open shelves in the kitchen

One of the projects on our list of things to finish on the house was to build open shelves in our kitchen. Because we repurposed the two existing cabinets that were in the home before we purchased it, we don't have a great deal of cupboard space. I don't mind, as I enjoy arranging my dishes and serving ware on display.  Finding the right style of shelf however, proved more difficult than I imagined it would be, as I couldn't quite find the style I was looking for. I wanted a substantial bracket that had a pretty silhouette to it, and I wanted shelves that were extra deep. The 12" depth allows me to not only stack wider pieces, like dinner plates and cake stands, it also allows me to layer pieces in front of each other, which I find visually makes the shelves much more interesting to look at.

We had our carpenter build a bracket that I had sketched, and cut large pine boards to our custom dimensions. The original design was inspired by Tessa of Nine & Sixteen. Though for anyone asking, I have seen very similar ones, also available to order extra deep, from Home Depot online. Whenever I'm styling shelves, as with so many other things, it takes a bit of tweaking and adjusting before I feel like I've found what I'm happy with. And of course, in time, it will change again, especially as the seasons change. I enjoy the few pieces of brown transferware and a couple pumpkins for autumn, but they'll likely change again come Christmas.

I think a good shelf style includes variety, but also uniform and balance. Mixing heights and depths is aesthetically pleasing. I try to mix a variety of shades of white, from more creamier dishes to cooler white ironstone. And because most are white, I like to add pieces that have pretty details like ornate handles and pretty patterns. I don't even mind a few pieces that are damaged, as usually having them turned a certain way can conceal that damage. Both of these pieces on the bottom right are significantly damaged, but you can't tell.

I also like adding texture, like these rattan highball glasses and my bamboo flatware.

The shelves are quite high, so high in fact that I need a chair to reach the top shelf at nearly 8' high. But the items on the top shelf aren't ones I use often, so I only need to reach to clean them occasionally. The height is also perfect as the ceiling in this part of the kitchen is vaulted and 18' high, so the higher mounted shelves help draw your eye upwards. The also balance the large, mounted cabinet on the opposite side of the kitchen. Having a lot of height to work with also meant that I could space them slightly higher apart. This is perfect for being able to stack items one on top of another, and also, to be able to stand larger old platters behind things.

I will eventually add a small strip along the back to keep the platters from slipping, but they were out. For now, thought they don't move, I made sure to put enough weight in front in the event they did slide forward accidentally.

Here you can see the profile of the bracket. Originally we were going to do a solid bracket, but given the extra depth, and the weight of the dishes, we decided to do a bracket in this design as it's a lot more strong.

I will remove the pumpkins this week. It's funny, I didn't realize until I was editing these photos that the one pumpkin has started rotting from the inside! You can't tell as clearly in person as you can in a bright photo.

While most of these are antique pieces, some of you have messaged for sources,

so I've listed what I can below.

White Dish Set - Antique White by Mikasa

Footed White Bowl and Cake Plate (on top shelf) - Martha Stewart for Macy's

Vintage Bamboo Cutlery - @baltimorevernacular

Rattan High Ball Glasses - Monika Hibbs Home

spring in the dining room

 

It's deceptively sunny out this morning. We're well into March, but the temperatures don't seem to want to budge above freezing. That being said, the sun is decidedly warmer, so it at least feels spring-like inside. The Cherry Blossoms we've been forcing have started blooming and all the sunshine has brightened the dining room up. It doesn't get direct sunlight aside from first thing in the morning, so it can always seem darker than some other rooms in the house.

As it's been so long since I've shown much of the house (or anything for that matter!), I figured I'd start here.

Few things feel more like spring than blooming branches. The perfect way to add some spring to any room is by forcing some. My dad dropped off these branches on his way home from the flower market a couple weeks ago. They've made for lots of interesting lessons with the boys. We've painted the stages of the blossoms opening. We've studied the life cycle of the tree. We'll get around to studying pollination and the anatomy of the bee. And we unexpectedly discovered Hanami, the Japanese Cherry Blossom (Sakura) festival.

And then there are these beautiful Hellebores - another favourite spring flower. I picked this one up from the garden center. I've always wanted to plant some in our gardens as they're perennials. I love the variety of blooms varying from creamy white, to fresh green with hints of pink. If you find one with lots of new buds it will last a while. They look delicate, but they're actually very rugged. The leaves are almost hard and prickly. But when you need to push your way up through snow and slightly frozen ground, and survive those last unexpected cold snaps, you'd need to be pretty resilient.

Our dining room is in the original part of our home, which consists of the stone house and then a series of additions behind, so it has all the character.

And now that it feels more spring-like inside, I think I should probably take down our wreathes on the windows outside. Which is a tad sad because they're still pretty green!

