Fun Sheds

I'm so excited:  Last weekend, Dave & his dad put together a new shed to replace this one:

I really wanted to save this thing but it just wasn't happening:  It was rusted out, full of holes, dark & dirty and I'm pretty sure some animals lived in it because our dog Ashby would sniff around in there like a mad dog every chance she got.  Anyway, we got this little 6 x 8 shed from Lowes to replace it:

(Shed here)

...And they were able to save the mass of honeysuckle that grew up it.  We also got another larger shed (12 x 10 I think) that now houses all of Dave's tools & is actually a workshop inside.  (We don't have a garage.)  Because we already had a concrete slab for the falling-apart shed on our property, we decided to put up a new shed on the slab that will be sort of a hangout place/ playhouse for us & the kids...  a "fun shed" if you will ;) 

Repurposed sheds have always intrigued me.  The first one I really fell for was designer Ann Nicholson's shed featured in Country Living a few years back:

She had carpenters trick out (I really can't think of any other work for it right now :)  a standard shed:

{photos by Keith Scott Morton}

I'm also crazy about the beautiful little playhouse Linda MacDonald of Restyled Home and her husband built for their daughter Sophie:

(Click here for the full tour.)

And this "guest house" shed by Kate Humphrey:

{photo by Lucas Allen for Country Living}

I went nutty for this 18 Century pigeonnaire featured in Cottage Living back in 2008.  Do you remember it??!!

Perfection!!

{images via Apartment Therapy... click here for the full tour}

And last year when we found our house, Heather Cameron's shed (below) really got me thinking that we could actually have a fun shed one day...

{Photo by Janis Nicolay for Country Living}

Michael Devine's shed - a reworked harftord shed from Lowe's - shows how beautiful you can make a standard shed & we actually purchased this same shed for the workshop shed:

And I also wanted to share with you a bunch of beautiful sheds I found on the Better HOmes & Gardens Website in an article on sheds:

{Seriously???  Better than my house!}

{Love this...}

{So gorgeous..}

{I want this.. the floors?!!! wow.}

{And this one is just so sweet.}

So...  I'm not expecting anything as crazy beautiful as what's going on in the above pics...  We're going to keep the front standard so it looks just like a normal shed... 

...But we are going after the inside to make it a "fun shed."  Here is is now below with a tarp over it because the shingles are going on this week...

...And here's the first coat of no VOC primer going on:

I cannot WAIT to get this place feeling special.  This has been one of the best projects ever to plan: part hangout spot, part playhouse.  (I am in no way pretending this is soley for my children...  I know i'm gonna love this thing!) 

Hope everyone had a great weekend & happy mother's day to all the mothers!!

xoxo,

lauren

ps-  We don't have cable so I haven't been able to check it out yet, but Tuesday's episode of 9 By Design ( May 11 at 10PM on Bravo)  features a really special fundraising event for Jasmina Anema. Jasmina was a "spunky 6- year-old" who lost her battle with Leukemia this past January. Jasmina was a very close friend of the Novogratz family. They are trying to get as many people as possible to tune in to this week's episode

in an effort to help spread Jasmina and Thea's (Jasmina's mother) message, which is to raise leukemia awareness and make people more aware of the need to register to become a bone marrow donor. (http://oneforjasmina.com/)

Restored Chateau - La Bastide

Happy Mother's Day to me and all my dear mother readers!

To celebrate let's go over to France to a beautiful early 18th century stone building called La Bastide that once produced wine and eau de vie for Napoleon’s troops. The house is on a hill at the edge of a village with lovely views from all the windows and doors. Situated in Gard, South West France, between Montpellieir and Nimes, it is only 30 minutes away from sandy beaches.

The huge beams have been left exposed in the main living area. In some rooms the 14 metre high ceilings give the impression of entering a cathedral. Floors are sand coloured polished cement interspersed with flag-stones.











































I have linked this post over at Melissa's The Inspired Room at Jessica's A Few of my Favourite Things and at Miss Mustard Seed's blog too. Thanks for hosting girls!

More lovely pics at Shootspaces. Based in London they offer a variety of locations suitable for most types of photo shoots. They are situated in London, around the country and in Europe, Africa and the US.

Designer Tina Tornquist

Welcome home dear readers. Designer and stylist Tina Tornquist's work is beautiful. Different styles, always lovely, I've selected some of her photographs to enjoy on this sunny Saturday.



















Hope you enjoyed these pics. There are quite a few more if you'd like to see them at
Tina Tornquist
Have a lovely weekend!

Bye Bye Roses :(

So after my post yesterday about the wild roses (above), Connie from Hartwood Roses informed me about a disease called Rose Rosette Disease infecting the wild rose population all over.  She described the reddish contorted growth that's a symptom of the disease and yep, a few of our wild rose bushes have it.  So I'm just in from hacking away at them.  (A far cry from cutting roses and frolicking with my 2 year old.  haha)  We're going to have to take out all of the infected bushes.  There are still a ton of unifected ones but I'm thinking chances are slim they won't be infected eventually.  Oh so sad.  (Good news - it's not on that huge group of buches that goes 20 or so feet high into the trees!  And I'm not hacking 'till they get it.)

Thoughts in my mind as I tried to untangle a particularly huge-won't-let-go-rose vine from a tree reminded me of the priest's from The Exorcist:

  "Release him!"

"Foul beast!"

"I command you to leave!!"

...or maybe some type of pandemic outbreak movie:

to Christian:  "The roses are sick."

"Don't touch."

"We can't let it spread"

 oh well.  never dull.  ;)

xoxo,

lauren