River House Diary

We own two Cooper Upholstered Cubes from Ballard Designs that need to be reupholstered to work in the great room. I plan to use Sunbrella's Piper fabric in Mineral. They will be placed under the console table behind the sofa available when extra seating is required. Cooper Upholstered Cube upholstered in Piper Mineral; courtesy of Ballard Designs

The next major purchase for the Great Room are the rugs. I plan to layer a wool rug over a sisal. Thanks to the sisal samples that arrived last week, I know I'll be ordering the Prato Tan rug with Harvest Haze binding as the bottom rug. I'm still waiting on a sample of the wool rug I plan to order. The fabrics in the room will be beautiful in a very understated way as the star of the room is the fireplace. Great Room fabrics; personal collection The fabric samples are on the flat weave outdoor rug in the dining area of the kitchen, which is visible from the great room. Starting from the lower left are the pillow (stripe) and spool chair  fabrics. Above them is the sofa fabric  (the textured solid beige gold). To its immediate left is the fabric for 22" square pillows -- two of five pillows for the sofa. The samples in the upper right are for the window treatments in the dining area -- woven wood shades and linen drapes. Putting all the samples together lets me se

We ordered the sofa for the great room this week. We plan to layer rugs in this room -- a large sisal and a smaller wool rug -- to define the seating area. Three samples were delivered yesterday for the sisal "under" rug. I will be ordering this rug from SisalRugs.com  because you can easily order them in custom sizes. Three possibilities for one of the great room rugs; personal collection The rug on the left matches the sisal in the foyer, which was an all-weather sisal in the Costa Rica weave and color. The rug on the left matches the flat weave rugs in the kitchen best. But but will look best with the sofa fabric  and the smaller wool rug we plan to layer on to of the sisal? Loloi Rugs Julian Collection JI-01; courtesy of Loloi Rugs

I have wanted to attend the Core Sound Decoy Festival  since the show began 32 years ago but I never seemed to be in eastern North Carolina on the first weekend in December until last year. So many beautiful things, from artwork to working decoys to decorative carvings of many, many types of waterfowl. Pete and I purchased a large swan and a carving of a Mallard Duck. The swan was so large, Pete started referring to him as my "pet swan." Earlier this week, Swanie found his permanent home on the console table behind our future sofa. Swanie at home on the console table; personal collection

Since we moved our host and hostess chairs from the kitchen to our bedroom, there wasn't room for our bench at the foot of the sofa. So we've "promoted" it to the great room where it will be available when extra seating is required. We reupholstered the bench in Kravet Basics yummy 35239-23 (terrible name). Kravet Basics 35239-23; courtesy Kravet I plan on having a large lumbar pillow made for the bench because you can never have enough accent pillows ! Zuniga Interiors recommended a Schumacher fabric and I literally fell in love. Santa Monica Ikat in China Blue; courtesy Schumacher The colors are just perfect with each other and with the Walker Zanger tile we used for the fireplace surround. Duquesa Catarina field tile; courtesy Walker Zanger

I think accent pillows are a great way to make a room pop. They allow me to keep my large upholstered pieces neutral, which is a great way to make major investments last a long time -- so much less expensive to update accent pillows. We'll have four major upholstered pieces in the Great Room. Obviously, the largest is a sofa, which will be the Ethan Allen Oxford Small Sofa . It will be covered with Ethan Allen's Chance fabric in the Grain color. Oxford Small Sofa with Chance Grain fabric; courtesy of Ethan Allen I plan on using five pillows on the sofa -- two 22" square pillows, two 18" square pillow and a lumbar pillow. Accent pillows for Great Room sofa; courtesy of Ballard Designs, Houzz and Living Spaces The Shiloh Spool chairs and custom accent pillows have been delivered . The chairs were covered with Sunbrella's Dimple fabric in the Sand color and the fabric for the lumbar pillows was also from Ballard Designs -- Suzanne Kasler Signature Li

The counter stools for River House have been quite the saga. First, there was the St. Martin stool from Williams and Sonoma but they were no longer available. That was the same story for the Ibzia stool from the same source. Next, we tried the Avalon from Serena & Lily , and a more uncomfortable stool couldn't be imagined. Our fourth attempt was also from Serena & Lily -- the Riviera Sunwashed Counter Stool . It was slightly more comfortable than the Avalon, but not by much. Take five is the Capitola counter stool from Palecek. Of course, it's three times more expensive than my other attempts but Zuniga Interiors was able to get us a pretty good price. We ordered them yesterday. Finally! Capitola Counter Stool; courtesy of Palecek

Pete was a busy boy today and hung our flower pots on the front porch. Too bad we centered the pots between columns and not on the windows. Who knew the windows weren’t centered? Now we do. Hanging flower pots; personal collection

