Christmas Teaser

Merry Christmas!

I know that many of the followers on here (all 10 of you ;-) and the other blogs I read are first time home owners, so I would like to extend a special Merry Christmas to you guys - whether you are having a Christmas eve get together, or stupidly hosting both sides of the family for the first time, GOOD LUCK!!

I'm pretty darn grateful for my lovely husband and our wonderful home, so filling it with friends and family (and possibly stress and anxiety) is still pretty amazing.

Merry Christmas and I hope you enjoy the holidays!

(PS if anyone finds good boxing day deals, let me know!)

Dining Room Furniture - Update

There are good people out there, and yes, you can find them on the internet.

So, as previously reported, our dining room furniture had been delayed by earthquakes and then Canadian customs (thanks, Canada).  ETA: December 24th.

Starting to panic, I wrote my last post and received recommendations on rentals. Gulp.

In comes Christine - the woman I found on craigslist who sold me the furniture. She sent me an email that basically went like this:

"Hi Janice - I have a solution. Why don't I send you a table and 10 chairs to use for the holidays and will then exchange them for your set after Christmas?"

And look at me now:

Yes, that's right. We have a table!! It is actually the same table we purchased (just wider). The chairs are brand new (we have to take the plastic off the cushions) and she sent 10 when we only ordered 8. Can you believe it?

That is what I call service - I am still in shock that she would do this - especially when the delays had nothing to do with her and are part of the 'buy direct from Indonesia' package.

Anyways - just an update to show that lovely trusting people (yes, we haven't paid for 3/4 of the set yet) are out there and can make the holiday season feel really special!

New Life for an Old Chair

A few weeks ago I posted that we were sending off our old chair to be spruced up. I was nervous about the fabric choice of course, as I always second guess my decisions. The chair was dropped off yesterday and all I can say is WOW! I love it!!!

Here is a before pic:

Well here are the glamour after shots!!! It is just in the living room temporarily. Eventually it will make it to its proper home in our master bedroom :-)

And up close:

The upholsterer did such a great job - we basically left it up to him how best to do it, and he said he'd use any fabric that was left over to do a pillow. I figured the throw pillow would be a bonus but not something that we'd use too much,but the way he made it looks like it was meant to be on the chair! He even made arm covers.

See how the fabric is lined up so the flowers continue under the seat cushion? Wow - we were really impressed. He also replaced all the foam in the chair so it is like it is brand new.

There is a close up of the pillow. I thought it was really neat how the piping on the edges is made out of the fabric itself. Even the buttons that he put on the seat are covered in the fabric! It is hard to see, but you can see one of the buttons in the black and white leaf below.

We shopped around to find the right person (read: cheapest) and ended up going with the person who my mother in law used.  We had a few quotes in the 500-600 range plus fabric, and this guy was 350 plus fabric!

Anyways - fear about the fabric is gone and now we can't wait to find something else to get reupholstered!

Furniture Fiasco - Just in Time for the Holidays!

For those of you who remember, hubs and I went out on a bit of a limb and purchased our dining room furniture from a vendor who buys directly from the furniture maker in Indonesia (right near Bali - where we honeymooned!). We were able to look at the furniture prior to ordering and make some customizations to make it work for us, and placed our deposit. Delivery was slated for mid November.

However, after some holidays and a few earthquakes, the delivery date was pushed to mid-December. This was nerve wracking as we had just agreed to host a joint Christmas dinner for BOTH sides! Yep - 14 people. Our current table seats four. You heard me. FOUR.

We received news that the furniture has reached Canadian soil, but Canadian customs has decided to inspect it. If the inspection goes quickly, we *might* receive the furniture on the 23rd or 24th. It will be a Christmas miracle if we get it in time.

Gah.

Please cross your collective fingers for us! Otherwise it will be a cocktail style turkey dinner :-)

Would You Paint it?

I have been hunting for a vanity for my dressing room for months now. I found one once that I loved on Craigslist and it sold before I could get to it (i.e. in 24 hours!). Who knew vanities were such hot commodities!

Anyways, last weekend I received a phone call from my dad offering me a desk from his mother's furniture set. This is a HUGE deal because my mom has been begging my dad to let her paint out the set but he has always refused (it is a gorgeous wood set). However, they are downsizing and he realized that he'd never have room for the whole set, so I could take the desk and (gasp) PAINT IT!

Having a white vanity (or off white) has always been the goal, but painting my grandmother's desk? Should I do it? My dad has given his full blessing but I'm kind of nervous!!

Here is a picture of it (from my bb, so not the best):

I was thinking of getting some glass cut to match the top to protect it, since I will be doing my hair/makeup there. I will also line the drawers (maybe in leftover wallpaper?).

Sooo...tell me...can I paint it?!

Wallpaper - Options?

On the recommendation of some fellow bloggers, I took a trip to Home Depot this weekend to see if there were any instock wallpapers that worked for me. Unfortunately, I must have gone to the worst HD for selection, as they probably had 15 designs. Total.

