The Garden Room - (Part 2)...details, details, details...

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Work bench becomes Scrap Table

We interrupt winter for...Ellen's Garden Room (Part 1)

Kathy Stantz, contributor

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Before

We "faux" painted bricks on the floor - that was 8 hours of hard labor for sure...

Shelves were needed to hold plants, vintage goodies, and a walkway for the kitties of the house...we used an old beadboard door for this, and doubled up porch spindles for legs.

An old trellis becomes a "valance" for hanging vintage garden tools.

Old porch railing (and one last piece of the beadboard door) create a shelf for more "stuff"!!

Before

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I think I may have shared this on the old website, but wanted to revisit (it was so much fun to do).  Last March (in the midst of a bit of an ice storm), my friend, Terri, and I were hired by our dear friend, Ellen, to do a makeover of her sunporch.  Being the born gardener that she is, she wanted a garden room to enjoy year-round - and have a place for the kitties of the house to catch some rays, and do a little birdwatching!  The entire project took us two full days, and turned out really wonderful!

The first thing we did was build the shelves around two sides of the room - using an old beadboard door, porch spindles, and brackets (underneath for extra stability).  The kitties were getting excited about this part - they knew there was some serious birdwatching in their future...

Next...we faux painted the floor to look like an old brick path.  It was a team effort, and we "laid" all the bricks - stamping them, shading them to a perfect "aged and worn" look, and (my personal area of expertise...) adding moss here and there for an outdoor feel.  After a few hours of this, we were heard singing "99 pieces of brick on the floor, 99 pieces of brick...".  After that dried, the next step was to seal it, and get ready for the next round.

We made a shelf - using old porch railing and more beadboard door parts; used some old corbels for plant holders; hung an old garden trellis for a window "covering"; placement of many old wonderful architectural pieces, an old garden gate, etc... - and the really fun part - picking through all Ellen's endless collection of garden-inspired "stuff"...  She had a couple great wicker chairs and some old wrought iron nesting tables..it was all too much fun!

This was our first official job doing a room makeover - and now we wish it was our "day job" - because we had a blast - lots of laughs, coming up with ideas-reuses for things, (and of course a little back-breaking work) - and best of all, Ellen is the most wonderful friend and hostess - providing us with great food and a great place to stay.

The next post shows some of the details (there were so many) - and the final results of our two days of fun/work in Ellen's Garden Room.

P.S.  She loved it!!!  It was kind of like on "Extreme Home Makeover" - the big "reveal"!! :)

Kathy

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Comments (10)

junkinator writes: This is so beautiful. I see your friend, Ellen, likes vintage pottery, too. Now I'm off to see 'part II'...
Anita Posted: 8:54 pm on October 1st

shabbychick writes: Thanks - I appreciate your comments! It was just so much fun to do, and we loved doing it!

Georgia, I think our tv show would be kind of like Lucy and Ethel with "power tools and paint brushes"...a bit of a comedy for sure! :)

Kathy Posted: 10:12 pm on January 8th

CottageElements writes: What a awesome transformation, Kathy! Love all the architectual elements. Great job!

Lani Posted: 8:46 pm on January 8th

georgiamoon writes: How 'bout your own show! Wouldn't that be fun? You guys did an amazing job and it looks like something we would see on HGTV...I am sure your friend and the kitties are getting a lot of use out of this room. Love the whole thing, Georgia Posted: 3:47 pm on January 8th

suewhitney writes: Hey Kathy,

Ooooo...the floor really is cool and I love the valance. Thanks for these great posts!

Take care,
Sue Posted: 10:38 pm on January 7th

shabbychick writes: Thanks Midge! I really appreciate the compliment. And, doing this would be our dream "day job" for sure!! And, ya never know, right??

Gioni - this room is at the back of her house (just off the guest room that we did).

Kathy




Posted: 9:53 pm on January 7th

junkermidge writes: What an amazing project! Gretchen's right, this should be featured in a magazine. Who knows? Maybe this will be your "day job" if you keep turning out rooms like that. I love it all, but especially the porch rail shelf, and the trellis valance with tools attached, and the corbels, and
the beadboard doors.
Midge Posted: 9:30 pm on January 7th

italianpeasant writes: kathy, is that the top of ellens store :) Posted: 7:46 pm on January 7th

shabbychick writes: Thanks for the rave review, Gretchen! This was another of those super fun projects - the only "hard work" was the floor (but we managed to make the best of it), the rest was pure fun!

I think you're definitely on to something - gardening...junking - they are definitely closely related - taking almost nothing (like a seed or a piece of what some would call "junk") and watching it grow or turn into something great!! So, yep - I'm pretty sure gardener could be in the junker's job description!! :)

Thanks again! Kathy Posted: 4:03 pm on January 7th

MimiToria writes: Kathy- It's you again!!! That is a good thing! I loved what you did in a past post for another room make over of the bedroom, so was excited to see what this post was all about. You've once again outdid yourselves with this porch
makeover.
Ellen is a fortunate friend, and you girls did a fabulous job with this room redesign. Should be in a magazine photo shoot for sure. Thanks for thinking to repost on this site.
I am a gardener, my bff, Carolyn is a gardener, my other bff, Laura is a gardener, and my good friend, Lani is a gardener. Is that one of the qualifications of a junker? Ha!
Great job Kathy!
Gretchen Posted: 3:44 pm on January 7th

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