Opulent Cottage

A Little More Fall and a Holiday Recipe Hop

Hi everyone! I wanted to pop in today with a few photos and an announcement about a fun event I'm part of!

How about a sneak peek of a project I'm working on? I got a wild hair recently and went a little crazy with my newest color crush. Bye-bye red armoire, hello cobalt blue! The paint color is Deep Sapphire Blue, by Glidden for Walmart. I really didn't even plan this change, but I had just seen this beautiful cabinet from one of my faves, Parker Kennedy Living, and it was a spontaneous purchase! I will do a full reveal once I get the second coat finished ;)

 

Of course the room needed some new pillows to accent the new armoire color. The paisley fabric is Sarango Jewel from JoAnn Fabrics, the coral fabric is unknown, found in the remnant bin. What a difference these vibrant colors have made! Adding some fresh fabrics in the form of pillows always brightens and rejuvenates a room. 

 

I'll be back on Friday to join the Holiday Recipe Blog Hop, with a great holiday recipe perfect for entertaining, party-going, or even a quiet dinner for two. Until then, you can visit Carol at Bluesky Kitchen to get started on the tour of deliciousness!

 

Thanks for coming by! xoxo!!

Joining:

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

A Meowey Halloween Display

Happy Halloween, friends! Can anyone believe it's the end of October?? Yikes, where does the time go?!

Before we all go into a panic about how many days we have until Christmas, I thought I would share the Halloween display in our sitting room. Our kitties came out to play this year! I was happy to stay inside and work on this since it's a stifling 88 degrees in Dallas today. Mother Nature, can we get a little fall weather please?! 

Enough chatter and on to the photos. We all wish you a fun, safe, and meowy Halloween!!

 

You can see more of our Halloween kitties here and here.

Thank you for coming by! xoxoxo!!

A Texas Bloggers Fall Home Tour

Welcome to day five of the Fall In Love With Texas Home Tour!! 

If you're visiting for the first time, let me introduce myself! I'm Andrea, a crafter, gardener, and gourmet cook, living in and loving our 1926 Tudor  Revival cottage. It's a whopping 1,200 square feet, and we make the most of every inch! 

This week 20 bloggers are showcasing bits and pieces of our homes decorated for fall. On Monday I showed our back porch dressed up for the early season, if you missed it you can see it here. Today I'm sharing our colorful kitchen! Warning: no neutrals here, and you may need your sunglasses to get through this post ;) I'm craving lots of bright, happy color this year. It may be due to the late arrival of fall color in North Texas, which often doesn't happen until almost Christmas!

The kitchen in our diminutive home is a small galley style, but it's not lacking in color or personality! We are all avid cooks and make great use of this small space. You can read about the transformation of our cabinets here, a choice that I still celebrate  every day. And this fall I can't seem to get enough of red, orange and blue and white! I really didn't change much, but added a dose of fall color with berries, mini pumpkins, and some faux fall leaves. 

 

These shelves took the place of a space-hogging pantry, and are always a favorite spot to decorate for each season.

 

The counter displays are a happy mix of orange, red, yellow, blue and white!

 

The adjoining sitting area/breakfast nook is still my favorite spot in the house! I affectionately call it the Empty Nesters' Lounge, but the whole family enjoys this space, also. This cozy spot features our home's original shiplap, which we uncovered for last year's One Room Challenge. You can read about the transformation here. It is hands down one of the best projects we have ever done for creating a comfortable lifestyle in our little house. My treasured painting, done by my grandmother, is the crown jewel of the room, and the inspiration behind  all of the color in our home.

 

Last fall I took this ginger jar photo on my phone and uploaded it to Waterlogue, then had it printed at Walgreen's. If you haven't tried the Waterlogue app, it's a great way to create inexpensive, personal art. A few dollar store stems are tucked into some dried eucalyptus, so easy! The cute mugs are from HomeGoods. 

