River House Diary

Not everything goes according to plan at River House. Yesterday the Kenneth James Juan Chan grasscloth wallpaper began falling off the walls in the half bath. Thankfully, the installer is coming this afternoon to repair it. But we are very curious as to why several piece decided to let go at the same time. Falling wallpaper; personal collection

In 1984 my grandmother and grand aunt took my cousin and me on a Caribbean cruise. Our first port of call after leaving Miami was Port-au-Prince, Haiti, during the administration of Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier. He was overthrown two years later. Haiti is known for great art and crafts though perhaps their metal art is most famous. Most of which is made from the steel of abandoned 55-gallon oil drums. When we were there I purchased a wall sculpture of sea turtles. When we moved to Oakton, I hung it above the sliding glass door in our kitchen. We found another one in a gallery in Swansboro, North Carolina, for the sliding glass door in our family room. Haitian metal art above sliding glass doors; courtesy MLIS I planned on hanging them over the two French doors in the great room in River House but those doors are 6 feet wide and will not have drapes. In Oakton the sliders were 5-feet wide with drapery panels covering parts of the windows. When we tried out the scu...

I am hesitant to purchase more furniture for the great room until the sofa is delivered because mere inches determine which pieces will fit. So I am on hold until early September. I moved onto the screen porch because we're learning we spend most of our time there when we are at home. I finalized the furniture layout a few weeks ago. And took advantage of a Summer Classics 4th of July sale to purchase the second  wicker rocker we need. The store also confirmed what I suspected; Summer Classics is in the process of discontinuing their Classic Wicker collection. To complete the porch, we need a bench and coffee table for the lounging/seating area of the porch and a dining table and chairs. Zuniga Interiors confirmed my choice for the dining and and coffee tables -- Frontgate's Isola collection in a weathered finish. Isola weathered finish; courtesy Frontgate We would be purchasing the coffee table  and the expandable dining table . For the dining chairs and a benc...

Zuniga Interiors suggested a succulent arrangement for the kitchen table. I knew just where to go to purchase one as I had been admiring the lovely arrangements made by the Etsy shop SucculentArtworks . I chose the 18-inch birch trimmed arrangement. Isn't it lovely? Succulent arrangement; courtesy of SucculentArtworks

The kitchen is almost complete. I am still fiddling with organization but have plenty of room for my pots, pans, utensils and tableware. For the main core of the house (foyer, great room, kitchen and pantry), we used house plan 51754HZ . The main changes we made to the kitchen were using Thermador columns for the refrigerator, freezer and wine chiller and using drawers instead of doors on the perimeter wall of base cabinets. We also added three Hudson Valley Lighting 15-inch Lambert pendants. The plan just had recessed lighting throughout the kitchen. The counter stools are the Capitola stools from Palecek. Getting to comfortable counter stools was a  saga ! We purchased the swan at the 32nd Decoy Festival  last December. Eventually, our sofa will be delivered and will be placed in front of the swan and the console table. Kitchen from great room; personal collection The doorway between the perimeter wall cabinets and the side board goes to the garage/master suite wi...

As you may recall we had part of the window treatments for the master bedroom installed earlier this month. I still want to order draperies and am now in a dither. Zuniga Interiors provided a few options assuming that the room would be painted a custom Sherwin Williams mix to match Magnolia Home's Pearly Cotton  except the bed wall which Zuniga wanted to be Aquitaine -- the same color as our den built-in cabinets. I was naughty and didn't follow instructions and instead painted the entire room Sherwin Williams Billowy Breeze . So what does that insubordination do to the drapery fabric options? Paint color and three fabric options; personal collection The top right fabric is Kravet Basics Haleiwa-135 and it was my initial favorite. The bottom right fabric is Charlotte Moss Rohan Watercolor  and it was Zuniga Interiors favorite. But then I had two throw pillows and the pantry sink skirt done in Master Fabric Imperatrice-022 and I like it much more than I did from th...