Cabin Decorating- Adding Age

     Ordinarily when I finally get a few quiet moments to sit down with a home decorating magazine, I'm a page by page kinda gal. Unless I spy on the cover a feature of a cabin, then I flip fast and furious straight to those pages. I adore reading romantic accounts of couples finding long forgotten cabins in various stages of crumble and neglect then lovingly restoring them to their former glory. Or who doesn't love an adventurous saga of a family who has taken a cabin apart log by log and transported it clear across the country to its new home?

    Of the oodles of cabins I have ogled at over the years, almost all of them have one thing in common that my cabin does not share- age.

   Now by no means am I complaining about the "newness" of the cabin. But it has been a mission of mine to make the cabin feel as if it has always been there tucked away in the woods. So I thought I would share a few of the ways I have been able to add a little age to the cabin and speed up the maturing process.

Using Family Heirlooms and Flea Market Finds

Whether from your own family or found at the market, older pieces add instant history. This was my grandfather's rocking chair, one of my most prized possessions. I was lucky enough to grab it when my grandmother downsized. I love sitting in it and thinking about how much my grandfather would have loved this place.

This is my grandmother's worn sewing basket which believe it or not now serves as glow stick storage (glow sticks are a kiddie must-have around the campfire.)

I realize how blessed I am to have these items handed down to me. They add not only age to the cabin but priceless family history as well.

Using Worn and Distressed Finishes

We finally installed cabinets to the kitchenette. To achieve a worn look and a pop of color, we stained them fruit punch red. The color makes me so happy!

Fake It

This rusty old chandelier now hangs over our table. It may look old but I actually bought it brand new at Home Goods. It was a steal too- would you believe only $19?

While most of us girls can agree age can be a sensitive subject, when it comes to growing old gracefully with my decor, I'm finding the aging process to be quite fun and mostly wrinkle-free.

Find me here:
Between Naps on the Porch , Savvy Southern Style , At the Picket Fence , Funky Junk Interiors

The Rock Wall

Just a little beyond our cabin lies a rock wall, tumbling down and filled with crooks and crevices where our chipmunk friends play hide and seek.

Nothing more than a pile of rocks covered with sweet, green velvet moss.

 But within these rocks, I know there is a story....

Who built this wall?

How long ago?

 What were their lives like?

What did the woods look like then?

Along the path to the pond, lies this rusted bucket. I refuse to move it.

 I like to walk past and think about its previous owners.

These woods were not always ours nor will they always be.

I am always awestruck by the curiousity of the human soul.

 To wonder so much and care so deeply about a person and a family we have never seen, have never meet- the history of this place, the magic of the forest, connecting us together.

Lofty Dreams

The loft is probably the last place at the cabin I will be able to get my little decorating hands on. Afterall, we still need kitchen cabinets, living room furniture and the list goes on and on. However, it is the space I am most excited about. This is where our guests stay so I want to make it as comfortable and inviting as possible. So first the progress and then the dreaming...

In the buliding stages...at least now it has a roof!

Still without the railings and the ladder, but at least we won't get wet!

Now...on to the dreaming...sigh...

 In this first inspirational photo the colors are all wrong, (there will be no white- washed walls, Hubs would freak!) but I like the placement of the two beds by the window and the slope of the roof is about the same. Plus, I already found a trunk! I found it on one of my antiquing adventures two summers ago. I wish I had taken a picture to share, but it is on my list of photographs to take the next time we go.

Coastal Living

This is the bed I am swooning over. Distressed red metal - how perfect would that be?

Ahhhh...someday.

Barn Beds

Although the cabin itself is nestled in the middle of the forest...in the middle of the mountain, on the way there we drive past miles and miles of pristine pastures and farmland. We love looking for the cows, horses and sheep by the side of the road. Even the occasional chicken crossing the road.  Yes, seriously; they really do.
We say hi to our farm friends as we drive up the mountain and we have to make sure we say goodbye as we drive back down. The farms and animals are so much a part of our experience going to the cabin I knew I needed to incorporate that into the design of the kids' room.
I came up with the idea of barn beds and found a few pictures online for inspiration (not an easy task; apparently searching barn and bed  together will find you a whole lot of Pottery Barn bed pictures!)  I gave the photos to Hubs and let him run with it. Here's the result:

They did turn out pretty darn cute! He even incorporated little hinged window doors that actually open and close- they love playing with those, especially in the middle of the night when they are too excited about being at the cabin to sleep.

I dressed the window with ruffly red gingham tie-back curtains and a tab top denim valance that actually has overall-type clasps on it. Here is a close-up since you can't see it real well in the photograph.

I found it at Walmart for only $7.44! One of my best cabin bargains to date.
I also made canvases for the walls out of an old farm picture book from my childhood- but I didn't take any photographs of them yet (oops!)...as soon as I do, I will share those too.

And even though Hubs did all of the work, I want to show it off so I am linking up here:










 

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Hello Blog World. For my first post about the cabin I want to share with all of you~ the accomplishment I am most proud of to date. The project we were looking forward to for the longest, the one that meant that our season at the cabin could be longer, the one that meant we would always be "nice and warm and toasty" there- the installation of the wood burning stove. Installing the river rock wall and hearth was no easy task and it took several weekends to finish. First, the wall had to be constructed then the wire mesh attached before we could even think about "buttering" our first rock. All in all, it took four seperate weekends just it get the wall and hearth ready for the stove. By the end of it, I was ready to begin my career as a mason. After awhile it was like a giant puzzle. My favorite rocks are the ones at the top- little hands barely able to pick the rocks up, "Daddy, this one goes there!"

The stove all set in place and ready to keep us warm.

The perfect place to dry the mittens.

Aftering rushing all fall to get the stove in so we could celebrate Thanksgiving at the cabin, the day after, it snowed. With the stove finally in I couldn't help but hum, "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."