The Yellow Room - another guest room on the third floor

This is another bedroom, a guest room, on the third floor which was the original servant's quarters in our home. They must have had quite a few servants as there are four bedrooms up there! I have had contact with several relatives of the original family that built the house about 1900 and also the family members of the couple that bought the house in about 1917. The house remained in the possession of the second owner until 1982.

Actually the second owner, Nannie Campbell was in a nursing home for twenty years prior to the 1980's and the house sat empty all those years! Amazingly, the house was never vandalized all that time! My next door neighbor was born and raised in Piedmont and he was a teen during that time and he told me that everyone was afraid of the house! It's very tall, large and imposing and on a hill and the caretaker would come sometimes at night and have a light on and the kids around here were frightened! Guess that was a blessing as the house suffered no damage during those years other than weather related issues.

Dr. Henry Louis Gates is a well known author, literary critic, documentary filmmaker and geneologist to people like Oprah Winfrey, Meryl Streep, Yo Yo Ma and many others spoke in his book 'Colored People A Memoir' about this house and Mrs. Campbell. He grew up here in Piedmont and it was a house that everyone spoke of as 'The Campbell Mansion'. Dr. Gates spoke of it in the 1960's as 'needing a complete renovation.' The inside is in much better condition needing only cosmetic fixes, the outside is another story but that's another post or two! Actually the house owned by that neighbor next door to me was purchased  by them from Dr. Gates' parents, it was their last family home here in Piedmont.

Getting back to the Yellow Room, of course named so because of the wall color. Clever huh? ;) A very simple pair of items spawned the choice of the yellow wall color. I went to an auction and found the pair of lamps discarded by a buyer that didn't want them. I loved the shape of the lamps and the chenille shades in a soft yellow color! They were in great condition and free! I painted the lamps white and kept the shades as they were. At another auction I bought three identical quilts, new! for $23.00. I only needed two but the third one gave me extra fabric to make the matching shams since they didn't come with shams. I covered the chair seat too.

The beds and mattresses I had bought the year before to sell in a shop I had before moving and when I did move, I closed the shop as it was 100 miles away. I purchased the two sets at an auction for $60.00 for everything! The nightstands were made from a vintage vanity that the previous owner of the house left here so they were free! Just the cost of the paint!

I used the shape of the headboard and footboard for the window valance bottom. When the bed was apart I actually traced the design onto the fabric laying the bed down into the fabric, it was the easiest way to get that exact shape! The battenburg back was the one I had left over from the Turret room. I quilted some 2" squares together together to form the shape above and sewed them on the yellow fabric. The bottom edge binding was one of the fabrics in the squares.

The adorable little stand was another piece of furniture that was left in the house by a previous owner, it has lovely detailing! I have elephant planters there as one of my grandsons loves elephants and when I saw one at an auction, I bought it. I painted this floor in a 16" yellow and white checkerboard and then painted the center of each square with a 2" square in the opposing color. The checkerboard is done on the diagonal.

I bought the luggage rack for a dollar at an auction (I go to a lot of auctions!) and made the top from a piece of vintage fabric and some vintage crocheted trim that I already had. I wish the floral bouquet was centered more but I had to use what I had and it had to work out like that. The print over the luggage rack is adorable! It's a Buzza Motto print from the 1920's and again, a dollar find at an auction. When I bought it the frame that came with it was broken so I used a frame that I had and used a piece of the curtain fabric for a mat. The saying is hilarious! Just love it!

We found the light on the wall above in the basement, it makes a sweet night light! I need to make a more decorative switch plate, the white ones are so boring and drab!

Several years ago I bought a darling book from the 20's I believe (could have been earlier) for about $5.00 and if I'm not mistaken, it was a Hans Christian Anderson's children's story book. Not positive about that, I think it's still in a box upstairs but the memory does fail occasionally! Anyway, it was full of these gorgeous old children's prints! I bought inexpensive frames with mats and the prints fit perfectly. Total cost for everything, about $21.00.