We flipped through the books and came up empty handed. I will try Lowe's this weekend, however in the meantime I have some options that I wanted your opinion on (if you don't mind!).

1. Graham & Brown (Monsoon Collection) "Chrysanthemum". Here it is in what looks like grey, but they say gold, so I'd have to get a sample.

And here it is in purples - this would work well with the lavender walls but might be too much purple?

2. Next up is a suggestion of the lovely Wanderluster: Graham & Brown's D'Arcy

Seeing this version of it makes me rethink the lavender walls - stick with trusty grey and a pop of purple on the wall?

3. This is the long shot, but I love it!! Graham & Brown's "Birdcage" in Charcoal:

Isn't it lovely? However - do you think I would tire of it? Would visitors think I was cuckoo?

Anyways - I would love to hear your input!! I recently was gifted an incredible desk to become my vanity. It is so lovely but (uh oh) it is a gorgeous dark wood and I want to have a white-ish vanity!  I have my dad's blessing to paint it, but it is killing even me to do it!! I will grab a pic of it and post it tomorrow to see if you think I'm crazy to paint it!

This is what I see from my office window

I am so jealous, I can't even call it envy!
Hubs and I started falling for each other on that skating rink. Sigh.
This is putting me in the holiday spirit - skating and listening to "all Christmas music, all the time" on the radio.
Have a good weekend everyone!
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Wallpaper Help

Just wondering if any of you smart and savvy bloggers have any suggestions on where to get some cool wallpaper for my dressing room?  I'm open to purchasing online and really only have one wall to cover, so I don't think I'd need to order too much.

As mentioned in an earlier post, I'd love something bold and graphic, and it could be girly if that worked, and I'd like it to work with lavender walls.

Suggestions? I'd certainly appreciate it!!

Revamping Poppa's Chair

When I was a kid, my sister and I used to go visit my poppa on the odd weekend. When we were there, I remember SO clearly that he would put on a Sharon, Lois and Bram record (the only kid-friendly music they had) and we would listen to "She'll be Coming Round the Mountain" while my sister would spin me in fast circles in this chair:




I loved that chair, and when I moved out on my own, I got to take it with me. Not only does it have great memories attached to it, but it is SUPER comfortable!!

So J and I are planning on having it reupholstered and it will eventually find its permanent home in our bedroom.

After reading on Aubrey and Lindsay's blog about "Designer Fabrics" on Queen, J and I went out and took a look at a few options. Our bedroom is a deep grey (Benjamin Moore Asphalt)with white accents (bedding,trim, etc).

Here are the fabric options we found:




This one:



And this one:



They are all pretty soft (ultra-suede) so I think any of them could have been good, but we ended up going with the second one! I think it is a bold graphic print with some nice accent colours. The chair is getting picked up on Monday so hopefully it won't take too long!!!

ETA: I'm totally panicking now that it is too busy/bold. Hmm. I know it is too late, but I hope that it ends up looking great. It will be a contrast to everything else in the room, which can be good, right? Ugh. I always second guess decisions!!

Did Anyone Else Go to the Movies this Weekend?

Okay - admit it! I can't be the only one who went to the movies this weekend and saw this:




I have been openly obsessed with Twilight since I read all four books in about 1 week (total) and then started from the beginning again. I know the movies and the books may not be the most intellectual/well written/acted, but I love them!

So please - don't tell me I'm the only one. I may have been the oldest in the theatre on Saturday, but I can't be the only one in blog-land!

New Layout (of the blog - not my house!)

Just testing out the new layout :-)

Next Big Project - the Dressing Room!

I have a secret to tell you, the blogworld. I have a room in my house that still (gasp!) has boxes that are yet to be unpacked.

That room is the third bedroom which prior to us moving in, was a very sweet, very tidy baby's nursery.

I have big plans for this room - in an ideal world, I'd like to turn it into a walk in closet, sort of like what Carrie Bradshaw had in the Sex and the City movie.  Instead, I'm thinking of installing some faux built in shelving as well as my ongoing search for the perfect vanity.

This room will be used for me to get dressed, do makeup/hair and store some books etc. I'm trying NOT to turn it into a true office (which in my world means a catch-all for junk, since I do most of my computer work in the family room).

Here are some colour inspirations for what I'm thinking of.

Wall colour: Lavender Lips (BM)


Accent Wallpaper (to go behind the 'built-in' shelving):




I don't think whales are my thing, but I'm thinking of some kind of graphic wallpaper that will pop against white shelving and lilac walls. I'd like it to be girly with punch, you know?

Anyhoo - those are my plans. Hopefully I can get started on them soon to get that room organized!

Family room chairs - the hunt continues!

We tried again this weekend - found one we really liked at Pavillion but it is nutso expensive!! This one was a lovely steel grey velvet tub chair. They claim it is from a 'small studio' near Woodbridge, made by "Joe" or something.  Has anyone seen anything similar to this in their travels?

Table Set-Up

So our dining room furniture vendor sent us some pictures of a table set up that shows our table and our chairs all set up with different fabric end chairs.

