Home Tour with Jayne Wells

Just after I moved away from Elm Avenue, Jayne Wells moved in, two houses up. When I met her the next fall, I complained to my husband, "I can't believe that bad timing. She is so great. It would have been fun to be her neighbor."

I've loved getting to know Jayne through her blog. She is thoughtful and beautiful and hilarious. One day, while looking at some pictures on Jayne's blog, I noticed that her home was darling. Really darling. So I asked my would-be neighbor if she would do a home tour on Bloom, and she happily obliged. See? I told you she was great.

Thanks for being here, Jayne!

Jayne: Firstly, I have to give a lot of credit to the Fishers who lived here before us and built such a beautiful home. The details they included like the built in shelves and cupboards are so wonderful for us. We feel so blessed to be here. Next, sometimes I feel overwhelmed when I see pictures of peoples' houses because they feel so perfect. I just want you all to know that we cleaned up one room at a time to take pictures because it is usually covered with toys, dishes and other clutter that many of us have. Also, we didn't take pictures of the unfinished baseboard, and unorganized closets (in other words, we're putting our best in front of you! )

Anne: You have so much great color in your home. How did you go about choosing colors for walls, furniture, etc? And, what advice do you have for people who are afraid of using bold colors or mixing colors?

Jayne: Color makes me happy, so I've never been scared of using it. Red is my favorite color, but I have a lot of accent furniture and decorations in red, so for the last two places I've lived in I use yellow in the main room. I love the sunshine, and I guess yellow must provide that in a little way for me. My suggestion to any who are afraid of using color is to simply try it! Bring home paint samples and test them out with your furniture and accents. You may find you really love it!

Anne: You have such a great eye, Jayne. The way you put things together on walls, use antiques to accessorize, etc. Do you feel like that's something innate in you, or have you made a study of it?
Jayne: Gosh, I don't know. I think some of it must be innate, while some, I'm sure has come from looking at a lot of magazines, visiting a lot of antique stores and studying others' decorations.

Anne: I know you love Country Living. What else inspires you?
Jayne: Yes, I love Country Living and other magazines like it. I also just love to see what others do in their homes. I enjoy many styles and seeing what other people come up with inspires me a lot!

Anne: What a great window between your kitchen and living room. Did you put that in?

Jayne: We did put the window in. It used to be in the house that I grew up in. My parents got new windows and gave me that one. I wanted to keep the wall there to separate the two rooms, but I needed more light in the kitchen, so we put the window in. I love it--I feel it opens up the kitchen and I can also spy on my kids in the other room!

Anne: Wow, I am swooning over your kitchen! Did you paint the existing cabinets red or install new ones? Tell me about your floor.
Jayne: The cabinets were in great shape when we bought the house, very nice quality oak. Jed and I aren't big oak lovers, so we had them painted. We painted most everything in our house--but I trusted the cabinets to someone with a little more experience--especially since they're red. Red is hard to paint with I think! My floor is Vinyl Composition Tile from Home Depot. I was really interested in a checkered floor and had checked into something called Marmoleum. It was darling but so expensive (more than the wood we put in!) and then I ran into this VCT at Home Depot. It is the same stuff that is used in elementary schools! It was so cheap (I think about $.50 for each tile) so I was thrilled. It is a lot of maintenance, I must warn you of that--it shows all the chocolate milk and yogurt that get spilled on it. I spend a good amount of time mopping!

Anne: It seems like you have a lot of unique, vintage furniture (this vanity in Hazel's room is to die for). How have you acquired it? Have you fixed it up/painted it all yourself?
Jayne: Some furniture we have inherited--such as the vanity, bed and chest of drawers in Hazel's room, they belonged to my great-grandma. Other furniture we have been collected from family or garage sales and have fixed them up--the red dining table and yellow armoir (in the master) are two that we (Jed!) has fixed up.

Anne: All of the decor in your children's rooms is so sweet and unique. Are you a big thrifter/antiquer or do you have a lot of family heirlooms?
Jayne: I love antiques. And most of the things I've gotten come from antique stores and fairs. Some things, including lots of books, have come from library sales, or thrift stores. But antique stores and fairs delight me, because I can usually go with $10 and come home with some treasure. Sometimes it is small--like blocks for the kids names or the apron on Hazel's doll. But other times I find a killer deal and bring home an old adding machine or crock.

Anne: I love this artwork in the basement. Is that framed wallpaper?
Jayne: Thanks for liking that! Yes, I found the vintage wallpaper at the Country Living fair this past year--and we wanted to use it on actual walls downstairs, but we have grooves in the walls, which are painted wood panneling, so wallpaper was going to be hard. So we improvised and framed some pieces instead!

Anne: You have a home that was built in what, the 1950s or 1960s? How much remodeling did you have to do? (floors? mantel? windows?)
Jayne: Like I said, the home itself is fantastic. I will praise Grant Fisher's name forever for building such a wonderful place. We changed a lot of things to make it our style. We put in all the flooring, painted/wallpapered everything, knocked out a wall--but other than that, I inherited greatness! The mantel was there, windows are original and built ins were there too! I also got some fantastic shade trees outside!

Thanks again, Jayne! Readers, raise you hand if you think Jayne should send these pics in to Country Living for a feature article!