blue porch ceilings for good luck? it's haint blue!

My version of "Haint Blue" is Behr's Aqua Breeze. It looks great with the beigey "Skimming Stone" by Farrow & Ball and my version of Cotswold blue, "Impressionist" by Ralph Lauren.

I have painted a few ceilings in children's rooms sky blue with some fluffy white clouds. It seemed a cheerful, breezy thing to do. But, I painted the beadboard ceiling of my front porch blue for an entirely different reason.

There are many rumors (urban legends even) about painting a porch ceiling, or the trim on your house, blue. Some say that it keeps bugs away. It sort of makes sense. Especially for wasps who like to build mud-dauber nests on your ceilings. If they mistake your ceiling for sky, they won't nest there. I will let you know if our wasp problem lessens.

Some say that the airy, breezy feeling will make you feel like your daylight hours last longer in the fall.

I am more intrigued by the "ghost story" angle. It is said that painting your front porch ceiling blue is good luck... and even more, will keep evil spirits away. In South Carolina, the people call this "haint blue." A haint is an evil spirit. Legend has it that evil spirits cannot cross water, so if you paint your house trim and / or porch ceiling blue, the spirits will be confused and unable to enter your home.

The Gullah people, a mix of enslaved African tribes in Carolina Low Country, are credited for borrowing the practice from African slaves. They believed the color blue had magical powers. Their practices included painting doors, windows and trim blue, and often dyed their clothes using indigo leaves.

Because the Gullah's simply used whatever pigments they could get, there is no official "haint blue." It would vary. That said, some have set out to market on haint blue a bit, and have created their own formulations of haint blue. The Charleston Historic Foundation has licensed two versions of "Gullah Blue," which are a deep torquoise. The Savannah Historical Society has two versions of its own, Haint Blue Dark and Haint Blue Light, which are medium teal and light mint-blue, respectively.

For ideas on different varieties of haint blue, start googling "Haint Blue," "Gullah Blue," "Dirt Dauber Blue" and "Dutch Boy Blue."

In my opinion, based on my research in the field of historic preservation, one shouldn't worry so much about an "official" shade of haint blue, but what looks best with the rest of the house. A purplish blue or teal blue might not be so complimentary with the body color of the house. I simply took the trim & door color I had chosen (Impressionist by Ralph Lauren), lined it up with Behr paint chips until I found a very close match. Then I chose a color 2 times lighter so that there would be a noticable difference. I ended up with "Aqua Breeze" by Behr for the ceiling. It looks different from all angles, so I am quite happy with it.

My blue, "Aqua Breeze", against "Skimming Stone." I felt it was important to make sure all the colors coordinated, and didn't focus on the "haint blue" as an individual color.


The blue isn't a BLAZING blue. In certain light, it reads very soft. When I include the deep black trim on the front door, it looks quite pale.

So there you have it. I received a comment yesterday, signed only as "R", asking what blue I used. I think that is more than you ever wanted to know about my haint blue! :)

company's coming! front porch update

We hosted a family gathering at the Cottage of Stone on Saturday... After I finally finished painting my hydrangea wall in my closet, I was able to focus a bit on froo-frooing the house a bit. The weekend weather was glorious and left everyone content to pretty much stay outside for most of the time. I rearranged the furniture on the porch to make it a little cozier and conversational. We also picked up a few vintage finds at the Good JuJu flea market, and we painted the porch ceiling blue. (More on blue porch ceilings in a later post!)

A wacky aerial shot of the porch. I stood on the railing to take this. I thought it gave a good idea of the layout.

I talked about all this stuff previously... pretty much everything on the porch is either a flea market find, or something I bought new and spruced up with paint or fabric. I will put a source list at the end of the post.

This old cooler just needs a new liner. The little bottle opener on the side is really cool. We are stocking it with some old-school glass bottled soda for the boys.

The ceiling is not alarmingly blue. I just did the trim color 2 times lighter. I didn't want blue overload! The little lanterns are battery-powered and looked beautiful lit up at night!

Here is that tatty old rocker from Good JuJu again. It is so comfy with a bulky quilt on the back. The juncus in the old enamel pitcher seems to like living on the porch.

A side-view of the porch from the steps.

