After remodeling our den/great-room on Willow Creek in January, we started looking for another house! Which was totally CRAZY !
One thing I knew, if we were going to buy another house…the den would have to really ‘WOW’ me since I loved the remodel we’d just finished.
I can’t tell you how many houses we walked away from because the den was small and cozy. I love small and cozy, and will probably have small and cozy one day, but right now while our grown-up kids and my sisters grown-up kids keep having babies, we need some space to have our family get-togethers!
When we walked into Stone House Lane I was sold. The den has a mile-high ceiling, an expansive stone fireplace and sunlight pours through the space. The photo below is the how it looked the day we walked in…
Here’s a picture from the real estate website when the previous owners lived here…I love it. Several things were different then, they had their TV in a cabinet instead of over the fireplace and if you look closely you’ll notice that the room is a little more closed off to the breakfast room…only 2 arches in the original room.
The Stone House Lane house is a brick Tudor and traditionally, the Tudor style house has arched doorways so we loved that arches were incorporated on the inside.
Because we loved the arches and wanted a totally open feel, the first idea we had was to add a third arch between the two that were already there. So of course we called our favorite contractors, Mr. Max, Buck and the crew at The King’s Carpentry.
We had a long list of projects for them…but the first exciting thing they worked on was that beautiful third arch!
And just like that the room opened up!
The stone fireplace is such a focal point in the room and we really wanted to do furniture placement so that the fireplace, the windows and the TV were all front and center, so the television would have to go over the mantle. But the stone on the fireplace isn’t a facade. It’s for-real, heavy, misshaped stone, which made it more difficult to run electricity and mount the TV…but again Mr. Max solved our super-big problem!
And then came the painting…
As you guys know, I paint a lot. I paint everything, all the time. But there were certain rooms at Stone House Lane that I didn’t want to tackle…the den being one of them.
So Max and the crew painted the den…(honestly, it was all ‘the crew’ …Mr. Max hates painting!)
I love the wall color, but when they were done…I came face to face with the most glaring yellow ceiling I’ve ever seen.
Before the wall color changed I promise you the ceiling didn’t look all that YELLOW!
In a moment of “oh-my-goodness-my-ceiling-is daffodil-yellow” panic I made the decision to go (way) over budget…I had to have that ceiling painted. Immediately! After I broke the news to Tony (The awesome painter at The King’s Carpentry), I fired myself as project manager before The Husband could fire me. He was so frustrated with my bad planning that he didn’t speak to me for days. (Actually it was about 45 seconds but it felt like days 🙂 )
But when it was all done, we were both sooooo happy with the tranquil result.
The walls in the den are Behr Chocolate Froth from The Home Depot! (You knew I’d use Behr paint! didn’t you?)
Another thing that Max and Buck did in the den… the built-in bookshelves. I’m at home only when I’m surrounded by my books. We brought four of our bookshelves from the Willow Creek house and The King’s Carpentry made two built-ins…one for each end of our bookshelves, giving us a whole wall for my beloved books!
And just for the record, it’s not just me who loves the books, when I finished putting them on the shelves The Husband said: “It feels like home now that the books are in the room.” He loves them too.
Max and Buck are first and foremost carpenters, they have done four built-in shelves for us, two at Willow Creek and two here. Those bookshelves are some of my favorite treasures.
My thanks to The King’s Carpentry for all their excellent work…I’ll be showing you the other projects they did on Stone House Lane soon!
(And I’m so excited! Max and the guys are coming back Monday, to build in a pantry! You’re gonna LOVE the fun pantry door they’re building! I can’t wait to show you!)
Moving is a long process of total upheaval, but when I’m here in this room serenity envelopes me.
~ Sending you Love and praying for serenity to envelope you today my friends~
***PS~ You’d think that Mr. Max was 70 years old since I call him Mr. Max! I feel the need to clear this up considering that I’m pretty certain I’m older than he is…my son, Timothy worked for Mr. Max for awhile and always referred to him as Mr. Max. Around here it stuck…he will always be Mr. Max, I don’t care if I am his elder!***
Beautiful!! I love the changes!
Love, love, LOVE all your bookcases and I am trying very hard not to covet them! My house has bookcases, but one here, one there, etc. How wonderful to have them in one space. Your room is lovely and I’m sure you will make wonderful memories there. I can’t wait to see your grands spaces after your last house!
Sue, you sound like me…books in every room are a necessity! I’m working on the Grands room right this second 🙂 sending love~
It looks stunning, Robin! I’m curious, was your other home two story as well? Our house is two story, which is fine now, but a couple of decades down the road I wonder how we’ll feel about it!
Elizabeth, yes! Willow Creek is two story w/ the master bedroom upstairs. This house has the master on the main level so we NEVER go upstairs or downstairs! I kinda like living on one level 🙂 xo
Ohhhhh, I see why it was love at first sight with this one. That fireplace would do it for me.
Looks like you’ve lived there forever!!! Wonderful job, my friend.
Totally in love! Love the arches, love the fireplace, love the bookshelves, love the windows, love the paint colors, and love the view! So happy for you!
Beautiful home. I love watching what you are doing with your new home. God has really blessed you with an eye for decorating. Keep posting.
Wow!! What a fabulous room! It will be perfect for your large family gatherings. Large rooms can be tricky to furnish and accessorize but you have done a great job. The bookshelves, large fireplace and three arches really balance it out well. Wonderful memories are just waiting to be made here. 🙂 Love the gorgeous view of all the trees out the windows too. 😉
Your house is beautiful, I dream one day of having a house as beautiful as that. Thanks for sharing!
Such an awesome room! (The arches are perfect, by the way; & so are the paint colors.) I sooooooo wish I had one room with shelves enough for all the books scattered throughout the house.
Just wow, incredible…I want some bookshelves one day too! Blessings and perseverance!
Incredible friend- I’ve been here twice and brought hubby with me the second time. We both just nod in adoration at what you have created! Sending love to you!
We are buying a home with a similar stone wall fireplace. Need your input on how you wired the tv and such….Can the husband expound on this! Much appreciated….
Sandy…We hired that out! We have a good electrician that we work with – he did the wiring for the plug and our contractor put up the mount for the TV. The stone in our fireplace isn’t the facade stone that’s thin, ours is old, when they used real, big, thick stones and the mounting and wiring were too hard for us 🙂
Good luck friend xo
(just a note, it really was worth the extra money to have it done)