Tuesday, January 26, 2016

cottage updates and our pine plank floors

It's been such a long time since I last blogged. I wanted to jump in and share some updates on our little country cottage and offer some info on our pine plank floors which I often get asked about. The photos I'm using in this post are the ones I've posted on Instagram. It's just so quick and easy to share on IG so I do a little better over there. Feel free to follow along with me at the_cottager .

Although our home will always be a work in progress... I like how she is coming along. First things first, I purchased the sweetest little tufted sofa. It's the Watkins Sofa from Home Decorators in natural linen. I absolutely love it. It works great in our space.


I wanted to move forward with the sofa and beadboard on the lower level with the money I saved from the two markets I did. It was a good decision. The beadboard is up but still only primed at this point. I can't wait till it's all painted! It will be painted "Westhighland White" like all our doors/trim. I think it's the perfect off white color... not bright white but not cream either. That perfect middle ground. We also decided to go with a different paint color for the main level. I chose "Modern Gray" by Sherwin Williams. I love this color with all the natural light we get in this home. It's beautiful.

Here's a few photos (from warmer days) of our living and dining room...



I love this little french style table that I bought from a local vintage shop, JB Knacker .



Now that we are back to cold winter days... our wood stove is back in use. Brett got the large plank beadboard up on our open staircase wall awhile ago (again only primed at this point). I love how much character and charm it added to our living room space.




For those of you who are wondering about our flooring, here's the info on that. We did pine planks, grade 3 (1x8's) shiplapped. I wanted a whitewash look so we chose Sherwin Williams "Pickled White" oil stain. We brushed on one coat of this and were happy with the look of it.


For the finish... here's what we used. A water based formula was important for us to minimize the "yellowing effect". We did two coats of this finish.


We are really happy with how they turned out. They have a great rustic farmhouse feel to them. Pine is a soft wood so the wear and tear is just part of the look and it's really cost effective as far as flooring goes. Hope that helps.

So, I guess we are making some progress over here :) Home sweet home... we are so thankful for this little place. Oh how I wish we could plow ahead with many more projects but life is demanding right now. Here's one more photo... the last one I took of our dining area shortly after Christmas...