The den is nearly finished ... for now. It still needs window treatments, determining if the lamp on the commode between the chairs is in its permanent home and better styling of the bar cart. But the room is functional and comfortable -- my two most important reasons for spending so much time thinking about how to decorate. (The lower right photo is the most accurate for color.) Den from three camera angles; personal collection The built-in cabinets are filled with things we've collected in our travels and our favorite books. I know it will be a work in progress as we bring more things home from trips. We use this room in the evenings after dinner when we watch TV. I also find Pete napping in his recliner most afternoons! Built-in bookshelves include travel treasures and books; personal collection

Sideboard with buffet lamps; personal collection Now that the sideboard has finally been delivered, my thoughts have turned to how to style it. A fairly large piece of art is needed and we don’t already own something suitable. Zuniga Interiors specified this piece — Escapism from Horchow. It’s a large piece at 37 inches wide by 48 inches tall, which is what the space needs. Escapism; courtesy Horchow But then ... what to place on the side board that won’t be dwarfed by the artwork? Surfing through some of my favorite design blogs, I found this idea on for the love of a house  — adding antique Japanese glass fishing balls to an old dough bowl. I like the juxtaposition between vintage items and abstract art while both are true to coastal theme. Etsy, here I come!

Yesterday, the sideboard for the kitchen and the bench for our bedroom were delivered by McQueen's Interiors . They had arrived at their warehouse the day before North Carolina went into lockdown. The sideboard is Lexington Furniture's Monterey Sands Point Sur Buffet . New sideboard; personal collection Since we moved the uncomfortable upholstered chairs from the kitchen to our bedroom , we had plenty of room for the sideboard. Now, we have a convenient place to stash the clutter that accumulates on our kitchen table. However, if we put the bench at the foot of our bed, it leaves only a 22" pathway between the bench and the chairs. So we may leave it in the great room, instead of buying the bench Zungia Interiors specified. That's one of the nice things about having a whole-house color palette -- furniture can move around and still work. Reupholstered bench; personal collection The bench was previously covered in a dull gold fabric for our bedroom in o

I've blogged about parts of the foyer several times, but our custom rug arrived Monday and so the "room" is finished. Time for a tour! Foyer at River House; personal collection The rug is an all-weather "sisal" from SisalRugs.com . Customers can buy rugs by the inch to get a perfect fit. Zuniga Interiors specified the Costa Rica Sisal  with a serged edge. Learn more about how I styled the Tinsley chest from Arhaus. My favorite part is the chandelier , which really doesn't make an appearance in the collage above. It was definitely a splurge. Cynthia Sea Glass Nuggets Chandelier from Au Courant Interiors; personal collection

We stopped at an outdoor produce stand yesterday. They had quite a good set up for COVID-19. You had to wash your hands or use the hand sanitizer that was provided as you entered the stand. Then before you paid, you had to sanitize your hands and swipe your own credit card. They where also selling hanging baskets. We bought two for the front porch. The baskets included plants from Proven Winners. Angelface Cascade Blue Superbells Miss Lilac Superbells Grape Punch That got me thinking about our flower pots again -- something I've been having trouble finding in the exterior color palette recommended by Zuniga Interiors. I had better luck online today. New flower pots; collage created by LiveCollage The top pot is from Wayfair and is the Alfred Glazed Oval Ceramic Pot by Wrought Studio. I got it in Lime Green and hope the electronic image is a good representation of the color. If so, it will match the olivine color in the color palette. If not, back it goes. The pot i

The Shiloh Spool Chairs from Ballard Designs were delivered today. The finish is Walnut and the fabric is Sunbrella Dimple in Sand . The lumbar pillows are also from Ballard Designs and were made using Suzanne Kasler's Signature Linen Cote Stripe . Shiloh Spool Chairs; personal collection

We were so busy moving into River House during prime spring planting season for Zone 8, I'm very late to the party. Local greenhouses and nurseries are sparse on the ground to begin with and those few we do have have depleted inventories now. So I went online to buy a couple things -- Oxalis and fall-blooming hardy cyclamen. Oxalis, also known as wood sorrel (top) and hardy cyclamen (bottom); courtesy Wayside Gardens and K. van Bourgondien Here's where they will be planted. Part of the beds by the front steps; personal collection The 'White Swirl' Siberian Iris I bought a couple of days ago will be planted behind the liriope on either side of the steps. The Oxalis and hardy cyclamen are very small plants -- only 4" to 6" in height and need afternoon shade in hot climates. I'm going to tuck them under the liriope for shade.

We masked up and went to a local garden center in Newport; they have the most beautiful pots. I was looking for Siberian Iris to plan behind the liriope on either side of our front steps -- yes, I'm late. The nursery was a bust so I am trying an online source. Once they rhizomes arrive, I'll let you know if it was worth it. White Swirl Siberian Iris; courtesy of Holland Bulb Farm