The English Maximalista

My old farmhouse

By

English Maximalista

Those of you whom are regular readers of English Maximalista blogs may have noticed my frequent references to the Victorian farmhouse I used to own, when I lived in the Midwest.

Four Gables was one of the great loves of my life. She was built in 1875 — exactly 100 years before my own birth — and was amongst the very first houses to go up in the little village in rural Wisconsin, where my [ex-]husband and I had decided to settle down.

This is the place where I learned valuable Life Lessons about adulting and relationships, as well as homesteading, gardening, and A LOT of trial-and-error DIY!

Of course, most important of all, it is where I learned how to be a parent: Four Gables is where my darling baby girl, aka the Top Banana, was born and raised. The Top Banana is the number one love of my life, and she is 100% my proudest achievement. It all began at this house.

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The majority of our furnishings and decor for Four Gables were purchased from garage sales, barn sales, thrift shops, or the clearance aisles at the major home stores. A lot of things were handed down to us from family, when we were impecunious newly-weds. Then in later years, we used to trawl our local antiques malls, before they all sadly began to close.

Everything we did was on a budget. The only vast expenditure was imagination! But I would not change a thing. I did all of the DIY myself, teaching myself how to refinish stuff, sew ruffles on cushions (tacking pins are essential!), how to proficiently put wallpaper up.

We bought the house in February 2001, when I was 25 years old. [My husband and I went on to divorce in 2018, with Four Gables being awarded to me as part of our divorce settlement.] I waited for our daughter to graduate from High School and head off to Uni, before I sold the house.

2021 was a big year for us, filled with bittersweet farewells such as these… which were thankfully balanced out by happier occasions and second chances, such as my nuptials to Mr Maximalista.

During my curatorship of Four Gables, I thoroughly enjoyed putting my stamp on this lovely old Victorian home. She was an enormous part of my life and bore silent witness to the ups and downs of my personal growth, throughout the twenty years of my life there.

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As you can see from the following photos, Four Gables went through numerous design incarnations during my 2-decade stewardship. As I learned different DIY techniques, and became more confident in expressing my personality, I progressed from using safe, traditional tones to experimenting with bolder colours, and eventually a lot more black (my favourite colour).

Here, I share some of my favourite snapshots of the first home I ever owned. You may recognise many pieces of the decor, which feature in the blogs about my current home in Colorado.

Lots of love,

M xo

One bathroom, three looks:

Phase 1 of the family bathroom: lemon, with Laura Ashley ‘Gainsborough’ wallpaper border [not shown] and matching chintz valance
Phase 2 of the family bathroom, several years after phase 1. Retained the Laura Ashley border and valance, brought in some blue. I loved this look, and it remained like this for many years!
Phase 3 of the family bathroom. The previous decor was looking tired, and I was ready for something completely different.
Wallpaper: York.

The kitchen:

8 Feb 2001 — three days after we closed. Getting to work on stripping the kitchen to bare bones.
Phase 1 of the kitchen. Dark red walls. This was my first attempt at tiling a floor, with mixed results. I always liked how the cabinets turned out (original from 1975!). I still have those Spode plates and the ceramic kitchen canisters!
Phase 2 of the kitchen. The cabinets held up really well, considering I refinished them when we first bought the house, and had no idea what I was doing!!

The breakfast room:

Phase 1 of the breakfast room. Orange furniture, 1-year wedding anniversary gift from my in-laws.
I made those curtains, along with all of the other curtains in the house. I lost that kind of ambition a long time ago!
Phase 2 of the breakfast room. Maximalista vibes! The curtains are the only thing remaining from when we first moved in!
Phase 3 of the breakfast room. I thrifted four curtain panels for $3.99 each, and they still hang in my house, today
Phase 3 of the breakfast room. We still have everything you see here.
Wallpaper border: Waverly.

Formal dining room:

Formal dining room: phase 1. I painted the walls this dark green within one month of moving in… and hated how it looked! Note the china cabinet [in its original varnish], which is the one I still own.
Formal dining room: phase 2. Not long after the dark green paint fiasco, I went with lighter green, and some Laura Ashley wallpaper. I also painted the china cabinet black, with a distressed finish, and replaced the hardware.
Formal dining room: phase 4. I eventually replaced all traces of green with… BLACK! Kept the Laura Ashley wallpaper, though. The china cabinet went back to holding my Royal Doulton china, which was my wedding china.
Formal dining room: phase 3. Still green, but introducing more black. The china cabinet was working as a bookcase for a while, until we got more bookshelves elsewhere.

The family room:

The family room was the first room we decorated at Four Gables, because we wanted to be comfortable in the evenings, whilst the rest of the house was in upheaval. I made the curtains, cushions and quilted afghan, and reupholstered the striped footstool. The green loveseat now resides in my boudoir; the end tables live in the peacock bedroom.
The family room was like this for about ten years. I absolutely loved it.
Cream wallpaper: Laura Ashley.

The landing:

The landing, which we had grand plans of turning into a library. This photo was taken within days of buying the house: we were stripping all the beechwood floors upstairs.
The landing: phase 1. This was my young mother era (the Top Banana is in her crib in the background). I spent a lot of time reading in here, whilst she played nearby. It was a happy time in my life.
The landing: phase 2. When the Top Banana was a teenager, we swapped bedrooms so that her bedroom would be closer to the toy room at the back of the house. The black bedroom in the background of this picture became my “new” bedroom. We left the leather sofa bed [in the foreground] when we sold the house, because it was so damn heavy!!
Me on the front porch of Four Gables, shortly after we bought the house. So innocent! Had no idea what a marriage-breaker this house would turn into. (By the way, I still have that purple cashmere sweater, lol)

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One response to “My old farmhouse”

  1. JeaneMargherite McMahon Avatar
    JeaneMargherite McMahon

    I loved that house!!! AND all of the “phases” of decor!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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