Resource List:

Loveseat - Lowe's, Fabric - Rachel Ashwell shower curtain, Pillow's - Home Depot

Wood Sidetable - Target, Paint - Valspar Sea Sparkle

Enamel Container on Table - Vintage, Plant - Pink Hydrangea

Trunk - Vintage, Paint - Rustoleum Heirloom White spray paint

Cooler - Vintage

Rocker - Vintage, Quilt - Home Place, Pillow - Home Depot

Metal Side Table- Target, Enamel Pitcher - Vintage, Plant - Juncus

Rug, Paper Lanterns & Ceramics - Pier 1

Pink Plaid Boots - Wal Mart

window screens and old wood windows

A bird landed on the cat food (trash can shaped) container right as I was snapping this picture. Our cat, Biscuit, spends his days looking out the screen door.

I am still happy to report that we haven't turned on the AC yet... with the new screen door and all the windows open, the house is staying breezy and cool. Someone recently asked me how we keep the bugs out of our house if we don't have storm windows and screens.

Well... it is hard to explain how the windows in our house are without pictures, so, here it goes...

Our house was originally a shingled house when it was built in 1906. Queen Anne windows were installed. Then in the 40s, new owners remodeled the house, adding a thick 1 foot layer of stone. Our house is a beefcake since it is basically a house encasing another house. Anyway, they added another set of windows in addition to the existing windows. So we have 2 sets of fully functional windows. Ours are the old school windows that you can raise and lower the top set as well as the bottom set.

We found a bunch of window screens for the house in the basement. You can slide them to collapse and expand them. So we open the outside set of windows fully, then open the inside set high enough to rest the screens inside. Like so:

I just realized how dirty the screens are. I need to spray them out with some canned air. That is the kitchen window that looks out to the sorority house beside us. Hopefully that gives a good idea of what the windows are like.

I really haven't seen any other houses with double sets of windows like ours, but they are terrifically handy!

paint brings out the small things

I tried snapping a picture when the sun wouldn't wash the new blue paint out so much. Here is a camera phone pic of the front of the house. I would like the draw your attention to the righthand dormer... notice that only half of the dormer is painted... this is where we ran into problems with the 40 degree angle of the roof. I kept sliding down the roof while I was trying to paint!

The thing I think is coolest about the new trim color... when it was dull gray, you didn't notice any of the detailing. But now with the blue, little things seem to catch your eye. This is the soffit, the underside of where the roof meets the house. These were a joy for Steven to paint due to all the ridges and all... but with the new paint, they are so pretty.

Seeing how nice it is all looking gives me a little more pep to get the rest of the windows painted. Unfortunately, I require a bit of assistance wrangling them up and down, so I have to wait for Steven to be home to tackle them some more. Drats!

DIY: build your own screen door

Ta-Daaaaa!!

The new screen door was installed this weekend. We are so proud of how nicely it turned out. Following is, well, the longest post ever on Cottage of Stone, but we thought we'd share with everyone the process of building our door... in case anyone ever needs to make their own!

First of all, part of the "uniqueness" of owning an old home is that you will find your doors and windows are not the "standard" size. All the screen doors they sell at Home Depot are a foot too short for our massive front door. Rather than spend $500 or more on a custom one via the internet, we (and by "we," I mean "I") decided we (and by "we," I mean "Steven") should build one.

I drew out a basic design for my door. I knew I didn't want a cross-support piece on it. I felt it would break up the door, and the glass door we have is a rectangle. I wanted the screen door to echo that. I decided on using dowels and L-brackets, as well as a double-decker door, to make sure this massive door would be sturdy enough.

A super-helpful employee at Home Depot helped me pick out the best kind of wood, as well as explained how the dowel jig set-up worked. Once we bought all the materials, Steven got to work. First, he cut the boards for the "inside" frame of the door. I wanted to use dowels, so he butt-jointed instead of mitering:
Once the pieces were cut, he used the dowel set-up to drill the holes for the dowels. Here he is using a rubber mallet and one of the "pointy" things to mark where to drill:

The "pointy" thing leaves a mark to show you where to set up the dowel jig for drilling the holes:


Here is a board with the holes drilled and ready for dowels:

A job for me! I glued the dowels in:

Steven uses a clamp to keep everything tight while the glue dries:

After the glue is set up, we chisel out where the L-brackets will go. If we had a fancy router, we'd have used that... but we don't... so we took turns hand-chiseling the wood out:

We painted the wood and attached the brackets with screws:

Once the "inside" part of the door was built, Steven cut the pieces for the "outside" part of the door. This was all made from the wood you find in the fancy millwork section of the store:

Everything tested fitted? Check! Time to attach. When in doubt, we pre-drill! I remember someone on another blog complaining that they kept splitting the trim pieces they were using and ended up just using glue. Glue is not a permanent solution. Pre-drilling will save your sanity by keeping the wood from splitting and using a clamp will keep things from slipping around:

Once everything is countersunk, a little wood filler and sanding makes everything look clean. Just add paint! That black piece you see here is what is going to keep our screen in place. I wanted to build a removable screen - in case one of the kids accidentally tore it or something:

An inner trim piece with fancy beading detail is added and painted black (still wet and shiny here):

The only annoying part of the job for Steven was assembling the screen. He had to add extension pieces to the sides since our door is so tall. Once he got the frame assembled, he used a screen tool to push the cord (and screen) into the frame:

Once the cord was all in, he trimmed the excess screen off:

He is working so hard!

