Welcome to our home, Fox Hollow Cottage.

See The New White Paint Reveal [click here]

I live with my husband Jim, and our two Maine Coon kitties in a 1920’s cottage style bungalow. We’ve recently become empty nesters, since our son Austin spread his wings and moved out on his own. Our home is located on the coast in the lush, green, Pacific Northwest.

Sadly, when we bought our cottage home, she had been neglected of basic maintenance and upgrades over the years. We started renovating and making lots of improvements as soon as we became the owners. We hit the ground running and worked on her night and day. We installed 23 new windows, and worked on everything from the ceilings down inside! Since she has become ours, we have showered her with lots of attention and we think it’s made her very happy! There was so much to do inside, and at what is now the guest cottage… that she’s a bit lacking in curb appeal. So far we’ve painted, added shutters, and done a lot of yard work and shrub removal.

We keep her tidy but I can picture her with a lovely little courtyard. Maybe someday… but I hope to give my kitchen some attention first!

Fox Hollow Cottage Home Tour

Okay now! To start this little home tour, we’ll enter from the street level, where you’ll find yourself on the main floor. There is no foyer or formal entry… you open the door and h e l l o you are “in” the house, fast as that!

And because the front door is just so prominent, I’ve definitely had some fun with it over the years.

I’ve painted it an aqua blue shade, that made it through early Spring, and through the addition of more blue to the room.

But changed to a much milder version. It’s less vibrant and a little more mellow. [Door Color Details – Click Here]

And most recently, I went with a neutral color that makes it easy to change everything around it for the different seasons, and my many moods. Though the aqua shade will always have a piece of my heart, and could make a repeat performance some day…

For now, the neutral shade makes perfect sense with the farm table here now, since the brick accent wall is done, and the new barn door island is living in it’s former spot in the kitchen.

The smaller furnishings come and go and don’t stay in one place for long. I’m always moving things about and trading things out. I’ve been that way as long as I can recall. I was moving my furniture around in my bedroom at an early age. I’m so glad my mom indulged me and didn’t mind!

Our home has pretty much been a revolving door of thrifty finds & made over treasures — like our shutter door entertainment armoire, this coffee table, a painted velvet chair, etc…

Things can change on a whim around here. Like I said, I love to move things around, switch out my home decor accents, paint and mix it up! I try to stick with neutrals for the big stuff, so everything is pretty interchangeable. If you follow me on social media.. you’ll know I have a slight pillow addiction.

The living room has changed a bit, with the 2020 addition of my long time wish-list dream furniture!

To see the new look [click here]

Our living & dinning room are open to the kitchen, and that steps down into our sun room. Before we got the new island, we had our farm table situated here, though it was always a tight fit, and a spot I struggled with. The new island is such a perfect fit and helps the flow and function of our home immensely!

The hardwood floors were installed in the Summer of 2013. We did it all by ourselves. Was it hard, messy and a lot of work? Yes. Was it worth it? A million times YES!

You can read all about our dark wood floors HERE — I’ll tell you how I feel about them, share the color & brand, the pros & cons.

If we had not done them ourselves, we never could have afforded them. While I love doing projects on our home, they have to be realistic. The labor estimate was more than the actual flooring! So DIY it was. While we had the old carpet pulled up, I painted ceiling to base boards. Everything feels so fresh and clean with new paint!

You’ll find lots of flowers sprinkled around the house during the Summer months. Mostly just clippings from my French and Spanish Lavenders or sometimes our giant climbing Rose. Occasionally I splurge on $5 grocery store flowers. Once in while, I get lucky and have a bloom from my Hydrangeas the Deer have not gotten too, but not too often.

They are so magnificent though, I’ve come to not mind at all. They have been visiting for all the years we have lived here.

It might have something to do with the fact that we sort of feed them apples too…

I’ve adjusted by keeping most of my flowers potted on our upper sun deck. So far, the Deer haven’t figured out how to climb the steps. So it’s working our great!

I love using things like vintage sap buckets, old wash tubs and terracotta pots for my planting. If you don’t care for the original terracotta color, I’ve got a simple fix for making over those plain terracotta pots [click here for the tutorial]

Another change we made after the farm table was relocated, the brick wall was completed and the new island was installed, was to update our pantry!

It took years for this little project to make it to the top of the priority list. There always seemed to be something more pressing of either our budget, attention, or both! Get our pantry details by [clicking here]

Continuing with the tour, and stepping back a bit, if you turn to the right after entering the house you’ll find our fireplace.

And the most up to date transformation, when we spent $30 and added a shiplap wall over the mantle.

My home decor and craft storage room is to the right of the fireplace was completely moved.

I got the bright idea to flip it, with our sons room, so it was a brand new space and more organized than ever. Whew. Such a relief to have that room in order. There are now tons of shelves and a place for everything.

