let's get this show on the road

This is for you Chris! Last night I started to work on transforming our front sitting room with a lovely shade of green paint. It's Debbie Travis's "Delicate Moss", but I got Glidden to tint their paint for me.

Usually I obsess over choosing colours of paint (who me???), but this time I chose quickly saying "this will do". I LOVE it! The biggest problem with the room before was that it was a sea of beige. Beige walls, beige carpet, beige couch (which I adore by the way!!!!).

The coffee table is something I salvaged from our collection of useless items stored in the basement. It used to hold wood for our woodstove. I'm going to paint it a gray green.

Here are some before shots of the room, plus a video, plus some progress pics from last night:








(edited to add that I really dislike those lamps, so I'm going to paint the bases black, and replace the shades. a witty friend of ours dubbed them 'the laura ashley look', and that is NOT what I'm going for)

sears lighting, and killing time

It's Wednesday evening, and it's 2 more sleeps until we move. So of course the time is crawling by, and it's driving me batty.

I'm at the Sears website checking out lighting fixtures. The house we're buying needs some lights updated. So I thought I'd have some fun posting pics of the ones I'm admiring.

This one has seagrass shades, which I love. I love it because it's a natural organic element. This one is $129.99tx. I'm thinking for our dining room. It may be too big though, our dining room is only 10 x 10.


This one may be installed at 9, 21, 33 or 45" heights. I'm thinking for the kitchen, mounted at the shortest height. I'm hoping the 9" includes the light itself. A great price at $54.99tx.


Whoops, I guess that's it for chandelier types. Oh well, that killed about 7 minutes. ;o)

if i could start ALL over again....

My lovely friend Alli put me onto the urban outfitters site (sorry no html until I get back onto the pc where all my html codes are conveniently recorded). Anyways, I thought I'd have fun and post some pics of all the things that made me go "Oooooo". Yes they are quirky and eclectic, and they'd be perfect for my fantasy loft apartment in a cool big city.

coffee table before and after?

When you are house sitting, you have a lot of time on your hands. So you end up sitting at the computer a lot...at least if you are anything like me. This is my big accomplishment this evening, and that is seeing if our new coffee table could be de-contemporaryized through painting. The colours aren't quite right, I'd use a more gray green. All the same, it helps to see the potential. What do you think??

more pictures that inspire

I'm still on the hunt for pictures that inspire me. I realized last night that I'm a little obsessed at the moment, with this decorating thing. It stands to reason though. We're not in the house yet, we're house sitting, so I really have nothing else to occupy my mind. I'm restless. I want to get in there and start making it a home!!! Only 5 more days until we get in, but it's these last days that are going by the slowest!





Here's our new coffee table. It's birch with a dark stain. I found this picture online. We got it for a really good deal, it was marked down for clearance. It was my hubby that really wanted it, and it grew on me quickly. I usually don't like furniture with glass in it, but I love all the levels for displaying some things. I'm not sure if I'll leave it with the dark stain, I might end up painting it, but maybe not. I do want to add some fine lined dark accents to our decor (now there's a word you won't hear me say often!).

our latest aquisitions

Yesterday we picked up these used pieces of furniture for a pretty good deal. The table and chair set was $200 (Canadian), and the dresser was $80. Both pieces will be painted.

I'm not sure if i'll use the table in the kitchen or not, it's pretty sturdy and it's small size is perfect for the small eating area. It's way too small for the dining room, only because it wouldn't fit all our lovely friends!!

As for the dresser, I'm hoping it will fit in the dining room...it would look so purdy!!!

painted furniture

Don't mind me, I'm just collecting inspiring colours for painting my furniture, old and new.

what's my style??

I'm having a style identity crisis!! My previous house was very cottagey. I'm not so sure that's really a good reflection of me and i've suddenly realized that i feel the need to reinvent myself through this new house. Moving into a new place is a great chance to do that, providing you can recycle your old stuff through paint or modification.

I've found the perfect couch and love seat at Leons, and i'm sooooo tickled that my hubby has actually agreed to buy them. Yay for delayed payments!

