Guest Cottage Before

While we were gallavanting around Scandinavia, my mom took advantage of us not being around to deal with some unfinished business that I kept pushing aside. Last summer we had a new roof put on the guest cottage, and our not so honorable contractors didn’t finish the job (surprise surprise). Among many things, they didn’t put any eaves troughs up or paint the wood along the edges to keep it from rotting. My mom had been bugging me to fix this for awhile but my sights were set on the interior of the main cottage. You know sometimes when something needs to be done, but you really have no concept of how much it’ll change your experience until it’s done?

Guest Cottage After

Tada! My mom picked an amazingly soft and beautiful blue to replace the acrid green that had been plaguing our world for the past 30 years. It matched perfectly with the shingles she chose and makes the whole area feel like a place you want to be. The white table has been around for over 30 years (thrifty!) so John spray painted it a fresh coat of flat white (needs another coat, we ran out!) and added some black rubber feet (not pictured) that have long been missing.

John and I added some black wood chips to add some contrast.

My mom also added some new landscaping, which although small, really adds to the space (and we don’t like to look at our neighbors, who are much too close for our liking). The trees and shrubbery on the property are old and haven’t been maintained over the last 7 or so years so it’s nice to have some new plants to spruce things up a bit (no pun intended).

So the guest cottage is really shaping up to be a warm and inviting space. It’s actually putting the main cottage to shame…