 

Can you spot the chandelier sparkles in the background? They make my morning happy :)

 

If you follow me on Instagram, you have already seen my chinoiserie pumpkin. It's actually just a dollar store pumpkin, painted white, then ModPodged with a gorgeous Caspari napkin! Easiest DIY ever :)

 

I can't wait to actually need this blanket due to cool weather, but until then, I'm enjoying moving it around in every room of the house :)

 

And this girl wasted no time getting comfy :)

 

You can find links to other fall posts on my right sidebar, and here are a few more fall posts you may like:

Fall In the Foyer

A Special Fall Mantel

Fall Mix Tablescape

Fall Greetings Pillow

Fall Tablescape on the Patio

At the end of this fun week, I just can't thank Katie at Let's Add Sprinkles enough, for organizing this tour! It takes a ton of work to put one of these together, and I'm so grateful to her for doing this. It's been a wonderful week of camaraderie with these other Texas ladies! 

Fall In Love With Texas Blog Tour Schedule 

 

Monday:  

Let's Add Sprinkles / Decor to Adore/ Southern DayDreams/ Bluesky Kitchen

 

Tuesday:

Poofing The Pillows/At Home With Jemma/ The B Farm/ Botanic Bleu

 

Wednesday:

Sweet Nothings/ Ash Tree Cottage/ Fern Creek Cottage/ My Heart Lives Here/ Timeless Treasures

 

Thursday:  

Hyacinths For The Soul/ Kitty's Kozy Kitchen/ The Dedicated House/ Brookhollow Lane

Friday:
White Spray Paint/ Opulent Cottage/ Lilacs and Longhorns 

 

Thank you for visiting! I would love to hear what you think about our fall kitchen! If you would like to see more, please follow along on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Bloglovin.

xo, Andrea

Joining:

Thoughts of Home on Thursday at Poofing the Pillows

 

Our Fall Back Patio, and a Texas Bloggers Fall Tour!

Hello Friends! Is anyone else as happy as I am that fall has arrived?!! Not to boot summer out the door, but some cooler temps are always welcome here in the Great Hot State of Texas :)

I'm excited to tell y'all that I'll be part of the Fall in Love With Texas Blog Tour, hosted by Katie at Let's Add Sprinkles! 

 

I thought I would give you a sneak peek today, and I'll be back on Friday with some more of our home, decorated for fall. At the end of this post you'll find a list of all the participants, listed by the day they are sharing their fall inspiration.

For now, please come by and sit with me on our back patio, decorated for fall!

 

You might remember that we gave this area a refresh last spring for One Room Challenge (you can find the reveal here). As I had hoped, we enjoyed being out here quite a bit this summer! I was happy to give this space some fall color, knowing we will soon be spending cool, crisp evenings outside. An outdoor rug from World Market was the inspiration for my fall theme. The second I saw it, I knew it would be perfect to give the brick patio a splash of fall-ness.

 

The throw was a discount find at Ross, and I whipped up a few pillows with fabric from the remnant bin at JoAnn's. The cat pillow was a lucky find at Ikea, and believe me when I say I can't wait to use it in some Halloween decor! Because kitties :)

 

How happy are these sweet pumpkins? It will be at least a month (or more!) before we see some fall color here in North Texas, so some faux leaves are standing in for now.

 

A few more photos --

 

Speaking of kitties, now you all can see why I really needed that throw out here . . . say hello to Lila, otherwise known as Miss Muddypaws ;)

 

 

Fall In Love With Texas Blog Tour Schedule

 

 

Monday: 

 

Let's Add Sprinkles / Decor to Adore/ Southern DayDreams/ Bluesky Kitchen

 

Tuesday:

 

Poofing The Pillows/At Home With Jemma/ The B Farm/ Botanic Bleu

 

Wednesday:

 

Sweet Nothings/ Ash Tree Cottage/ Fern Creek Cottage/ My Heart Lives Here/ Timeless Treasures

 

Thursday: 

 

Hyacinths For The Soul/ Kitty's Kozy Kitchen/ The Dedicated House/ Brookhollow Lane

Friday:

White Spray Paint/ Opulent Cottage/ Lilacs and Longhorns 

 

 

Thanks for your visit today, friends! I hope you'll join us for the tour! I guarantee that you'll fall in love with Texas, too :) 

xoxo, Andrea

Joining: 

Kim's Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style.

