A Tiny Bit of Progress

Tags

Aslan's Tent, Decor, Design, Flooring, Kara, Lighting, Narnia, Spare Oom

Although I was still sick in bed last week, I could use the telephone!  I went surfing through the Yellow Pages and discovered that my favorite local cleaner for Oriental rugs, Interior Care, Inc., also does carpets.  A few days later a young man was here to clean the ferret-stained, dust-choked Aslan’s Tent along with a well-lived-in chair in the living room.

Herb and I had gotten the furniture out so every square inch of the carpet is now as clean and good as new.

Yesterday, poor Herb had a busy Sunday doing all the things I had (graciously) consented could wait till the weekend so he could study for his finals and write his papers.  The thing about “Honey-Do” lists is they just don’t go away quietly!

First he got the plywood cut at Lowe’s for the Dawn Treader berths and carried all four very heavy pieces upstairs.  Halfway through, his foot slipped on the stairs, the plywood shot backwards down the stairs, and Herb went bounding stiff-legged after it, still hanging on.  He jammed his ankle, poor guy, and was limping badly by bedtime, but it’s “pretty good” this morning.

After the plywood was ensconced in a berth (because once the Wardrobe is in place, we’d never get it in there!), Herb started moving furniture.  I helped him move the dresser in, and he brought the antique twin beds from storage at Kara’s house and set them up.

Next, he brought the daybed over from storage in Kara’s house, and we set it up together.  The rest of Spare Oom is a wreck, but now I can figure out where to move the rest of the furniture and then start putting the room together.  Bit by bit it’ll get done.

This morning I began to feel a tiny bit human again, so I started on decorating Aslan’s Tent.  Obviously, we need a king-sized mattress so this is just temporary.  One thing I did do from bed with my wonderful iPad was research king bed sizes to learn that the base provided by our two twin box springs will perfectly fit a regular king.  I’m not buying a mattress online; I’ll let my “fingers do the walking” to find out where I want to try out and buy a mattress.

The quilt is one Kara doesn’t use any more; we brought the bedside table back from Morocco along with the mint tea pot; and we bought the pink tea glasses in the Arab Quarter of Marseilles before we left France in 2001.

For now I’m leaving the silk screen prints made by two of our once-little girls and the beautiful garland handmade by a friend, although I’ll switch to Moroccan fabrics on the door.  This larger bedside table is Moroccan, too, although I bought it for a song in an antique shop.  Both the tables were beautifully polished by High Point Antiques in Chattanooga.  Next, I’ll take them this little leather Moroccan lamp (a gift from our kids) to repair the curlicue that got knocked off.

This really IS the fun part!  I love decorating!

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39 and Holding . . .

Tags

Colors & Paint, Dawn Treader, Decor, Flooring

Yesterday was Day 39 of construction, although I’m not sure I should count it since I was the one doing the work.  The floors were finished on Thursday, and Stuart’s team doesn’t work on Fridays, so I put the extra day to use.

First up, a photo of how well the Faded Brick carpet color works with our living room.

That deep red trim on the pillow closest to the camera is repeated many times as an accent in our living room, and there’s even an antique carpet rocker with that color velvet fabric.

Yesterday’s project was to apply the second coat of stain to the last two berths.  Since the floor has been installed, I had to spend extra time protecting it.  First, I taped off around the bottom of everything I was going to stain.  Next, I laid out a drop cloth and folded it to just fit into the berth.  Finally, I taped the drop cloth to the tape on the floor giving me a work area that would not pull loose when I moved around on it.

Once the berths are done, I’ll do a complete DIY post explaining what I did.

As you can see, I really get into my work–or should I say my work really gets on to me?  I’m not worried as long as it doesn’t get onto the floor!

The completed berths look good in the sunlight, contrasting nicely with the floor.  There was a lighter-colored floor I considered, but I’m glad I chose the darker mocha color.  It might have been a bit boring if all the wood in Narnia was the same color.  And I must say, this floor really does look like an old ship deck.