Austin’s room was much better too, it was such a smart solution! Even though he stole most of my globes and the vintage fan in the process… hahaha.

This space was in a bit of limbo for awhile after Austin graduated and then moved out, but it quickly became seasonal storage for all my Fall & Winter decor. With our rainy climate and no attached garage, it makes sense for my decorations to be inside the house. Giving up a potential guest room is something I’m only able to do because of a reason you’ll read about further down….

Down the main hallway is our linen closet.

I made it over a few years ago. It was well worth tackling. It looks so clean and organized now, after years (like almost ten!) of being pretty ugly and blah. Whenever you make a change like that, do you wonder why you waited so long? I know I do! Especially when I did it on a zero budget. So nothing was holding me back, but me. Head slapper.

Updated to add: the linen closet is due for a major overhaul, as it’s not to my taste in the least, and needs to be re-configured to better suit out current needs. There are only two of us, and I’ve got enough bath linens for a dozen people!

Continuing down the hall is the main floor bath.

This room got a “mostly paint makeover” and 2 of the 23 new windows we put in the home… along with a (very modestly budgeted) new commode, sink, faucets, light fixtures, hardware, flooring, mirror and accessories. The paint was the most integral part though. Lots of white paint!!

This the image that inspired me to do something a little different in our bathroom, and that leads us to the latest look… is this!

You can see the full before & after bathroom makeover here. But I’ll give you a little peek below…

And then you can see it’s most current look, by [clicking here]

Next, we’ll head into the kitchen and the adjoining sun room.

If you want to see how the kitchen looked when we bought the house and how far it’s come, you’ll want to check out this post right here to see the very bad beginnings. It’s pretty shocking!

We made the countertop in the sun room. It’s changed a bit since we first installed it. I’ve been trying to go neutral so I have even more decorating freedom.

We also took advantage of the fact we never used it as a bar and created some hidden storage beneath it!

You would not believe the craft supplies I’ve got stored under those skirts! And in all the tiny drawers of the apothecary cabinet too. Small space solutions guys! No craft room means crafty thinking.

If we pop around the bar in the sun room… we can head down the hidden stairway to the walk-out basement level. We’ve got a few rooms down here, like our offices, a den, and our master bedroom. Which very recently just got some much, much needed attention!

Master Bedroom Retreat Makeover with Fireplace [click here]

For the last room on the tour of the main house, I’ll share our combination powder bath and laundry room. This room went through one of the biggest transformations in the house. It was so… well, you’d have to see the before picture to appreciate it. Let me just say, there was a window in the wall that looked out into an exterior storage room. Yeah. It was super charming. It’s a pretty big room, with great storage and definitely had some potential.

Our Cottage. Fox Hollow Cottage White House Home Tour - Home Decorating Eclectic Cottage Farmhouse Style

If you are wondering why we even considered tackling this poor house in the first place, it’s because when we were viewing the home, the Realtor walked us out the lower set of French doors and said the words;

“Now let me show you the other house”.

That pretty much sealed the deal! It was an answer to a prayer we didn’t even know was on our lips! Jim’s mom needed a good place to live, and The Little Cottage became hers for many years. We were thrilled to have her so close to us and we all have so many really good memories of our time there with her. The Little Cottage also did not look like how you will see it in the photos below when we bought it… but that would be a whole nother’ blog! So I happily combine both homes right here on my Fox Hollow Cottage blog. All in one place.

See EVERYTHING About “The Little Cottage” [click here].

New Exterior Paint & Dutch Door [click here]

Tour The Little Cottage Entryway [click here]

Tour The Little Cottage Living Room: Look One [click here]

The Little Cottage Living Room: Look Two [click here]

And for the most current Living Room Look [click here]

The Bathroom [click here]

The Guest Bedroom [click here]

… that is until Austin came home to attend college. Now it’s a boy dungeon, and most of the furniture has been shuffled or stored. I’m in no hurry to put it back. I am savoring this bonus time with my one and only baby!!!!

And my favorite spot in The Little Cottage… the LOFT [click here]

And lastly… our outdoor area lies between the main house & The Little Cottage. Last year after much waiting and saving, we were able to get a family friendly, room-for-everyone outdoor sectional and really tun out outdoor space into our own little oasis for sunny grilling and nighttime chilling!

See our NEW Outdoor Space [click here] & [here]

You can even tour our Work Shop [click here]

I must stress again, that we were so very fortunate that we were able to live in our other house, while we did all the major renovations on these two, before we moved in. Sure, we’ve done more home improvement projects, but the really major diy stuff like the kitchen and bathrooms were all completed before we lived in it. Whew!!

We do have a few rooms that are camera shy… I hope you understand. I’ve continued to update the tour as things change, and new projects are completed. Thank you so much for visiting our little home! It’s only fun to share because you all come along for the journey with me!