Reservations are coming in for the summer and we’re busily readying RWP for a great start to the season.  The snowy weather has kept us inside when we’re here from Chicago– which is a luxury for us to be able to focus in on projects we’ve wanted to complete for years.

Project 1, my grandmother’s hutch:

I never really thought much about this hutch growing up– it sat forlorn in my grandmother’s basement for years, replaced by an upstart mid-century modern blah blah hutch in the formal dining room upstairs– a room I remember eating in once.  Instead, all family gatherings were held in that basement– which held a 20′ long table with “reclaimed” (that word wasn’t in vogue yet.. we called them old) bus benches for seating. As kids, we’d run past it to get to the pool table, or play some bastardized version of shuffle board with the inlaid tiles (WTH?).  In retrospect, that hutch was always there in the background, with its stately, almost luxury-liner of years-ago air (it was/is mahogany afterall).

When we acquired RWP, it had that distinctive retro air that– refreshingly– was not modern, or even mid-century modern.  It was a throwback to a decidedly more old fashioned era.  One which would be well suited for Grandma’s hutch, albeit rethought with the nautical vision we held.

Accessorized with my mother’s 150-year old Wedgwood (there is a story there on how she acquired it.. for another time), this hutch is fresh and a wonderful connection to my grandmother, my mom, and sharing it all with you all!