Conservatory Make-Over

My decorating skills are not well developed, nor are they necessarily defined.  I love collecting things from places we visit  and love both primitives and elegant items.  One problem that I have, although a friend of mine said that it's my creativity, is that I move things around in many of the rooms on Frog Hollow Farm.  This is really almost therapeutic for me as I work to discover the 'perfect' arrangement of the furniture and decorative items that we own. 

One room that was constantly revised by yours truly but never seemed cozy is the conservatory.  Now, I seemed to get the room together for the holidays, and if you ask me putting up twinkle lights makes most places look magical.  But my goal (one of many) is to get the rooms in the house set up so that I don't always feel the urge to move things.  I still want to be able to change things up with seasonal items or new finds that I gather on our trips, but I want the basic design to work forever. 

This is the Frog Hollow Farm conservatory before the make-over on Monday afternoon.

Friends love this room, but to me it just seemed to be missing it's potential. 

This old Sellers hutch has been holding candle holders and flower vases, as well as my little frog collection.  It's empty here because we were getting ready for the makeover.  The little horse rocker was made for me many, many years ago by my dad.  It didn't make the cut in the makeover so I'll need to find another place in the house for it - it's too dear to put away. 

This room is used for wintering over plants and to hold some small garden tools to use in the front Wine Garden.  This reproduction shelf is sturdy and full of room on the four shelves, but always looked messy to me. 

Here's the makeover of the table and chair corner.  The table is the same pumpkin pine table, only covered with vintage Irish linens and yes, a light green blanket (for now).  New cushions from Pier One are on the wicker chairs with two little bunny pillows I picked up in Williamsburg a few weeks ago. 

I love these little needlwork pillows!

Here's a view out the back towards the porch.  You can see that we added a rug to the room - a real buy at Home Goods.  The lattice in the middle picks up the window pane shape of the old glass windows in the room.  The Sellers piece was moved as well as the bench we used for plants.  Both the hutch and potting bench were re-positioned in the room and will be used to hold food, plates, utensils when eating outside on the porch or in the conservatory. 

 I don't think I'm going to paint the Sellers piece, and I'm keeping the top doors off of the piece- they never closed properly anyway.  Right now my frog collection and candle holders are placed on the shelves. 

This is the reporduction piece that I use for garden tools and as you can see, FHFB's shoes.  I'm going to use a spring rod and hang a curtain to cover the two bottom shelves.  The extension cord and leaf blower(on the bottom) have been used lately to blow away the billions of maple seeds that cover my wine garden and back porch. 

Recognize him?

I'm also over at The Shabby Chic Cottage for Transformation Thursday.  Hope it's not too long for everyone!

Ciao, bella!