I've Got the Blues...

A few weeks ago I mentioned something I was lusting after, design-wise.  I had originally been thinking of a different colour, but once I received a comment from the lovely Rambling Renovators to think about a different colour, I couldn't get it out of my head!!  So this weekend, we decided to just go for it!!!

Here is the before - 

I had always thought we'd sand and re-stain the door, but it was actually in pretty terrible condition.  See below:

                        

I guess years of bad weather and lack of proper care will take its toll on a wooden door.

So off to Home Depot we went (doesn't everyone do that on a Saturday night?).

This morning we filled holes and sanded. 

We taped:

                      

I pulled out the paint - CIL exterior semi-gloss with some kind of triple weather protection (i.e. good marketing to make me choose it):

The paint was colour matched to Benjamin Moore's "Polo Blue":

And the painting began!!!

                           

                           

And here is the final product - still drying a bit and missing a few accessories, but I wanted to show you guys!!

                          

                          

                           

So now the house is full of flies (can't close the door until it dries), and we want to add a few things (new kick-plate to protect the bottom of the door) and we are thinking about maybe cleaning the mail slot/door knocker etc. Plus we need to get a new urn with some nice flowers :-)

Anyways - I LOVE the colour! It is almost black looking from the inside (just like I wanted!) but it is definitely blue from the outside. I had thought the blue was a little bright for my liking on the outside, but I think it adds a nice pop of colour!

Hubs and I are now super keen on painting other interior doors. I can't get over the transformation from the inside:

                          

                          

                          

That's all for now! Hope you had a great weekend!

Ikea Stolmen Inspiration

Since I have purchased the paper and the dressing room reno is on the top of my mind, I decided to do another search for pictures of the closet system I'm planning on using and came across some good Stolmen pictures!

Here's a good one if I went around the corner - love the storage boxes on the top and the pops of purple in the room.  Notice, however, that there is probably only enough clothing for maybe one week of work. Mine won't look like this :-)

Now - I don't have this many clothes, but this is probably more what mine will look like! Full! haha

Another - I won't have this many shelves I don't think - I prefer to hang more than anything.

This is mine in a dream world - lots of space this way! Too bad my wall isn't big enough!

And two more:

This last one is really cute - love the bright yellow wall and the space left for the window.  This system is so flexible - I can't wait to get mine!

Now - if only Ikea would put it on sale for me!!!

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

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!!

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!

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!

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!!