Welcome to White Wood... our 1877 converted white clapboard church house in farm country, our very own farmhouse... well I call it a farmhouse, we are surrounded by farms....so it is easy to embrace the farmhouse style...we are just about 45 min outside of Toronto....
I am Chris a long time blogger, formerly called Just Beachy and now White Wood with Chris Kauffman...I now also build custom furniture for my small business called White wood studio I also host workshops here at White Wood Studio in Durham region...
I hope you enjoy my fall house tour...it's been a very long time since I haven't participated in a blogger house tour so I am really thrilled to share our new home that we have been working on for the last 10 months..special thanks to Christina from The DIY Mommy and Shannon from AKA Design for hosting this blooger tour, thanks for allowing me to be a part of it...
That's right my house is a church...well it was a church up until recently...and now it is our home....
Country living is very new to us...and it has been a journey full of learning to say the least....
I always wanted a country home and when we were looking to downsize last year I happened upon this place while browsing the Realtor.ca site...the church was already converted from a church to a home so the bulk of the work had been done or so we thought....let's just say there was a lot more work to be done then expected other than design work to bring it up to proper living conditions...we are the first family to live in this home..for approx 48 years it was used much like a gathering spot for this rural community we now live in, it was used for two summer services a year a craft sale to cover costs and everyone gathered in the church basement to eat and sing carols on Christmas day...how charming is that?
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So here we are...come on in...welcome to White Wood.
{next spring we will plant those front beds, I really wanted to have them planted but that had to be delayed due to new windows...I need to learn photo shop...I would fake all the hydrangeas and box woods I am planning...lol}
It is our first fall here at White Wood and I was very excited to dress the front steps with fall decor...I found the lovely heirloom pumpkins at Home depot along with all the little pumpkins....you can't have too many pumpkins
I love this peachy orange pumpkin and the grey green one... well that is sheer perfection....the mums I chose are two shades of plum and are finally blooming.
We needed to replace our front door recently, when we moved here the house had double doors that swung out but they did not function at all so they had to go to keep weather and critters out, believe it or not before we changed the front double doors to this new door several times people walked right into our house....right in...since we had a residential door installed this has not been an issue...we purchased our door through Home Depot and went with a Dorplex steel door sprayed black with seedy glass 3/4 window.
Our home is a heritage building and has many by-laws protecting much of the building, for instance this wall... it was a free standing wall at the back of the sanctuary and it was a coat rack...it is so full of character little drawings and words scratched into the wood....one pew came with the house, it was a wood finish but not up to my standards as I am perfectionist when it comes to staining so I painted it with rustoleum's linen chalk paint, I love how it breaks up the wood and it is so useful right in the entry.
I made the sign above the wood wall using a stencil I made with my silhouette machine...
We expanded the entry way tile here all the way to the wall to create a larger proper entry a mudroom style entry...with hooks and lots of shoe storage. I found these old corbels at a salvage spot and made a top out of re-claimed flooring from the church/house...to create a console table.
We painted our wainscoting simply white to freshen up the over all feel of our home, Metrie provided me with baseboards and chair rail trim to complete our wainscoting makeover.
I added these hooks to provide occasional storage and to add a little bit of contrast... the hooks are available through me , the bucket I found at Michael's craft store and the flowers are from my neighbours farm and the step stool is from Ikea.
I added a very simple straw wreath to the door using a suction cup hook...and fluffy feather pillow in white and soft brown added a bit of a cozy feel.
Setting up an old church as a home has it challenges... it was a big debate as to where to place the living room furniture...I think it worked out in the end, the TV is tucked off to the side to the left of the left door it is not the focal point of the room...we used the Ikea ektorp sofa in beige and it provides enough seating for day to day....the side tables I built to fit the tight space.
I am a huge fan of black painted doors, this is the third house we've had with black doors and I'm still not tiring of it..they add that touch of black every room needs.....that's our cutie boston Moe...
The print above the sofa is something I had printed at a printing company and cut into three and mounted in Ikea frames. The lamps are Lowes and most of the pillows are Ikea with feather inserts also from Ikea.
Side tables are built by me, my furniture company is White Wood Studio and the coffee table is older Urban Barn, the rug is Home depot.
I don't know if it is obvious but I'm not big into clutter or little decor...I keep things to a minimum....but still love rustic casual decor, nothing too precious for me...
The kitchen is a work in progress...it is not totally my style yet...I am working on the island, I added horizontal v-groove and painted it Huronia by para and I re-finished the top this custom 5-6 stain blend...I will be painting the cabinets a softer white in the future...but for now I can not complain about my kitchen even though it is not exactly my design...it's a process, the stools are from Home Hardware online.
