Family folklore has it that when Julio’s great-grandparents bought their summer cottage in 1920, the previous owners left behind a five piece set of wicker furniture. This same wicker suite has been passed down through several generations. In fact, our daughters will be the fifth generation of kids to claim the petite rocking chair as their own. Unfortunately, back in the the 1970s, the third generation painted everything shamrock green. (Pleased to meet you – I’m Paddy O’Furniture! Sorry – couldn’t resist!)

1920 wicker wearing 1970s paint

Julio couldn’t understand my interest, mostly because he had a hard time seeing past the bright green paint. But I knew it would be a lovely addition to our home. First of all, it’s roughly the same age as our house, and I really loved the idea of having something of the same vintage. Secondly, the scale is absolutely perfect. While our house is roomy by bungalow standards, most modern furniture is too large to fit comfortably in our living room, but this wicker set fits as if it was made for the room. Lastly, I’ve always loved the interior photographs I’ve seen of Gustav Stickley’s Craftsman Farms, in part because of the unexpected juxtaposition of curvy wicker chairs and settees against Stickley’s masculine, rectilinear wooden furniture. Beautiful!

Of course, Stickely’s wicker was natural wicker, and our recent acquisition was bright green. Since you can’t easily strip wicker, we decided to go with a deep espresso colored paint that seemed at home with our dark tables and woodwork. Next on our list will be finding an upholsterer who can recover the cushions in something more bungalow-appropriate, but for the time being I suppose I will have to live with the existing cushions. Eventually I would also love to add a small tabouret table next to the large rocker, and an area rug to serve as a room anchor (Oak Park Home and Hardware has a few drool-worthy contenders) but since we need a few slightly more important items before we can purchase a rug (new roof, anyone?) the rug won’t be joining the family any time soon.

And so, without further ado, here are some snaps I took of our recently painted family heirlooms. (Julio, who is quite particular about photography asked me to specify that I took these photos, so that if you find them less than technically flawless, you won’t blame him!)

Living room as viewed from the front entry

Wicker furniture - close-up view

Living room - alternate view

Ginger's room

Ginger has finally moved into her room, just in time for her first birthday!  It’s not *quite* finished as it still needs closet doors and a wall sconce,  but it’s definitely functional.  I’m a bit frustrated by my attempts to photograph it, however.  It looks so cramped and weird in the photo but it’s actually quite cozy in real life and doesn’t feel cramped at all!

When she gets a little bigger and moves into a ‘big girl’ bed, we’ll remove the crib and changing table and relocate the rocking chair to playroom.  I suspect when that happens, the room will feel positively palatial!

We can never resist entering a contest (a few of you may remember our infamous Blair Witch/Home Depot video) so when we read that Houseblogs.net was sponsoring a sweepstakes in partnership with True Value we, of course, had to enter.

We’ve done so many DIY projects here at Bungalow Insanity, it’s hard to choose a favorite, but one which stands out among many is our kitchen remodel. Basically, we designed the entire kitchen around four $10 salvaged windows.

When we purchased our house way back in July of 2004, the kitchen was sporting a face-lift acquired in 1962. The cabinets, flooring and appliances were all fairly hideous, but what we hated most were the sliding aluminum windows. Totally inappropriate for an 1911 bungalow!

So, when we found these windows at the ReBuilding Center for only $10 apiece, we were ecstatic.

Of course, finding the windows was easy. Installing them was the hard part. First we had to re-frame both exterior walls.

We then had to insulate, drywall, stain and install a whole kitchen’s worth of stuff before we were ready to hang our $40 set of windows:

In retrospect, our “bargain” windows may not have been such a bargain in terms of time or money (considering all we needed to do to incorporate them into the kitchen), but we love them nonetheless. Unlike their sliding aluminum predecessors, they look as though they have always been here.

Now if we could just get around to tiling our backsplashes, our kitchen would finally be complete!

