White Wood : home tour

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Thursday, September 28, 2017

Canadian Bloggers Fall 2017 Fall Tour of White Wood

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?

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...

I found these little mottled colored pumpkins this year, I think they are so pretty...I'm not normally a fan of orange but I thought these were pretty, the bread box I made and it is actually big enough for all our bread.

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...

I built the simple headboard to allow for the most floor space possible. Yes we always have this many pillows on our bed...that's 12 if you are trying to count them...just simple and earth tones for now....

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

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Canadian bloggers home tour

I am super excited to be part of the Canadian Bloggers home tour...this is my first official home tour so I hope I'm doing this right.
First of all welcome to my home and to my blog I'm Chris, I live 45 minutes from Toronto in a great city where I grew up with my husband and 2 daughters and our boston terriers and three large gold fish.
Our house sits on what was for a very long time a parking lot for the builders model homes. We had no intentions of moving when we bought this house but sometimes things just happen the way they are supposed to. This house was a one of a kind spec house that our builder was building since they had sold off all the model homes, I took a look at the framing stage and within 48 hours we were making an offer and that was that...we were moving.
As a blogger for 7 plus years I am known for my DIY skills and carpentry projects. Most of the details and added touched I have done myself, once in a while I need my hubby's muscles but usually it's just little old me...and I like it that way.

So please come join me for a tour of our home sweet home...we moved in 2 1/2 years ago and are still in the process of making it into the dream home...I've made some pretty good progress and I'd love to share it with you now...

Our home

I describe our house as a cape cod colonial....we live in the suburbs and it just where I want to be right now. This house ticked off all the boxes of my wish list...which is why we made the move to this house just down the street from our last house where we lived for 10 years .

The yard work and gardening are my jobs, well mostly all the domestic work and handy work is what I am responsible for. I try to keep everything running and looking pretty and my hubby keeps us all alive and with a roof over our heads, it works for us.

Our porch

We had a landscaper come in last fall and clad our porch with composite decking and had our walkway done in this beautiful herringbone pattern of old style bricks and stone steps.

Our hall

Here is what you see when you enter our home a nice generous center hall. I love the white walls with white millwork. There will be more millwork coming soon. Those lanterns were a couple of green houses I found at Homesense that I wired up into lights.
The flooring throughout is red pine that we laid and stained with a colour called Kona.

My doors are all painted black in the house with the exception of my kids bedrooms as per their request for me not to paint them. I framed and paneled the opening to accent it and just to make it pretty...wainscoting will be added throughout the hall on the main floor asap.

Here is how it looked when we moved in...yep subfloor is pretty. I said I would never paint my own staircase again...guess who did that, yep...me!

Our living room

Here is our living room where we spend time in the evenings watching a little TV or playing games.

This is the other side of the living room, I love all the windows...the drapes are from Ikea as are all my drapes...I even had a magazine editor compliment my drapes, it's my go to for drapes...the wall colour is Martha Stewart Gabardine.

Our dining room

I'm keeping it real here and showing you how our dining room really looks today....subfloor because our dogs were constantly peeing in this room, two males dogs is not a great idea.....my plans are to do something fabulous with the ceiling and to add...pine floors and a wall of built ins with a wine fridge where the buffet /dresser is now.... this is my next big project to get to before Halloween.

Our Kitchen

Well let's move onto the kitchen...I was bound and determined to have my dream kitchen even if I had to do most of the labour myself, it took four months but now I do have my dream kitchen....This was what it looked like a few weeks after we moved in, no floors, dark stained cabinets, laminate counters a um NO STOVE...we used a hot plate for months. I customized the layout with my builder which has been great but we worked with the standard cabinets well I upgraded to taller uppers and some extra drawers but mostly this was all standard.

*there was also a double cabinet to the right of the sink we loved to the laundry room.

Here is my kitchen today...it was a labour of love and a lot of hard work but we love it.
Of course we first laid the pine floors. We did have a little island from the builder that I added onto to create a microwave cabinet.

I painted the cabinets with Martha Stewart Bedford Gray. I built a wine storage and open shelving and turned the bulkhead into an oversized cornice detail with trim and crown moulding.
The counters are carrera marble honed, which I love.

We got a really good deal on a 6 burner Kitchenaid gas range, I am a huge fan of gas now.
I went with classic white subway tile and used grey grout for a more bold look.

The lights are Restoration hardware. I clad the island with bead board and added legs to make the island prep surface more ample. The island is painted a darker shade of grey than the Bedford Gray and the wood counter is from Ikea.

I went with a stainless steel sink, one bowl, I love it so much, it can be full of dishes and you would never know it and it fits every pot and pan.

I call this area my baking center, my goal was to make it look like a hutch.

Our family room.

Just before Christmas...about 3 weeks before Christmas I tackled this most recent renovation, I installed the coffered ceiling and wood flooring install. I work well under pressure. I have always wanted to have coffered ceilings and I am so glad I tackled this big project, it took a solid week working about 7 hours a day but we love it.

