the berry cottage. - Blessings and Raindrops

Over the past several years, Dave and I have had the amazing opportunity to physically move and restore a handful of homes that were otherwise slated for demolition. Our family’s farmhouse was our first experience moving an entire house about six years ago and we are still immensely grateful to live in this unique home with such a special story.

When we were asked last year if we could move another home in our town’s historic downtown area in order to prevent it from being torn down, we were absolutely up for the challenge. From the first time I visited the quaint cottage-style house, I could tell that it had been lovingly cared for for many years and it just felt like joy had been repeatedly seeped into the walls.

We met with the homeowners several times leading up to the move and all agreed to move the house to our berry farm outside of town. We weren’t sure how we would use the house but we knew we could eventually use it as a bridal space when we host a wedding at the farm or potentially as an AirBnB.

The day of the move was exciting and fairly uneventful until we had to tear down a neighbor’s fence in order to fit through the pasture. Small detail. It wouldn’t be memorable if there wasn’t a little creative problem-solving necessary. Am I right?! (Don’t worry, Dave rebuilt the fence).

We took our time restoring this sweet little house and had to be extremely budget conscious as this was going to be an investment property and we wanted it be beautiful but we didn’t have the luxury of pouring a lot of money into the project.

On the exterior, we extended the roofline in order to create a welcoming front porch. We also added a brick skirt (using local antique brick) and added french doors on the south side of the house. We also swapped out the front door with a vintage door that we had dipped and restored to its original hardwood finish. To complete the cottage look, Dave built the gorgeous cedar shutters and dreamy front porch swing. It was a cute house before but I think it’s now absolutely adorable!

The heart of the home – the kitchen – was small and dark and I knew we needed to open up the space in order to bring in natural light and allow for more people to gather in this important space. We were able to knock down a couple of walls, hide the header in the attic and expand the footprint of the kitchen to completely transform the space.

I LOVE how this kitchen turned out. The layout is incredibly simple and achieved everything I hoped for. I wanted the sink below the new wall of windows, overlooking the picturesque blueberry fields. And, I absolutely wanted the space to be light and bright, with warm wood tones throughout.

I knew we needed an island that felt like an old piece of furniture while maintaining the open and airy feel of the space. Dave built this beauty for me and did his presto-magic work to incorporate the cooktop INTO the island by hiding the gas and electric lines in one of the island’s hollow legs. This allowed us to keep an open island and not have a bulky range taking up a significant amount of space in this small kitchen.

We kept the black honed granite from our farmhouse kitchen when we remodeled and were able to repurpose it here in this space. This helped us stay on budget and also added to the cottage feel.

We added a small laundry room off the kitchen and went with a unique vintage door to create warmth and visual interest, especially since it’s right next to the pantry door.

I found the vintage green pendants at a flea market a few years ago and have held onto them until I found the perfect project – I was so excited to finally put them to use!