The Cottage Journal

We are so pleased to be featured in the April  2018 issue of The Cottage Journal! This has been quite a spring for us at Powell Brower Interiors and we are so grateful.

Here are pictures of Bethany's former home in Warrenton, Virginia and a link to the story.

Thank you so much Helen Norman, photographer, and Charlotte Safavi, stylist and producer, and to The Cottage Journal for the publishing!

Happy Spring!

Style at Home

Thank you Style at Home, Spring 2018, for the feature article on Bethany's home!

In case you don't get to see the magazine, here is the story:

I am so proud of Bethany's design vision for this house. We had so much fun decorating this house last year.  She has since moved to a new property and I can't wait to see what she envisions for her home.

Evolution of a fireplace

When Bethany moved to her new home one thing she felt that she had to do immediately was tame that fireplace wall.  The mantle was unusually high which threw the whole look off, so the first solution was to paint it all white.

Painting the interior doors black helped, but the white fireplace just wasn't the answer; the height still bothered us.

Then she recruited her brother and hubby to tear down the mantle and frame it with shiplap. They used high grade pine 1" x 6"s.  I later painted out the white in favor of black brick.

We love this result and though may one day stain the shiplap, we like it 'au naturel' for the moment.

This house is so fun to work on! We are taking it slow and in stages. Her Stark cut and bound room size sisal is a magnificent addition.  1st layer complete!

A walk back in time

I recently ran across the listing for our darling cottage when we first bought it in 2010.  I can't believe how many small little changes have added up over the years.  Here's how it looked then.

And it evolved over time to this.

And today, it looks like this.

Sadly, we have outgrown this house with our 3 dogs.  It's been a whirlwind few months, but we have bought a new home and sold this darling cottage two weeks ago.  Last weekend we moved into the new place and are so ready for our new adventure. 

 We are all so excited to begin a new chapter! 

Housesitting

A phone, no pool, all pets, I ain't got no internet....

Do any of you remember that Roger Miller song?  That was me last week while I babysat Bethany's house and 3 dogs while she and her husband went to Ireland!  It was fun being in her home and taking a break from my normal routine.  

I couldn't get her uber secure, data software security job computer to even turn on, much less her password so I could use my ipad.  I know, I'm "old", but having no internet actually was nice for a change.  I loved that her pups were so at home with me- they hardly missed them or got out of their routine. Winston, aka "winstonthehappybeagle" was such a joy to take care of, and his 'special needs' became second nature.  He is the sweetest dog I have ever known, and so appreciative of the help we give him. You can't tell him he's not normal, and he will prove it!

While I was enjoying her cottage, my husband was holding down the fort at home with the care of our pony, 2 dogs, a cat, and our son's cat who was visiting while Michael was on vacation.  Gibbs sprained his leg and our son's cat got sprayed by a skunk!   Luckily it wasn't as bad an encounter as my husband portrayed it to be, but I gave Mort a de-skunking bath and did the trick. Have you ever bathed a cat?  yikes. I hope I don't have to do that again.

I really love Bethany's house and enjoyed taking pictures with my phone of my favorite things there.

Click over on her  IG feed  and you can see some of her marvelous sites of Ireland.  I am so thrilled she got to experience such an adventure and that I was able to ease her mind about leaving her dogs.  They brought me the most amazing wool throw from the Aran Islands that is now a treasure in my home.  Thank you sweetie!

It was a very rewarding week for me. I am really in my element being around our animals. 

 The leaves are seriously falling and it is so beautiful here in Virginia.  It's supposed to go down to 37 tonight!  

 I hope you all have a great week!

Brower Dining Room 4.0

Bethany's dining room is the most redecorated space between our two houses.  She is always experimenting, tweaking and zhushing... I wonder where she gets that trait?  Back in her house tour post in December 2012 you see the first version of this corner of her cottage.

I snuck a few iphone shots the other day when I went to let her pups out while she was at a meeting.  I am loving the layers and the changes.  My son made her this table top for Christmas since the glass kept tipping every time they laid their elbows on it while eating.  This is a chalkboard painted solid wood top with nailhead accents.

The new settee, vintage Arhaus leather chairs (they are sold out), turkish rug from our favorite J&D Orientals over a fiber rug from Overstock, complete the current look.  The bolster pillow is made from a scarf of mine I had in the 70's (I guess I'm vintage).  You can read about her 'found' Lochness table from Luckett's here.  It is a gem.

I'm sure this isn't the last of her dining room upgrade, but I sure do love this look.  

prepwork

I need to get to work on sprucing up my porch and yard on the cheap.  My husband and I made the decision to not put much more money into our home as we plan to move this time next year.  I've got the foundations to make a cute patio but just need to add the springtime herbs, potted plants and maybe a nice mosquito plant! Here's the vision.

I got this cute awning last year and it's added so much charm to the outside of our cedar-sided cottage.  I highly recommend it!  The sitting area was super inexpensive, too, but needs a fresh coat of paint or stain.  The pillows are a steal right now and come in the best colors! And the indoor/outdoor rug was also a great deal and helps Winston scoot around outside. The rest we'll have to keep to bare minimums in order to spruce up on a dime.

To Do:

Paint chairs and table black - $

Add a tall planter with mosquito plant - $$

Stain deck (possible powerwash again?) - $$

Add herbs and potted plants to the deck for easy picking! - $

What's on your to-do list this spring?

bethany potter

You know how it's Operation Spruce Up around these parts?  Well, step one is complete. I got me a new door!  