Red Carpet Treatment for Our Guests

Tags

Cair Paravel Library, Colors & Paint, Decor, Flooring, Kara

Hospitality is something of a lost art, but we try to keep it alive by rolling out the red carpet for our guests, especially our kids and grandkids!  We chose Shaw’s Passageway III (the best grade) in Faded Brick for the hallway because it’s the Library at Cair Paravel, and the rich red color seemed royally suited.  It’s just icing on the cake that it conjures up the idea of red carpet treatment.

Ken and Tony were back this morning to lay the carpet.  It was fascinating to watch.  That long tool that goes clear across the hall is something they use to stretch the carpet. I’m going to call it a Carpet Dragon!  The left hand (tail) end braces against the wall and can also swivel to let the business end (or head, at right) move along the wall.

Here it is in action.  Tony adjusted the long metal bar, braced the tail end against the wall, pushed the teeth (they’re in the head) into the pile of the carpet, and then he pushed down on the lever-like handle. This pushed the carpet (held by the teeth) towards the wall at left.

While the Carpet Dragon held the carpet in place, Tony used a tool that is much like a sturdy spackling blade to push the carpet right down against the wall and into the strip of carpet tacks.  The final step was cutting off the excess and using the blade to push stray fibers down in place.

The end result is a nicely laid carpet that Tony promised won’t wrinkle like our downstairs carpet did.  This photo makes the carpet look a little more plum-colored than it really is, just as the previous ones make it look more rosy.  The first photo is probably the most accurate, color-wise.

While Tony was busy upstairs, Ken was busy on the stairs.  They probably took almost as much time as laying the whole upstairs hall, but they look beautiful, too.

I think we really can tell our guests, “We’ve rolled out the red carpet for you!”

Oh, by the way, the carpet on the landing looks great when seen from the living room.  It’s one of the accent colors in our living room, but I was vacillating a lot about going with something so . . . intense.  Kara assured me it would look great, and she was right!

We’re Floored!

Tags

Dawn Treader, Design, Flooring, Mimi's Cave, Narnia, Narnia Movies

I got busy early this morning putting a second coat of stain on the berths.

You can see the difference it makes–not so much making the color darker, but richer.

You can definitely tell which one I’ve done!  I would have liked to get all four of them done before the floor installers came, and this is why:

As it was, I got two done before they were ready to start on Narnia.  While I had been busy staining, they had been busy in Mimi’s Cave.

We had this laminate on hand, so it seemed crazy not to use it.  Even though we didn’t buy it at End of the Roll, they were happy to install it for us.  They were fast, efficient and pleasant, and they cleaned up their mess when they were done!

This flooring makes a bright room even brighter–and no worries if I spill paint on it.

Ben hung the closet doors yesterday; they’re waiting for paint and some lion pulls.  Next up, Narnia.

I chose the mocha color hand-scraped flooring because it looks exactly like the deck of the Dawn Treader in the movie, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

It was fascinating watching the guys lay the floor.  They started each line of flooring at the far wall, using a different-sized first piece each time.  They had a pattern: medium, short, tiny (like the one getting nailed in in this photo), short, medium, short, tiny, etc.  That kept the rows staggered so no two side-by-side boards ended up at the same place, giving a flowing visual as you look at the floor.

It was late in the day when they finished up, so I used the flash to show what it looks like in daylight.

It will look even better when I get the second coat of stain on the girls’ berths.

It was going on 6 p.m. when I took the last photo with no electric lights and very little daylight left.  Our grandkids love to nap and sleep in very dark rooms, and I think when we turn out the lights in Narnia, it will be a perfect place to sleep.  We’ll have to be sure to get an ocean wave noisemaker.  Now if only those ship berths would really rock back and forth!

Treasure Trove

Tags

Aslan's Tent, Cair Paravel Library, Dawn Treader, Decor, Flooring, Kara, Lighting, Narnia

All was not lost during our Molasses Period.  To ease the frustration of w.a.i.t.i.n.g., I started digging through things I had packed away when we moved to this smaller house.  My plastic storage bins were a treasure trove of Narnia-bilia!

