Saltbox houses have two different roof lines.
Saltbox homes have their roots in the Colonial and Cape Cod-style dwellings built by the early American colonists. With their easily identifiable roof lines that slope toward the back, these houses are identified with the Colonial way of life and were decorated according to the family's income. Some designs were utilitarian while others featured finer furniture and accessories. Before decorating your saltbox home, decide on the style that best fits your taste while complementing your home's architectural history. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
Primitive
1. Lay wood plank floors. Choose wide boards and fasten them to the subfloor with square-headed nails. Leave them unfinished to age naturally.
2. Dress the windows with muslin or burlap curtains pinned to the window trim with small nails. Tie them back with twine.
3. Plaster the walls or paint them with textured paint for a rough finish. Paint them Colonial colors like brick red, grey blue or buttermilk. Stencil a primitive border around the ceiling or halfway up the walls. Choose patterns like those featuring hearts, stars and barnyard motifs.
4. Make a large brick or stone fireplace or cast iron wood stove the centerpiece of the room. If these are not options, secure a vintage fireplace surround with mantel to the wall. Fill the opening with logs, dried flowers or candles. Use the mantel for display.
5. Choose vintage or reproduction furniture. Opt for simple, handcrafted and painted pieces worn around the spots that get the most wear, like knobs, pulls, handles, chair seats and corners. Mix in upholstered furniture like a well-worn armchair and overstuffed sofa covered in nubby linen and accessorized with throw pillows made from feed sacks.
6. Accessorize with framed samplers, grapevine wreaths and slightly tattered quilts. Display collections of things like vintage rag dolls or Shaker boxes that stack from large to small.
Hang baskets and dried herbs and flowers from exposed ceiling beams.
Colonial
7. Stencil a favorite scene or checkerboard pattern on your wood floor. Outline your windows and doors with a traditional stencil. Choose motifs featuring pineapples and willow trees or opt for a patriotic theme in red, white and blue. Warm the floor with oval braided or Oriental rugs.
8. Hang white tieback curtains at your windows. Choose those with ball fringe or tab tops. Install wooden shutters halfway up the windows for privacy.
9. Center your dining room with a highly polished oak or mahogany drop-leaf table. Surround it with matching Windsor-back chairs. Hang a brass or pewter chandelier above it.
10. Form a conversation area in front of your fireplace with a camel-back sofa and wing chairs upholstered in checked, plaid and muted floral fabric. Add a candlestick-style lamp and give the area a British Colonial touch with a coffee table fashioned from teak or mahogany and trimmed in copper or brass. Display a spinning wheel in a nearby corner.
11. Add wall art featuring hunting scenes, vintage portraits or scenes from nature.
Tags: roof lines, your windows