The ceiling fan is from Lowe's, everyone always asks me. The soft seating is all from Ikea as well as the linen drapes (its actually 2 sets of drapes).

I built bookcases backed with beadboard and a marble hearth and surround to the fireplace.

I added a chunky chair rail made from MDF and pine stock trim. I wanted to try something different for the wood flooring installation, I love unexpected details.

Our laundry/mud room

This is my first main floor laundry room and I love how handy it is to have it there, it is not a real entrance into our house but it is a very useful space. We feed the dogs in here, they stay in there at night sometimes and when we are out for long periods of time. We now have an ample closet for extra food and extra kitchen storage and a place for our vacuum and cleaning supplies I love a main floor laundry.

There were no cabinets in the laundry room so right away we moved one cabinet from the kitchen into the laundry room and I built extra open shelving.

I added subway tile and marble again, my two faves.

I installed a wall of paneling and lots of hooks for drying clothes etc. I'm keeping it real with this picture ...

I build a sink cabinet and made a wood counter out of pine lumber .

Our Powder Room

Please excuse my feet...its really hard to get pics in a powder room but I wanted to show at least one, we laid the pine again in an interesting pattern, I stripped a dresser I had and made it into a little vanity, installed a bowl sink and neat faucet...it was the first room completed. This is a disclaimer, these sinks are or can be a tad annoying, well my combo is with the cute faucet I bought, lets just say sometimes there is quite a mess of water to clean up. I'm not so sure I would do this again but the cabinet provide nice storage and counter space and I like that.

Our Master bedroom

Here is our master bedroom...its not big but it's more than enough and it has 4 windows and has beautiful morning light.
I just painted in preparation for this house tour Benjamin Moore's Edgecomb gray which is a lovely tan that's not too warm.

What's to say , we still need our pine floors in here and the opposite wall to the bed needs build ins floor to ceiling , but that will have to come later, maybe next year.

Our Master bath

I love my master bath. I never understood why people wanted two sinks, my hub's and I never get ready for anything at the same time so what's the big deal....well no I love having my own sink, I get it now...Never again one sink.
I had to have subway tile for the showers that was really important to me it was a must.
I love having a separate shower having some solid walls allows me to hide the shampoo etc.. I plan on replacing the laminate counters, sinks and faucets with real stone counters and nicer basins and faucets, maybe in a couple of years for now they are fine.

I chose the wall colour to be the closet match to the colour of the glass of the shower, just a hint of blue.
I covered the floor tile running up the deck of the tub with MDF and beadboard and added a marble back splash to the tub surround after the marble installer put in the marble deck pieces.

how it looked before

I had to have a TV in the master bath...it is a real luxury and certainly is an over indulgence but I love it. It takes me a while to get ready doing hair and make-up when I do all that and its nice just to turn on a GMA or Kathie Lee and Hoda when I want.
The cabinet is an old jam cupboard we've have had since we got married, I actually built it into the wall so now it stays with the house, it is just the extra needed storage we needed for this bathroom.

Hubby's office

My husband makes cartoons and works from home from time to time and has quite a collection of "special things"
I waited and waited for him to just unpack his boxes but after a year and a half there was no progress so while he was away on one of his business trips I surprised him with an office makeover...and this is what I did.

In case you're curious he directed Total drama island, he created Sidekick, Grojband and many more shows in the works and has been working in animation for decades working on too much to try to mention.

Mason (my 16 yr old daughter) room

We just recently tackled a makeover in Mason's room, it used to be wall papered in One direction posters but I'm glad to say that phase is OVER!!! She wanted pretty and pink....finally!!!!
She really wanted a bigger walk in closet ( there is a moderate closet in the room already) but that would have meant losing a window to a closet and shrinking her living space dramatically ( I'm pretty sure her bedroom is bigger than the master) so I came up with moving her bed to where it is now and adding a wall of suspended hanging/display, it's like her very own store.. it turned out to be a great solution.

We ran out of wall space so I came up with this controversial idea to hang this big mirror from the ceiling ...turns out it was a great idea and a great use of otherwise dead space.

Mason's room has a Jack and Jill bath that was intended to be shared with what is my husbands office so both girls have their own bathrooms, this really makes life easier with two teen girls.

Sophie's room (my 13 yr old )

The girls picked their own rooms and it went very smoothly, one was bigger bedroom smaller bathroom this is the smaller bedroom bigger bathroom room it's a good trade off.
I added these built ins for storage and to free up floor space. I still need to get around to getting a cushion made for that bench.

Sorry her bathroom is not quite ready for sharing...there has been a lot to do and I am only one woman.

Our outdoor oasis

Let's finish off the tour where we like to spend some warm summer nights and hot summer days, our new deck...we built this little deck behind our garage and its been one step closer getting our backyard plans underway.