Anything Goes With Gustavian

Anything you love to live with or in, looks good with Gustavian furniture, I think; old, new, Retro, or rough. Bill uses our dining room in Hopewell to dry many of his clay pieces and our chairs are often supporting platforms of clay chunks or pieces set under the ceiling fan; however, it looks lovely to me.

Custom Building A Sceen Door

We hung the screen door Bill built with all solid brass hardware, mostly from the "House of Antique Hardware". Below is an old screen door spring the local hardware store gave us, which is mounted with an inch of tension: "thwap!"

Building the Screen Door...

Alex suggested a screen door for the front of Old Farm, and we all immediately liked the idea since it would allow more light and air into the front of the house. Bill got to order a new tenon joiner machine (open box price from Amazon), copper screening, and solid brass hardware, while I got to design it like a few favorites I had seen in Nantucket.

After fitting the door on site, Bill has routed the screen area edges here where he will paint the door and screen stops before assembling it all. The screen gets stapled into place and stops (mitered trim) are nailed over the edges..

Although the craigslist biscuit joiner Bill bought to enlarge the closet door could have been used here, he was convinced that an exterior door would last much longer with tenon joints (and Titebond III glue). I decided on 4" clear pine stiles and 9" bottom board which allowed us to order a 5' stock piece of copper screen and trim the door to it's trapezoidal opening shape.

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Installing a Screen

While the screen stops are off, the new screen (this one is 90% copper + 10% zinc to keep from turning green) is cut to size with wire cutters and laid in place. A staple gun and 3/8" staples are used to secure the screen.

The screen stops are then fit into place and 5/8" brads are used to nail them in place.

We made protective screen bars to mount on the front and back of the door, which are secured with solid brass screws.

The screen door below appears to have nice new copper screening which looks wonderful with the color paint around it. This is the Tate House, built in 1775 on the coast of Maine for the Senior Mast Agent for the British Royal Navy, who oversaw the cutting and shipping of white pines to England. Note: All tree trunks 24" and wider were marked with three axe slashes and claimed for the English King to be used as ship masts, which is why we haven't any boards of this size at Old Farm, but almost.

Below is the screen door on the Union Street Inn in Nantucket, and a favorite. The bars help with high traffic, and mostly boys in the house in our case. Ours has 5; 1 1/4" bars outside, and 3 inside. The cost of the materials was about $100.

The inside of our front door is now painted a light blue/green "Glacial", by Restoration Hardware in Benjamin Moore gloss paint which we had specially mixed. It will also be used on steps across from the door inside.

This door finally got an old indoor handle we found here and a hand forged slide bolt from "Fagan's Forge" besides the latest in weather stripping of three different sizes (Bill read about from "This Old House") which makes it shut like a refrigerator.

I love green painted doors of all shades, from English black/greens to paler shades like the color of Bucklebury Manor's front door, where Kate Middleton's parents live on a Georgian Estate.

What's built behind this door is quite impressive. There are solar panels on a newer roof and I plan to put two large skylights in the front roof of Old Farm, which will be as radical an idea I hope.

Pictures from "mylusciouslife.com".

Outside of our front door are some very old original plantings, gardens refurbished, a hammock when on vacation, and stacked firewood for winter.

Nikko Blue and Limelight Hydrangeas

My first hydrangeas to bloom at Old Farm are the Nikko Blues which have the loveliest range of colors from pale whites and greens with pinks and blues emerging or mixing; classics. This summer's heat wave had them fade a bit early, but having the Limelights nearby which bloom latest but longest, is a treat.

The Limelights here are just blooming near the back door, but although the sun is setting on them, they still seem to "light" up already; luminaries.

Big Blooms

Here is just one Little Lamb panicle. The Little Lamb Hydrangeas did most well at Old Farm this summer producing enormous blooms that cascaded over our rock wall and in front of the garden shed.

 The Nikko Blue blooms here are the size of basketballs and I brought a few home to put in Christian's greenhouse on the far corner table.

Nine Sweet Autumn Clematis have nearly blanketed our bordering fence in their third year! There is one plant for every ten feet of fence.

One of two newly planted Standard Pee Gee Hydrangeas came with many blooms ready to burst open and our new vintage brass sundial ($10.00 on ebay) keeps time for us outside now.

 

In total there are over 50 hydrangeas of 12 different varieties planted at Old Farm. The central garden has 11 Annabel, 6 Little Limes, 3 Knock Out White and 3 Bridal Veil, behind some baby Boxwoods and in front of 33 bi-colored Rose of Sharon; planted in formation rows.

The garden shed is surrounded with them and opposite a string of fruit tress are blue Endless Summer along the garage while several sculptures and a cutting garden are nice accents for me.

White Houses of Nantucket

Although almost all of the houses on nearby Nantucket Island are covered in cedar shakes, several can be found painted partially or entirely white, and give one pause to notice their brilliant reflection of the seaside sun and how lovely the plantings look around them. I don't plan to paint anything outside at Old Farm white, but all that I can inside!

 

Even in the shade...

Or as Fall approaches... 

Even at this time, the sun is still strong enough to make this wedding tent barely visable. It is being set-up on Jetties Beach, which is usually a popular family beach where a sandbar can create a safe swimming spot while watching large sailboats and ferries come or go in the harbor.

White wedding tents can be found all over Nantucket now, like in this farm field...

Building a Trellis

On one of our vacation days at Old Farm, Bill and I built trellises for the back side of the house near large white clematis vines I recently planted. Bill ripped 5/4" X 6" cedar boards to make sticks a bit more than 1" square, which he nailed together with 1 3/4" stainless steel nails at each overlap, from behind. I designed the trellises to fit from molding to molding in their space and line up with the 8' X 10' trellis above each on the roof. The squares are 10" to line up with the 5" over-hang cedar shake siding.

It is important to check that the joints are square while assembling and installing each trellis to prevent racking/twisting. It helped having the boys around when we installed these on a very hot day, while there was shade on the roof.

Bill used four; 4" cedar stick pieces and long screws with silicon to attach each trellis. On the wall, the pieces were cut on an angle to fit the shingle siding.

It took one day to build these, most of another to hang them, and they cost about $90 each in materials.

Christian's light weight on the roof really helped while Alex helped with the key placements.

Backing up some, you can see how they helped add interest for us...during a very parched, hot vacation.

 Update: More Trellises...

I have felt inspired to build more trellises for Old Farm which would be near the restored front door and have southern exposure. We built sturdy; architectural looking trellises like those on the back of the house, which line up with the shingles and each other. This was a beautiful Fall day to be up on the roof (Christian) and on the Cape.

Five sticks are ripped from 5/4" X 6" clear cedar boards using a thin 3/32" cut table saw blade and nailed together with 1 3/4" stainless steel nails.

Most of the sun falls to the right side of the front door and roof above it, so I plan to plant a favorite climbing rose "Rosa Eden" here next Spring.

This group of trellises cost about $350 in materials, took a day to build and part of an afternoon to install with cedar blocks, silicon and screws. Next will be two large skylights in the roof to the right of the trellis.

Below are several inspirational images from visits to Nantucket.