The terrace is located on the east side of the house off of the barn room.
[No, the barn room is not finished, so please don't ask! :) My part is done, but Dan has projects to complete as does my fabulous (and on her way to becoming famous, i.e. busy) seamstress who will sew the curtains. Nothing has changed in the room in four months. All I can say is you'll see it when you see it, and I have no idea when that will be . xx ]
When we purchased the house the terrace didn't exist, well, technically half of it did. Half of the current space was used as access to the barn door of the original livestock barn. I'll do a post soon on the making of the terrace so you can see how it call came to be. The terrace was initially completed last Spring; however, Hurricane Irene (last August) did some damage to the stone wall and it wasn't repaired until the middle of this past June. It has only been in the last month that the terrace as fully come together. My vision for it was that it would be a very monochromatic, natural space that blended in with the environment and looked and felt completely different than the other three porches that are attached to the farmhouse. Right after it was completed a worker at the house told me he felt like he was on vacation when standing on the terrace. Perfect.... that was exactly the feeling I was hoping for! The three porches on the house are all covered, so this is the one space where we can sit at night and look up and see the whole star-filled sky (and shooting stars!) We also have dinner here quite often.
We brought the vintage iron table base with us from Dallas. It was a curb-side requisition. In its previous life it was a trash can older! After Dallas switched to the mandatory plastic rolling trash cans, people would place these old iron stands at the curb for our monthly "bulk trash collection." All I saw was "treasure!" Dan and I knew the pick-up schedules for various neighborhoods and would go "junking" as we called it each month.
Oh, the finds we made! One month (and it just happened to be a month I was redoing a bed in the backyard) we picked up a truck load (literally) of plants someone else had dug up and discarded for pick up. We adopted them all. I had a small collection of these iron bases (Dan and I both love all things old iron;) but, sadly had to leave all but two when we moved here. The other base is on the back porch with a piece of antique marble as its top. Very recently we added a thick wood top to this base using 3" planks taken from the barn during the renovation.
The table is topped with a collection of items, all but one, brought with us from our last home. A large (6-1/2 foot) antique green shutter that used to stand in our den in Texas holds court on the table (no, it is not attached to the wall). It shares the space with an antique green glazed terracotta baluster from Singapore used as a candlestick, an antique concrete finial that used to sit at my front door, an antique lightning rod (part of another collection that graced my old cutting garden), a white vintage garden pot and
an industrial wire-container found here in New Hampshire that holds an asparagus fern.
Antique iron lightning rod with copper finial and antique amethyst and green glass globes. I love how the colors in the lightening rod mimic the colors in the old shutter.
The weather vane on the rod is a gorgeous work of art, and this is only one of an accidental collection of vanes. The pitted iron shows a century plus of weather. I fell in love with my first weather vane not even knowing what it was. I found it at an estate sale years ago and bought it because I thought it was a thing of beauty. It has a red glass insert with a hand-etched star in the center. Many antique vanes had colored glass in their tail. I also have a vane with blue glass that was given to me by a complete stranger. A man at one of our garage sales in Dallas noticed my collection in the cutting garden. He said he was an antiques dealer and had a vane in storage that he would give to me when he found it. I thought that was a nice thing to say, but honestly didn't think I would see him again. Sure enough, about six months later he drove up and gave me the blue glass vane! I was absolutely blown away by his kindness. After that we would occasionally run into him at estate sales, so for months I carried a "thank you" note for him which I was finally able to deliver!
I surmise that the original glass broke on this vane and someone made a tin piece to take its place.
The arrow is puffy, not flat, which is an unusual detail. Love the twisted center iron rod.
Vintage planter filled with Iresine "Purple Lady," again a hue found in the antique shutter.
Antique concrete weathered finial shows the passage of many years outdoors.
The french doors open into the barn room. (We do have screens for the doors, but they reside in the basement. We have such good air flow with the other windows in the room that we haven't found that we need them.) The old lantern light fixtures above the french doors are from a favorite shop,
Nor'East Architectural Antiques in South Hampton, New Hampshire (say hi to the owner, Donna, if you visit!) We didn't alter the condition we found them in- peeling black paint over a solid brass frame. The paint is slowly coming off from exposure to snow and rain and will one day be back to the original brass. They are,
of course, on dimmers!
For scale, the french doors and transoms are just under ten feet tall. The barn gray and white trim paint are both from
California Paints and the colors can be found on my sidebar. The chimney was done in a natural stucco- no tint was added. That is an antique iron ash-removal door that you see under the table.
