A Week In "The Cottage Life" ~ Part One

Since I was about 7 years old, it was always my dream to live on Cape Cod and have a business where I could create a little shop offering "sentimental enchantments", (being lovely treasures from yesteryear), unique smalls/ accents (usually something made from something else), and have a place to display and sell what has now become, "Pieces of Dreams" hand painted, chic-tique furniture. All these years later, I'm here, on the Cape, and doing just that.

Although I am very thankful, it's not as easy or glamorous as it looks. Of course, anyone who does something similar knows the lugging, sanding, priming, painting and time involved. I, for one, am usually a complete mess (nice fingernails...what are they?), while all the vacationers are on the beach or getting dressed up to go out to eat and shop. I find the book work to be very tedious and spend long hours during the day being "on", to keep the dynamics of my shop visitors positive and pleasant. I have to constantly worry about getting the right inventory and keep the shop full and looking nice. Since, I don't order my offerings out of a catalogue, I have to hunt it or create it...And here, within these words, we've come full circle...hunting, creating, displaying, decorating, etc....(happy sigh!) I'm doing what I've dreamed of doing!

So, here's part one of "The Cottage Life" ~

Here, we find the back bedroom formerly closed last year to the public. We needed it for storage and eventually, the overflow of moving out of the Chatham location. It's really important to have this open for keeping the shopping flow interesting, so as to capture the attention of my visitors. Along with finishing up with some trim painting, I had to get going with my backlog of "wanna-be's". Pictured are some recent inventory projects that are in the brown, ready-to-be-sanded form, as well as some pieces that have been sanded and primed.

These two pieces have already been painted (the yellow one has been striped and taped off for more detail). I had this blue piece in the Chatham house and didn't feel it was necessary to repaint the whole thing all over again, so I gave it a quick sprucing up of dry brushing on the legs, and here it waits for some stripes and artwork.

So, for the past week while no people are in the shop, I've been busy painting the room and base coating some of the primed pieces.

I've picked up some nice bedding at a tag sale and am trying to re-create the pink and green theme in the bedroom I had before. The dresser was done previously, but the matching nightstand, with the drawers and body done opposite of what is on the dresser, was sold. I found this cute little piece and thought it would do the trick as a replacement.

It's painted and shabbied off in this place and that. You can really see how charming the piece is, now that it is no longer brown and scratched...Shabbied, Yes! Scratched, No!

And, here is a table I had that used to be a shade of yellow. When I shabbied this one off, some of the yellow paint and white from the primer show along the "shabby line". I love pink and yellow!

Although it's not quite a bedroom yet, the room is open and sales have improved! Perhaps this week, I can get the bed I painted in here. In the meanwhile, I have placed furniture and wicker around so that it is presentable enough to be open. Now comes the fun of filling it and keeping it that way!

Before I could get all the pictures taken, I sold the Victorian what-not that I had in this corner, so I had to do something make-shift with the chair.

It's the beginning of a whole new week. Let's see what can be accomplished for "part two"!

Wishes of peace and happiness to all,

Pieces of Dreams