Yesterday my friend and I gathered up our six littles and tried a new-to-us farm, Tougas Family Farm in Northboro. We were hoping for some excellent strawberry picking. It was a relatively easy, 40 minute drive with ample parking and amenities. Farm store, playground, animals and a lovely farm over some rolling hills. Scroll below for my Strawberry Shortcake Recipe.
We picked quite a few strawberries and then I purchased more in the farm store. I was hoping for a bunch to wash and freeze in our favorite, non-plastic bags. After watching The Plastic Detox on Netflix, I’m trying to hone in on where we get exposure to microplastics. And all those frozen fruit bags I buy for my kiddos smoothies is a big one for us. I figured if I spent more on local agriculture and froze berries myself I could cut down on exposure. Plus it is a fun summer activity with kiddos. So we came home with A LOT!
FAVORITE STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE
For the Shortcake
2 1/2 C All-Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 C Granulated Sugar
6 Tbsp Cold Unsalted Butter, cut into small pieces
1 Large Egg
1/2 C + 2 Tbsp Oat Milk (Whole Milk and Half and Half work well too), add more if needed to pull the dough together
1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
For the Strawberries
2 Pints Fresh Ripe Strawberries
Zest of a Lemon, Squeeze of Juice to taste
1/2 C Powdered Sugar
DIRECTIONS
Start by washing and cutting up your strawberries. Place them in a bowl and top with powdered sugar, lemon zest, a few squeezes of fresh lemon juice and stir to combine. You’re going to let them sit and get juicier and delicious while you make the shortcake.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients: all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar and stir to mix. Add in the pieces of butter and using a pastry cutter, mix into the dry ingredients until you’ve got pea-sized pieces of butter. In a liquid measuring cup, measure out your milk (we use oat milk but any will do). Add your egg to the milk and whisk until combine. Add your vanilla extract and dump liquid mixture over the dry ingredients. Mix until combine, if it’s too dry add a bit more milk, and turn out onto lightly floured counter.
I turn my dough 4 times which creates a nice fluffy, layered shortcake when it bakes. This is simply patting out the dough until it is roughly 2-3 inches thick and folding it in half. Pat it out again to the same thickness and fold it in half again. Repeat two more times. Pat it out into a rectangle, roughly 2 inches thick and using a biscuit cutter or cookie cutter, cut out shortcake.
Place on lined baking sheet, I use my Silpat liner but parchment paper works too. Brush with a little milk and sprinkle generously with granulated sugar. Bake for 15-18 minutes until lightly golden brown.
We either make homemade whipping cream (simply heavy cream, a few tablespoons of powdered sugar and vanilla extract whipped until fluffy) or Trader Joe’s Vanilla Ice Cream. Or both if you’re really in the mood!
Assemble your shortcake by simply breaking the shortcake in half, topping with strawberries, a scoop of ice cream and/or a dollop of whipping cream.
This Strawberry Shortcake is delicious and the perfect summertime treat! And a lovely reward after picking so many strawberries! Enjoy!
Aubrey and I were wanting a creative outlet this weekend and needed to update the bookshelves in the playroom. So we did both at the same time! Easter is around the corner and hopefully a profusion of spring daffodils only weeks away. To celebrate the changing season, we made egg carton daffodils to hang on a garland out of supplies we had on hand–paper, hot glue, acrylic paint and egg cartons.
MAKING THE DAFFODILS
I initially cut out the egg-shaped cups from an egg carton then further cut them down to mimic the cute bells on the inside of a Daffodil. Aubrey and I painted these cups yellow and then edged them in orange using a dry paint brush so you see the streaks of orange better. Out of white card stock, we cut out six petals per Daffodil pointing the petals rather than rounding the edge. We used a drop of hot glue to attach the petals to each yellow cup. Voila, a daffodil!
