Giving the Kitchen a Little Love

The other side of this room (which happens to be our only eating area), our kitchen, is getting a little (much needed) update this week.  I've never really liked anything about this kitchen and just had it painted when we first moved in, over six years ago.   I absolutely love the modern farmhouse look (check out my Pinterest board...hint, hint.) and I'm also loving everything industrial right now.  The look I'm going for is off-black cabinets, wood tones, range hood and white subway tile.  I've decided to keep the bottom cabinets and paint them out in an off black and then only take down the uppers and put up ikea shaker cabinets in an off white.  This is a very cheap reno, and I received a little cash for Christmas, so this is what I'm doing with it.  

We'll see how it goes...so far just a couple of hiccups...

Here's some of my inspo...

via 

via

via House and Home

 via House and Home

  via Nate Berkus

Living Room Before and (Kind of) After

I'm calling this the "Kind of After" because this room is not really done, but has come a long way since we purchased about six years ago.  Actually, I always joke how my rooms are never really done because I'm always changing them and this room is no exception.

This house has been a bit of a challenge because it is a very basic builder home lacking any character.  I love older homes and had never lived in a new home prior to this (previous house), so this move was hard.  It was also previously owned, so we had no say in any of the design choices that had been made before we moved in. But I like a design challenge and firmly believe that any space 
can look beautiful.

This room is the first room you see when you come in so I wanted it to be a bit more formal...you know, first impressions. I always like relaxed, formal spaces--if that makes sense.  We had also had a lot of stress before purchasing this house and I wanted the palette to be very calm, so I chose the soft grays.

  

So here's the before...boring, right?

You can see from this before pic that the room is quite small, (8'x12') but it has 9' ceilings. One design trick to use when you have a small room is to use long pieces to draw the eye up and out. I chose to visually lengthen it by using a couch (not a loveseat) with end tables flanking it to extend the focal wall.  I also bought three wooden Indonesian screens from HomeSense and put them on the wall to draw the eye up, and to add some drama to the space.  (These screens would also look amazing as a headboard, and I'm itching to change my headboard, so they might move).

Another before pic...apparently these window treatments are coming back...

These are the realtor's pics of the room...sorry not that clear but it shows you what the room

 looked like when we saw it.

The heavy valance and sheers the previous owner had just brought the window down.  I chose to buy longer curtains (90") and extended them to their fullest, giving even more height and width to the window (again making the room visually appear larger than it is).  You can see that I hung them above the window trim and also took them right over to the wall.  I also used lots of layers, like a chair in front of a desk and a fern in front of the window, to extend the room.  Layering is another design trick to make a room appear bigger.  The Spinet desk and chair are antiques that I purchased years ago...I love a mix of old and new.  (And the curtains are lined & velvet and were only $30.00 each at Fabricland...such a great deal!)

The lamps and mirrors are also from HomeSense, and the endtables (which are one of my favorite things) were from Walmart...Can you believe that?   I got them each for $98.99 about five years ago, but sadly, I don't believe they carry them anymore.  The shape reminds me of these ones.

Another way I saved was buying the coffee table at a garage sale for $25.00 and painting it a gray (Stone Harbour - Ben Moore)...it's very similar to this Ikea Isala coffee table.  You'll notice my outdoor chairs in this pic.  I haven't bought any chairs for this room yet, so I just bring the chairs in for the winter.  Because I love gardening, I always like to bring some of the outside in and have some garden elements in my spaces.   I'm also in need of a rug and I'm thinking about this striped one in gray.

Oh ya... I forgot to mention the couch...it's a very light gray velvet from the Steven & Chris line...great quality and beautiful lines. 

And I'm still in love with my black stairs.  Can't believe it took me so long to do them...they also add some real drama to  this room.

(Photos taken by me with my iPhone.)

So there you have it.  The living room.

Seems like every January I purge, paint and move things all around...Is this just me?  This year we did a big bedroom switch and some furniture changes...more on that later.  

Have a great weekend!

