on that ceiling than almost any other project in that house. (in the 30 years that they've had the house, he's re-done everyroom at least once. this was the 3rd re-do of the kitchen. But that's another story).

The point I'm trying to make is that special effects can be accomplished with inexpensive materials, used in a little bit different way than what they were designed for. Hope this gets the old mental juices flowin. Good luck. John

-- John D. in Pa. (mrmopar@penn.com), September 05, 2000.