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!