This post was written for Houseblogs.net as a part of a sweepstakes sponsored by True Value. If you would like to submit your own contest entry, visit click here or visit www.StartRightStartHere.com.

A few months back, Julio wrote that our daughters’ playroom was finished. Truthfully, it wasn’t quite finished – in fact, it still isn’t quite finished – but it’s usable, and that’s almost as good as finished, right?

Since that initial posting, we’ve let our older daughter Chloe have free reign of the playroom. The end result? TOTAL CHAOS! Toys, crayons, drawings, princess paraphernalia and Candy Land game pieces have littered nearly every surface. We’ve often found ourselves wondering why we spent so many months building a playroom when, clearly, Chloe would have been just as happy if we’d rented a dumpster, poured her belongings inside, and plunked her in with them.

Rather than admitting defeat and calling the dumpster company, we tried thinking of alternate methods of dealing with the growing mess.

Chloe attends a Montessori preschool where she is only allowed to play with one item at a time. Before she can move on to another item (or in Montessori lingo “job”) she has to return the first item to its designated spot. We a now enforcing a similar rule in the playroom. To make things simple, everything has a designated bin. Games, puzzles and art supplies go in baskets on the built-in bookshelves (which Julio finished a few weeks ago. Hooray!) Stuffed animals and toys go in their own baskets and bins. Books go on the free-standing bookshelves across from the stairs. And nothing new comes out of its basket, or down from its shelf, until everything else is put away.

(It remains to be seen if Chloe will follow the new rules. Past experience suggests that compliance is probably a pipe dream.)

While, at least in theory, the new baskets and bins will contain the toys and games, we faced another challenge. Most afternoons, Chloe comes home from preschool toting mounds of paper (drawings, worksheets, collages, etc.) She’s proud of her work and, understandably, wants to display it. We just want to keep it off the floor (and out of her baby sister’s mouth.) We found a quick and inexpensive solution at IKEA.

IKEA’s Dignitet curtain rod is basically a length of wire suspended between two small metal posts:

Curtains hang from the wire via tiny dangling clips. These little clips also happen to do a great job of displaying a preschooler’s art collection:

We considered hanging a second wire below the first one to make the wall appear a bit more balanced, but now that Ginger is crawling, we figure anything hanging that low would be way too tempting for her. With the current installation, Chloe’s drawings and worksheets stay safely out of her baby sister’s reach (and aforementioned mouth.)

With the larger drawings hanging neatly on the wall, all we had left to worry about were Chloe’s smaller treasures. We constantly seem to find postcards, birthday party invitations and little construction paper cutouts on the playroom floor, so we decided to see how a French memo board might do at keeping smaller bits of paper contained.

Chloe has an odd fascination with the Eiffel Tower, so she was completely thrilled when we found this little number on eBay:

It arrived about a week ago and we have since begun covering it with postcards and small school projects:

To further stem the tide of clutter, we’re considering adding either a toy box/storage bench or second freestanding shelving unit. We also still plan to hang a few things on those bare green walls, but at this point, the playroom is the most finished space in our house. It’s also the most organized. (For the time being anyway.) It’s a nice feeling having one almost-finished space. And best of all, now, whether Chloe actually adheres to the new playroom rules or not, we have photographic proof that for one sweet yet brief moment in time, the playroom floor was actually visible.

For those of you who have been curious about how it all turned out, below are a few photos of the new playroom. The space isn’t quite finished yet – we have still have some trim work to complete, doors to stain, shelves to install, pictures to hang, etc. But the space is far enough along that Chloe has been able to enjoy it for a couple of months now.

We were able to stay under budget on this project since we pretty much moved everything from Chloe’s old room into this room. The only new additions are the curtains and tablecloth (my first sewing project ever), the big pink beanbag chair (thanks Grandma!) and the new white bookshelf (thanks IKEA!)

We’ll post photos of Chloe’s new bedroom and bathroom soon.