Chic Urban Decor at St. Paul Hotel, Montreal

This is just a quick post about another very cool space I visited while in Montreal recently.  If you follow me on instagram you know I stopped in at St. Paul Hotel and was blown away by their decor. My husband has stayed here for business many times over the years, and always comes home telling me about how beautiful this hotel is.   Wow was it spectacular!  Talk about drama...such a chic urban oasis.  I absolutely loved all the vibrant rich colours, and so unexpected when entering from such a traditional facade.   

(all photos taken by me with my iPhone)

Hope you all have a great week!

Family Room Changes

  

I've been moving things around again...which really is a daily thing for me...sometimes it's hard for me to keep up with all the changes and to remember what I've blogged about.  Way back at Christmas I made some changes to our family room . I originally had two couches in this room both from the Steven & Chris line (see below), and decided to move one couch and try the two chairs in front of the fireplace instead.  I've always loved this look, and when it was time to accommodate the Christmas tree, I decided it was time to make the change.  I've had these Ikea chairs for about 10 years now but had one in my son's room and one in storage. 

My original colour scheme for this house was tone on tone greys with some taupe/oatmeal.  We had just come out of a very stressful time in our lives when we moved into this house, and I wanted the colour scheme to be very calm. I've always had a more colourful palette in my previous houses but went for a more modern relaxed style here.  We had always lived in century homes too, so this was a really big change for me moving into a new home.  I like all styles and tend to be eclectic, so really, whatever I like I put in a room.  I like rooms to have a relaxed but sophisticated look...at least that's what my friends tell me.  To add to the calm feeling, I also wanted a space with symmetry and one that was clutter free.  Just now (after 5 1/2 years)  I'm gradually changing things up and adding more black & white and some colour into my home. 

 I also love gardening so it's very important to me to have garden elements in my spaces... you can see the urns, orbs,  lanterns and ferns.  I also turned my books so the pages are out, which compliments the colour scheme and although it can be frustrating to find a book (just ask my husband), it contributes to a very calm room.  I love them turned this way and I'm not turning them back!

The sideboard below was originally in our dining room in this house, and I had it in our kitchen in our previous house.  It is actually an island from Home Depot that I purchased about 10 years ago so not available now but similar to this one.  I love the industrial farmhouse look so I just added the baskets which I got from Target, sadly no longer here in Canada.  I did see some very similar ones at the SuperStore recently.  The rug also came from SuperStore a few years ago.  (I actually put two small, very inexpensive rugs together to make a larger rug...hey, it works). 

I also lightened up the room.  It was Metropolis by Ben Moore and it's now Edgecomb Grey, also Ben Moore.  I really like both colours but needed it a bit lighter.  I kept the darker colour on the fireplace wall to add some drama, and to hide the fact that the walls flanking the fireplace are different sizes...one is hiding plumbing.

One of the first changes I made when we moved into this house was changing out the "boob" light that was in this room.  Why do builders put those in?  (I know they're cheap but why not have a point of difference, and be the builder that doesn't put in boob lights?  Now there's an idea!)  And yes, all the ceilings have stucco on them... one day I'll have to take it off.   I love painted ceilings and have always had ceilings that were painted a different colour than my walls, so this is hard for me to have the stucco.  One thing I've learned is, when you have floors and ceilings you don't really like in a space, you need to really focus more on the walls.

  

(all photos taken by me with my iPhone)

 Since the window in this space is huge, I decided to stagger the drapes to add some interest and drama.  These are now my new favourite drapes from Ikea - linen & $59.99 for two!

Sources Not Mentioned

lamps, orbs, lanterns & cushions - Homesense
ceiling light - Home Depot
floor lamp - Ikea
end table - Target
bookcases & coffee table - thrift stores
bookcases & wooden chair - acquired
picture frames - SuperStore


In other news: my stairs have been painted!  And since I had my paint and paint brush out, I painted some fabric again. I've gone completely mad with painting fabric...I'll post this soon (like not six months from now).

Have a good weekend! 
And Happy 4th of July to all my American readers!

