Summer home tour 2014

I'm so glad you're here!  Today I'm thrilled to participating in the Elements of Summer tour.  The Grace at Home link party will return next Thursday; for today, welcome to my home!

The sun is shining, the flag is flying, and I'm so glad to welcome you.

Early summer is one of my favorite times for a party--and one of the best things about a party is having the house all cleaned up and ready for guests, don't you think?  I took advantage of my clean house and snapped some photos to share with y'all.

First stop is the front porch, which is one of my favorite places in the house.  We recently installed new ceiling fans out here, and it's so comfortable I could sit here all day.



A number of people have asked me about the floor plan of our house.  I don't have a good floor plan, but here's a rough sketch that will give you an idea of our space.  Our house is built on a hill, so we have two stories in the front and three stories in the back.

Now come on in and I'll show you around.  As you can see from the floor plan and this photo, our foyer is quite a hub.  Up those stairs are three bedrooms and two baths.  Straight ahead is the living room; to the right is the dining room; to the left is a hall that leads to the powder room and a master suite.  With all the traffic that goes through the foyer, I keep the decor here really simple.  The walls are painted Sherwin Williams "Buckram Binding," which is a nice creamy neutral.

One of my favorite things in the foyer is the Waterlogue portrait of the house I created a few months ago.

 Here's a glimpse of it from the dining room:

My husband's library is just to the left of the front stairs.  The decor in this room is very traditional, with the cowhide ottoman providing a nice playful touch.

Jack is a military history buff.  The reading materials out on the ottoman right now are all about D-Day.  This week is the 70th anniversary of  the invasion, you know.

Over Jack's desk is a vintage war bond poster.  And on his desk is the 50th birthday gift the boys and I gave to Jack: a World War II Norden bombsight  We're such lovers of history.

Also on the main floor is our master bedroom.  I'm so grateful for this feature of our house.  Right now we use all levels of this house, but after our kids have left home Jack and I could live on just this level if we ever needed to.

Here's a look into our bedroom.  I like a dark, cool bedroom, which is what we have with the walls painted Sherwin Williams "Mystery Green":



Now to the living room, which we've been re-doing over the past year.  It's still not completely finished, but we're enjoying its new look.



The wall color in this room is Benjamin Moore's Fieldstone, a greenish grey.  It's a wonderful backdrop for this traditional but comfortable room.



For years I had a gallery wall of crosses in the living room.  Lots of people have asked what I've done with all my crosses.  For now, most of them are packed away, but I chose a few of my favorites to display on this little wall:



As you can see, the living room leads to the kitchen, which is also undergoing some changes.  I've been wanting to create a lighter, brighter "farmhouse" look in this room, and I'm almost finished.  I hope to share a full reveal of the updated kitchen in the next couple of weeks, but for now here's a peek.

Looking toward the workspace, including the newly painted island:



Looking from the workspace toward the eating area.  This is a big room, and I love it when it's full of family and friends.  We've fed a lot of people around that big table!



The breakfast area leads out to the screened porch.  As I said, our house is three stories in the back, so the screened porch is high off the ground.  One of my favorite things about our neighborhood is all the trees; this room makes the most of that feature.

Although the porch isn't large, it's big enough for an eating table and a small sitting area.

Thanks so much for joining me for a look around my home!  Here's to Summer 2014!

I'm joining Kim at Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesday.

I'm so proud to be a part of the Elements of Summer event!

I'd love to get to know you better. You can connect with me here:

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There are lots of wonderful blogs featured in the Elements of Summer tour.  You can visit them all!