This week we are taking some time off from school as it's spring break. I'm planning on going through the house and doing the Ruthless Declutter Challenge from Simplified with Emily Ley. It's a one week challenge to declutter your whole house, room by room, in a week. I did it last year and have been surprised at how decluttered things have stayed over the last year. I'm looking forward to it because I think it will be good to go through everything inside drawers and cupboards before trying to spring clean the house. You can follow along in my stories on instagram @growersdaughter.

Antique Finds

Here are some of the great pieces I've come across these past weeks. Some of them I picked up at antique shops in our region - I've been venturing all over - and some are things I've found online or in thrift stores.

This coffee pot was a thrift store find. It reminds me of a coffee pot from a hotel service. I love the simple design. It's also in perfect condition inside, so I look forward to using it when the occasion arises.

I also found this sugar pot at Oliver and Rust, it's holding my pens and pencils on my desk, and that pitcher was found at a new antique shop in town. I don't think he was aware of the value of it as he sold it to me for $15!

This great little dish, that is very worn and beautifully aged, was from Queen's Antiques in Niagara on the Lake. The fish set was also from there, as was the gorgeous picnic basket below.

The ironstone tureen, with it's beautiful pear handle, looks beautiful grouped together with my other tureens with ornate lids. It was a steal on eBay and I believe I paid around $15 for it too.

I've been looking for some pretty cutlery like this, and I just loved the carved details and butter yellow handles. There aren't many, but I will find a use for them.

This empire dresser was also a great recent find. It was $60 on Kijiji. It was originally going to be the change table and dresser for the baby, but I later found a dresser with enough storage for all three boys, and the room just felt cramped with this piece too. So for now it's sitting in the living room, and will eventually be moved somewhere else. I had intended on painting it as there are some imperfections in the finish from age, but I haven't made it that far, and I'm not in any rush.

I have to say, I've really enjoyed getting out and browsing through some of my favourite shops, something I likely won't be able to do for a little while once baby arrives.

Our New England Getaway

Ryan and I spent the past two days in New England, shopping the Brimfield Antique Show and touring around some of those gorgeous states.

It was a fantastic trip - though I have to say, Brimfield's wasn't the highlight. In fact, while it was an overwhelmingly huge show, with so many great things to see, I didn't come home with one single thing. I admired many, but in the end, didn't find anything I truly loved for the right price. And I'm okay with that.

Ryan got lost in many a pile of records, which kept him busy while I wondered about. He gets just as lost amongst the finds as I do.

This was one of my favourite booths. There were many interesting pieces of ironstone, but nothing that I wanted enough to justify buying. The prices were just a little high for me.

I also loved these silver little hotel tea pots.

I found many beautiful pieces of art.

And some gorgeous pieces for the garden.

Overall, it was an experience. You definitely can't see it all in one day, but personally, one day was enough for me. We did intend to return on Friday morning for the J and J Show (the most recommended to us), but we decided it would be too much to do before our long drive home. And, as it turned out, we were very thankful we changed our plans.

I had bookmarked a bakery close by, the Publik House, which is in the historic Sturbridge Village, to stop at on our way back from the show. It was gorgeous.

How perfect was this little courtyard area?

After much deliberation (there were just too many to choose from), we settled on an eclair, a pecan tart, and an apple strudel the was enormous. These lasted us our whole trip - the last bit of pecan tart was finally finished with coffee this morning.

We then took our time heading back to our hotel in Connecticut, were we headed out for dinner, which we enjoyed on the patio because it was so warm. Full and ehausted, we then returned to our room to plan our route home.

Ryan surprised me the next morning by announcing that we were going to be having breakfast by the ocean the next morning. Turns out, our hotel was an hour drive to Newport, Connecticut.

We drove all around Newport, but decided to keep driving to Southport before stopping. We had split the eclaire with our coffee and weren't quite ready to eat.

When we arrived, we walked around for a little while, taking in the most beautiful homes and gardens before eventually asking some locals were the best spot for breakfast was. We were directed downtown to a small little restaurant called the Driftwood Sandwich Shop. We were instructed to ask for breakfast to go, and take it down to the harbour. So we did exactly that.

We enjoyed our breakfast by the waterfront.

We walked about some more and then took the most scenic route home, stopping from town to town, driving up and down quaint streets. There was so much to see, and I was so inspired by all of the gardens, and how well-maintained these historic homes are.

As we slowly made our way back, we took the entire day and evening to drive. Another highlight was driving the winding roads through the hills of New York, along the beautiful Hudson river.

Halfway home we came across this gorgeous old inn. What a dream it was.

But, no matter how lovely our little getaway was, it wasn't as lovely as snuggling with my sweethearts in my own bed this morning. 

We're enjoying a quiet, rainy day at home.