Take a look:

So having seen this, what do you think of doing a different colour chair at the ends...like this (but with dark legs):



It is a charcoal grey velvet.  What say you?

Chair Help Please!

Now that we have the new couch and the new rug, J and I are on the hunt for chairs to replace our old beaters.

Here is what we currently have (you can see it in the corner):



And here is our inspiration:



We definitely want chairs with some colour, but that we won't get sick of after a year or two (so no super bright damask or anything).

Any suggestions?!

Who knew rugs were so expensive!

So we made a list of things that we needed to purchase for the house. We prioritized based on need, money, and reality.  Like the bathroom reno, low on the list because of money and reality.

We started out looking for a rug. We need one for the family room because it is kind of cold on our feet and we needed a new one.

We started out at West Elm because we saw this online:



It is the 'pebble rug'. Unfortunately, it was not very good quality. The pebbles were kind of loose, so if you stepped on it they moved to the side and didn't really support your foot. Plus it was pretty beat up and a lot of the threads were all frizzy.

So no.  We did see lots of other stuff that was great there! I'll definitely go back.

We ended up at a nicer rug store and bought a wicked cool wool shag rug. J has always wanted a shag rug but with thicker 'shags'.  This one is perfect. It is honestly so comfortable that I lay on it yesterday and fell asleep. Truly, it is more comfortable than our couch. Ha.

It looks like this:



See how thick each piece is? Ohhh it is lovely.

Next up, chairs for the family room and I'm STILL looking for the perfect vanity!!

Dining Room Furniture - In Progress

I've just received some pictures of our dining room furniture in progress - it should arrive mid-December so we are pretty excited (and hopeful that they arrive before Christmas!).

Here is the chair (it is finished). We had it custom made so the cushion would pop out so we could change the fabric down the road.

Here is the sideboard - no stain or knobs. This is what I'm most excited about!

And here is the table. We had it custom made a bit narrower than usual since we have such a skinny dining room!

Here's hoping it makes it safe and sound off the shipping container!!

Photos of the Painted Dining Room

Yep - this is the room that made me throw down my paintbrush and give up.  After that fiasco, we took extra time and taped up everything and finished painting it this past weekend.  J did most of it this time (I had done all of the trim work myself) and it went pretty quickly.

It is dark out, so hard to get a good shot - but here are a few:

Note the ugly tiled fireplace. Old owners just used the cheap tile leftover from the bathroom and it doesn't really go with much. We'll fix it up one day!

The dining room is just waiting for our dining set to arrive (now postponed until mid-December). The buffet will go on the right I think, with a large mirror on the opposite wall.

The furniture in here is not staying - just temporary until we get the right stuff eventually.  Okay the couch stays, but the rest are stand-ins :-)

Not sure if I've shown this yet - this was our $45 find at the Cabbagetown festival. It is on wheels!!  I'm planning on painting it and putting it my dressing room once I find the perfect vanity. It is in rough shape on the top, so I won't feel bad when I paint it white!

Anyways - there is some eye candy since I haven't shown an 'after' in a while!

First True Homeownership Mishap

Of course after everyone tells you how AMAZING homeownership is, and how you should be so proud/excited etc. about it, they then tell you how much WORK it is and how expensive it can be.

Well on Friday night, I was lying on the couch and looked up to see what looked like large paint blisters on the ceiling of my kitchen.  Hmm.  Was that there before? I thiiiink so, but they didn't look so big. Hmm. Maybe I'll just climb on the kitchen stool to touch it and oh lord. It's damp. I could easily peel the paint etc off but I resist the urge.

I lie back down on the couch and proceed to stress about the fact that clearly our toilet is leaking (it is right on top of that spot) and neither J or I have any plumbing experience and don't even have a plumber who we could call.

I get into bed, tell J about the leak, and try to sleep.  The next morning, I remind him and he tells me that he thought it was a dream/nightmare. Ha.

The rest of the day was spent with me getting phone calls from him (I was getting my hair done/seeing the doctor etc.) asking me to pick up random tools.  Drywall saw. Toilet seal. What the heck is a flange?!

J seems to think we need this new wax seal but when he takes the toilet apart, we realize that the old owners did not properly tile the bathroom and instead of taking the toilet out and making sure everything was level, they just tiled right around it so the wax seal didn't properly...well...seal!

Yes, these are the stories you hear about when buying a house that you don't renovate yourself. You never know what you'll find once you start taking things apart!!

Hours later, the toilet is hooked back up, and there is no longer water dripping from the hole in our kitchen ceiling (clearly J couldn't resist sticking his hand right though the ceiling!). Let's see if it lasts :-)

If it doesn't, maybe it just means our planned bathroom reno will happen sooner rather than later! haha

Hope everyone had a great Halloween - it was so fun giving out candy from our first home.  Even to the kids without costumes.  Seriously people. Put on a sheet at least!

Decor Question

Quick question for those of you with style/design sense...

If you had walls that were this colour:

Side chairs that look like this:

What colour end chairs would you pick from this site:

http://www.restorationhardware.com/rh/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod1613175&navCount=4

Let me know your thoughts!