Wednesday 6 January 2016

I Love Wood


To almost follow on directly from yesterdays post, this is the reason I love my understairs cupboard ..... it's door.  It is, like most of the other doors here, original to the house and is, in my opinion, simply lovely.  Well I would say that most wood is lovely, but especially old and rustic wood.

I like old, used and weathered things, rusticity, wobbly stools, mismatched kitchens etc. Lovely Hubby likes clean, new things with straight lines, shiny surfaces and uniformity, but, thank goodness on the subject of old wood he mostly likes what I like.

So I love the understairs cupboard door with its gate style catch now that it is all finished.


He even allowed me to keep the gate he made for when we want the dogs kept downstairs untreated and not painted white, as was his first instinct, just because I liked it as it was.  Maybe we could stain this wood now so it will match the door, I will have to think about that one!!


And to the person who said that understairs cupboards made hallways smaller and less elegant, when you see the floor space we have in our hall ... and this is it in total ... I had to stand on the stairs to take this photo and in the living room to take the others, you will realise that not having an understairs cupboard just does NOT work in some houses!!

Sue xx

30 comments:

  1. That first picture is pinterest worthy, love it!

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    1. Haha .... yes, I stuck it on there :-)

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  2. We don't have much room in our entrance porch either. Having a cupboard is ideal, to me there's not much point in having lots of space in an area I don't spend much time, better than having to fight my way past coats, the ironing board and Henry hoover.

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  3. I couldn't manage without our under stairs cupboard. I like all the clutter such as coats, umbrellas, hoover etc behind a closed door. Our hallway is a bit bigger than yours but too many doors leading off it to put up hooks. Toilet rolls, ironing board, dustpan and brush, spare bulbs, wrapping paper, dog towels and so forth are all kept in the under stairs cupboard (it's a big cupboard) and we put carpet tiles down to add warmth.

    I like wood too. I really love your stair gate. We have a child's stair gate at the bottom of our stairs to keep the dogs downstairs during the day. But, at every opportunity, they try to sneak upstairs to grab their teddies (only allowed at bedtime or they'd have the guts ripped out of them!).

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  4. Lovely door and gate, I like this kind of wood too. My husband is fond of straight clean lines too and I prefer the rustic old ones, so we more or less had to make compromises when we moved to our current apartment and bought all kinds of new stuff. Luckily he was rather compliant:-)

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  5. Your hallway looks beautiful. You would love a stool I couldn't resist from the YMCA charity shop just before Christmas. Like you, I love wooden stools, etc. It was £10. Solid old oak. The top is semi-circle, a bit battered but this adds to its beauty in my opinion. It has a lamp stood on it now.

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  6. That door looks just like the ones in my cottage in the village - all the hands are what we call 'snecks' up here in Yorkshire, and all the doors are this lovely rustic old wood.

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  7. Sorry Sue - obviously I meant 'handles'

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    1. I guessed ;-)

      I just call them gate latches, as that is what all our gates and outhouse doors had on them when I was growing up in Manchester.

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  8. wood is beautiful & the the thing i like most is you can sand away any dents & scratches!
    your little stair cupboard looks wonderful
    Mavis looks positively glowing :))
    thanx for sharing

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  9. Less elegant, my a*rse !
    You live in a cottage, not in a stately home. Space has to be used wisely in smaller homes. Why some people don't understand that, I don't know.
    But, you could have put a nice desk and chair there, instead (joke!)
    Love the old timber doors and yours is no different. It adds to the quintessential cottage.

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  10. Beautiful pictures of your lovely home. I love the miss-matched, old, rustic, and especially that aged timber. With the white next to it... simply perfect in my opinion.

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  11. If it works for you, that is what is important. You've made it look nice. I love wood myself.

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  12. You can't beat a bit of wood and both of these things are fabulous! Our new home has the original doors and I may have to ask my husband to see if we can swap the metal child (dog) gate in to a lovely one like this. Luckily he too is good with his hands. Fabulous pics.

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  13. My daughter had all her doors dipped and they came up well. We couldn't do ours because they had nailed bits of wood to them and wrecked the trimmings etc. But we replaced them with wood doors costing an arm and a leg!

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    1. We had all the doors professionally dipped just before we moved in, they were covered in many layers of thick white paint so it would have been very time consuming to do them ourselves. I was weird having a house with no doors for a couple of weeks but well worth it.

      When we got them back they were very rough looking but with a bit of tender, loving care and then staining we got them back to looking rustic and reasonably smart.

      It might have cost you a lot to replace your doors but I bet they look wonderful, it's this sort of thing that really 'lifts' the look of a house :-)

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  14. Completely agree with Frugal in the valley's comment and with everything you have said in this post. I love wood and although I have painted many pieces in the past and no doubt will continue to do so into the future, there are some pieces that should not be touched x x

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  15. It looks great. My understairs cupboard is great and like yours very nececessary for hiding clutter. It also has a wooden door funilly enough. Each to their own I say but if I ever win the lottery and have a HUGE house I'll have loads of spare rooms for storing clutter and won't need an understairs cupboard. For now the palatial and spacious hall is just a dream I'm afraid and practicality trumps aesthetics.

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  16. Lovely door and latch - we know them as Suffolk Latches - that's what they're called in the trade I think. We have lots of them in our house, which has all the original doors, some with holes through so you put your finger through to lift the latch the other side.

    Old wood is beautiful and just glows. I have to say, there's not much room to swing a cat in your hallway is there?! You have made best use of the cupboard under the stairs.

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  17. A lovely door......but americans will think you just like .............sex

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    1. Lol! "Wood"has always been a bit of a joke in our household over the years, the girls being outnumbered and had to put up with various innuendos from the males concerning wood!



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  18. Absolutely lovely. My under stairs cupboard is in my kitchen and it is the pantry.Our stairs go off the kitchen.We have a tiny porch on the front of the house that leads into the front room. No room in it for anything !

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  19. Our older doors are all like yours were.. covered in many layers of ageing white paint. It's on my list to get them stripped. Well worth it by the look of it!

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  20. Love, love,love your beautiful door! The depth of the wood really enhances the colours in the wallpaper!

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  21. I love your door, and the gate.

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  22. Your door is gorgeous Sue I love old pieces of natural wood to each piece being unique. dee

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  23. It looks great doesn't it - the door that is! The gate is good as well and a lovely way to keep the doggies where you want them! xx

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  24. This looks so cosy and Pinterestingy! I love discovering new blogs to follow, I've just started up my own based on the seasonal goings on of the farm I live on. I'd love it if you took a peek :)

    http://countrybumble.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1

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  25. The doors downstairs in our 1930's house are all original varnished wood, the upstairs are original glossed, and all our floors are original varnished or stained floorboards, apart from the bathroom (slate) and the front room (newer varnished boards following a fire in 2000). I love it!

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  26. i adore your blogs SUe and ive been quietly following them for a few years. they are a true joy and i find them insiprational. thankyou so much.

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