I plan to replace more cabinets with custom open shelving and brackets that I make...and we will be relocating and re-arranging the uppers that are here already and switching out the hood for something custom and rustic.
We love the antique original pine floors...they have so much character...
Looks like I am not the only one loving an oversized rustic black clock...can you blame me...I just love it and what it adds to the space, our home is basically one great room upstairs as well as our bedroom and loft between the front door and back of the house...with 15-16 foot ceilings...so there is a lot of volume in this space but I do not want to clutter it up with too much...we recently switched out the 140 year old stained glass windows for new wood custom thermal windows all approved by the heritage committee, so they should be good for the next 140 years or more?? we went for a simplified version of what was here and opted for the black to really accentuate the beautiful shape of the windows, this one change has made the biggest visual change in our new home, and they open....not one opened before..all the stained glass windows found new homes.
I built a long havest table to fit our space and finished it in a white distressed finish base and my custom 5 blend hand applied stain finish with rustic antiqued top, the chairs are from Restoration Hardware.
I wanted to keep things really simple and natural and not too fussy for my fall decor...I couldn't resist adding a few cotton stems to the big glass jug on the table for fall...a few pumpkins and woven place mats... some linen napkins and that's about it...
I treated myself to some new cutlery that I had been eyeing at Walmart, the bronze cutlery just adds that extra bit of rustic farmhouse charm, only $15 a place setting.
I honestly don't know how we every lived without proper coffee stations...this is now a total necessity...and where everyday starts...and its only steps away from our bedroom...which is good for mornings but rough at night because we have teenagers that sometimes make late night snacks...unexpected church house issues I suppose.
I used this glass door cabinet I found at Homesense and added some extra lock hardware just to take it up a notch...and it houses lots of my extra pretty dishes and kitchen ware...I built the chalkboard and use it leaning because of course that's where the light switches are located...that's always the way...the two tiered wire basket holds much of our Rae Dunn mugs and k-cups in the top, the wreath was from Walmart and the lamp was from Walmart and the shade was from Target...
A big pile of white pumpkins is all this island needs to say "hello fall..."
At this point we haven't painted the wood in the bedroom, I am feeling like it shouldn't be white...much of the wainscoting is very damaged so we have permission to paint it but white everywhere seems a bit too safe, we are thinking grey but it isn't on my current to do list right now...
I love love love linen bedding...and natural elements and tones...I have kept everything very neutral and calm in our bedroom...more white and wood...
Here is another view showing the loft stairs that I built, my husband works from home and this is where his office is...and the stairs double nicely as pillow storage nightly.
The theme of neutrals carries through into the master/main bath...it also acts as our powder room...I have added some character to this room by switching out a large over powering mirror with this more decorative stylish mirror and by adding this reclaimed hook rack that I made from re-claimed wood from the house...I am thinking ship lap might be a nice addition to this room in the future.
Our back deck faces farmland and the view is stunning...I added this white gate to our deck so our dog can just hang out without us worrying about him running off.
I can't believe how wonderful this September weather is...hot hot hot...I'll take it
This is my workshop where I build custom furniture and host workshops...I decided to have a little fun with color since the back of the workshop faces towards the back of our property and can not be seen from the road. I built simple shutters and added a farmhouse trim around the windows to add a barn style appeal and of course a farmhouse style light from Home Hardware online.
So now that we have completed the tour of White Wood...here is what it looked like when we moved in....
But don't forget to hop on over and visit all the other wonderful tours featured in this years Canadian Bloggers Home Tour for Fall 2017 all the links are at the bottom of the post...
Here are a few pics of the before just for fun..
Monday
AKA Design
Amidst the Chaos
Lemon Thistle
Love Create Celebrate
So Much Better With Age
Tuesday
The Learner Observer
Woman in Real Life
Life is a Party
Clean and Scentsible
Wednesday
Satori Design for Living
The Happy Housie
Rambling Renovators
Craftberry Bush
The Sweetest Digs
Thursday
The DIY Mommy
Home To Heather
White Wood
A Pretty Life
Vin'yet Etc
Friday
Kim Power Style
PMQ for two
The Creek Line House
Sustain My Craft Habit
northern style exposure
I can't wait to see all the other tours...
I hope you enjoyed my tour, thanks so much for stopping by...you can also find me on instagram @chris_kauffman
and my White Wood Business HERE
