MASTER BEDROOM REFRESH

I’ve had the itch for a few years now to do a total master bedroom and bathroom refresh. This past winter I finally took the plunge and started on the bathroom, which you can read about here. When that was all finished, I knew the bedroom had to be next! (No more excuses!) It was the last "untouched" room in the farmhouse. Since we bought our "labor of love" in 2010, we've taken on 80s wallpaper, outdated carpeted, and cramped spaces. The master bedroom had been refurbished but was still desperately in need of a face lift.

My goals: make the space BRIGHTER, FRESHER, and more ROMANTIC. I’ve been in love with the sliding barn doors look lately, so I thought I’d incorporate it into the final product.

The first order of business was to give the space a fresh coat of paint. (I used Behr paint.) Since I wanted to lighten and freshen things up, I went with a white on the ceiling and on the walls. I also repainted all the base boards and trim with interior trim paint from Behr as well. I thought the bedroom still needed a little more texture, so I decided to paint the floors to give them a rustic feel.

For the floors, I used a combination of varnish, white paint, white chalk paint and grey porch & floor paint. Whatever you have lying around that fits the “vibe” would work just as well! The original color was beige. I dragged varied colors over the boards with a paintbrush to create that wonderful “weathered” look. Because the end goal was more organic, it didn’t have to be perfect!

By far the biggest change was installing the vintage doors over the closet. These doors were rescued, restored and refinished to give the space a whole new look.

…HOWEVER, their original color (dark hunter green) needed to go. Yikes! I turned to my faithful friend, Citrus Strip. This product does wonders when you’re taking the paint off furniture! Especially four layers of paint!

NEXT: I found some silver tin backsplash panels at Lowe's, in the kitchen department, and knew they would be the perfect "windows" to compliment the arched portion of the doors. They were an easy install - I used superglue! Below, I've included some pictures that inspired the "look.” Truthfully, I just experimented with the look of the doors until I found an arrangement I liked...

Photos via Unsplash

Once the doors were repainted & ready to be hung, I needed hardware. I did my research on a few different hardware companies and knew I wanted a company that put quality and craftsmanship first. After many hours of research (plus visiting several different stores to check out the quality first-hand), I decided to go with a company called Rustica Hardware.

What made Rustica stand out to me was the fact that all their steel is made right here in the USA. Pretty cool, right? When I reached out to the company, they were kind enough to work with me to help find what I was looking for: hardware that would look beautiful contrasted with vintage doors. I ended up going with the “Struck” hardware, and you guys? It’s gorgeous! Bonus, the installation was super easy.

Rustica also sells a ton of furniture and beautiful metal & wooden barn doors. If you’re looking for the perfect finishing touch for your next DIY project, I can’t recommend them enough! I mentioned this on IG, but friends: please go over & say hello to the folks at Rustica. I'm not getting paid to say it, but I stand behind their product! It's great quality and the folks I've worked with have been so kind and efficient.

The hardware came in about a week, and Mr. Maple attached the hangers at the top of the door, then the track. From there we just sat the doors on the track and put the handles on. Easy-peasy! I snagged the handles from Lowe’s for cheap, in black, to match the other pieces.

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1: hanging the track. 2: putting the doors on. 3: handles!

For my FINAL LOOK, I staged the room with sunflowers and lots of sunlight. The bedding is from Piper Classics – seriously, the coziest bedding! Perfect for those chilly fall & winter nights. (IG here.) The chandelier is from Antique Farmhouse. (They have the coolest wooden signs!)

I’m so happy with the overall product, and glad I get to finally share it with you guys! Have you ever refinished any furniture or doors? What’s your latest DIY project? How do you think this one turned out? Let me know in the comments or on Instagram, @maplecreekmarket !

Blessings,

Ginny

#life #diy #famrhouse #farm #vintage #vintagefarmhouse #countryliving #rusticahardware #rustic #doors #bedroom #bedroomremodel #sunflowers #summer

SWEET, SWEET SUMMERTIME ON THE FARM!

Welcome back, friends! I hope your summer nights have been bug-free and sunset-beautiful! Fun fact about our family…we LOVE ice cream…almost as much as being together. 😉 Kidding! But seriously, Sunday nights are tradition around here. It’s the perfect night for a good board game, a bonfire and homemade ice cream.

I blame my love of ice cream on my childhood. My grandfather worked for the Penn State Creamy, which, if you’ve never been, is the largest university creamy in the United States! He used to bring used five-gallon drums of ice cream as a treat when I was a kid. If you’ve never had the opportunity to experience PSU ice cream…you’ve missed a little piece of paradise. I found out recently that the creamery uses about 4.5 million pounds of milk annually, around half of which comes from a cow herd at the University’s Dairy Production Research Center. The rest of the milk comes from independent milk producers right in the area. Delicious AND local!

Photo by Something Original at English Wikipedia

Here’s another fun fact for ya: they sell 750,00 hand dipped ice cream cones per year and have over 100 flavors…can we say yum? It’s beyond amazing and YES, I’m a little Penn State proud. It’s my alma mater and part of my heritage! Don’t tell anyone, but my sister and I were once known to eat ice cream for breakfast when we were growing up…

Image by Susanne Jutzeler, suju fotografie from Pixabay

Summer on the farm is so beautiful. One of the reasons my husband and I bought a farm is because we wanted to teach our kids the value of hard work and lending a helping hand. There’s something magical that happens when you begin to work with your children on a project. Oh, sure, there might be a little (!) complaining at first, because the jobs aren’t always their favorite, but working together forces you to work on communicating. Sometimes the only way to successfully finish a job with another person is to communicate about the best way to get the job done.

