The Tour

When we first moved into the house, this was a gathering room, a few years later, I flipped a couple rooms and this became the dining room. The little alcove sits to the right of  Faux Fireplace Number 1 (and Number 5) . There is a matching alcove to the left.

When we bought the house 11 years ago, this room was called “The Saloon”. The previous owner had a bar set up in this room for entertaining and the room was a flamingo pink color. Actually, there was a lot of pink in the cottage. We did our best to eliminate it, but a few remnants remain.

Charles and I do not fancy drinking much, so we saw little need for saloon in the cottage. We tore out the bar and repurposed this entire wall as a focal point for the room. We’re also not tropical in our color palette, so all the tropical colors went south. (FYI – the neighbors all called this the “Florida House”, though we’re in the frigid Northeast.)

Prior to my room flip, Charles had a stereo stacked in the left alcove, and old-style television occupied this spot. Eventually we went with a flat screen and a compact sound system, and these spaces were freed up for my decorating. Yay!

Stoneware

As noted in my previous article, Stoneware Number 2, I mentioned old foot warmers and water bottles. I love the amazing variety and creativity in the design of these old utilitarian items. Though the subject of this article is stoneware, foot warmers were made in an amazing assortment of designs and materials.

I was delighted to find the three featured in the photo above, which all sport the same two-tone color scheme. The past three nights have been in the teens, with tonight’s forecast for single digits, these things could find themselves put back in service.

Actually, since I use them all as display pieces, I’ve never even put water in them. I know the jugs are solid, with no cracks, but I don’t know that I have much faith in the integrity of the stoppers to seal the water in. Actually, I use a buckwheat bag which doesn’t spill and it’s soft and pliable. No one ever called a pottery bottle soft.