My family asked what I wanted for my 31st birthday last month and I kept telling them I really wanted a new front door.  Mom and my husband could tell you stories for days about how incredibly particular I am and how painful all of the returns of miss-the-mark gift returns are on both the ego and the confidence. And, in hindsight, I regret being 'picky' (is that what you'd call it? yes, I suppose that will work) with other's gifts.  I wish I just crammed a sock in it and lied that I liked it.  Ahh, must be the age speaking.  Where we were?  Oh yes, the door.

So my lovely family pulled together and gave me some gift cards and some cold hard cash (for fear of making this huge decision themselves) with which I purchased my new front door!  

My aunt Carolyn has a french-door leading from her kitchen to her laundry room and I've always thought it was so distinct because the glass was beveled and there are always beautiful light prisms amid the lites.  I set out to find the same feature in my new front door. I don't do 'decorative' and I wanted full light through it, so I am super pleased with my new door. Mine will be black, but this will give you an idea.

We also bought the whole lot of Endless Summer hydrageas that the local neighborhood garden store carried and are planning to plant these suckers tomorrow. Pray for me, peeps.  I kill all things green.

We're also hanging the new shutters and just getting our hands good and dirty.  Mom and I saw a beautiful petite Lutyens bench at Home Goods while accessory shopping this week, but sadly it was broken in a few places.  And the price wasn't right enough. This sure would look good in just about any yard, eh?

And I keep deliberating on adding an awning to our side entrance.  Practicality-wise, it'd be really nice on rainy days.  But I don't know if they are just too busy.  Then I saw this pic, and I think they are charming!  What to do, what to do!

Oh, after a long winter indoors, we found out we've got MOLES.  Anyone know a pet-friendly way to get rid of them (oxymoron?)??

What are you up to this weekend?  I hope you get to enjoy some beautiful weather.

Bethany

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Sprucing up

We spend all winter prettying up the insides of our homes and now everyone starts to focus on the outside and sprucing up after the ugly and grey of winter subsides.  I for one need to get to work on my yard.

I'm making a list of my to-dos. 

Right before winter, we took out that big tree in front of the house along with some others on the side.  We're loving the extra light we get inside now!  We plan to plant hydrangea bushes, which will do well in the shade we have.  

I find the keys never turn quick enough when it's pouring outside, so a nice little awning would help at the side door.

bench | wellies | awning | hydrangeas

The majority of the work we have to do is good ol' fashion elbow grease.  We have to put some shutters up on the lonely window on the left (photoshopped them in on the above pic) and then paint the others a corresponding black.  Right now they are the color white you'd expect to find in the woods - a tinge green.  My wonderful hubby and Mom gave me money towards a new front door for my birthday and I'm anxiously awaiting the day we get to go pick it out!  I'd like to increase the light even more by adding a paned glass door similar to the one I added above.  Right now, we have a very sad builder's grade door that I tried to paint teal.  Lipstick on a pig.

On beautiful days where the chilly air burns off, aren't you catching the sprucing up bug?!

Have a great weekend!

-Bethany

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Updates on the Brower Front

Mom's been pulling the brunt of the blog-weight as of late while I have been quite distracted with other things.  My wonderful husband put up a new light in the kitchen and now we can see while we cook!  Previously, it was sub par builder's grade track lighting (see puny light below) so the new three-armed guy makes a world of difference.  You'll notice the upper cabinets were hung pretty low with respect to the countertop (whyyyyyyy?) and then add on the shadows that the microwave casts and it was getting preeetty tough to see what was cooking on those back burners.  

Pay no mind to the horrific oak cabinets.  The jury is still out on what I want to do there.  I have gone back and forth with painting versus replacing and I can't decide!  I don't see us in our home for many more years so that weighs heavy into the money-output equation.  

I am loving my new leather chairs, too!  I couldn't bare to get rid of my clear ones so they are just hanging out as extra seating (see them peaking out in the right-hand corner of the photo below?) for now.

Since spring is almost upon us, I have a few plans up my sleeve for some spring projects around the Brower house.  I'm really tiring of my White Mint (SW) walls and have spent the better part of the last year mulling over changing it in favor of a more neutral neutral   I'm about 90% ready to fire on that.  I'd like to paint over it with the same color in our bedroom, Dove Wing (BM), which is white with a tint of greige.  In some light it looks super minty (below).

Whereas in other light, it's barely a whisper of mint.  Regardless, it's got to go.

Also up on the painting front is removing all the busyness around here.  When we first moved in, I was thrilled to be able to paint my walls however I wanted.  But now that I've lived with it for a couple of years, I need some calm around here.  

It's time to paint over this fun hallway treatment.  

And this apropos ceiling treatment in my guest bath. I'll be sad to see them go, but it will make it better for resale in the future.

We've been busy with the childrens' rooms project we are working on and in spite of those projects, we are in the process of getting a new blog design rolled out.  I know Mom loves our stripes, but I certainly can't wait to shed this 'my first blog' look!

I am gearing up (and by gearing up I mean eating my way through the town and surrounding areas) to start a weight loss program next week to follow through with my resolutions this year.  While I'm scared as *$@# I am pumped about getting healthy.  I wanna be back to my fighting weight.  And my hubby is doing it with me, which is a huge support system in and of itself.  Thank god we'll have each other.  Although if you hear random screaming, that might be me in the midst of full-on withdrawals.

Seamus is going to his first show this coming weekend and we are really excited.  He's 7 months old [I can't believe it!] and goofy as all get out, so this is sure to be a spectacle.  We've been working hard at getting him out and about but trash bags and brooms are still a terrible fright!  Just look at this face.  What judge wouldn't love it??

Wish me/us luck!

-Bethany

Bathroom and Hallway photos by Dancer Burns

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