Image by Free-Photos, from Pixabay

As a family we’ve tried really hard to turn off the devices and interact with each other! These days screens seem to take up so much of our lives, and I fear so many kids and even adults are losing the art of interaction and the sheer simplicity of finding enjoyment in life, living. Summer is the perfect time to set limits for your children and even yourselves. We as a family have set some screen time boundaries this summer, and it feels so good. We all should listen more, talk to each other, and share what we’re learning on a regular basis. The art of face-to-face communication is so important in this virtual world. 😊

Okay, stepping off my soap box…thanks for listening folks! LOL. Back to the ICE CREAM…

So many of you asked for my recipe for the ice cream and homemade peanut butter fudge topping, so here it is:

Background photo by Brenda Godinez on Unsplash

We have a White Mountain freezer and absolutely love it!

After you’ve put the ice cream down in the bucket, put ice all around the sides of the freezer and then add rock salt to the top. After that then you plug it in and check periodically according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Background photo by Brenda Godinez on Unsplash

For the fudge, depending on how strong of a peanut butter taste you want you can add more or less of the creamy goodness. It can also be reheated for another night of indulgence...

Thanks for reading! What are YOUR summer night traditions? Or summer resolutions? Anyone else trying to limit screen time, and get outside & move a little more? If you tried this recipe, let me know in the comments or on Instagram, @MapleCreekMarket. Have a blessed day!

#recipes #summerdecor #summer #summerrecipes #country #countryliving #vintage #vintagefarmhouse #farmhouse #creamery #icecream #whitemountain #summerfun

DIY: FLORAL CENTERPIECES

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I have a slight obsession with flowers & DIY projects! When I began to plan my parents 60th wedding anniversary party, I immediately wanted to incorporate both in a fun, whimsical way.

I looked to some amazing floral accounts for inspiration in the Instagram world. John Mark over @johnmarkenterprises had one centerpiece design in particular that I fell in love with and knew would be perfect. It incorporated wood & flowers, which are a huge part of who my parents are!

My parents still live in my childhood home, nestled in a beautiful setting in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. My Dad is an avid outdoor man and my Mom has always loved her flowers & plants. Unfortunately, my Mom is now battling Alzheimer's, a terrible disease, and is no longer able to care for her gardens or even herself. Since I knew this could my parents' last milestone anniversary, I wanted to make it the best one yet.

Sketch in hand, I sat down with Mr. Maple Creek and asked if he thought we could pull these gorgeous centerpieces off. With a little bit of doubt (and a WHOLE lot of determination!) we set out building a model. We gathered some old scrap lumber from around the farm, then determined how wide we wanted our base to be. I thought a circular base around sixteen inches wide should support the weight of the structure.

Here’s a fun DIY tip: can’t draw a perfect circle? Use the base of a bucket! We traced a base onto the wood, and cut the circles with our handy-dandy jigsaw. The bare wood wasn’t quite serving the “look” I wanted, so for the finished base I used a mahogany stain to boost the resemblance to a real log. I decided to make four of the large centerpieces for the four main tables, and then use smaller flower arrangements and lanterns on the other tables.

After the bases were cut, we rounded up some old wood scraps & sticks from around the farm…dead limbs and branches that had fallen from the trees were recycled for a faux-vase around the centerpiece. We used drywall screws to secure the wood in place, and I covered the rest with reindeer moss from the Dollar Tree. That was the only cost from this project – only around five dollars!

Our biggest challenge was the containers on top. WHAT in the WORLD was I going to use to hold all the flowers? When I did a dry run with fake flowers, I used a milk jug cut in half and painted green. This worked perfectly? Until…

The real flowers came. Sadly, the weight of fresh flowers was too much for the shallow containers, so my brother had the idea to use old coffee cans! Again, we were able to recycle and pinch a few more pennies. My sweet brother Wade attached each of the coffee cans to the centerpieces and put a seal around the screw that went into the log so that it wouldn’t leak water.

BUT YA’LL. While the centerpieces were exciting, the icing on the cake were the GORGEOUS flowers from Petal Driven! I wanted to stick with a pink and white theme, so they sent me an assortment of gorgeous pink peonies and lilies. When the flowers arrived on Wednesday, they were fresh and packaged to perfection. I have never met a flower from Petal Driven that I didn’t like!

Get your own fresh cut flowers and gorgeous bouquets with Petal Driven! Friends, you will NOT regret it. Not sure where to start? They have a team of designers that can help you build the perfect arrangement! Or choose your own, from succulents to flowers to greens! Check them out here. Below, I'll include a peek at the flowers they sent me for a fun Petal Driven party in April...

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Beautiful, right? Thank you Petal Driven! We're big fans here at Maple Creek.

That’s a wrap on this week’s DIY! Hope you guys enjoyed and picked up a few useful tips for your next project! Have you tried to build your own centerpieces? How did it go? What’s your favorite DIY project you’ve attempted recently? Let me know in the comments!

#betterhomesandgardens #table #centerpiece #DIY #diyproject #summer #summerprojects #summerdiy #countryliving #courtlycheck #vintagefarmhouse #vintage #maplecreekmarket #flowers #petaldriven