Life in a small house

I have small old house in a cute little village in upstate NY.  Living in a small house has it's challenges, especially when it comes to storage and furniture placement.  You really have to make the most of every space you have.  Luckily for me I have a very talented husband who can build great custom stuff.  Through the years we have become a great team.  I come up with an idea for something that we really NEED  (ok, WANT),  I attempt to sketch it for him and he makes it for me!  How's that for teamwork!

And that's how Pennies Primitives got started.

So getting back to the challenges of living in a small house.  It is literally impossible to buy furniture that both fits your space and is functional because remember, in a small house you gotta use every bit of storage you have AND use it wisely!  Clutter is a big pet peeve of mine so I want anything that isn't "pretty" to be hidden away where I won't have to look at it.  That's usually how I design a new piece for us.  First I figure out what it's going to be used for.  Then I decide where I want it.  Once that's decided I design the style of the piece according to the measurements of the space. For instance I needed storage for our DVDs and other various electronics and I had an open corner in my living room.  I could go tall but not to wide so I thought a chimney cabinet would be perfect.  I measured the space,  then I measured the tallest thing that would go in it, both height and depth, then drew a rough sketch of how I saw it in my head along with the measurements.  I also found a few pictures of things I liked so my husband had a nicer visual than my chicken scratch drawing. (:  Then my husband disappears into his workshop and when he comes out I have a beautiful new piece of furniture!  It's like magic!!

 Here is what we ended up with.

Here's the inside. (Don't judge)

It's my job to give it that old and much loved primitive look.  I play around with my finishes and techniques.  I guess it depends on my mood at the time.  I use milk paint on all of our pieces. It's very durable and looks great. 

Had to get a pic of one of my snowman in here. There's a lot of them around here this time of the year.

This piece I did a bit of a heavy distress and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I absolutely love it and now I don't have to look at all the DVD clutter that was collecting dust in the TV stand. I hope you like it as much as I do!

See you soon and thanks for looking!

Donna