INSTALLING THE GARLAND
I was planning on hot gluing the Egg Carton Daffodils to a plain piece of twine but found this adorable green leaf strand in my ribbon box. I found it on Amazon and will link it here. We spaced them and glued them on and couldn’t be happier with the results! A cute spring garland for the bookshelves.
One recent addition to the shelves is this adorable bunny wreath. And if I were picking some favorite spring / Easter books, we really love: Fletcher and the Springtime Blossom, Nature Explained and Busy Spring. Probably all of them actually! Imagine how cute arranging these egg carton paper daffodils on a wreath would be? Well, happy spring friends. I hope you’re enjoying warmer temperatures and are hopefully staying clear of these rampant late winter germs. We’re fighting off the stomach bug currently, so crafts and these egg carton daffodils are WAY more fun to think about.
I am not a chocolate person. I still love Snickers bars at Halloween but I get a knife out of the drawer and cut the chocolate away. So why in the world did I feel like I needed to master the homemade brownie? I grew up with a chocolate-loving mom who made the boxed mixes all the time. So there is a bit of nostalgia there and I can handle the edge piece of a not-too-chocolatey brownie if it has walnuts in it. My mom even gifted us a brownie pan that only makes edge pieces. My attempt at mastering a homemade brownie was an experiment for a patient back in my working days. The brownies you know and love are usually of the boxed variety, filled with preservatives and questionable ingredients and up until this recipe, I had never found one that came out remotely close. Chewy not cakey, the right crinkling on top–something to sink your teeth into. This recipe has been a winner over the years and this year made some sweet Valentine’s Day Heart Brownies.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
I printed this now well-loved recipe off in 2014. I was working full time as a Registered Dietitian at a RSU unit. I was sitting with a patient and family and listening to this sweet patient reminisce about brownies. How badly she wanted one but the family was reticent to bring her some given her health challenges. She didn’t want your “food service at an RSU” brownie. She wanted the ones that use to come out of her oven when she had small kids underfoot. That is the power of food–that it can linger so long in our memories. So I scoured the internet, researched the food science of a brownie (spoiler alert: it comes down to a combo of fats) and when I got back to my desk, printed this copy off. I did a lot of recipe hunting in those days. The homemade version with better ingredients and no preservatives was a more appealing option to the family and one the medical team was willing to allow for quality of life.
A FEW NOTES ABOUT THIS RECIPE
I have a Master’s degree in nutrition from Boston University. I’m never going to be able to leave a recipe alone. So I’m sharing the little tweaks and how I make these, not the original print out version from 2014. No one is ever going to consider brownies a “health food” but we can make little changes to each recipe to considerably up the nutritional quality–better flours, better oils, better sugar and/or a combo of different kinds. Science is always showing us more about how foods effect the human body. I don’t ever use Canola oil instead, bake with a high quality Walnut Oil (don’t use this if you have nut allergies), Pumpkin Seed oil, or Avocado oil. I still don’t like chocolate so I cut down the cocoa powder by 1/4 C and add cinnamon for a more “Mexican Hot Chocolate” taste. But if you want that traditional brownie, increase the cocoa powder to the original 1/2 C and nix the cinnamon.
INGREDIENTS
1/4 C Cocoa Powder (Not Dutch Processed) *original recipe calls for 1/2 C for all you chocolate lovers out there
1 1/2 tsp Espresso Powder
2 oz Unsweetened Dark Chocolate, roughly chopped
1/2 C + 2 Tbsp (150 ml) Boiling Water
4 Tbsp Butter (I use Kerry Gold or Vital Farms and always salted) *I melt mine in the microwave until it is 70% melted
1/2 C + 2 Tbsp (150 ml) Walnut Oil (beware of nut allergies, consider avocado or another neutral vegetable oil)
2 Large Eggs
2 Egg Yolk
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 1/2 C Granulated Sugar (I use 2 C granulated + 1/2 C Date Sugar, I haven’t played around with greater substitutions but it is worth a try given how much sugar this is)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 9×13″ baking dish with butter and set aside.