One Room Challenge: Our Back Patio, The Reveal!!

The big reveal day is finally here! We made it to the finish line! 

Six weeks ago hubby and I made a plan to refresh our back yard vintage brick patio. We survived multiple interruptions from our typical, but crazy Texas spring weather. But our biggest obstacle was the crazy plot twist that had us building a new fence right in the middle of the ORC project! It was definitely not part of our original plan, but it's 90% finished and I'm so glad that we just got it done. The patio still needs some tweaking, but today it is much more of a place we can relax in and enjoy for the coming summer months. 

My vision for a comfortable, colorful space definitely came true!

 

This gorgeous floral outdoor fabric from JoAnn Fabrics set the tone for the whole patio! These vibrant colors are everything I dreamed of. {FYI all sources are listed at the end of this post.}

 

Painting our vintage iron tables Rustoleum's Sun Yellow Gloss brought them back to life! Have you ever seen a happier, sunnier yellow?! The coffee table is the perfect size for our tiny patio, and I'm so glad that we made the choice to use it instead of getting something else. 

 

It's crazy, but painting this tiny outdoor chandelier ended up being my favorite DIY during this project! Maybe it's because it gave me some small thing to do when major storms were rolling in, or maybe it's just because I love the colors so much. {All paint colors listed below}

 

This BH&G umbrella is going to change our lives! Not only does it crank to open and close, it tilts!! Sun in our faces? No problem, just tilt the umbrella for shade. Best $50 spent ever!

 

I just cannot wait to finally relax here by our pool, and celebrate summer. 

 

Once again, The One Room Challenge has been such an exciting event to be a part of! I now have two different spaces in our home that have been redone, thanks to Linda at Calling It Home. Linda, I know I'm not alone when I say how grateful I am that you created this challenge. If not for ORC, I might still be "deciding" if I wanted to get going on these spaces, lol. ORC has forced me to make decisions and just get it done! The camaraderie is such an energizing force, and being in a group of hundreds of other bloggers dealing with setbacks and challenges really takes the sting out of the struggle to get everything done.

Sources:

Floral pillow fabric, JoAnn Fabrics

Mainstays Outdoor 16 inch Pillows, here and here

Iron Tables, vintage, painted Rustoleum Sun Yellow Gloss

Garden Stool, World Market

Lanterns, Pier 1, {similar} painted Rustoleum White Gloss

Wire lantern, vintage, painted Rustoleum Apple Red Gloss

Hanging outdoor chandy, vintage, crystals painted Rustoleum Sun Yellow, Apple Red, Brilliant Blue, Berry Pink, and Eden

Ceramic owls, cobalt planter, aqua acrylic tray, elephant bead garland, and mosaic LED candles, Ross

Love seat and chair, curbside finds

Black and White Market Umbrella, BHG at Walmart

Umbrella Stand, Target many years ago

World Market Rio Mat

Need to catch up on this crazy journey we're taking? On Week One we talked about The Patio, on Week Two I shared my design plan, Week Three was all about our crazy Texas weather, on Week Four we made a drastic but necessary change to our plan, and Week Five had me wondering if anything was going to come together.

You can see the 20 featured designers' Week Six Reveal posts on the Calling It Home blog here, and they are truly incredible! The Guest Participants' fantastic reveals are found here!

Would you like to follow along? You can subscribe by clicking on the at my top right sidebar, follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on Facebook here or Instagram here. I would love to connect with you!

xo, Andrea

 

Joining: Thoughts of Home on Thursday

 

One Room Challenge: Our Back Patio, Week Five

Goodness, how can it be Week Five already?!!

