Apr 07, 2010

#97 Y’all come in!

Today we opened our home to Leadership Jones County, a group of young adults who work with different businesses to raise money and improve our downtown and city. We’ve been looking forward to this for the simple fact that it forced us to finally buy a few pieces of furniture we’ve been needing, frame some art work that’s been lying around and do some deep cleaning on our century old wood floors. I wanted to show it to all of you here mostly because I figure it’s not everyday you get to see what’s actually happening with all these great old buildings in downtown Laurel. We’ve worked hard for 2 years now getting it to feel like a home, and we’re so very proud to show you how we saved money and did a lot of it ourselves.

If you’ve not read the Lucky Luxe blog today, I talked about how I never meet 95% of the brides I work with because we’re separated by so many states, countries and continents and this will be a way to invite them in to our little world here. The pictures might look a little small, but you can click them to see them larger. So! Let’s start at the beginning. Come upstairs and in to the kitchen!
(This plaque greets you at the front door. My mama found it while listing a house and bought it from the home owners (they were big antique collectors), because my husband’s family is the big Scottish clan Napier. We did some research and discovered his family were ship builders for the royal Scottish navy. You could only display the royal seal on your building if you worked for the queen. Cool, huh?)

(The floors are all original, and the countertops are pine planks stained and sealed with boat varnish. The dinner table used to be at my parents’ old fish camp, and Ben exposed the brick beneath the plaster when we did the renovation. I painted the ‘Oxford’ sign on top of the pantry.)

Now, let’s move in to the office. This room has had to become a sort of man space/Lucky Luxe headquarters hybrid since the company grew and I had to kick Ben out. Sad, but true. This explains the vintage Ford tailgate on the bookshelf.
(Recognize my new card catalog? It was a gift from a local pharmacist! Ben reupholstered that wooden ticking stripe chair. It belonged to his grandparents. The walls were done by the law office that was here in the early 90s — It’s stain on plaster.)

Next up, the guest bedroom!
(The vintage bed was my grandparents’ first bed as newlyweds. It was so small, we had to stretch it at a welding shop!)

Now we’ll step into the hallway to get to the Lucky Luxe shipping and handling room/painting studio.
(You can read all about the desk here and the bookcase in the hall here.)

Now we’ll walk back down the hall past the laundry room before we go to the other half of the house.

Here’s our living room. I don’t think my mama has quite come to terms with our eclectic taste in art, but maybe it’s growing on her. I couldn’t live without any of it! That’s also her old couch we inherited just yesterday. It’s the absolute most comfortable couch in the history of the world. So glad to see it sitting in our little living room!

(Mama and I saw a man throwing out the hunk of old billboard in the center and I had to have it. We bought it for $10. The vintage map of the world came from Square Books in Oxford, and we framed it with an old transom window from Josh’s building next door. He’s got tons of them sitting in his basement!)

Now, into mine and Ben’s cozy bedroom. It’s dark, it’s cool, it’s the softest bed in the world. I love sleeping in here.

And I know you’ve seen our bathroom before, but I’m showing it off anyway because my floors are clean as a whistle!
And that’s the end of the road, folks. I’m so glad you popped in for a visit. We’re always home, so if you’re ever walking down Magnolia Street, just ring our bell. We love visitors!

P.S.
For documentation purposes, I’m making a note to myself. Lucky Luxe was featured on Once Wed today!

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