Combine cocoa powder, espresso powder, chopped dark chocolate in a large bowl. Add boiling water and stir until chocolate is melted.
Whisk in melty butter and oil. When it has cooled a bit (it’s so cold in our house right now that this didn’t take long, by the time the chocolate was melted it was basically lukewarm) add in your eggs, egg yolk and vanilla until smooth. Do not add the eggs right away if the liquid is still boiling hot, you can curdle the eggs. Stir in the sugars.
Add the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nuts (if using) and mix until combine.
Pour batter into greased baking dish and put in the oven.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Once the brownies were cooled down, I used 3 different heart shaped cookie cutters to cut out the heart shapes and added some sugar sprinkles. We had these adorable artificial dye-free sprinkles left over from Aubrey’s recent birthday party and they made an adorable, festive addition to these Valentine’s Day Heart Brownies. I hope you enjoy this special treat and enjoy my friend’s recipes on this Valentine’s Day dessert blog hop.
I started this blog post a few weeks after my baby turned 6. And I echo last years thoughts of feeling like, as she is my last baby, every milestone feels extra bittersweet. Watching her grow is such a gift and she brings us all so much joy. We’re a few weeks away from her 7th birthday now and that makes me want to just sit in the bathtub and cry. How time marches on. Last year she was adamant she wanted a Tinkerbell party. To be completely transparent, I groaned inwardly. Tinkerbell is lime green and yellow and just felt a bit…commercial. Goes to show you how wrong you can be! I softened the colors, used a lot of fresh flowers and with a sprinkle of pixie dust, it will go down as one of my favorite parties yet. Which is saying lot given how cute her Unicorn Birthday and Butterfly Party were! Links to products used are at the end of the post and all images were taken by sweet Ruthie from Ruth Eileen Photography.
Affiliate links used in this post do not cost you a dime but do potentially make me a small commission which helps this stay-at-home momma maintain this blog. Thank you for supporting creativity and community in this ad-free space. You are under no obligation to use the links but I so appreciate it when you do.
DESSERT TABLE HIGHLIGHTS
Dessert tables are my favorite part of party styling. I literally doodle out the design. We used the same backdrops from last year, except I painted the scalloped one green with sample paint from Benjamin Moore. The folding table from Walmart is covered in pistachio green cotton muslin fabric and a layer of tulle from Hobby Lobby. The giant flowers were a splurge on Temu. I wasn’t expecting good quality but they are amazing. The flower is paper. I bought the white and tangerine colors for inside and used the champagne color by the side door. Don’t they make you feel like you’re a fairy?! Worth every penny. The wooden fairy cutout comes from the same shop the butterfly did last year.
Lizzie’s Bakery made the sweetest cake. I wanted it to have a more vintage feel and loved the almost pistachio-colored frosting with ivory piping and buttercream flowers. Topped with beeswax candles and a wooden Tinkerbell cutout, it sits pretty on a scalloped basket and cake stand. Oh my the cookies, Bethany outdid herself creating these original works of art. Head to her IG to get more behind the scenes peeks at her creation process. And the lollipops were made by the sweet Etsy shop Leccare Lollipops.
KID’S PARTY TABLES
Finding the right paper plates, napkin and cup combo is sometimes a challenge because I tend to mix and match designs to suit my mood board. I used the Meri Meri x Laduree dinner plates and topped them with only a select 3 colors from their side plate option. I had to buy more sets of the side plates than I wanted in order to get enough of the colors I intended to use. Keep this in mind. The gold scallop paper cups are from Amazon and I glued on a paper tinkerbell to a straw. Little plastic Tinkerbell character’s look adorable under these wicker/glass cloches.
PARTY FOOD
We made all the food for this lunchtime party which was added work but ended up being pretty adorable. We made fruit wands, Gluten-free Banana Muffins, Flower PB&J sandwiches, Mushroom tomato and string cheeses.
