A guest house in Southern Oregon
Fri, 9 May 2014DeWayne Lumpkin had quite a challenge put upon him. He was given $15,000 to completely furnish this 2800 sq ft guest house in the middle of southern Oregon wine country (it only had beds, a leather sofa and four wooden dining room chairs). The owners, David Gremmels & Cary Bryant who own Rogue Creamery, requested an industrial, agricultural style that could hold up to use by families, friends and even strangers through airbnb (listing here). DeWayne completed the project in 5 weeks and had to purchase EVERYTHING, from dishes, silverware, glassware, linens for bed, bath & kitchen, alarm clocks, hair dryers, etc. ...everything you need to stay and not want to leave. And it's so fantasticly vintage/industrial I would absolutely love to rent this place and never leave. (Photos by Nikita Lee)
Several Craigslist scores in the living room - the green leatherette sofa was $150, the chrome armed settee was $100, the burl root coffee table was $150 (LOVE).
The rolling metal warehouse ladder used as a bookcase in the corner was found in the storage sheds at the Rogue Creamery.
I designed and manufactured most of the lighting throughout the house using equipment & elements from the Rogue Creamery Cheese Factory (and other sources). My nephew Justin, an appliance technician helped me with all of the welding, fabrication and much of the wiring. In the living room - the two floor lamps were made from parts of a cheese press that went together to remove excess liquid from a wheel of cheese.
All of the pillows (except the two needle-point animal pillows on the twin beds in the cowboy room) were designed by me. They include a combination of vintage grain, feed & seed bags & pages culled from vintage cloth baby books (specifically those dealing w/farm animals - cows, pigs, chickens,etc.). The seed/feed/grain bags & baby book pages were paired with colorful hopsack linen (chartreuse, yellow, orange, red, etc.) and woven mattress tickings in primary colors. To form a less frenetic backdrop in some areas (long wooden train station bench & leather sofa in the family room) we scored multiple rayon sacks from etsy w/off-white backgrounds and the simple text "Premium Quality Seeds" in green type. We used a dozen of these particular seed bags whole and also trimmed to highlight individual words "Premium," "Quality," & "Seeds" on smaller pillows mixed throughout the house. All pillows are filled w/waterfowl feather inserts - a real luxury. Many visitors select the pillows as their favorite part of the house. Pillows are sewn by my go-to seamstress, Carmen Lawson (her husband was my nephews' music teacher throughout high school). These pillows are available for custom order by contacting me.
In the family room we scored the 8 foot long wooden bench that came from a train station in India at a local consignment store for $159. The upside-down galvanized watering trough is the perfect scale for sitting at the sofa or on a pair of paisley poufs and eating away from the dining room. We saved a puppy-chewed leather sofa by taking the gnawed cushions to a shoe repair store for patching & polishing - at a cost of $100, two chewed cushions were repaired and the rest were revitalized with leather polish.
Paying the price to add simple black frames on the Cuban Posters in the Family Room wasn't cheap - about $80 each - but they are the focal point of the living/family rooms and @ $320 for the entire group - that's a lot of modern art bang for the buck.
The levitating life-size deer target came from the owners' globe-trotting adventures.
The orange "spool" style dining room table was the biggest round table we could find - it is 65 inches across - it was $85 on CL and was transported from the 1970s to the new millenium w/a quick sanding and several coats of Annie Sloan's Barcelona Orange Chalk Paint. As the table is used and the finish may become chipped, scratched or worn - we plan to do some additional roughing up and add a hand-applied wax finish - in the meantime, we love it the way it is. Random vintage office chairs in browns & beiges (not the hottest colors scheme right now, but perfect w/the orange table) were nabbed for $10-$45 each at flea markets & thrift shops. Two of them still had their inventory tags from the Denver Post newspaper.
Above the dining room table - 3 of the 7 fan blades are galvanized paddles used to stir cheese curds from the bottom of the vat - all fans outfitted w/porcelain sockets & each one sports a different Edison style bulb.
These milk cans used as bar stools in the kitchen with cowhide trimmed to fit the round tops were also found in the creamery's storage shed.
The metal gates used in the two guest bedrooms were no-brainers. Scoring the extra wide one behind both twin beds really brought that room together - Cowboy Room Gate Headboard - $60 - Cow Room Galvanized Cyclone Gate - $40. When I saw the fiberglass horse head at the Flea Market with a $300 price tag - I gulped and walked away. Then I went back - how could a pass on that showstopper when I was planning a "Cowboy Room" based on vintage cowboy artwork & minimal furnishings already on hand from the homeowners.
In the "Cowboy" bedroom, between the two twin beds, there are a few round cheese molds welded together into an orb and electrified from the inside - we call this one "tumbleweed" and it throws great shadows around the room.
In the Cow Bedroom, a friend had taken photos of the Rogue Creamery Cows - colorful shots w/bright blue skies and splashy green grass - nine of these were framed with large white mats and pre-made bleached ash frames (matting artwork into pre-made frame sizes radically reduces the cost of framing). This group of art is the focal point of the Cow Bedroom at a cost of less than $500.
Reader Comments (7)
I must have looked at all the photos of this post about 3 times due to how amazing each photo was. Each piece of furniture is so unique and I love the industrial/vintage vibe. Job well done on the decorating. Off to pin them all! :)
DeWayne has been a favorite of mine for years. I'm thrilled more people get to see his great style.
Fantastic!!!!!
love these rooms, what a fantastic project,
I would have loved to have helped
I knew you were talented when we first met but to see it all put together in someones home, just amazing. When I grow up I would like to be just like you.
I wanna marry the first picture's burl root coffee table, I'm in love <3
Craigslist for the win. All it wants is a fantastic eye, which you can't buy, even on CL.