Oak Branch Cottage: The Work Continues...

Work continues day by day at Oak Branch Cottage, and with each passing week, the vision for this home becomes a little clearer—and a lot more exciting.

Lighting Up the Cottage The electrician just wrapped up installing the rough-in boxes for the sconces, which feels like a massive win. I’ll readily admit it: I am completely addicted to sconce lighting. There is something about the warm, low-level glow of a wall sconce that overhead lighting just can’t replicate. Instead of harsh top-down illumination, sconces cast a soft, welcoming light that creates instant depth and texture across a room. I’ve planned for them throughout the house, and seeing the wiring in place makes the eventual cozy atmosphere feel so close.

Refining the Interior Canvas With the electrical rough-ins complete, the drywall crew has stepped in. Sheetrock is actively being patched, smoothed, and resurfaced here and there to fix old imperfections and seamlessly cover up the fresh trade cuts. It’s a messy phase of renovation, but watching the walls turn into clean, uniform surfaces is deeply satisfying. It’s the ultimate reset before paint colors enter the conversation.

A Clean Slate Outdoors Outside, things look dramatically different. The old, overgrown landscaping has been completely removed, leaving us with a total clean slate. It’s a bit jarring to see the cottage stripped down to bare dirt, but it was a necessary step to do things right. Right now, I am awaiting final estimates for the new irrigation system, landscape lighting, and fresh plantings. Once those bids come in, the exterior transformation can officially begin.

Every phase brings its own set of decisions and waiting games, but watching Oak Branch Cottage evolve step by step makes every detail worth the wait.

The Work Continues, y'all!

Oak Branch Cottage: Renovation Updates {Bringing Back the Charm}

Things are officially moving along at Oak Branch Cottage, and we’ve reached that crucial, highly satisfying milestone: prep work for paint day! If you’ve ever taken on a historic or older home, you know that 80% of a great paint job is the invisible work that happens long before a brush ever touches the wall. Next week, the color finally goes on, but getting here took a whole lot of elbow grease—especially in the dining room and guest bedroom.

Undoing the '90s in the Dining Room

The dining room needed serious intervention. Back in the 1990s, a previous owner decided to try a very specific faux finish trend: a paper bag wall treatment intended to emulate the crinkled, rich look of tobacco leaves. While I can appreciate the creative endeavor of the era, it certainly had its day!

Stripping off layers of torn, glued-down craft paper was only step one. The heavy adhesive and rough texture meant the drywall underneath was severely damaged. The crew had to completely skim-coat and resurface the walls to get them smooth again. It was messy, labor-intensive work, but seeing a clean, level surface in that room makes every bit of plaster dust worth it.

Listing Photo

Smoothing Out the Guest Bedroom

Over in the guest bedroom, we faced a different kind of wall texture issue. A previous update involved painting directly over older wallpaper. While painting over paper can sometimes be a quick fix, time is rarely kind to that shortcut. Over the years, the wallpaper began to shift and buckle, creating visible seams and folds under the paint layer.

That bumpy, uneven texture just didn't jive with the clean, serene aesthetic I’m building for Oak Branch Cottage. Guest rooms should feel crisp, airy, and inviting. So, out came the scraper tools and joint compound to strip back the damage and restore a smooth, seamless backdrop.

Listing Photo

What’s Next?

With the walls fully prepped, repaired, and sanded down, the canvas is officially clear. Next week, the real magic happens as we start rolling on the paint and bringing color, light, and personality back into these spaces.

Stay tuned for the reveal—I can’t wait to show you the transformation!

Walls, y'all!

Oak Branch Cottage: Finding Fabrics and Trims

Yesterday afternoon was one of those deeply satisfying days where a house truly starts feeling like a home. J and I headed over to Fairfax Fabrics on Magazine Street for a long-awaited appointment with Patricia to hunt down fabrics and trims for our upcoming window treatments, a cozy window seat, and a custom shower curtain.

There is something endlessly inspiring about pulling bolts of cloth, feeling textures, and watching patterns come alive under good lighting. While perusing the endless selections is a dream in itself, having Patricia’s expert eye in the room made all the difference in turning a sea of options into a cohesive design vision.

By the time our session wrapped up, we had made some serious progress and nailed down selections for four key spaces:

• Living Room: Settled on both the primary window fabric and trim, along with a perfectly complementary fabric for the living room window seat.
  

  
  
  
  

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• Dining Room: Chosen a stunning fabric and trim pairing to set the mood for future dinner parties.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Guest Bathroom: Selected the fabric and trim for a custom shower curtain that brings just the right touch of warmth to the space.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Guest Bedroom: Instead of starting from scratch, we are repurposing the beloved drapes from our current sunroom. To accommodate the higher ceilings at the cottage, Patricia helped us select a gorgeous bullion fringe that will elongate the panels with a rich, deliberate finish.

  
  
  
  
  
  

• Master Bathroom: Luckily, I am also able to reuse the current shower curtain and Roman shade for the bath in the new home.

  
  
  

• Kitchen: Fabric for the kitchen cafe' curtain was also selected.

  
  
  

Piece by piece, the vision is coming together. I hope you will continue to follow along as we transform and refresh so many corners here at Oak Branch Cottage! 

Follow along @oakbranchcottage

Fairfax Fabrics, y'all!