Summer Home Tour 2016

Woohoo summer is almost here and with that said I am thrilled to show you some of my summer décor. If you are here visiting via Courtney's blog A Thoughtful Place, welcome! I sure hope you are enjoying all of the amazing summer inspiration on today's tours. First I want to send out a huge "thank you" to my friend Marty of the gorgeous and all inspiring blog A Stroll Thru Life.  Marty was wonderful enough to pull together yet again, another thirty...yes 30 bloggers for this amazing summer home tour series.

So here I go...

THANK YOU MARTY!!!

XXOO

Okay, now that I have got my thanks out properly, it is time to move onto the tour. Since I have mostly shared with you in past tours the interior of our home, I thought today I would give you a little idea of what the exterior of our home is like. So without any further delay...here is 21 Rosemary Lane, Summer 2016!

As you may already know if you follow me, 21 Rosemary Lane is a mid century cape cod style home. The house may look rather small from the curb but inside is 2400 sq. feet of living space not including an almost 1500 square foot partially finished basement.

However as you can see from this next picture of the back of our home, it is actually a pretty good size with a fabulous screened in porch which was updated last summer. (I am super excited to share the interior of the porch with you later in this post.) 

The front porch is a lot smaller than I would like and "someday" (haha in quotes) I would love to expand the porch area right across the front of our house. I'd also like to do some sort of treatment to the brick in order to tone it down some. After watching an episode of Fixer Upper where Joanna and Chip added a German Smear to the front of a brick faced home, I was convinced more than ever to do something to our brick. (All I need to do is to get Mr. Rosemary Lane on board with the idea.)

This year again I went with a patriotic vibe for the front porch.

Our home sits on one acre of an almost park like setting in the middle of horse and farm country. Behind the line of houses across the street is a huge corn field belonging to a neighboring farmstead.

Once inside our front door the living room is immediately to your right. I redecorated the living room a couple years ago, incorporating a lighter color scheme with plenty of pattern and texture throughout the room. It suits the summer months very well.

Now let's quickly scoot on thru the kitchen from the living room for a peek at my new favorite summer space...the screened in porch.

When we first moved in I wanted to convert this space into a year round family room, however once the kids moved in the money flew out the window! This space was so bad that I would actually opt to close the much hated vertical blinds in front of the kitchen sliders so I didn't have to look at the nasty concrete floor and sagging warped screens. Over the years I have made many changes to this area, and if you follow me on a regular basis you may remember a few of them, but this makeover by far is my favorite.

All the wicker furniture in this space has been either a yard sale find, picked up off the side of the road, or some one just gave it to me. (I did purchase all of the cushions and pillows from various stores...most I found on sale or clearance.)

The table was made by Mr. Rosemary Lane using some old wood we had lying around and an ancient table base which was in my parents house when I was growing up. The chandelier was made from a wine crate I picked up at my local liquor store. To see more on how it was made just click here. 

Across from the table is a sitting area. We typically use this space to play games, listen to music, read or just hang out.

Believe it or not, this little cabinet housing our glasses and barware is actually a roadside find that I sanded down and gave it a few fresh coats of polyurethane along with new door pulls. If you want to see the "before" of my sweet cabinet just follow this link.

(LOL...my $1 yard sale lamp with its $20 lamp shade!)

My latest acquisition is this small sized hutch my childhood friend Christina bequeathed to me. I plan to give it a little bit of a makeover in the not too distant future so make sure to stay tuned.

I certainly hope you enjoyed this little summer tour of our home...we certainly did enjoy sharing our home with you all. I would for you to drop by anytime and join me for a nice cold lemonade or ice tea on our back porch. Can you think of a better way to while away those lazy hazy summertime days?

Tomorrow, day 4 of this Summer Tour series, continues with Carmel's tour over at her beautiful blog Our Fifth House. And just in case you have missed any of the tours thus far you can catch up using these links.

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Monday - June 6

A Stroll Thru Life 

Life on Virginia Street 

Remodelando La Casa  

Thrifty and Chic 

Rain On A Tin Roof 

Duke Manor Farms

Tuesday - June 7

Life Love Larson 

Haneens Haven

Claire Brody Designs 

My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

The House of Silver Lining

Hymns & Verses 

Wednesday - June 8

Dimples & Tangles 

Our Southern Home 

Simple Details 

Decor To Adore 

A Thoughtful Place

 21 Rosemary Lane 

Wishing you all a wonderful day and a fabulous rest of the week!

XO

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Cozy Little House

Summer Home Tours Series

I have to tell you that I was thrilled beyond belief when my friend Marty from the beautiful blog A Stroll Thru Life, asked if 21 Rosemary Lane would like to be part of the Summer Home Tour Series she was putting together. To be honest I haven't done a home tour in couple of years so I was kind of excited to put together this post for you all to enjoy!

First let me tell you a little bit about our home. It is considered to be a Cape Cod style home with a rectangular floor plan and a steep Gable roof line. There is a large kitchen area, a living room, dining room, laundry room and a bath and a half on the first floor. On the same floor we also have a large master bedroom which we currently use as a guest bedroom, and a bonus room we converted into our office. Upstairs there are three bedrooms, one full bath and a walk-in attic. Below the main floor is a basement which runs almost the full length of the first floor. 

The house was built in 1974 and sits on one acre of flat land we like to call "The Curran Acre". 

So welcome to our home, please come on in.

(There is Moe taking a snooze on the front porch. My my he looks sleepy!)

I shared a post last week on the front porch so if you would like to see more pics just click here.