So, now i have the fun of searching out pictures of interiors that make me stop and go hmmmm. Here are some at pottery barn that did just that, though i require a definite touch of eclecticism, and more splashes of colour. I think i'm seeing a trend....organic:

bulkheads

I'm taking a break from packing. We have bulkheads over the kitchen cabinets in our soon-to-be new house. I found some pics online where people added crown moulding and matched the colour to the cabinets. The kitchen is going to be painted a creamy white, and the walls a nice pale green, an old Martha Stewart colour in fact.

Here's the kitchen we're getting:


Here are some pictures I found online, the progression of a kitchen makeover. Could I do the same???

ugly fireplace

Look at this thing. I adore our new house, which we take possession of August 31st. There's just one thing that really bugs me. The propane fireplace. I've let go of the fact that it's a natural gas stove, and not a "real" fireplace for lovely crackling wood fires. :o( I won't miss the mess and the soot though. But this fireplace is UGLY! And so not a colour that is condusive to my taste.


Look at this idea below. It's from none other than my brilliant sister, an unofficial interior (and exterior) designer. She took into consideration our lack of funds. Check out her link on the right side of this page, called 'Just Beachy' (yes I'm too lazy to do it right here!). Some day she'll be official for sure. Thanks sis, for giving me hope!

initial thoughts for kitchen

Yup, I'm already preoccupied with what I want to do in this house once we're in. I should be packing right now, but I'll just take a moment for a little post.

I love this area in the kitchen. It's sort of set apart by the fridge on one side, and a deep pantry style cupboard on the other side. I am going to be painting the kitchen cabinets a nice creamy white which will bring it up to date. I'll be using antiquey black hardware. In this area I'll be taking off the doors to give me some open shelves. I have open shelves now, so I couldn't live without them. They are pretty, and very convenient, and things don't get quite as dusty as you imagine. At least not the items used on a daily basis.

My sister suggested painting the inside a different colour, so I'll definitely be doing that, probably a very lovely warm pale blue of some sort, maybe something different, who knows. I feel like I'm rediscovering myself right now, so I don't want to make too many colour choices at the moment. Who knows what the "new" me will choose.

We'll have a small microwave too, but it will be an under cabinet model on the other side of the kitchen.

I'm thinking of buying this light kit at Home Depot for under the above cabinets. It's perfect, 3 lights, and they plug in. Plus they are only $39.99.

Funny, normally the "decorator" in me is locked in a dungeon somewhere in my being. It simply not something I'm passionate about.....until.....I move. Then she's released and overtakes everything because she figures if she's gonna be free for awhile, she'd better make a party out of it!

a little slice of heaven

Well it happened. 2 1/2 weeks before our closing date we found ourselves a house. If you've been following my laments in the past over enduring 18 months of trying to sell our place, you'd understand what a big relief this is. I always knew in my heart of hearts that God had a plan and even though his timing wasn't preferable, it was productive. We will now have much more of a house than we dreamed of. We also got it for a very reasonable price. It's in an area with superb market value, so it's also an investment into our future. But the most important part is....I LOVE THE FREAKIN' HOUSE!!!!!!!! I love love love it!! Not more than my family or friends mind you, but it will be a fun place to live and enjoy friendships.

The house had been on the market since early spring, though I'm not sure exactly. Wendy, do you know? Anyways, nobody bit, so they had to lower their price...twice. We got it for $29,000 less than their first listing price. This is something that makes my hubby squeal with delight, which is great since he was not keen on the idea of moving at all 2 years ago when I first "presented" the idea to him. Now I catch him doing little dances of joy, over the house, and how great it is, and how everything worked out so well. We are truly humbled because it's more than we ever expected.

The location is so perfect it's not funny. Seriously. Easy peasy access to the highway, and walking distance to where all the action is, and most importantly, our bestest friends (who happened to have found the house for us in the first place!).

We get in the end of August. Here's a few pictures that were taken in early May (which around here looks like late March or early April where I come from). It looks like an autumn house, which is funny because I'm starting to think that's my favourite season...maybe.



That's all the peeking for now!