If you're stopping by for the first time, I planned a simple, easy refresh of our back patio for this round of ORC. Nothing too demanding, with our busy lives and multiple events going on this spring.

Well, scratch that! On Week Four we went on an unplanned, but much-needed detour, when the people we hired to build our back yard fence didn't work out. Enter a new plan, unexpectedly building the fence ourselves, yikes!

We were blessed to have nice weather most of the weekend, which gave us a chance to make some real progress on the fence. I'm sad to say that almost nothing happened on the patio refresh, eek! If I didn't learn it the first time, I have certainly figured out that redoing a space in a short six weeks will almost always involve a plot twist that requires some compromise!

To make up for lost time, I decided to nix the coffee table plan from Week One and just work with the table we already own. It badly needed a refresh though, so this happened:

 

I'm in love! I don't know why I didn't paint this sweet little table ages ago. 

My outdoor Pier 1 lanterns were a little worse for wear, so despite the gale force winds we had Wednesday, they got a paint job also. I love the freshness of the white! Did you know that most lanterns are made with little tabs that allow the glass to be removed for cleaning and painting? It certainly made the job a little easier :) I can't wait to style these with some pretty new candles! Actually, I can't wait to style a lovely happy hour on our refreshed patio, no matter how much or how little we actually get done.

 

Another cute pillow made its way into the mix, also. FYI, I'll be linking all of the items I found next week at the reveal, for those of you who are on the hunt.

 

And, as always, my helpers are close by and keeping me company every step of the way:

 

Thanks so much for coming by, everyone! I'm off to get some pillows made and pots painted.

Need to catch up on this crazy journey we're taking? On Week One we talked about The Patio, on Week Two I shared my design plan, Week Three was all about our crazy Texas weather, and Week Four we made a drastic but necessary change to our plan.

You can see the 20 featured designers' Week Five posts on the Calling It Home blog here, and it's a wild ride! One blogger has already announced that there's no way she can finish, and another has announced that she's already done. Last week's linkup included 249 participants, talk about inspiration, you can find this week's here.

Would you like to follow along? You can subscribe by clicking on the at my top right sidebar, follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on Facebook here or Instagram here. I would love to connect with you!

xo, Andrea

 

Joining: Thoughts of Home on Thursday

One Room Challenge: Our Back Patio, Week Four

It's that time again, a new week and time to see what progress I have made on our Back Patio Refresh for One Room Challenge! 

In a shocking plot twist, last week we . . . . 

Built a new fence. 

It's my party and I can change the plan if I want to, right?! Long story short, we thought we had hired someone to build this fence, but that wasn't working out, so we headed to Home Depot and got going. What would a project be at our house without another, more complicated, project thrown in for good measure? #letsdothis

I have to say that I'm super amazed with the Behr Waterproofing Wood Stain, though. It covered this red cedar beautifully and went on like buttah! I brush painted the first batch, then switched to a combination of brush and roller to speed things up a little. A sprayer would probably work really well also. 

You can believe me when I say that this new fence is definitely counting as part of the "patio" redo. LOL 

Back to the photo, at least a had a little time the other day to paint up this cute little outdoor chandy. Because when the weather man says softball sized hail you pack up all of your breakables outside and cover your furniture and pad your stainless steel grill, and in between you drag out all the extra colors of spray paint on hand and have a little fun painting crystals. 

Only two weeks to go! Will I finish? Anything? Your guess is as good as mine at this point!

Need to catch up on this crazy ride we're taking? On Week One we talked about The Patio, on Week Two I shared my design plan, and Week Three was all about our crazy Texas weather, which led to the first change in the plan.

You can see the 20 featured designers' Week Four posts on the Calling It Home blog here, and see the over 220 linking participants here!! So much eye candy!

