French Cottage Interior {Flashback Open House}

Feb 10, 2012 -

This is the last of the open house series on my first house, a French Cottage. The interior was full of toile, hand distressed beams, florals, checks, 70′s stripes and Ralph Lauren paint finishes. Truly a labor of love ten years ago, hopefully you’ll find something still relevant today (please excuse the photo quality, these were taken a long time ago with out a blog in mind).

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The Foyer/Entryway

The foyer was a large two story open space with the staircase in the center. One of the upstairs bedrooms had an open window with home made shutters overlooking the entry (inside the room there was another single shutter that could close). The entry was so large and we had such a small amount of furniture, I threw these bookshelves on either side (the proportions of the picture and mirror drive me crazy now). A large shelf above the front door held whatever accessories I could carry up the ladder. I was very set on white stairs and wood stained treads. They were a beast to find in the wood and size we wanted, but payed off in the end. The little niche in the foyer was trimmed out with an extra stair tread and showed off a beautiful bronze statue my brother gave me.

The Family Room

The best part about this room was the view. You could sit and watch the planes turn around over the Great Salt Lake, see amazing sunsets, and we loved watching the storms roll in. Here you can see the beams that ran throughout the main floor.

The Nursery

Just after we moved into this home we had our second little boy. This nursery was tiny, probably 10X10. We never bought closet doors, I just made curtains for the windows and threw another one over the closet. The painting over the bed (that you can only see half of) was my first overhead projector mural (read more about murals HERE) but this one was on a home made canvas. Little lights tacked up around the room provided the perfect night light for late night feedings and diaper changes. You can see the crib, changing table and bins used in my Cowboy Nursery 8 years later.

70′s Hang Ten Surf Shack

If you have read even just a little of my blog, you might notice I LOVE the ocean. This was my first surfing room for my then toddler Jake (click HERE for a surfing room in my current home). The funky stripes were inspired by a vintage Hang Ten or OP t-shirt.

Kids Bathroom and Laundry

We had a combined laundry and bathroom space upstairs that worked great. All of the appliances, fixtures, trims etc were white and the walls were my favorite Ralph Lauren Denim Paint technique (discussed in my Cowboy nursery).

Main Floor Powder Bath

Back in the day I had seen a technique of putting fabric on the walls using liquid starch (I think it was on the Christopher Lowell show). Well, after purchasing a ton of fabric at a closeout sale, my husband and I went for it. It was a very messy job. The walls were primed but not painted, which worked to our advantage because the fabric stuck better. We dipped the fabric in a bucket of starch, wrung it out and spread it on the walls like wall paper. Then we tacked it along the top in a few spaces. In the end we used an Xacto knife to trim the excess around the top and bottom. I loved this treatment. The great thing is that supposedly if you get sick of it, you can just pull it down and wipe down the walls. We moved before that day came so I’m not sure.

For Sale in 2010

My friend Gemmie let me know when she saw my house for sale again in 2010. I was curious, as I am sure you’d be as to how it looked after another family lived there. Well, it looked great! There were photos of a few rooms that I had never snapped. Some were painted and looked even better than when they bought it, how often does that happen? Anyway, these are a few of the listing photos.

Child’s Bedroom with the window overlooking the entry.