Our front foyer was sorely lacking a spot for people to sit and take off or put on their shoes. This is an issue when we have visitors (aka contractors) over. A month or so ago when I was out shopping for fabric to make blinds for the guest room, I came across this little bench at the craft store (first pic below).
My parents were visiting us here at Purgatory, so two weeks ago I went back to the craft store to pick out fabric to make a new bed for their dog. While there I checked and they still had two of the little benches, and they were on sale. So I bought both of them and they now sit on either side of the front doors. The second shot is of the foyer at night. It’s quite cozy now. The sealed floors are holding up well against water drops from the plants and fountain, as well as the occasional bird dropping from the boys when they walk through the house in search of Weetabix.
As long as I’m posting about decor and our meager attempts to brighten the space–when we were moving out of the house in San Francisco, the lawyer whose office was in the downstairs unit of the building was also moving out. I lent him a hand finding people to take some of his unwanted furniture and taking other furniture to a charity shop (yay for having a big pickup truck). One of the things he couldn’t find a home for easily a was a gorgeous framed print of Vincent van Gogh’s Irises. I pretty much jumped at the chance to take it off his hands as I had the perfect spot for it.
Here it is in our kitchen. As noted in a post from way back, we replaced the ugly red pendant lights and bought pretty blue braided rugs. Together, these sources of color really tie the space together, and as an added bonus, the POs had a TV (one of the ten–yes, ten–TVs were in this house) mounted where the picture now hangs. As such, there is an outlet and large hole for cables that are conveniently hidden by the picture.
