HOUSE TOUR -WWCD AND THE ENTRYWAY...

...bear with me, I AM going to take you

 on a House tour...but first I need to vent...

You know what I hate...

...being gone  for a few days with my High School Girlfriends and  

missing my kids and then coming home and getting this:

...from Mr. 15 - "hey Mom, is Dad picking up Pizza?

From Miss 13 - (when I walked over to the track and watched her finish up her practice, because I was so excited to see her )
 I got a very loud but clear, non verbal  -

 "um, could you walk over there, and I will hug you at home." 

and from young Master 11 - the baby,  -

 "Oh! Hey Mom, can you come back in a while, 
I'm playing soccer with my friend. Love ya!"

NICE. 
This from the same 3 kids who, a few years back... 
risked life and limb running 
across a parking lot to leap into my arms 
after I TOOK an overnight away...

I have flashes of Claire from Modern Family,

and wonder... what Claire would do?
WWCD

It's the slow drip...

The Teenage Chinese water torture,

like the very slowest pulling off of a band aid...so slow that you feel each hair pull out...

...letting go of your children's baby selves ...

my children's sweet little kid selves...

well, it might just be one of the hardest roads I have walked.

Watching friends go through it, hearing about it...

is about as close to the real thing as hearing SOMEONES Labor and birth story
is to you ACTUALLY giving birth...

... not EVEN close...

They tell me it gets easier...

SO...
Lets talk about furniture!...

Last Month I had so much fun transforming my 

made in China

Swedish Grandfather clock

with the Annie Sloan Chalk paint

for the first time...

...finally I got around to tapping the second can, the can of 

"Provence"

 ...and decided, on a whim, in between, 

finishing my shabby vines and packing to go to D.C. 

I decided to paint the most used piece of furniture in our house...

The Hall/Entryway PEW or as we call it
"The Red Bench".

This Antique Church PEW 
was the very first piece of furniture we put in this house.

We got in at a porch sale at my favorite

used furniture store in Charlottesville, VA.

CIRCA

I think it cost $50, ...if that.

It was very beat up, and I slapped on some leftover red paint I had at the time.

It was 
the "Red Bench", 
as in

"If I have to tell you to stop hitting your brother one more time

you will go sit on the Red Bench!"

or

"That's it! TIME OUT! Red Bench!"

or

"Mommy, where are my cleats???"

"Check the Red Bench"

The RED bench has gone from Red, to Hot Pink to Gray and now to 

Provence...and yet, it is always referred to as...

THE RED BENCH

THE (hot pink) RED BENCH

THE (Gray) RED BENCH

and now...

The Makeover...

It was easy...

1. I painted...

2. I lightly sanded

3. and I waxed...

and now

The Red Bench is 

"Provence" Blue...

and I love it!

I love the teeny glimpses of the Red Bench peeking through...

...on a sad note, the lamp in the forefront ,
the stupidly expensive , Orange "Slip" lamp with the pink shade...
the lamp I bought when I sold my first painting...
broke the night this photo was taken...
"Don't throw the ball in the house! Red Bench!"

Back to Front

Front to Back

latest UPDATE
10/12

one door closes...and another one opens...

just like life...
it is all just one big fat metaphor!

Tell me...do you ever have any WWCD moments?
With your kids? With YOUR parents?

Do you have a mudroom?

Ready to follow the HOUSE TOUR
go HERE next...
The Dining room...