CRAFTS & FUN
I covered our breakfast nook table in a pretty tablecloth and set up a craft station for making your own fairy wands and had these color pages customized with Aubrey’s name off Etsy. Because she is a winter birthday, it’s hard to send all the little fairies outside. We entertained them with this small bounce house in the playroom which was a covid purchase that we do not regret. Midway through the party we had Tinkerbell come to lead the kids in dances, twirls and songs. Aubrey loved this and she even helped Aubrey blow out her candles. A magical addition indeed.
Yes I am posting a holiday home tour in January. And you want to know why? I actually go back and look at my holiday posts as I contemplate new holiday decorating ideas the following year. It’s like online journaling. And since we actually have all of our holiday decorations up still (our wild tree is very alive), it still feels fitting. When it is so cold and snowy you don’t want to say goodbye to the twinkle. You all can humor me on this post.
CHRISTMAS IN THE FAMILY ROOM
Our first Christmas with the new wood ceiling! I couldn’t love it anymore. It has significantly upped the “cozy” factor in our room. This was a design decision that took me two years to finally commit too, multiple visits to the shop to get the staining right and boy am I glad I worked up the courage. Our wild tree, filled with vintage ornaments, is “momma’s tree.”
CHRISTMAS IN THE KITCHEN
And our first year with a faintly blue at trimmed ceiling. 2025 will go down as the “year of the ceiling” in my book. This year I opted for a countertop tree, decorated with straw stars and vintage ornaments in that Target Vase I can’t get enough of. I put a pretty sea green velvet ribbon through the backs of my counter stools and tucked in a delicate snowflake ornament. The garland over our stove with the velvet ribbons and grapevine is my favorite yet. I’m thinking next year will just be a repeat of this year.
A PLAYROOM FILLED WITH CHRISTMAS FUN
There’s something about a nostalgia tree to ring in the holiday season. Matt’s grandmother’s tree skirt, different colors of thin velvet ribbons and all the cute, homemade toilet paper roll ornaments you can find. I did tuck some beloved spun cotton ornaments from a small shop in Italy that I started collecting. I order a few each year. It could be the favorite tree just because of the little hands who play here.
I hope you had a wonderful holiday season! As we walk through the inevitable ups and downs of a New Year, may you find peace, be comforted by moments of great joy and know you have infinite worth in the eyes of a Heavenly Father, no matter what other voices may be speaking into your life. Don’t tolerate those voices! And even though it is January, I hope you enjoyed little glimpses of our holiday home.
It’s the season of gift giving and that can always be a challenging thing. Depending on who you are shopping for, it can be downright daunting. I know I tend to be a bit pickier than my husband is for example. Here are some finds catching my eye on this holiday gift edit. I love the colors, textures and feel of these gift ideas. Particularly that beautiful vase and crowd-pleasing ChappyWrap!
There are some things that are trickier to purchase than others, particularly clothing. This viral dress from Anthropologie tends to be a flattering crowd-pleaser and I love the unique stripe color. Pair it with that beautiful scarf and you’ve got a chic outfit. Easier to gift would be the ChappyWrap blanket. I’ve never owned ChappyWrap blankets before but I did purchase this exact blanket and it is everyone’s favorite right now. I hope you’ve enjoyed this holiday gift edit with finds catching my eye.
A cookie blog hop to start off the holiday season! And I’m excited to share this Sheet Pan Gingerbread House Cookie with you all. We’ve been in jetlag mode as we recover from a whirlwind trip to California for Thanksgiving and a kid-free trip for Matt and I to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico to celebrate his 40th birthday. We got in bed at 2 am on Saturday morning, woke up as early as we all could and immediately drove up to the White Mountains in NH to cut down our wild tree.
