Decorator, I Am Not. But I Can Try, Right?

I swear the dressing room will never be finished. No seriously. That might be a promise. I know that the major items are all there (with a few exceptions i.e. lighting/rug), but how to put the little things together is really not working for me.

I tried a few things this weekend and thought I'd get your input. Extra points if readers can figure out where I got some of the items on the vanity. It is like Where's Waldo, Blogger-styles.

The lamp is temporarily on those books - will find something a little bigger and more appropriate.

Check out this little cutie though - I smile everytime I open it up!

Any guess on where the items came from? Not all are from the same place, but a bunch are from my favourite source of decor finds ;-)

If any of you observant bloggers immediately thought they had seen some of these things on another blog but couldn't quite remember where, CLICK HERE.

Remember this?  Or what about this? Take note of the comments on the lamp find - S from 8 Foot 6 literally bought it with me in mind! I swear, S is like my personal shopper/thrifter extraordinaire- she goes on thrifting expeditions and sends me pictures of items she finds that will work in the dressing room (among other great finds for the rest of the house). Seriously amazing.

I finally got to meet her on the weekend to pick up all of the great finds she'd put aside for me and I was taken on a tour of her seriously stunning, gorgeous house. Honestly - you should all be begging for a photo tour. Definitely inspiring.  If you haven't checked out her blog, go now! But don't buy the craigslist items that she posts that I want. hah

Anyways - I'm open to suggestion on what should be included/taken away/moved/adjusted. What do you think?

Dressing Room - Almost Complete!

The room is almost complete - just some finishing touches (i.e. light fixture, rug, storage boxes for the top shelving, jars etc for the vanity) but I thought I would show you guys some of the progress that has been made!!

Here is the closet which used to house baby clothes but has been overhauled to work for me!  I put the baskets in to hold tshirts/gym clothes/etc - basically anything that needs to be folded and won't look nice and tidy like jeans! Ideally, I would have used dark baskets for everything but the store didn't have enough so I'm testing out the mix'n'match look. What do you think? And yes, I will get a nicer laundry hamper at some point :-)

Notice the extra hangers just waiting for new clothes? :-)

Next up - here is a photo of the 'dress' section with some hooks for purses etc.  The curtains are the Ikea Henny panel drapes.  I had thought of buying fabric and making them from scratch but of course, all of the fabric I loved was astronomically priced.  $60 for two panels made a lot more sense!

And the moment I've been waiting for since moving in, here is the entire Stolmen system!!!

I can't tell you how much I LOVE it!! It is like shopping in my own closet!!!! Everything has a place and there is space for lots more!

Room for shoes...

And here is the most unfinished part of the room - the vanity wall.

The chair was a gift from my mom at Christmas but doesn't really work with the room so I think it might be moved somewhere else.  I'm also still on the fence about painting the vanity - what do you guys think? White? Navy? New hardware?

Also have a few things that will go on the vanity as well but I am on a bit of a spending hiatus :-)

Here is one last photo of the room - thanks for looking!

How to Install a Stolmen Closet System

Before deciding on and purchasing the Stolmen closet system from Ikea, I did a lot of research. A lot of googling (is that a word?). I thought that I had it all figured out.

I was wrong.

Anyways, in an attempt to help others who are interested in this system, I thought I'd put together a little step-by-step on how to (or how not to) install the Stolmen system.

Step 1. Research - there are quite a few photos on the web of different configurations so search around to get ideas.

Step 2. Measure.  Figure out the size of the wall/area you have to work with. Take things like baseboards into consideration.

Step 3. Configure. Make a plan of how you want it set up - do you want drawers? Hanging rods? Shelving?

Step 4. Realize that the sizes that Ikea gives you are NOT accurate. Sure they have the right measurements hidden in a special pamphlet that only an Ikea stalker like myself might find, but most people won't find that. And most Ikea sales reps don't know either. So they will sell you an entire system based on the web measurements and nothing will fit. Like seriously.  What the web says is 110cm wide is actually 117 cm once you add in the vertical poles etc.  If you are going to get Stolmen, HERE is the special assembly guide that is not so easy to find.

Step 5. Go home and measure again.  Try not to say things like "we are only 2 cms off - it's Ikea, I'm sure they aren't accurate" or "maybe we can trim the particle board shelves".

Step 6. Go to Ikea midweek when it won't be so busy. Realize that since they aren't busy midweek, they cut down on staff and there is no one to help. Let the rage start building until finally your lovely husband tracks someone down. Someone who doesn't understand the measurements. Someone who puts you into a panic saying that it is being discontinued. Thanks, Ikea lady.  Gather up all the parts and struggle through the self-checkout. Why, oh why do I want to check myself out?

Step 7. Start by putting up the vertical poles - they run floor to ceiling and use a really AMAZING itty bitty Ikea wrench to make them extend and put pressure on the ceiling to hold in place. Thanks Ikea for that one. Really made it easy on us.