Final touch-up painting:
And Steven installs the hardware. This antique (Victorian) doorknob we rescued from a house that was being demolished. A coat of flat black paint and it is gorgeous:

Steven sprayed the hinges black, too. We used spring-loaded hinges that are self-closing... so we didn't have to install one of those long springs. I worried about pinched little fingers:

Little spinny things hold the screen in place. If we need to make a repair, it pops right out:

And here it is in place! Look close inside and you can see my dining room all torn apart. I am in the middle of plaster repair:

And a shot of what it look like with the glass door closed:

the screen door is in!!

The verdict is in... our cat, Biscuit, likes the screen door. Maybe it is all the new smells that are coming in from outside.

After Steven finished the installation last night and 2-year-old Bowie got to use the door for the first time, he did the happiest dance. I swear. He was spinning and singing all over a screen door. I wish I could be that happy over such simple things.

I need to do a little bit of paint touch-up, and then I will take the final installation pictures and post the step-by-step on the door. It came out so gorgeous. Steven is a handy guy. :)

Sneak Peek: The Trim is Painted!

We have the trim painted on the front of the house. (Steven's back couldn't take another day on the ladder to do the back). We have yet to do practically all the windows on the house since we only have 2 done... but we think the trim on the front of the house makes a huge difference. The peeling dull gray is now replaced with cheery pale blue. We can't wait to see it all done since the couple windows I have completed look soooo good!

It was super sunny when I took this picture, so I am afraid everything looks a bit washed out... but you get the point.

Oh - look at that wisteria going nuts on the trellis I welded. No blooms, but it is growing freaking crazy!

so I am climbing on my roof when I realize I am not a cat nor SpiderMan...

A reference picture, if you will... this is a before picture so you can see how stinking high the sides of the dormer are.

You know how we have been working on painting windows and dormers? Well... it is time to get the sides of the dormers painted. I decided this weekend that I would be the one to brave the roof and get them painted.

Now the fronts of our dormers are on a mild 25 degree slope... but to access the sides of the dormers, you have to crawl out onto the steep roof... our pitch finder revealed the slope of the main roof to be 40 degrees... just shy of a 45 degree angle.

OK... let me say this about a 40 degree angle. You can't sit on it. You can't lay on it. If you try, you will just slide down the roof, like you are on a kid's slide at the park, to your death. I was clinging to the roof by maintaining a death grip on the edge of the shingles. Steven was standing on the flat roof, trying to keep me from sliding down. He'd dip the paint brush in the can for me, I'd slap on a bit of paint with my free hand, then pass back the brush.

This did NOT work well.

I should also mention our roof does not have those new textured shingles. Our shingles were put on in the 40s, so they are frail and very slick. Your shoes get zero traction. I was trying to pull myself up, scrambling with my feet, but would just slide back down.

My next plan of attack is to wear a harness, and we will tie me off to something on the other side of the house so I will have a rope to pull myself up. Just like climbing the rope in gym class, but while holding a paint brush, with a house full of sorority girls next door watching me. (And possibly recording with their cell phones in case I fall off so they can sell the vid to America's Dumbest or something.)

OK... off to get limber now... and find my kid's Spiderman costume...

a historic preservation approach to guttering...

Photo: Alpine Rain Gutters

Jayhawk Guttering visited today and did a fabulous job installing our new copper-metallic flake gutters and round downspouts. I thought it would be a great time to talk a little about gutters, downspouts and historic preservation...

Some houses were built to not have gutters... but here in the Midwest, with our wet Springs, that would not be advisable. Your foundation and landscaping would not be happy.

There are 2 styles of gutters. K-Style and Half-Round. A K-Style gutter is what is most used. It is the angular style of gutter meant to be flatly mounted to fascia boards. Flat mounting if the key here. Most applications use 5 inch, but for a large roof a 6 might be used. (We used 6 inch.) Half-round gutters are, well, gutters that look like a tube cut in half. They are meant to be used in situations where there is no flat fascia board for mounting. The gutter would hang free of the roof and trim, by a bracket.

