Caribbean Home Decor

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ignore my knee
Man, I am having fun decorating our casa.  I don't have this much fun decorating State-Side because we all like rather subdued color palettes to match with our subdued life-styles?  I would never choose orange and teal as my main decorating colors in Michigan!  Check out this bright orange couch! Thomas was reluctant, but gave way to my vision! I haven't as of yet decided what colors to paint select walls, but I'm thinking maybe more muted teal...and paint can always be changed.  I had a pinterest inspiration and actually pulled out my sewing machine and sewed together with minor space-relations mishaps hanging pillow case headboards. One long one for the queen bed and two separate ones for the eventual twin frames that will replace the bunk bed...but that can be put together including pillow headboards to create a king in the second bedroom. Our gardner cut down some fresh bamboo and with a couple of brackets voila! A cool DIY headboard adding a pop of color! I (So, looking at the picture of the bed, I realize a flat white bed skirt would look nice, but the reality of living in a bug haven, is that you want to give them fewer hiding places as opposed to more.) 
I went with a totally different pattern but equally colorful fabric for the other room, keeping to the turquoise/teal and orange colors.  Over the Christmas break, Thomas and I were furiously (well, Thomas more furiously than I) working to get the casa ready for our first long term renters. This is a canadian couple who are checking out Cabrera just as we did a couple years ago.  I hope they are comfortable and will soon love it as we do.  As my husband says "How can anyone NOT love it here?"  I disagree, of course, there are lots of totally crazy people out there who would scoff at tropical landscapes and weather.  To each their own.  I finally got rid of the clunky-constantly-in-the-way closet doors some of which would not stay closed and others were forever locked.  I replaced them with IKEA panel curtains that slide on a track and I find them much more attractive and the added benefit is that they allow air to circulate and mitigate mildew due to humidity. (As many of you have probably also experienced...unpack your 'dry' clothes back home in Michigan and they come out damp! Gum has to be the hard-coated kind or you will have gelatinous goo wrapped in sticky wax paper. Pills and  medicine need to be capsules for the same reason...but you will use way less lotion! There's always a trade off!) We have started getting some art up on the walls and added a bath vanity (also from IKEA) to finally have somewhere to keep toiletries.  I'm still trying to find the elusive end tables but, I did find some all wood foldable tables and Thomas picked up some Hemnes bedside tables from...yup...you guessed it IKEA. I swear I don't get any kick backs from them...it's just that the house is built in a contemporary tropical style and I'm tryinig to keep to that.  We have ceiling fans in all the bedrooms, including the separate unit which now has a bed and sink added to the pre-existing empty room with a toilet and shower.  Thomas will be sleeping there tonight for the first time...still a far better set up than his very first night with no power, water, and only a mattress on the floor. Thomas also hung some lights in the kitchen that run along two wires...looks pretty cool.  There are still MANY projects left.  Little cosmetic finishes.  But, in two years of random weeks spent working on the house, it's finally ready for a test run.  Our hope is that people who stay there will want to come back on a regular basis and we will not have to put it up on any rental sites.  We hope it will provide some income to pay for the gradual updates and expansions we'd like to do.  It is currently a cost free house.  With just

this one rental.  Not bad.  We survived two hurricanes with only one shrub succumbing...which is nothing compared to what havoc the cows have been wreaking on our banana palms...or frankly any and all of our garden.

But, our fight against the cows will be the subject of later post.







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