Over the winter I repainted the foyer and reconfigured the furniture arrangement. The large pitcher on the buffet is a Home Goods score from last year. I like to change the flowers in it for each season. This is my spring and summer display. To add some architectural interest, a shelf was placed just above the arch shaped mirror.

To the right of the foyer is our living room. This is where you can really feel summer influencing the decor. Last summer I spent a lot of time at the beach, so when I was deciding on what to do for my living room makeover I had plenty of sea and sky inspiration.

I simply adore the relaxed feel of this room which happens to be the perfect vibe for how we use the space. Our living room is where we read, watch TV, do puzzles, play games, entertain company, and where you can find us almost any Friday evening of the year enjoying pizza and a movie.

The gallery wall of kid photos above the piano also gets changed out with the seasons. As you can see for the summer months I filled many of the frames with pictures of Grace and Michael at the beach.

The large seascape painting over the mantel was my inspiration piece for the room. I pulled colors from the painting and used them as the room's wall color, in choosing slip covers, and for the accent color of the bookcase stenciling. This painting actually hung in Mr. Rosemary Lane's childhood home. His mother purchased the it years ago because it reminded her of where she grew up...the Jersey shore. 

Starfish added to the coffee table vignette.

Through the foyer pass the living room is our formal dining area. It is a good size room and seats about 10 comfortably for dinner.

A sunny yellow runner and brightly colored flowers makes the room feel lighter and brighter for the summer months.

In the guest bedroom I pulled up the heavy dark wool carpet and replaced it with a smaller lighter area carpet which had been living in the upstairs hallway. This immediately gave the room a much more airy feel.

Two wreaths were place above each bed's headboard and some pretty handmade quilts are adorning the trunk at the foot of the first bed. 

The old weathered trunk at the foot of the second bed holds a bamboo tray containing painted bottles and a pretty magazine basket.

One of the wicker chairs from the back patio was brought in and placed in the corner of the room. A coordinating pillow and cushion, plus a picher of flowers brings a fresh summer look to this space.

Upstairs we have 3 bedrooms. The first on the right is the one we use as the master. To me it is the happiest room in the house because of the color scheme. The calm green and pretty orange always makes this room feel like a lovely summer garden even in the dead of winter.

The kids rooms are across the hall. Now I do have to apologize for these pictures since they are actually a couple years old. It seems as we get into these tween and teen years it has become an ongoing battle to get our two little lambs to keep their rooms neat and clean. Grace's room is first up. When she was 5 I painted the two toned purple strips on the wall and made the ceiling pink. Now she is coming up on 13 and her room is probably due for another makeover.

The vintage vanity was actually a $5 yard sale find. I sanded it down and painted it in a hot pink color called watermelon. 

Michael's room is on the same side of the hallway as Grace's room, but since it is more towards the front of the house the ceiling has a rather large slope due to the steep Gable roof. This is pretty typical of cape cod style homes. The furniture in this room was a bedroom set from Sears which belonged me and my sister Kim when we were little girls. It was spray painted red and a cute white star was added to the middle panel of the three paneled drawers.

At the time I changed this room from the nursery to a little boy's room Michael was also 5. He loved anything to do with travel so I gave him a red white and blue color scheme with a touch of Americana.

I picked up two old 2-tiered end tables at a yard sale for only $10, and then gave them a whole new look to go with the decor of Michael's room.

The headboard I snagged at ReStore for $8. It was painted red and Michael's name was added to it.

But alas our children do grow up and outgrow some of the things they loved so much when they were little. I think Michael is ready for a big boy living space. Maybe next year!

Off of the kitchen we have an 18' X 18' screened in back patio. Currently we have the screens all pulled off and are in the process of replacing them. We are also painting the ceiling, wood beams and the cement floor. To date this space has been totally furnished with hand-me-down items, yard sale finds and freebies on the side of the road.
Here is how it has looked over the past 2 years.

I think my most notable freebie find happened when Kim and I were driving down a road near her home in Pennsylvania, and we saw this white wicker settee just hanging out at the end of someone's driveway. Two people were sitting on their front porch so Kim asked if the wicker piece was for the taking. They nodded yes and we immediately scooped it up and put in the back of my van. Score!

And that wraps up my summer home tour. I hope you enjoyed it. I look forward to sharing with you the rest of our home as I complete the decorating projects going on right now. If you like to see more you can follow me on Facebook and Twitter where I will show you lots of sneak peaks.

And since you were kind enough to stop by today for the tour, here is a sneak peak of my office makeover. 

Again I want to say thank you to Marty for pulling this stunning series together, and for including 21 Rosemary Lane in this amazing group of talented bloggers.

Next up on the tour is Alicia from the blog Thrifty and Chic. 

Be sure to hop on over and check all her beautiful summer decor. Here is the tour schedule for the week!

Mon - June 8th

A Stroll Thru Life 

                     Live On Virginia Street                    

Snazzy Little Thing

    21 Rosemary Lane

Thrifty and Chic

Claire Brody Designs

Tue - June 9th
Thrifty Decor Chick
Our Southern Home
Making Home Base
Hymns & Verses
Bliss @ Home
DIY Showoff

Wed. - June 10th
City Farmhouse
Driven By Decor

No Minimalist Here
SG Style
Decor To Adore
Desire Empire

Thurs. - June 11th
A Thoughtful Place
Monica Wants It 
Rain On A Tin Roof
Charming In Charlotte
Remodelando la Casa
Dimples & Tangles 

Fri. - June 12th
Simple Details
Tidbits & Twine
Design Post Interiors
Designing On The Side
Peaceful Home Decor
Talk Of The House 

Crazy right??? 

An entire week of inspiration that you just won't want to miss!

XO

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StoneGable