River House Diary

Ever since designing the furniture layout of the screen porch earlier this month, I have been worried that Summer Classics is in the process of discontinuing their Classic Wicker collection. Far fewer pieces of furniture from the collection are currently displayed on their website from when I originally purchased a sofa and rocker for our porch in Oakton. Classic Wicker rocker; personal collection I decided the safest thing to do would be to purchase the second rocker we need for the River House screen porch as soon as Summer Classics had a sale. I checked the website a few days ago and noticed they were having a 40 percent off 4th of July sale through July 6. The sales person confirmed the line was being discontinued but that I could still order a second rocker. Hooray! Unfortunately, the cute little dot cushion fabric is no longer available so I am purchasing two cushions in Sunbrella Sponge Pumice as it matches well with the Arch Spa fabric on the sofa -- one for the new

We have counter stools ... finally! Palecek Capitola Counter Stools; personal collection Counter stools have been quite the saga at River House. My first two choices were from Williams Sonoma Home and were no longer available when we tried to order them. My next two choices were from Serena & Lily and the seats were about 2 inches more narrow that standard. But the Capitola counter stools from Palecek are perfect. A close-up view; personal collection

We have seven windows in our bedroom, two in our bathroom and one in our closet. The window treatments in the bedroom will eventually be layered woven wood shades and drapes. However, we didn't get the drapery at this time -- just the shades. They are from Horizons Window Fashions; the pattern is Tranquility and the color is Peca n. We got these as full black-out shades. Master bedroom shades; personal collection In the bathroom, we had full blackout shades made that can open from the top of the window or the bottom. This allows us to get maximum light into the room and still have privacy. They were made from Norbar Fabrics Bellamy Cotton 1 . Zuniga Interiors specified off-white shades. I was tempted to have them match the bedroom drapery fabric, but since we are not getting those drapes anytime soon, I chose to play it safe and go with a solid fabric for the bathroom Master bathroom window treatments; personal collection The window in the closet is high on the wal

The bonus room is upstairs and Pete uses it for his office. It has four windows. Two overlook the river but two look down on our neighbors house so we wanted window treatments for privacy. Zuniga Interiors selected another Kravet fabric -- Kashmira in Indigo . I haven't yet taken a good photograph of the shades so this fabric swatch should give you the idea. Bonus room window treatment fabric; personal collection

The window treatments for the kitchen and pantry are woven wood shades by Horizons Window Fashions. The pattern and color are Veranda Light Walnut . Five were installed -- four in the kitchen and one in the pantry. The color is a perfect compliment to the furniture in the eat-in area of the kitchen. Kitchen shades; personal collection This is the single window that overlooks the screen porch. Identical shades are on the three windows that overlook the river to the left of this photo. The pantry window overlooks the road at the front of the house. Zuniga Interiors specified off-white or ivory linen drapes for the eat-in area along with woven wood shades. We chose to wait on those for now. I've been back and forth about drapes vs. no drapes but am still undecided. If you recall, the sink in the pantry, where I wash dishes, is exposed. So we also had a "sink skirt" made for it. It is made from Master Fabric's Stuti collection -- Imperatrice 022 . Sink skir

Today was a big day at River House. In early March we ordered many window treatments for the house. Then the Coronavirus arrived and the workroom shutdown for a couple of months. But our window treatments were finally installed today! We'll look first at the ones in the Den. It was the only room where we selected both Roman shades and drapes. Den window treatments; personal collection The Den window faces the road and for privacy we added Bahama shutters to the outside. The Roman shades Norbar Fabrics Joplin Snow 14 . I do not know what trim was used on the shades. It was a substitute as our original selection was no longer available. The drapes are a Kravet Basics fabric -- KRA-35273-1613 . I am such a sucker for an embroidered fabric. These window treatments are a departure from what Zuniga Fabrics specified, but they are beautiful, too! Den window treatments close up; personal collection

I asked Zuniga Interiors for help with our screen porch and this is the design concept they sent me a few days later: Screen porch design concept; courtesy Zuniga Interiors I hadn't planned on purchasing new cushions for the sofa I'll have to see if we can swing it. I do like how crisp and clean the design is.

I like to layout out furniture on a floor plan to ensure there is balance in the room and the furniture isn't "piled" up on one side making the room look out of balance or heavy on one side. Once I have the balance every room needs, I refine the layout to ensure each piece of furniture fits the space and that there is sufficient space for traffic flow. This is my first attempt at a furniture layout for the screen porch. The goal, again being balance. Screen porch furniture layout; personal collection The furniture is not drawn to scale -- that will come with later refinements. I have color coded the furniture so I know which pieces we already own (blue) and which pieces would need to be purchased (red). I've also identified which doors are active because I do not want to place furniture in front of those doors. The inactive panels may be treated as windows or walls. Another words, furniture may be placed in front of them.

I received bad news from Ethan Allen yesterday regarding our sofa for the great room. It won't be available to deliver until October 26 -- five months away. Everything else I want to buy for the room depends on how the sofa fits and if I can use two end tables or one. I'm stymied until November. So I'm moving onto the large screen porch that overlooks the river and is accessible from the great room via two French doors and the rear guest bedroom via a sliding door. Screen porch in our Oakton house; courtesy of Sotheby's We brought the wicker rocker and sofa, lounge chair and metal drum table with us, as well as the chainsaw carved pelican we have affectionately named "the Mayan Fertility God." All of the cushions and pillows are in fabrics no longer available but the color palette was spa blue and brown. Sofa; personal collection The sofa is the Classic Wicker Sofa from Summer Classics. The finish is Black Walnut and the cushions are covered i

The new sideboard in the dining area of the kitchen has been styled with a large basket we bought in the Catskills made out of grape vines and vintage Japanese fishing floats I've been collecting since my first trip to Hawaii in 1982. A new piece of art from Horchow  arrived just before Memorial Day and we hung it yesterday. Kitchen eating area; personal collection