Would you like to follow along? You can subscribe by clicking on the at my top right sidebar, follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on Facebook here or Instagram here. I would love to connect with you!

xo, Andrea

 

Joining: Thoughts of Home on Thursday

One Room Challenge: Our Back Patio, Week Three

 

Week Three is usually when the ORC drama begins, and we are no exception here! This is the state of our project right now:

 

 

We have had rain, rain and more rain. Sadly there's still plenty to come, and we are likely to have a soggy back yard for a while. The patio has been flooded several times and with the rest of the yard completely saturated, it will probably flood again with even a small rainfall. Our sunny days to get the patio projects completed are really numbered at this point, which I knew going in was a possibility. I did get one coat of stain on the furniture and it was already looking much fresher. 

I'm not really complaining, though. Altering my plan for our patio is nothing compared to the suffering and loss being experienced elsewhere in our great state. My heart aches for the people who have lost loved ones or had their homes destroyed in all the crazy storms this week. So I'm stepping back, removing unattainable tasks from the to-do list, and feeling thankful for the many blessings we have. 

You all will definitely be seeing a different final space than I had originally planned for, but one thing I can still promise is plenty of cheerful color! I swooned over this gorgeous outdoor fabric from JoAnn Fabrics, and even more so when it went 50% off! How fab is it with this cute Mainstays pillow? I could hardly believe the $5 price tag! The entire collection is colorful and cute. Here's the link to the pillow, unfortunately the fabric isn't sold online. Update! I did finally find the fabric here!

 

Here's to sunnier days ahead . . . .

You can see the 20 featured designers' Week Three posts on the Calling It Home blog here, and see the over 240 linking participants here!! So much eye candy!

Would you like to follow along? You can subscribe by clicking on the at my top right sidebar, follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on Facebook here or Instagram here. I would love to connect with you!

xo, Andrea

 

Joining: Thoughts of Home on Thursday

One Room Challenge: Our Back Patio, Week Two

Time for a Week Two update! And if you're new to Opulent Cottage, welcome! 

On Week One, we chose a simple project, giving our back patio a refresh. This patio has been through several transformations throughout the years, and like our first One Room Challenge, the Kitchen Nook turned Empty Nesters' Lounge, it's time to update the space to suit our current needs. {You can see our 2010  family-friendly vintage set up here, and after our vintage sofa fell apart, our 2012 romantic seating for two version here.}

Thankfully, I have finally pinned down {most} of the details for our patio redo! It's a good thing I got one thing done :) I think I mentioned something last week about weather . . . . if you live anywhere near Texas, I'm sure you heard about the crazy, as in record-setting, severe weather we have been having. We were lucky that we weren't hit by the grapefruit-sized hail that happened just east of us, but the rain certainly has kept us from moving forward. More of the same is expected this weekend, so maybe I can at least get a few sewing days in! I hope to get a start sanding and staining the furniture Thursday and Friday, if the rain holds off. 

Anyway, back to the design plan:

 

Happy, colorful and comfy -- everything I wanted for our patio! Again, we are reusing most of the items we already have. The loveseat, chair, and bench all just need a fresh coat of stain and some cushions. We will likely make a coffee table, unless we get really lucky and find one that's the perfect size for this diminutive space. For several years now, we have wanted an umbrella to help shield the patio from the evening summer sun. I may have found the perfect one, it's on order, and I'm hoping we love it when it comes in. I chose a gorgeous floral for the bright outdoor pillows, and the World Market Rio Mat is in the house! I'm already excited about how this is coming together. 

You can see the 20 featured designers' Week Two posts on the Calling It Home blog here, and see the over 240 linking participants here!! So much eye candy!

