Living Room Design Inspiration | Myrtle House

While we start the not so romantic part of renovating a house (cleaning, demolition, structural issues), it is fun for me to dream about what this place could (and hopefully will) look like. Let's start with the living room; the first room you see when you enter the house. We want to use a lot of our existing furniture and also make this room feel soft, comfortable, but also slightly formal. This is the only true living space, so it has to make sense for movie & pizza nights but also for entertaining.

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We already have most of the needed furniture (as shown), so it is just a matter of bringing in a few warm and rustic accents like linen drapes and a cozy beige rug. The one thing I disliked about our old living room was that it felt very sterile. The walls were gray and we had black, white, and gray accents. I fell in love with Valspar's Winter in Paris (is that paint not named for me?). It is the perfect combination of blue, gray, and green. Our couch has some gold undertones, and I think it will look great with the soft blue and taupe accents.

Toodle-Loo, Antenna! | Myrtle House

The gigantic eye sore is gone! The scariest part was how little this thing was actually being held up! Can you imagine having to go to these lengths for mediocre TV?

Starting to look better already!

The Tale of a Dresser | Myrtle House

I have a confession to make. I am a furniture hoarder. I have a very difficult time saying 'no' to vintage furniture because I always see the potential in them. I am the crazy cat lady of old furniture. I think my sister even said one time that I needed a separate house for all of my treasures.

Craigslist is definitely a rush, but my favorite place to go is the Rehab Store in Morganton. Since this area used to be a major hub in the furniture industry, the city contains truck loads of amazing quality, vintage pieces.

We were working on cleaning out the Myrtle House and got to a point where we needed to drop off some donations. I convinced Brian we needed to go inside and just "look around." What could be the harm in that, right? Well, not ten feet inside and we spotted it. The most lovely, gigantic, French-looking dresser I have ever seen. It even had gold and blue accents - almost like it was finished especially for me. Plus, it would fit perfectly in the dining room and matched my existing furniture. Do we need to buy a massive dresser right now? Absolutely not. Did we have a truck with us? Um, no...

Thanks to Brian's great friend (and our amazing contractor!), we got the beast safely home in his truck. This thing is made by Mt. Airy National Furniture and is solid. I wasn't able to find many details about it (please email me if you are familiar with this company!), but I can already tell this is one of those pieces that is legit heirloom quality. The photos seriously do not do it justice!

I can't wait to turn this beaut into a buffet in the dining room and pair it with this rug, our chandelier, and the farm table made out of re-claimed wood from the backyard sheds (see below). Shhh, Brian doesn't know he is making that yet. ;)

Have you found any fun items recently?

All in the Details | Myrtle House

Sometimes when we talk about our plans for the Myrtle House, people think we are crazy. Sometimes when we visit the Myrtle House, I think we are too. :) But, our trip this past weekend was actually quite calming and encouraging. It was freezing in the Western part of NC, and since there is no heat in the house, we did not accomplish as much as I had hoped we would. However, Brian and I did have some fun walking through taking measurements and making plans. The highlight was when we ripped a corner of the carpet off and realized the original hardwoods did not have a single staple in them and are in fantastic condition. Music to my ears. :)

While a chilly day, the sun was shining and the sky was bright blue and it almost shined a different light on this little fixer. Here are a few of my favorite details that I snapped from the weekend.

Love these corbels that go along the entire house. Wouldn't they be amazing painted black?

Looking forward to painting the underside of the wrap around porch blue. :)

The original front door is still in tact and has two glass inserts, raised panels, and a skeleton keyhole. Love. :)

I don't think I could ever get sick of this view. Imagine drinking your morning coffee in a rocking chair on this front porch...

One of the three fireplaces in the house. I am obsessed with the worn brick look and don't plan on touching it at all! Can't wait to see the surround detail pop with a coat of glossy white paint.

I have grand plans for this antique dresser. It is going to be made over into a kitchen island!

Whoever installed the drop ceiling did it over the windows! Who does that?? The current dropped ceiling is around 8' tall, so you can only imagine how amazing these tall windows are going to be when we take it back up to the original (9' or so) beadboard ceiling.

Floor Plan | Myrtle House

I still need to take exact measurements, but here is a rough idea of what the Myrtle House layout currently looks like and how I want to change it. Ideally, I don't want to take down too many walls (who knows what we would uncover in a 1901 house!). I showed the few modifications in red. Basically, I would like to expand the current bathroom and turn that into the master bath. We will have two sinks, which I think is key to a happy marriage. :) I will move the current door that leads to the laundry room so there is only access through the master bedroom. The wall that divides the bath and laundry needs to be re-built anyway, so this seems like an appropriate change. There is a large pantry at the back that I would like to turn into a full guest bath. Not the ideal location, but it is close to plumbing in the kitchen and the only area that it will fit.

Have you noticed there is currently only one closet in the house and it is in the office? Yikes! While I would be fine with using wardrobes (I am not the kind of girl who HAS to have a walk-in closet), I know for re-sale and rental purposes we need some closets! I am hoping to sneak two small ones in where the existing doors are in the over-sized office.

Anything I am over-looking? I would love to hear what small changes you would make!

Before | Myrtle House

I wanted to post a few photos that Brian snapped on a trip to his Grandmother's house this past fall. We are still in the process of cleaning it out and plan to start demolition this spring. I am hoping these photos will help keep us motivated and be something we can look back on and realize we have come so far! (At least I hope we do.)