Step 8. Realize that yes, being 2 cms off WILL cause a problem and NO you can't just "trim the particle board shelving" to make everything fit.

Step 9. Take the poles down. Use the itty bitty wrench to loosen them and move them to their new positions. Realize that won't work either and sit back and think again.

Step 10. Figure out a new plan and realize that I don't have enough pieces. Go back to Ikea and this time go straight to aisle ten and just buy the pieces and go...check myself out. Ugh. It is like they don't even staff the regular check out lines!

Step 11. Start again. Put up one pole. Measure. Pole two. Level. Attach one of the clothing rods to ensure they are the right distance apart. Level again.  Start to hate the level.

Step 12. Realize there is a good reason that while Ikea didn't give you the right measurements, they were right in including the little symbol of two stick people, indicating this job will take two people to put together.

Steps 13-20. Continue spacing out the poles, using the itty bitty wrench and the annoying level.  Try not to get frustrated and snap when the level tells you things are straight but your eye tells you things aren't.

Step 21. Sit back and marvel at your and your husband's handiwork.  Be grateful that you didn't even fight during the process.

More dressing room fun to come!

Dressing Room Adventures Part #3 - Ch-Ch - Change of Plans!

So where are we so far?

Oh right, after prepping the room and realizing that it is not paste the wall as I had hoped, I found out that the Graham and Brown paper that I had ordered had massive flaws on every roll and I had a minor meltdown.

So there I was, fighting the urge to throw things and cursing the fact that I am an emotional person who can't hide it (thanks a lot, tears) and I felt pretty hopeless.

The site where I ordered the paper (www.designyourwall.com) was closed for the weekend as was Graham and Brown. Granted, there was nothing I could do since I knew they couldn't send me 5 new rolls in the next few hours.

My dad, in an attempt to avoid the meltdown, started calling around town to see if anyone local stocked wallpaper other than Home Depot and Lowes (since I'd already looked there). He found one place and we all piled into the car to check it out.

Yes, I was still pissed.

Of course, the route there took us up Avenue Road which for some reason had no less than THREE cranes blocking the road. I swear it took us 45 minutes to get there. It should have taken all of 15.

So the store did stock wallpaper, but you can't go from the paper I had chosen to some random 19.99 per roll paper and think it is an even trade.  We were clearly barking up the wrong tree.

What does a frustrated DIY'er do with a prepped room, a house in shambles, a tight timeline and a full car of people ready to work?

SHE BUYS PAINT!

I couldn't take a 3 week wait to get started again - so we decided that we would paint the room and if in a few months I still dream of wallpaper, we could do it then.

Off to Benjamin Moore we went, and I came out with a can of the girliest colour I could find that didn't make me feel like it would be a nursery.

Introducing.....SANCTUARY by Benjamin Moore.

Here is a photo of it in the room with part of the closet system up - it is definitely purple, but has a strong grey undertone to it so that makes me happy!!

So the closet that is in the room (the closet in the closet :-) used to look like this:

It was put together for the previous owners' baby so my tops couldn't actually hang properly (or maybe it is from the 'baby tee' era?). So my handy husband took everything down, filled the holes and prepped it for its new use:

We (and by we I mean my husband) put up some pine quarter round to serve as brackets for the new shelving:

As I had already spent too much for the room, I tried to stay budget friendly on the shelving and picked up some laminated mdf from Home Depot - each piece was just over $8 and I needed 2 to make these four shelves:

I know they don't look evenly spaced but I assure you they are - measuring a million times says so!

I'm going to use these shelves for all of my folded gear - jeans and tshirts etc.  I thought I would take the door off but I think it will be nice to have one spot that doesn't have to be perfectly tidy all the time.

So anyways - that's all for now :-) It is a bit of a mish-mash of a post but I'd left you guys hanging for a while and I wanted to update you!

Next up - the stolmen system is up after some slight modifications and the drapes have been installed. Can't wait to show you the finished product!

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!

More Hallway Pictures

Sorry for the lack of posting. I've realized that I am almost incapable of taking a good, true to life picture of our hallway. Our house tends to be a bit dark because it is a row house and we have big trees at the front and the back, so the downstairs gets a bit dark.  I'm guessing that is why the pictures aren't turning out!

This is a picture from the front door area - don't mind the painters tape.  Oh and note to other people trying to paint next to original plaster mouldings - painters tape doesn't cut it!!

This one is the vestibule - we had extra asphalt paint from our bedroom and we put it on the bottom. I actually think I would have liked the entire area that colour (top too). Ah well.

I tried to get a picture just to show the colour but man is it hard!!

Anyways - we did the best we could and it took FOREVER!!  Dining room paint is up next. It should be easier because there aren't so many doorways worth of mouldings to work around!!

Anyways - I will continue my quest for better pictures. I promise!!