Charlotte Duck

Mark has had literally one complaint about our new place. The low hanging ceiling on the steps going from our kitchen to family room. (Need the floorplan to get your bearings? Click here.)


That's a pretty junky picture, but you can sorta get the idea of what the issue is - the stairs start at the opening you see and the ceiling is directly overhead just a few steps down. I have no problem with the ceiling height, but I'm also 5'3", so it'd have to be a crawl space before I'd have any difficulty. And, admittedly, the ceiling to the step directly below is only 73 inches, so anyone near that 6 foot range is going to bump their head if they don't watch out.

Mark requested that I put up a sign that said low ceiling, or install some sort of bumper pad to cushion the hits. Not gonna happen. Instead I searched for some artwork to put there that might call attention to the space and help guests notice how low the ceiling truly is. I decided a duck print (you know, duck for the low ceiling) was in order, so off to Etsy I went. I wanted something fun, but not too crazy, and the pickins were slim. It's like there's not a huge demand for water fowl prints or something. Go figure. But I did stumble upon the perfect fit.


I love that it's obviously a duck (duh) and is a bit quirky in its styling. I also love that its name is Charlotte. Seriously. The print came from Fall Down Tree and they name all their animals. And this cute duck is serendipitously named Charlotte. We had it custom printed to fill a 16x20 Ikea Ribba frame and think she's perfect for the space.

And here's a closeup of the print, courtesy of Fall Down Tree's etsy listing, since my awesome taken-late-in-the-evening-with-no-natural-lighting photography definitely didn't do it justice!



Charlotte loves her duck and I'm happy to finally have one piece of art on our walls. What can I say... I'm slow-moving! But we're finally picking up the pace. We've snagged two(!!) new couches, the dining room light fixture just arrived, the master bedroom curtains are up and I'm ready to start working on the living room drapes now. And I've been gathering all our existing artwork together to decide what goes where. Check back in the coming weeks for more progress.