Open French Doors

We’ve had 2 days in a row with no humidity which meant I could open all the doors and windows again. I don’t think I’ve ever shared photos of our French Doors in the open position. When we decided to build the cabin I did hours of research about wind direction, sunlight direction, and snowfall direction for our little slice of country living. After gathering all the knowledge I put a plan into action according to how the house should be positioned on the property for maximum sunlight in winter, maximum shade in summer, and maximum wind flow in summer. I’m very excited to say I hit the nail right on the head. In summer when all the doors and windows are open it’s like a wind tunnel in our home.

I just love the strong breeze that flow through the place all day long. I’ve often said as long as I keep the French doors open I don’t have to vacuum, the wind just carries any dog hair that may be floating around right out one of the doors. If you follow me on Instagram you’ve seen videos of how windy my place is with the curtains standing straight out from the rods. If you ever plan on building I highly recommend doing global positioning of your house and take into consideration weather conditions in your area, you can save tons of money on heating and cooling by getting it right, it’s the one thing I would do over again if we ever build.

You may have noticed I’m using different barstools. I’ve had these in storage but never used them, we like ones with backs and ones that swivel so these never made it into the decor plan….until now. As you know I’ve decided to remove all the yellow from our home and go with neutral colors which meant the yellow bar stools had to go. I pondered over what choices I had for redoing them and another paint project was just out of the question. With paint I’m constantly doing touch ups so I decided to have them stripped and stained.

Well in my neck of the woods finding a stripper to remove paint is nearly impossible due to disposal regulations, so what did I do? Yep, put the word out on Facebook looking for someone that still does it and like I thought would happen someone happened to know of an older gentleman that still does this type of work. I called him up to see if he was up to the challenge of stipping 3 layers of paint and he said bring them on over and he’d take a look. The look on the man’s face was priceless when I opened the back of the Jeep, he said, “I can see why you want them stripped, who painted them that horrible yellow color, I hate yellow?” I had to laugh and tell him I rather liked the yellow, and I was the one who painted them but was ready for a change. He acted like the color was blinding him as he helped me unload them. Apparently YELLOW is not his THING!!

So while the stools are at the stipper we’re using these for now. I think they’re great for kids but not adult friendly at all, I’ll stick with my sturdy wood bar stools any day. I was a little hesitant when I received the quote for stripping but the gentleman informed me the stools were solid wood and were worth the investment because they’d last a lifetime. He also pointed out I wouldn’t be able to replace them with quality pieces for that price. I agreed and I get them back today. I can’t wait to get them stained and back in place. I decided to stain them to match the dining room table. I don’t want to many stain colors going on in this space. I believe the table is a dark walnut with a little red mixed in, so I may have to mix two colors to get it right but I’m sure I can get pretty close. 

Also Sherwin Williams starts their paint sale today so I’m going to get a dark gray to paint the island. I’ve decided to take all the drawers out of the island and take them outside to paint, and the stuff that’s in them will go on my wire Origami rack until everything fully dries. I’ve decided it’s the best way to keep it all organized and not look cluttered for a few days.

The thought of having everyting piled on the island stresses me out, but by using the rolling rack it will look like an industrial kitchen piece in case anyone stops over while the project is going on. I can do the whole island in one day and after that’s done I’ll reassess whether I’ll paint the rest of the lower cabinets in gray or leave everything else the off white that they already are. 

I’ll be back with a barstool and cupboard reveal update soon, so stay tuned!