These two beautiful Korean floor cushions will be perfect on the Stone Table for someone to sit on and read.

These cushions I bought years ago at Southeastern Salvage fit into the Moroccan-Run-Amok theme of Aslan’s Tent.  I kind of like the poetic sound of that, but we could also call the theme Bazaar Style, a term I recently encountered in a decorating book.

I was VERY excited when I found this batik we bought in the Central African Republic in 1985.  It looks exactly like a scene from “The Horse and His Boy” except Shasta never went after Aslan with a spear–he was too terrified!

I have lots of Moroccan shawls and pieces of fabric collected from our travels to Spain and Morocco as well as from the Arab Quarter in Marseille when we lived in the south of France.  If anyone wants to visit North Africa without actually going there, Marseille’s Arab Quarter makes a good substitute–minus the camels!!

To celebrate our anniversary late in June, I  told Herb that one thing I wanted to do was go to Unclaimed Baggage in Scottsboro, AL.  There I found the perfect little Eustace-dragon.

These enormous lengths of brightly colored pieced fabric were a steal at $6 apiece at Unclaimed Baggage.  I’m planning to use them to help make the sides of Aslan’s Tent.  The purple fabric and green rug fit right in.  Kara has a satiny lavender comforter she doesn’t use any more, and it is made to order for this color scheme.

“Just checking” at Lowes’ one day I found our perfect Lamppost.  We’ll paint it black, as one of the online reviewers had done, and we think Aslan will feel right at home!

During an earlier trip to Southeastern Salvage with Kara, we picked out the sink for The Lodge bathroom.  We bought the dark bronze drain and waterfall faucet to go with it.  It has a definite lodg-ish look to it!  And I converted Kara to a Southeastern Salvage fan!

Shortly after that we were bumming at Go Fish on the North Shore in Chattanooga and found this fabulous mirror to go above the sink.  It would make any lodge-builder happy!  I had thought of making one, but I can’t buy a plain mirror and make it for what this cost.

The last treasure I found in a rare moment when I wasn’t even thinking about Narnia.  I went into Tractor Supply with Didi one day, and there was our Lodge trash can, sitting right there!  It looks like the inhabitants emptied a barrel of salted fish and turned it into a bathroom waste basket.

This great old fishing basket I’ve hung onto for several years will encase a simple pendant light in The Lodge.  It will give the look of an expensive chicken-wire-covered light fixture I found online–and it’s an original!

My plan for the ceiling treatment involves fish nets from Hobby Lobby with twigs and driftwood intertwined in the nets, then hung from the ceiling.  At least, that’s the plan!

Kara has some great chandeliers in her house which she’s said we can take.  One is this forest fantasy one which I plan to use in the Library at Cair Paravel.  Of course, we’ll have the electrician put the banal big box store bulbs back up for her.  (Gotta love that alliteration!)

Kara’s living room chandelier will look marvelous in Aslan’s Tent.  I’m glad she has such excellent taste!  Fortunately, I have a nice freebie we can hang for her in its place.

Credit for the most brilliant (excuse the pun) lighting idea for Narnia goes to . . . KARA!  She originally offered us her fabulous 70’s “sun” lamp.  Then one day she called me from one of my favorite antiquing haunts, Knitting Mill Antiques, to say she’d found one just like it, except it was ready to hang as a chandelier.  When I asked the dealer’s best price, he said $99, just what I had wished I could get it for.  

Since ours is sitting in a box, Kara’s will make a good stand-in.  I can’t wait to see what kind of beautiful patterns the “sun” casts on the Narnian sky! 

I finally followed Kara’s advice, and on my way home one day I stopped at Lumber Liquidators. There I found a beautiful hand-scraped bamboo flooring that looks like it was taken from the “Dawn Treader’s” deck.  It’s a good thing I didn’t actually buy it that day even though the sale was almost over (stay tuned to find out why), but even the regular price comes in under the flooring allowance Stuart’s estimate gives us.  

With such a deck underfoot, all we need is the rocking of the ship to make the GKs feel like they’re really on board with Prince Caspian . . .  Never fear, I have a plan for that!