Welcome to our beach cottage overlooking a bay on Washington State’s Puget Sound! Our home was built in 1920.
One of the very first things we did after moving in was to build the deck off the front of the house. There was really nowhere to sit and take in the beautiful water views.
The most unique thing about our property is the fact that the deck, greenhouse, and gardens are all in the front of the house. Usually, you see these things in someone’s backyard. But because we have all the sun, the water view, and the flat and level land in the front, we have made adjustments!
Living Room
When you walk through the front door, the first thing you see is our living room. We have made many updates since moving here 9 years ago. Because our home is only 1600 square feet, I need to be very mindful of where to place the furniture and find creative places for storage.
One of my favorite things is this gorgeous window seat! It’s a great place to switch out pillows and quilts each season to give the room a completely different look. We have 3 window seats throughout the house. It is incredibly helpful to store household items underneath because we have so few closets. I don’t believe closet and storage space was valued in the 1920s like it is now!
Some of the things we have added to the cottage for character…ceiling beams, crown molding, shiplap walls, and hardwood floors.
This brick chimney is such a great focal point! When we bought the house, there was a wood-burning fireplace here, which made the room look so small and it was impossible to place furniture in a realistic way. I do wish we had a fireplace with a killer mantel, but I know I can’t have everything!
Kitchen
We have done so much to this kitchen, and it is one of my favorite rooms in our cottage! At one point, everything was ripped out to the studs! We have done our renovation projects in phases. This last phase was completed in August 2019. The tongue-and-groove ceiling was an absolute must for me, although it is a bit high maintenance with having to caulk and repaint the cracks every so often because of the house settling. My husband made the pan rack for me after I was inspired by my friend @mollyinmaine on Instagram.
I wanted to stay with a classic feel, so we went with subway tile. It just seems so timeless to me. We chose the darker granite counters to give us a bit of color, and break up the white. Our kitchen is too small for a normal sized island, so we used this vintage dresser and added a butcher block found at a Dunkin Doughnut.
Our entire kitchen renovation was built around this farm sink. There’s nothing better than a sink full of flowers!
We took down the wall between the kitchen and the living room last year, and can’t believe what a difference it has made! We are now able to entertain more guests because the flow is so much better and we now have a more open concept. Window seating with storage was also added to give us more seating around the table. This is the only eating space we have in the house.
We decided to take down one of our white upper cabinets and replaced it with open shelving, which I love! It gives me an opportunity to constantly switch things up and have fun decorating them!
And what could be better than enjoying a meal while looking out at the water? We are looking at a bay in the Puget Sound.
Bedroom
Our bedroom has more of a romantic feel, complete with a chandelier, French doors, and chippy furniture.
One of the biggest changes we made was adding a master bathroom through the French door. The built-in you see here was a stand-alone cabinet, built at the same time as the house. It amazes me that each of the previous owners left it with the house. We really wanted it in this room, so when we added the tub on the other side of the wall, it was built into the wall to fit.
Here’s a view I don’t show very much. I’ve always thought it was an odd space, having the bed blocking half of the window seat. But we don’t have much choice now that we’ve added the door to the bathroom. This is the only wall the bed will fit on.
One of out latest projects was closing off the door leading to the living room. We wanted more privacy, so we added a wall where the mirror is. We had this built in made where the small closet used to be, because we had no room for a dresser in the room.
Laundry Room
I absolutely love this laundry room! I’m able to store so much in this room and it gets used so much!
We don’t have any coat closets in the house, so this hook helps with the overflow of coats, bags and scarves.
We found this vintage sink a year after buying the house. It comes in handy with giving the pups a bath, cutting flowers and much more. The house had a black and white linoleum floor when we moved in. I would have never thought to have a floor like this, but I really liked how unique it was. So when it came time to replacing the floor, we put in tile but kept the black and white.
Garden
Here is one of my favorite views of our greenhouse. We had to build it in the front yard, because that’s where all the sun is. And it doesn’t hurt to have a water view when you’re gardening! The view is always changing with the seasons.
Here’s a view from the street. This is a very unique property. Most people think the water view and gardens are in my backyard. The greenhouse and gardens are in the front yard because the back has no sun and is not level.
This is my very favorite view of the greenhouse. It doesn’t have the water view that is so pretty to look at, but I just love the flowers surrounding it!
A look at the inside of the greenhouse. I wish we could have made this bigger, but we just didn’t have the land to do so. The shelves are full of seeds starts from February to May. All of my geraniums live here through the winter.
Here’s another fun fact! The water you are seeing here is not a lake. You might think that because we live in a town called Lakebay, but it’s not so. We live in a bay on the Puget Sound. Many people don’t know that I can hop in my boat from this bay, and take it to the ocean from here. The bay is warm enough to swim in during the summer.
My fresh-cut flower and vegetable garden is behind that white picket fence. Gardening is so much more fun with a water view!
The yard is full of vintage yard art!
Can you guess what my favorite flowers are? Yes, dahlias are my favorites!
Here’s a little view from the raised bed garden.
I thought it would be fun to grow flowers and vegetables together.
Thank you so much for joining me on the tour of out home and gardens. I hope you enjoyed it!
