Raising the Roof to Make a Little House Bigger

As you guys probably figured out by now.....

I completely renovated/changed/redid the cottage I bought on Cape Code.

That included raising the roof to create a loft where I set up my office/drafting board.

In future posts, I will show you the old and new floorplans as well as construction photos.

But for now I'm just showing the after shots that were published in Decorating Magazine as well as the Design Magazine of the Boston Globe.

The loft looked over the living room and the new fireplace I added.

I drove around the Boston area looking for railing ideas, nearly driving off the road in several instances while I craned my neck trying to absorb architectural details.

I wanted the cottage look as well as a feel of New England.

I settled on the Chippendale style.

I wish it had been in the days of Google, because all you have to do is look online for Chippendale railing ideas, 

and it's all spread out for you in the comfort of your living room!!!!!

This is the pattern I chose.

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But there are tons of wonderful patterns to choose in this style.

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The loft looked out over the ocean.

When I was sitting down upstairs in my desk chair, I couldn't see any land, just the water.

It felt like I was in a boat!!!!

Along the front of the loft I hung a collection of fish plates.

In the days of fine living... 

(which I certainly am not doing.....)

people had special plates for the different courses of a meal.

For the fish course, they had a set of plates with different fish hand painted on each plate, as well as a platter to match the set.

You can find these sets on eBay, though I found them antiquing, as there was no eBay when I designed this house.

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This Limoges set is currently for sale on the website, and I think it's very pretty.

Here's a close up of the platter.

A plate.

another one in the other direction!!!

I like the coral details.

Limoges produced a lot of different sets of fish plates.

Another eBay offering,

another....

I could go on forever, I just love these types of things that I hang on walls.....

OK, the last one.....

Sooooooo.....

I hung them on the loft fascia.

I mixed together two different patterns.

 and I stored some other patterns in my bookcase.....

I still have some of these plates, and brought a set down to Flerida with me.

I keep them in my kitchen, and will never use them, but it makes me feel all warm and gooey just knowing that I still have one set left.

Too bad I don't have people over for dinner, but then I'd have to cook.

On that note,

Latah, Gatah