As much as I love the Christmas season, it can feel a bit overwhelming too. I know my kiddos love having gingerbread houses around and we will probably do some more in the coming weeks but to surprise them I made this delightful Sheet Pan Gingerbread House Cookie. Which takes a bit of the strain off of trying to get pieces glued together and standing upright. I used my molasses gingerbread cookie recipe which spread more than I would have liked but I also didn’t have time to chill the batter and baked them much too long. Yours truly was trying to photograph the Christmas house for a home tour. A classic example of too many balls in the air.
So I’ll link the recipe, which in my humble opinion just tastes better than the gingerbread you use for constructing houses, but I’ll give you some tips to do things differently.
MOLASSES GINGERBREAD RECIPE
1 C Sugar (I do 1/2 C Granulated Sugar + 1/2 C Brown Sugar)
1/2 C Salted Butter, room temperature (1 stick)
1/8 C Walnut oil (I bake with walnut oil but be mindful of food allergies with this one)
~1/8 C Briar Rabbit Blackstrap Molasses (I use the same 1/4 measuring cup as the oil so the molasses slides out easily and measure somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4C molasses)
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F. First combine dry ingredients: flours, spices, salt and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.
Next, blend butter and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Don’t skimp on this, beating it adequately does make a difference. Add your oil and egg, mix until combine then add in the molasses. I really like the Briar Rabbit Brand. It just tastes better to me so if you see that one, try it.
Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix just until combine. Combine into a ball.
Here the instructions will differ from the original blog post on the Molasses Ginger Cookies because you’re using the entire batch of dough to make a single gingerbread house on a sheet pan. You want to chill the dough for half an hour to start. Wrap the ball of cookie dough, flattening slightly, in parchment paper and put in the freezer. This will help with the spreading when you bake it. Once chilled, you’ll want to take a sheet pan size of parchment paper and roll the dough out on it to about 1/4″. Once you cut your house shape, put the sheet pan in the freezer and chill another 30 minutes. You want it completely chilled before going into your hot oven.
The design of the house is relatively straight forward, made with simple cuts using a paring knife. You don’t want to score the design with so much pressure that you cut into the parchment sheet. Just enough to cut away the dough making a house shape, basically a square with a triangle on top. I went ahead and cut window holes, added the panes out of small strips of dough and added scallops to the eaves. Look how cute it looked BEFORE it went into the oven:
These all baked away and I had to recut the shapes after I pulled it hot from the oven. I didn’t chill my dough and baked it much too long. You can see it was tiny bit burnt and crispy. Here’s the sad AFTER:
But don’t let that discourage you. Mine looked awful and I almost dumped it in the trash and called Janine to say this blog hop is NOT going to happen for me. But with a little icing, sprinkle of powdered sugar and hope and it got much cuter. You only want to bake your sheet pan gingerbread house for 12-15 minutes. It should be set but not done. You can see how mine is very overdone. Notice the difference in the picture below of how the trees in front are a lighter color than the actual house. Those I pulled out when they were still gooey and let them harden on the pan like I should have done for the whole house.
FOR THE ICING
I used 1 C of powdered sugar, some egg white (use meringue powder if you’re worried about raw egg) and some water to thin. I used a piping bag but a ziplock with the end snipped works fine. Just start adding that gingerbread house detail.
You really can’t go wrong just outlining the house in icing, I added the scallop border on the roof and flourish designs on the front. And when you’re all done, sprinkle powered sugar over for the finishing touch.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this easier idea for a gingerbread house. Pro tip, set an alarm so you don’t over bake it! Make sure to pop over and get some holiday cookie inspiration from my friends!
A few years ago I shared a favorite family recipe for Baked Oat Bars. This is essentially our fall version of that. Canned pumpkin and pumpkin spices make it feel like a warm fall hug. A healthy, Gluten-free recipe (make sure the oats are labeled GF), it even has some sneaky fruit in the form of pumpkin. This is one breakfast I’m happy to send my kids out the door with. Knowing kiddos (and adults) can be picky eaters, getting more nutrition “bang for your buck” is key. I find my kids eat baked goods well so I usually enhance them. If you add a scoop of pumpkin seed protein powder, the hemp seeds and the ground flax seed, just those 3 ingredients adds an additional 39g of protein to the dish. I usually make these Baked Pumpkin Oat Bars the night before for easy school mornings.