Would you like to follow along? You can subscribe by clicking on the at my top right sidebar, follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on Facebook here or Instagram here. I would love to connect with you!

xo, Andrea

 

Joining: Thoughts of Home on Thursday

 

 

One Room Challenge: Our Back Patio

Hello friends, and welcome to my second One Room Challenge, a six-week makeover challenge created by Linda at the Calling It Home blog. If you are not familiar with One Room Challenge, I hope you will go by and read all about it at Linda's blog. Every Wednesday for six weeks, 20 featured designers will share their spaces, and on Thursdays I'll be joining dozens of other bloggers as a Guest Participant! If all goes as planned, I'll reveal our new space on May 12th.

This time around we are doing a slightly smaller project, updating the vintage brick patio in our back yard. You can see my first-ever One Room Challenge, our kitchen nook turned Empty Nesters' Lounge, here. When I say "we," I refer to myself and my bestie (and hubby) of 29 years, Maurie. If you're new to Opulent Cottage, thanks so much for visiting! You can read more about me and our 1926 historic home here. 

If you are a regular blog reader here, you may realize that my ORC plans have changed! I originally hoped to give our master bedroom a much-needed total overhaul, but those plans have been scrapped for something a little simpler. Thank you all for coming along on another crazy ORC ride with me! I hope you'll find loads of inspiration for fixing up your own outdoor spaces. Here is a past photo of the space we are redoing, taken in 2012, before we acquired our outdoor patio set:

 

I cannot remember a year when we have been more ready to relax and enjoy our back patio and pool! It's been a roller coaster ride lately, and to top it all off, we are coming up on our daughter's graduation from college. My husband deserves kudos for not only working so hard to restore his health recently, but for being an amazing dad for the last 22 years. This summer is the perfect time for him to have a few months of well-deserved R&R. My goal is to create a bright, comfortable space for us to relax and have friends over to enjoy the summer months. With special emphasis on comfort! Our patio took a beating the last couple of years with our crazy weather here in Dallas, and it's certainly ready for a refresh.

Another thing I'm going easy on, other than the workload, is the budget! Fortunately I have quite a few things in my hoard that can be reworked and there's very little I need to actually purchase. 

Here's the project list:

*Refinish these pieces and finally make cushions that fit properly. Cat-proof cushions :) 

 

 

*Rework portions of our vintage brick patio to level it out (this is a big job, so it's more of a maybe)

*Ugh, this wall. You know, this ivy was perfectly happy for the last 12-plus years, even though during most of that time we were in a drought, and honestly I rarely watered it. Then last spring and summer came with two years' worth of rain, and the ivy started to deteriorate. By last winter, it was completely dead. Picky, picky ivy. I anticipate having lots of fun taking all of this down. Except the opposite. :(

 

*Make a coffee table that better suits the style of the chair and love seat, and gives us plenty of room for trays of yummy food and pretty flowers. Possibly something like this one from Ana White:

 

 

*This bench is another goodie rescued from the side of the road! It needs a refinish and a pretty cushion.

 

*Repaint/Reuse/Repurpose: One thing I really don't need is any more outdoor accessories. But some of the current items certainly need a refresh! I'm hoping they will feel new and fresh once they have had a date with Mr. Rustoleum.

I've drawn inspiration from so many sources this spring! Here are a few:

These colorful Pier 1 pillows just say Happy Summer Days to me! 

 

A vibrant red umbrella from World Market could bring some welcome shade on hot days

 

Swooning over this colorful Rio Mat from World Market!

 

Pier 1 always has the most amazing serveware, and could this Carnival Brights Collection be any more cheerful?!

 

We already own these Pier 1 lanterns in black, but I'm thinking they would be prefect for the season if I paint them white:

 

So with a little elbow grease and some good weather {fingers crossed } we should be in good shape to finish up in time for the May 12 reveal! Wish us luck!

Would you like to follow along? You can subscribe by clicking on the at my top right sidebar, follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on Facebook here or Instagram here. I would love to connect with you!

xo, Andrea

 

*This post contains some affiliate links, which means if you click through and purchase an item, I may receive a small commission. Thank you!

Joining: Thoughts of Home on Thursday