The Heaton Home

Sometimes, as Matthew will surely tell you, I tend to focus on what's wrong with our house and what we need to fix--the sagging gutter, the refrigerator with no water line, the weed-filled backyard. I can be a negative Nancy (nervous Nelly's cousin). But the truth is I really like our house. I know it isn't new, it isn't huge, it isn't ever going to be in design magazines. But it is our house--our first house.

We love having people over, even though things are never perfect (once, my neighbor stopped by when my ironing board was up in the living room. And then another time, I set the smoke alarm off just as guests were arriving for a party. Oh well.) We love the sunlight that comes in the many windows in the living and dining rooms. We really love that Matthew's commute is all of four minutes. And we love that even though it isn't filled with all new furnishings or fine antiques or expensive art, our home is filled with things that mean something to us, whether it's the handcrafted furniture from Matthew's dad or the curtains that my mom and aunt made.

So here are some photos from around the house. Things still aren't perfect, but they are coming together.

So nothing has really changed to the exterior (see the sagging gutter?) but I'm posting this with the hope that someone out there knows a thing or two about landscaping. What can we do to add color to the front through inexpensive plantings? The bushes there now are some kind of holly, which I like having in winter, but right now I'm jealous of the neighbors' azaleas. Should I plant something in front of the holly? Tear the holly out? Advice?

I didn't take an overall shot in our bedroom because, well, it wasn't looking so good, but here's a detail of the curtains mom and Elena made when they came for a visit in February. (Thanks you two!) I had four 84-inch brown panels that I bought for our bedroom at our townhouse last year. Of course, I need 96- to 108-inch curtains for this house, so we picked a coordinating print and added a band at the bottom. By we, I mean mom and Elena. I own a sewing machine but can't thread the bobbin.

Here's the table that Matthew's dad made for us for Christmas. (I'm wishing I'd tucked that cord away. There's some more negativity for ya.) His inspiration came from the cover of the 2006 Southern Accents Our Most Beautiful Bedrooms issue. To see that photo, click here. Scroll down to the fourth picture.

This, dear readers, is what the walls of the guest bedroom originally looked like. The darker shade of pink to the left is actually the color of the built-in shelves. We painted the room white back when we moved in, but the room is only now beginning to come together. For a while, it was where all the remaining boxes were stored.

Here's an overall of the guest bedroom. We used Matthew's old black bed and dresser from his med school days. That's a trunk my uncle Lynn made at the foot of the bed. The matelasse coverlet and shams were what I used in Birmingham. The skirted table on the left is one of those cheap round tables from Target. On the right, is an old nightstand that we covered with a round piece of glass. Mom and Elena made the tablecloths and toppers for the skirted tables. The curtains are from JCPenney and we added the black grosgrain. Still on my wish list: A rug, new ceiling fan, matching lamps for the bedside tables, new blinds, art for the walls.

Until the other day, the built-in shelves in the room were just painted with Kilz primer. I finally painted them white and then painted the backs of the shelves Apple. I know the paint job isn't perfect...sorry! When I took the tape down, I saw how bad the edges were, but I was too exhausted and frustrated to do anything about it.

Here's another shot of the shelves. I know that design bloggers and glossy shelter magazines would never store their board games out in the open and they never have paperback books on their shelves. Unfortunately, we actually need our shelves for storage. We have lots of junk that needs a place to live! So the top shelf holds not-so-pretty books that we can't part with. The rest is filled with a random assortment. It will evolve as I save up for and purchase accessories. Oh yeah, and that's Matthew's Easter basket on the left. I made it for him out of a milk jug the first year we were married. He didn't have a basket!

Here's a close-up of the accent pillows on the guest bed. Originally they were black-and-white toile. Mom made these pillow covers out of the same fabric as the table toppers. I really love that fabric.

In the dining room, I hung a trio of plates from HomeGoods on either side of the double window. In this shot you can also see the cabinet that we recently repainted. (We use it as a pantry.) There were so many layers of paint on it that the doors didn't close properly. Matthew took the doors off and sanded them down. He also cleaned the old paint off the hinges and spray-painted them. I painted the cabinets--the interior, exterior, and the doors--and it took forever.

The cute fork and spoon are from Elena. We found them while shopping at Pier 1. I may or may not leave them over the pie safe (that Matthew made for me about six or seven years ago). I'm still figuring it out.

When Mom and Elena came out to visit/work in my sweat shop back in February, they were a huge help. Not only did they make those tablecloths and toppers for the guestroom and the curtains for the bedroom, they also made curtains for the kitchen. I just wanted plain, flat toppers. I was going to add some twill tape a couple of inches from the bottom, but I can't find the right shade of red. (If you look closely, you can still see the eggplant-painted trim around the counter tops left from the previous owner. Yet another thing we need to take care of! And please don't tell me that you don't think it looks that bad. It does.)

Until recently, we had lots of things but not very many places in which to store them. The last time we went home, however, my grandmother very generously let us pick a few things from her home to bring back with us. We picked this china cabinet, a chest of drawers, a cedar chest, and a small glass-front bookcase. The china cabinet has been a huge help in the kitchen, where I now have room to store much of my everyday china. The plates are too big to fit in the cabinets! Above the cabinet, we hung the hand-crocheted doily that Ann Nathews Griffin gave us as a wedding gift.

Well, that's a little peek at our house. It will surely keep evolving, and I'll try to take photos as we go.