Photo: Benchmark Roofs (K-Style Gutter & Rectangle Downspout)

Some houses had built-in gutters - and actually a few of the old Spurgeon houses around here still have the built-in gutters. They work well if the owners keep them properly maintained and free of debris.

Photo: Gutter Supply (Halfround gutter and round downspout)

I should mention that if you were going totally old school, you could have wood gutters installed... but man, that would be expensive!

Now downspouts. There are 2 kinds - rectangular and round. K-Style gutters usually have rectangular gutters, and half-round and built-in gutters usually have round downspouts.

At the Cottage of Stone, I fudged a bit on this. We originally priced half-round gutters, and it would have doubled the cost of materials. And really, our house would have most likely had built-ins that were changed to K-Style with the 1940s remodeling. So we went with some upgraded K-style gutters but chose round downspouts. We thought it gave it a little more curb appeal and looked more in keeping with what we are going for. Since this is not a preservation or restoration but a renovation, I take a little creative liberty. (As we will when it comes time to re-roof!)

Cottage of Stone - Copper-Metallic K-Style Gutters

Cottage of Stone - Round Downspouts

Bob Villa has nothing on me...

OK, so Bob may be a better carpenter... but my peonies are prettier!

With Steven busily working on the fascia boards for our gutter install this week... I am left to work on the screen door alone. You see, I have been wanting a screen door forever. Unfortunately, our front door is just too stinking tall to get a stock one. I could have one custom made - but pricing those out was well over $500. I think I could do it myself so much cheaper and have exactly what I want.

So... that said, I spent some time sketching out how I think a screen door should be put together. I don't want that little cross piece in the middle of my door, so I got creative and came up with a very sturdy, rigid door that does not include a crossbar.

I took my ideas to Home Depot where a super nice guy listened to my ramblings. He agreed that my plan should keep the door sturdy enough to not need the crossbar, and he helped me select the materials I would need. I told him I'd be back tomorrow...

I will require Steven's help to remove the storm door and frame since they are quite heavy. And I will have him double-check my measurements since he is Mr. Meticulous. (I am telling you... He thinks having something a 1/16th of an inch off is too much).

Then I will begin constructing my door. I cannot guarantee that my door will be within 1/16" tolerances. I cannot guarantee that it will actually be rectangular in shape when I am done. It may be more of a sad little parallelogram... but dammit, I will have tried!

Wish me luck! And if I am successful, I will post up a DIY. :)

Spring Cleaning the front porch

It was a super windy weekend in Baldwin City, Kansas this weekend... but short of a tornado, I was determined to get some more Spring Cleaning done. You see, all winter long, the front porch became a jumble of junk. Emery and Dane (and of course, Steven) were super helpers in getting the front porch tidied up.


Dane carried the stack of firewood down, Emery loaded it into the wagon then stacked it in the backyard. Emery picked up toys and organized them into metal bins while Dane helped me sweep up leaves. We shook out all the pillows and it is again a nice, cheery spot to read a book and drink some tea.

This little pot was just sitting around from last year. I gave it a new coat of hot pink paint and planted a gerber daisy I picked up at the nursery.

The little gerber daisy is sitting on a little metal table by the loveseat. The loveseat had garden green floral cushions that I am not too keen on... so I just covered them with an old Rachel Ashwell shower curtain I had laying around. The pillows I picked up on clearance at Home Depot last year. I need to get a bright rug to go here. (My kids are skaters... hence the skateboards everywhere!)

I rattle canned the hanging basket a bright aqua color. Some pale pink rosella brighten the corner by the newly pale blue front door. Very soon, I will be painting the beadboard ceiling a pretty blue. (It's good luck, right?)

I have had this pot to the left of the front door since we moved in. I have grown to like it there, but Steven gets annoyed that it makes it hard to manuever our stroller by it. I admit - it does get in the way since it is a narrow spot there leading to the steps. But the little bunny I picked up on clearance from Hobby Lobby is so cute! (I have a thing for rabbits.) I sort of like the patina of the floor... the red and blue paint fading and showing through.


Here is the tatty old rocker I posted about awhile back. The little table on the left we bought last year but it was a garden green. I painted it a bright aqua (Valspar - Sea Sparkle.) Soon, it will have a few pots on it... for now it is a place for the feral cats to enjoy the food we leave out.

I got this bright little welcome mat at Target.

I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing (or productive?) weekend!