USING THOUGHTFUL INGREDIENTS
With a background in nutrition, (grad school at Boston University is what brought us out to New England from California) sourcing food for my home not only feels like my “mom job” at the moment but something I actually really enjoy. During COVID I went down a rabbit hole exploring heavy metals and toxins in our food products and cooking utensils. I went to all stainless steel and glass and only cook with American-made cast iron. So a lot of the ingredients I bring into the home I try to screen through websites like Lead Free Mama and I’ve found some I really love like the Jacobsen Salt from Oregon and the Rolled Oats I buy off Amazon.
INGREDIENTS
4 1/2 C Rolled Oats (I use a combo of rolled and quick cooking)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray your baking dish (I use olive oil spray). I use a 2 qt Pyrex baking dish (8 x 11″) because it fits in my small oven and my small oven heats up so much faster. You could also use a 9 x 13″ baking dish.
This really couldn’t be any easier because you don’t have to worry about over mixing and you only use one bowl. Start with your dry ingredients–the oats, baking powder, salt, spices, pumpkin seed protein powder, hemp seeds and flax seeds, and the date sugar and give it a quick stir to combine.
Next add the wet ingredients: canned pumpkin, the eggs, the oil (I always use walnut oil in baking for the nutritional profile but use avocado oil if you have a nut allergy in your home), the maple syrup and the milk. Pro tip: use the same measuring cup for the oil and to measure the maple syrup. It comes out so much easier.
Pour batter into your greased baking dish and slide into the oven. Baking times really vary per oven, I usually have mine in for ~30 minutes. I’m looking for it to not be jiggly and wet, fully set in the middle and nicely springy when you press lightly with your finger and starting to brown on the top. You don’t want to overcook it because that makes it dry.
Enjoy hot or bake it at night for easy school mornings. I leave mine covered on the counter until we finish it. And love these reusable silicone covers.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these easy and healthy Baked Pumpkin Oat Bars! I’m joining my friends on this pumpkin recipe blog hop so make sure to check out the other recipes as well.
It’s been awhile since we had a room reveal! I’m excited to finally share our attic bathroom addition. It is my favorite bathroom in the whole house. Ruthie from Ruth Eileen Photography captured it beautifully over the summer. I poured a lot of my design-loving heart into this space and worked with some wonderful artisans to pull it off. I’m thrilled to finally show you all the lovely details–from that scallop curtain to antique mirrors and the marble wall of my dreams.
A PEEK BACK
First, let’s take a peek back to see how far we’ve come and boy have we come far! This all started as a cobweb-ladden storage space directly off the large third floor guest bedroom. The goal was not just to add a bathroom to our third floor and create a lovely bathroom for our guests but to be a possible primary suite option down the road. You could easily turn our whole third floor into a primary suite. I would loooove to see the second bedroom on our third floor (currently Matt’s office on his work-from-home days / storage space) turned into a gorgeous walk-in closet / office space. Stay tuned, I’ve got some ideas.
You can see from the before pictures that the roofline was quite sloped. Our town building department required us to dormer the shower stall for head height. This added about 5k to the project cost but couldn’t have been more worth it in the end. The only option to avoid breaking into our historic slate roof was to put the shower right in front of the single window (which we replaced with a new window and relocated up off the ground) and have it be a rain shower head positioned at the highest peek of the ceiling. But I couldn’t get on board with that design because I wanted to make the vanity wall the focus of the room and it is hard to hang mirrors on an angled roof. I doodled it out, like I do for all projects but am not an artist.
