These are all a bit of a stretch but I DO love the idea for an old CD case to become a container for a bagel.I also thought the paper clips to hold wires was pretty smart- and very good uses for an old “college” fridge and filing cabinet!
Category Archives: renovations
Use What You Have!
These have been floating around the internet world but in case you missed them I thought I would share them. Very clever ideas for re-using items you might already have.The old chair upside down is very interesting but I love the bicycle turned into bathroom sink-especially using the basket for towels! The old tennis racquets turned into mirrors were also very clever(great for a beach house) and what a fun idea for hooks in your mudroom for hanging coats!
Thoreau House
This is the house of Henry David Thoreau. He lived his whole life in Concord although not all of his years were spent in this house. He was born in a different house, lived for two years as a handyman for Ralph Waldo Emerson in his house, and of course famously spent two years and two months living on Walden Pond. His family produced pencils behind the house that were generally thought to be America’s best-mostly because Henry had researched german pencil-making techniques.
A common mistake is the thought that Henry wrote “Walden” while living on Walden Pond.He actually wrote “A Week On the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”there-an account of a week long trip he took with his brother and a remembrance of John after he died quite suddenly in 1842.In actuality, he wrote most of “Walden” while living with his parents in the third floor attic room of this house.
The house is called “The Yellow House” by Thoreau scholars and was later acquired by the Alcott family. They added the west wing and many Transcendentalist meetings took place there.
The color is known as Thoreau yellow-a special mix-but can be obtained from PhillipsDES.com.
Nantucket Nice
This owner told me that when she was getting ready to paint her house after major renovations she was standing in front of the house and realized it would be nice to pick up the color of the lichen in the beautiful stone wall. It is called Nantucket Gray (HC 111) and is another historic Ben Moore. She also gets many people knocking on her door for the color!
For the Love of Laundry?
NO ONE feels organized if they can’t get their laundry done in a somewhat organized way! When we moved into the house in Concord this room just had the washer and dryer,one chair and a standing lamp. We had the cabinetry built to house sheets,towels and so on.(the previous owners had used all of the bedroom closets-they had no children at home) My favorite part is the folding table I had built-need I say more?!
Put It On The Shelf!
A friend of mine bought an older home here in Concord. This is a project they took on in their Living Room:
“Originally there were pocket doors in the opening. By closing the pocket doors you could separate the rooms but with them open the space seemed larger. At some point the doors were taken out and the walls just closed up. The wall they had been housed in was quite thick (perhaps 12 inches instead of the standard 5). That gave us the idea to extend the wall and use the depth to make bookcases so we did and then we added pocket French doors so we can close off that room.”
Very clever!
Kitchen Pantry Renovation
We recently renovated our kitchen. The area we are most happy with is the pantry. Since we have five kids, the open shelves did not work for us-kids never put back things in a neat way! The pass through did not make sense to us so we deleted that and went all the way to the ceiling with the new cabinets. The refrigerator was blocking a window and making the area very dark so we rotated the fridge over to the other side.I can’t tell you how many people thought we put in a new window!
All You Need Is Paint!
This was my office when we bought our house 6 years ago. I had my painter paint all of the cabinets and countertop Wayside Chamber White and then added new knobs-made a tremendous difference! I had already put in new carpeting and taken down the window treatments (which were swags) when the first picture was taken. The wooden shades the previous owner had were in great shape so I left those up.
Remarkable Bedroom Renovation
These pictures are from a friend that renovated her daughter’s bedroom-the before and after.
She had to move the radiator that is under the window and at the end of the bed, there is a closet now since there was no closet in the room. Her daughter loves her little nook!
Lauren Huyett Interiors 