We have been battling the elements when it comes to the Spotswood House remodel. First it was rain and now we are dealing with snow. So, the bathroom remodel which we hoped to knock out pretty quickly continues on and on and on. The snow does lend itself to pretty pictures though. Here is our Alexandria house.
Even though the weather hasn’t cooperated we have still pressed on with small remodeling things here and there. None of the interior doors at Spotswood House match and are pretty crappy quality. So, we found some nice doors on Facebook Marketplace (I swear you can find anything on there) and snapped them up for $15 a piece. The doors were an off-white, bisque color so that would require repainting (the story of my life). But they look like a million bucks now.
Here is what we were working with – hollow plywood doors.
Here is the “new” craftsman style door before painting. They got wet on the drive down to Orange, VA so you see water stains on them.
After painting. Looking good gurl! We weren’t able to get doors for the linen closet or one of the bedrooms (it’s a smaller door for some reason) so we are on the look-out to complete the set.
As I mentioned, my goal is to buy almost everything second-hand for Spotswood House. We went to Baltimore this past weekend to look for some bathroom supplies. I don’t know what it is about Baltimore but they have some amazing building supply stores. They have a monthly building auction too which we haven’t checked out yet but it is on my list to try. So, our bathroom at Spotswood is microscopic, I mean teeny, tiny so we need to get creative with our furnishings. We got lucky and found a cabinet that is 24 inches wide and 18 inches deep for $25 at The Loading Dock. We are going to float the cabinet, by attaching it to the wall instead of setting it on the floor. Here is our little cutie.
Finally, I bought this chair at a garage sale with every intention of reupholstering it. But it sat for 3 – 4 years I’m embarrassed to say. I even bought fabric for it which just sat untouched as well. But no more. Here is the before picture.
The shape of this chair is so lovely but the mauve velvet is not so pretty. I didn’t want to paint the chair, I like the dark wood color, but wanted to freshen it up with some modern retro fabric.
It took me over three hours to take apart this chair. It was put together with a million staples and I ended up rubbing a blister on my thumb from removing all of the staples. Let me be very clear up front. I have zero reupholstery ability. Once I got the chair taken apart, I relied very, very heavily on Adam to get it put back together.
Here is the chair in progress. I should have taken step by step pictures so you can see everything we had to do with the back. You’ll notice we took the button tufting out, that looked too difficult to do but it would’ve competed with the busy pattern.
The pattern isn’t lined up perfectly on the back and the seat but I still think it looks amazing. We are 90% done. We just need to add piping to the chair back.
Here is the before and after side-by-side. Those rugs of mine are trying to steal the limelight. Side note, I love my pink and orange rug. The gray geometric rug is a Facebook Marketplace find. I plan to put it in the dining room at Spotswood House.
That pretty much summarizes what we have been up to lately. Now back to NFL playoffs…which have been pretty terrible and not remotely competitive. Those dang Patriots, U-G-H!!!!!
Spotswood House 