One of a pair of antique round beaded white-painted concrete finials share each side of the french door steps with one of a pair of antique iron urns filled with "Salmon" Geraniums, Dusty Miller, variegated Vinca and Soft Rush (Juncus effusus spiralis "Twister"). On this side a vintage Japanese fishing float and marble balls that were used in antique water filtration systems keep the urn company.
I always knew that I didn't want to place flower pots on the top of the wall, but after several months of living with them au naturale I felt the wall needed a
little something. While sitting in the adiorndacks one night having a glass of wine I remembered the vintage iron farm equipment disk blades just sitting in the basement (everyone has a collection of vintage iron farm equipment disk blades, yes?!! :) and realized how perfectly they would look on the wall. We had collected these over the years - I love "round" and I love rusty iron, so they were a natural collection for me. They made the perfect planters as they have holes in the center. I
love their low profiles and industrial feel, and how the iron plays off of the stone and the softness of the greenery. I was very skeptical about
anything at all growing in them, but thought I would try my idea. I purchased
Miracle-Gro Moisture Control potting soil and Vinca minor (Myrtle Atropurpurea) and they have been happily growing for the last several months, even during stretches of 90 degree plus days!
To my delight, they also bloom this sweet little purple flower!
Large jardinieres from Home Goods are filled in the center with Ornamental Millet (Purple Majesty), Flamingo Feather (Celosia Spicata) and Explosion grass (I love this grass), and surrounded around the edge with green potato vine (Ipomoea "Goldfinger"), blue Scaevola ("Brilliant"), and Setcreasea ("Purple Queen"). Japanese fishing floats and copper balls are scattered around the terrace to add a bit of color, patina and whimsy.
These steps go to the kitchen mud room which is located between the kitchen and the barn room. The vintage pot was purchased at an estate sale many years ago in Dallas. Funny how things stick with you- I can perfectly describe the house and day when we found it, even though it was a good 15 years ago! It is one of my very favorite pots. Antique iron boot scraper on the left hand side of the photo was found at an antique shop in New Hampshire during the farmhouse renovation, and was set into the top step when these steps were added during the renovation.
The large stone next to the planter was "borrowed" on my last trip to the Tetons with my late father. Though you can't see it in the photo, it is a beautiful stone with large bands of white and gray; I thought it was such a beautiful rock. I was going to leave it, but my father talked my nephew, Forest, (who was young and fresh out of the Army - think strong) into carrying it down the mountain for me!
Thank you Forest!
Salmon Geraniums, blue Scaevola, variegated Vinca and white green-leaf Begonias share the pot.
The wire form is from the dearly departed Smith and Hawken.
Antique zinc dovecote.
Antique English watering can with copper sprinkler head.
Close up of the copper "2" indicating the can holds two gallons.
Antique French iron fence piece with its black peeling paint.
Door to the kitchen mud room and granite steps to the garage and drive below.
Iron urn at the french door. I love the sculptural effect of the twisty Soft Rush.
The
adirondack chairs have proven to be a great value! They are still available at Home Depot for anyone interested. ( We winter them in the basement.) I often use the term "gravel" regarding the driveway, and terrace, but technically it is
crushed stone. Crushed stone come from a rock quarry. The stone is dynamited, then crushed to different sizes. Gravel comes from a pond or a river.
All the other crushed stone areas (driveway, side porch and cutting garden) are in gray stone, but here we used a tan stone that worked perfectly with the stone wall. It is also a much smaller stone than the driveway or side porch area. Black umbrella was used at a dining table on our terrace in Dallas. It is now free-standing with its iron base buried in the stone.
The umbrella finial is a brass bird that started its life as an outdoor faucet handle. The faucet eventually failed and had to be removed. I thought the little bird would make the perfect finial for the umbrella! He makes me very happy when I spy him perched up on top.
The antique granite steps were originally foundation to the barn and were removed during the making of the garage.
Vintage Japanese fishing floats and copper balls .
Such gorgeous copper patina.
Close up of the jardinieres that flank the corners of the terrace.
The view to the north. During Phase II of the barn renovation the stone wall (that originally only went to the middle of where the chimney now stands) was disassembled and moved approximately 12-feet over to make the new "terrace" space. The additional large cut granite stones were place on the top to bring the height of the wall up to code.
Pair of tables were "married" from items in my basement storage area (my area is decorative, as opposed to Dan's which is functional ;) I just happened to have two antique English chimney pots and a pair (though purchased separately and not matching) of vintage copper scalloped trays from India. They sit on the chimney pots and do a fine job of acting as rain gauges! I simply pour acquired water into the watering can to use later.
Iron orb made from old whiskey barrel rings found at our local dump! I used to also pick these up while junking in Dallas. Recycling is good!
My sweet and beautiful photographer's assistant!!
