Decorating English Country Style... Welcome to the 36th Metamorphosis Monday!

(If pictures appear cut off on the right side, please try adjusting the screen resolution of your computer to a higher setting.)



To start this Met Monday off, I just want to say thank-you to everyone who left a comment yesterday. And, thanks so much for all the fabulous suggestions on how to fix my poor champagne bucket. I can't wait to try some of your suggestions...keep your fingers crossed!

When I was looking for furniture for my family room many, many years ago, I just bought what I liked and what I thought would work for the room. Then, years later after my decorating book obsession took hold, I begin to realize that my family room, according to those books, had a bit of an "English Country" feel to it. It's true, I do love the English Country look...drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Over the years, this room has gradually taken on a bit of a hunt theme, as well...mostly due to accents pieces like...


this...


and this.


I've tried to not go overboard, but this room has sort of decorated itself. It kept "making" me put English Country and hunt themed stuff in here. :-) And it was definitely "going to the dogs" as you can see by the painting above the sofa...


and this lamp....


and the Staffordshire doggies on the mantel...


and this...


and the little lamp I had made for a small table by one of the chairs. Click HERE and HERE to read more about making your own lamp.


So, what in the world does this all have to do with Met Monday? :-) Well, I thought I'd show you a little "Before and After" that involves a half bath located off a short hallway close to the family room. The hallway is also paneled with judges paneling and the paneled hallway, as well as the location of this half bath, greatly influenced how I decorated this room. I couldn't see walking from the warm, cozy, paneled family room and out of the paneled hallway into an ultra modern bathroom.

If you've been reading BNOTP for a while, you've taken a few trips in my time machine before. We videotaped rooms as we walked through this house, prior to actually buying it, so I have some more old "footage" to share that will give you an idea of the "Before."

As you can see in the pic below, the walls in the half bath were covered in sort of a salmon pink wall paper that had little, white polka-dots all over it. There was an oval, gold toned, plastic mirror above the sink. Gold tone I can live with...plastic, not so much.


The sink had a dark green "cultured" marble top...popular for the time frame during which the home was built. Unfortunately, I haven't replaced that, yet. :-( Not sure what I'm going to use...probably something that looks like (or is) furniture.


The window had this dark green fabric thingy in it...don't know how else to describe it.


I didn't want to just paint the walls in this half bath, so I ultimately decided to re-wallpaper it. I've recently read that wallpaper is making a bit of a comeback. I redid this bath several years ago...long before I read that. I have a tendency to do my own thing and don't really follow the trends...as you've probably already noticed. (LOL) No one ever accused me of being on the cutting age in decorating. :-)

I'm usually reluctant to use wallpaper in most rooms because it's just so much trouble to remove when you are ready for a change. Yet, having said that...some of my favorite rooms are wallpapered. Check out some of these awesome rooms below...all covered in GORGEOUS Thibaut wallpaper. Thibaut has some really beautiful wallpapers and fabrics. Hint...the wallpaper I used in my half bath is a Thibaut paper and is one of the following...can you guess which one?

All wallpaper images below are from Thibaut.






























Well, did you see a paper in that grouping that just might work in my half bath? One that has a bit of hunt theme/English Country feel? Remember, the entrance to the half bath is surrounded by judges paneling and is in a hallway right off the family room. :-) How about this one? It's from Thibaut's Far Hills Collection and the pattern is Brandy Wine.


So here's how it came out. It's a bit hard to take pics in such a small space, plus, it's a dreary, raining, un-sunshiny day outside...so it may appear a bit blah.




I love wreaths and this one just seemed to fit the wallpaper with it's natural, woodsy feel.


Remember the old light fixture? It was a bit too frilly for this wall paper...and it was stark white...not good.


So, I replaced it with this fixture I installed all by myself. :-) Yea, for girl power! :-) I plugged a radio into the electrical outlet and went downstairs to the basement where all the switches are located. I flipped each one until I heard the radio go off. Then I came back up and tried the light switch and guess what...the light still came on! GASP! So, don't ever think that just because you turned off the electricity to the outlet in a room, that you've also killed the power to the light fixture in the same room. It doesn't always work that way...sometimes they are on different circuits.

So, I had to do it the hard way...flip a switch, run upstairs, check to see if the light was off, nope, back downstairs, flip the next one, run back upstairs, check to see if the light is still on...yes, back downstairs....you get the picture. I got my exercise that day...but it beats being electrocuted! Once I got the power shut off to the light, I just removed the old one and wired in the new one, following the way the old one was done...matching the colors of the wires...very easy. Light fixture came from The Home Depot and was on sale for around $40, as I recall.


When I have a party or friends over, I turn off the overhead light and just use the lamp along with candles. Yes, I have a lamp in the bathroom...by now, you know I'm lamp crazy. :-) (Found the mirror at Old Time Pottery for only $35.)


Close-up of paper...I was told by the wallpaper store staff...that this paper is very popular for dining rooms. I could definitely see it in a man's study or a library. The green in it works well with my counter/sink top that I'm stuck with for the time being.


I love it when a bathroom is large enough to hold a piece of furniture....makes it feel a little less like a bathroom and more like a real room.


The pheasant plate is vintage and just says "Germany" on the back.


I believe this piece was an old music/record cabinet in it's day.


Sheet music may have been stored on these shelves. I use them to hold monogrammed hand towels and paper hand towels. I often put both cloth and paper ones out when guests are here...that way they may use which ever they prefer. The red monogrammed towel is for Christmas time. :-)


And I think this is where the records would have been stored...great place to store more hand towels. Does anyone know if this was indeed an old music cabinet?


Hope you enjoyed this mini-redo of my half bath. :-)

Let's go see what everyone else has been working on...lots of wonderful "Before and Afters" await! :-)

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