PICKING TILE
I have wanted to do a stripe pattern with tile for a loooong time. I opted for a subtle, tone-on-tone stripe using Zellige tile for the imperfection of it and the texture it adds. The goal was for all the details in the room to come together without any one part being overpowering. That meant a lot of laying tile out on the floor to figure out the stripe pattern and being really intentional with grout color. Off set vertical, lined up horizontal, big stripes, little stripes…it can be overwhelming to say the least. In the end, the effect is beautiful, subtle and oh-so-lovely. Zellige tile is usually much thicker than your normal subway tile and you need to know that in advance because it effects how the tile installer preps your space. But I specifically used Riad’s Thin Bejmat Tile in 2×6 and hex shape for ease of installation. The light color stripe is the Snow White color way and the darker stripe is the Natural White color way. The floor is Riad’s 4″ hex Zellige in Snow White. We used Laticrete grout in color Light Pewter for the shower wall and shower floor and their color Frosty for the bathroom floor which was a white calacutta marble 6″ hex from Tiles Plus More in Natick. We did do radiant floor heat because we live in New England and winters are long and cold.
CUSTOM VANITIES
I reached out to Melinda at Bespoke of Winchester to make a custom double vanity for me. Given the winding staircase up to the third floor, I knew it would be a trick to get large vanities up there and was anticipating the need for some assembly on site. I also wanted them to look like furniture with carved legs and lovely drawer fronts.
VANITY DETAILS
Bespoke of Winchester took my doodling and created the most beautiful pair of vanities connected in the middle. We had the marble installed all the way across and up the back wall creating a lovely design moment. The space behind the vanity curtain could store a makeup stool but we keep a trashcan in there. I love the rich wood color and turned legs. The gorgeous scalloped brass drawer pulls are by Unearthen and available here. The scallop edge baskets underneath add a softness to the vanities that I really love. And the custom pleated curtain in Lee Jofa Althea linen in Stone was made by the talented Makkas Drapery. The same material is on the scallop panel above. The pull down roman is Hartmann & Forbes Plaid in Marceio.
THE CABINET AND PAINT COLORS
Bespoke of Winchester also made the custom built in cabinet next to the shower. I love the design and how functional it is. We store the guest room towels and sheets in the drawers. It is painted in Farrow & Ball Dropcloth in their modern eggshell finish to match the trim color used around the bathroom. While we’re talking about paint, the walls are Farrow & Ball Wimborne White.
The lovely stripe towels are by Garnet Hill and in the birch color. I love these towels and can’t recommend them enough. I’d love to use the bright stripe colors in a beach house down the road.
THAT MARBLE WALL & SCONCE SOURCES
Hand-drawn out on brown paper, the marble is from The Granite Exchange in West Bridgewater. I searched high and low for a marble with warm veining. The fabricator, LA Tiles did a great job creating and installing the design. I believe the marble is an Arabescato Vagli in a honed finish. The sconces are available here at McGee and Co and I chose the antique brass.
The plumbing fixtures are by Perrin & Rowe in polished nickel finish and I had my rep at Waterspot in Natick order them for me. There are a lot of pieces to order including the right valves that I didn’t want to order incorrectly. But I did find them online and linked them here. I chose the wall mounted faucets for the vanities. I used the Edwardian fixtures for the shower round trim and the shower head.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this room reveal. Designing this Attic Bathroom Addition was a creative joy for me. It took forever to get it finished post-covid and with three little kids but the results are lovely. I’m honored by the trades that came alongside me and helped this design come together. You can’t do any of this without the hard work and talent of others and you know you’ve hit a design home run when the building inspector asks, mouth agaped, to take a photo to “show his wife.” From Adam at Jade Star Builders who never questions me, to Bespoke of Winchester, Makkas Workroom and Landry & Arcari, I know I am not the fanciest designer out there and a one woman show but I appreciate the willingness to create something lovely for lovely’s sake.
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Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