I've Been Painting Things Again

I've been doing a little painting & a big switcheroo lately around my house.  I'm beginning to think this is a pattern for me..seems to me I did this last winter.   (Like the sideboard above..it's moved).  We've lived in this very basic builder home now for 5 1/2 years, and it's taking a while - and some cash, to slowly transform it.  It's complete with light floors, stuccoed ceilings, and lots of "boob" lights...I'm not complaining, I'm just stating the facts.   I see it as a great challenge having only lived in century homes before, to transform this house.  I'm a firm believer that you don't have to have a lot of money to make a home look good, but it may take a little more time...and a lot of paint!  

 I seem to be painting everything dark gray or (as I call it) almost black. When I moved into this home I wanted everything very calm and serene so I painted a lot of the furniture a soft gray.  We had just come out of a very stressful time in our lives and I wanted a calm space... now for some reason, I'm going almost black.  I have a great love for French & English antiques (like Anton & K and that whole gray, black, taupe thing they have going on).  I first decided to change out my dining/kitchen light from a little drum light to a massive dark gray Hektar pendant light (below).   What a change that made... talk about lighting drama.  Also, things started to go a little industrial farmhouse so I painted this sideboard black (which actually is an island from Home Depot but I use it as a sideboard in this house). I've talked about this before...painting & changing the use of a piece of furniture.  (You can read about it here.)  I then got these massive baskets from Target, which is sadly leaving Canada, but that meant that I got them on sale so that was good.  

The "dining room" in my house is actually part of the kitchen, so I was going for a little more sophisticated look.   I usually like my spaces to have a more relaxed sophisticated look...hence the Hektar and gray velvet curtains.  (Just an aside here, when a house doesn't have a dining room, I think it's important to treat the eating area in the kitchen like a dining room).  This space has always been a work in progress, and I need to get an area rug and  slipcovers for the chairs... the list goes on.

  

Then I decided to paint the white shades on the lamps black. I just used some latex paint I had left over from another project and started painting.  I painted fabric before when I painted my pillows.

Then I went to the front hall and decided to paint my hutch black. I found this hutch at a garage sale about ten years ago. It houses all our stuff...you know, the stuff that everybody needs just inside the front door. Still need to get pulls for the drawers though.

Before

After

Are you still with me?  There have been a lot of changes, and I haven't even talked about my master bedroom yet ...it's changed too.   

So here's the lamp I painted in the master bedroom.  It's an antique light that I got at a thrift store years ago for $17.00  that I had stored in the basement.  Originally it was red and then with all the painting I thought..wait a minute...what if I paint that red light black and get a black shade? And what a change.  (Just an aside here,  "Unbroken" is an amazing book.  But definitely not a light read.) 

Oh ya, and I moved a couch into my master bedroom because I switched the family room all around.  But more on those two rooms later.

Here's a little sneak peek at the family room with the painted lamp shade. 

 I haven't painted these yet, but I still want to do it!  

Have a great weekend!!!

Sending Some Sunny Yellow Your Way

 via picklee.com

Ok so I've had enough of this extremely cold winter... I need spring. I'm guessing everyone out there who lives in North America is feeling the same way so I thought I'd cheer (and warm) everyone up with a little bit of yellow.  To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of yellow.  I like it in small amounts.   It can really make an interior come to life by just adding a little bit.  Like painting the inside of the front door yellow or adding a yellow Eames armchair to a desk.

via thouswell.co

via hallyslondon.com

Love the yellow industrial chairs above with the barnboard floors and white walls.

via style-files.com

And what a difference these pillows make to this bedroom.  They just add the right amount of colour and freshness to the space.

via Pinterest

via Fixer Upper

How sweet is this yellow couch table - no doubt it was a piece of junk before Joanna Gaines from Fixer Upper did her magic and gave it a coat of yellow paint.

via moi with iPhone

And here are some yellow flowers for you.

If you want to see more, you can follow me on Pinterest and see what else I'm pinning on my yellow board.

Hang in there...Spring is almost here!!!