designer paper

I've been admiring some designer gift wrap paper over at Luxe Paperie. Wrapping presents is not what's on my mind, not after admiring it's use in furniture makeovers over at Design*Sponge. Think drawer fronts and small table surfaces.

Here are a few of my favourites. As soon as I'm willing to pay the $20 shipping fee for $3 paper, I'm good to go. Sheesh!

Tonic Living fabric samples on their way

Late last night I was determined to choose and order some fabric samples from Tonic Living. It's my interior designer sister over at Just Beachy that put me on to them. They offer "a fresh collection of retro inspired fabrics for the designers, diy-ers, craftsters and collectors".

This first sample is a possible candidate for embellishing a retro 1970's record album holder cabinet. Yes, I mean a piece of furniture and not the kind that is upholstered. I have a plan and who knows if it'll work. Should be interesting. It's a slight departure from what I would usually choose, but I'm trying to learn to expand my horizons and not default to what seems safe.


This next sample is even more of a deviation from my personal status quo. I'm thinking of introducing this pattern into the dining room by reupholstering the chair below. My inspiration comes from perusing photos of furniture makeovers over at Design*Sponge. Oh how I drool and swoon over the stuff over there.




A big thanks to my sister for letting me know about such a great and affordable online resource for diy'ers! Their prices are affordable and their shipping costs are just as impressive.

how utterly lovely!

Meg, over at her whatever blog, posted pics back on Sept. 5th, 2009 of her toy room slash guest room makeover. It's to die for!!! Seriously! Makes me think I need way more colour in my life.

a little vignette

I was going to paint this jelly cupboard* a new colour to spruce it up. It was looking kinda boring against my pale green wall. I spontaneously dug out my cherished antique tool chest** and placed all this stuff on top of it and now the jelly cupboard looks quite grand!

To me it kinda says "country", which isn't my goal, so I'll just consider it my little homage to beach cottage style.

* this was found in the basement of an old farmhouse we were renting while we had our previous house built. It was an aqua blue but not a nice aqua blue. It also stunk and had mouse poop in it. I had a vision for it though and we offered to buy it from the owner of the house. We paid a whopping $60 for it. I love the thing.

** this was on the covered porch of the formerly mentioned farm house, partially cover in snow!!! I asked to purchase it but they just gave it to us. Sweeeeeet!!!!

new white lamps!

Jon bought us some new lamps. Goodness knows we need more lighting around here. I espied these 2 lamps at Winners/HomeSense a couple weeks ago. We went there yesterday and lo and behold they were still there. Musta been waiting for us.

My hubby bought them as a thank you for my hard work in bring home extra bacon (figuratively speaking) from my new part time job. We've been able to use my paycheques to pay some bills. Yay!

The shades are a stark white, which would work great for some interiors, but my creamy coloured couches clash with said shades.


The bases on the other hand are dreamy. When I first saw them, I ran my hands all over their nubbly glass surface. Divine! They have what I assume is acrylic bases which add a touch of contemporary'ness.

My plan is to recover the shades in a neutral light brown tone. To that I will add some white or pale ecru embroidery of some sort. A pillow in this month's copy of Canada's Style at Home magazine provides the inspiration for that idea. I snagged some $5 per meter fabric in our local fabric store's big clearance section today which will be perfect.

Though the shade of brown in this pillow is much darker than the fabric I chose, and the embroidery isn't what I'd choose to mimic, it gives a general idea of what I'm thinking. Should be a fun project!

glimpses of dining room progress

As previously mentioned, I don't want to give away too much in the way of how my dining room makeover is going. I will instead provide proof that progress is being made, in spite of work and busyness getting in the way. Lately that progress seems to be collecting things and not my DIY recessed paneling, but progress is progress.

Here are some teasers:

100% cotton table cloth made in India (where else?!), cut in 2 to be used for drapes
single place mat purchased at icky Walmart for $1.00 on clearance. i may use it in the center of the table for candles or something
i now have a gallery wall of original art! this is a little watercolour i picked up in Old Quebec City's outdoor gallery that runs from Rue Ste-Anne to Rue Buade
a new piece of furniture that i painted, preserving it's original worn look.
bottles of wine in reserve for sharing with friends
What's interesting is that the room has taken on a colour scheme that I did not pre-plan, let alone strive for. More about that in a future post!

A few of my favourite things

I don't have a lot of decorative things. I do have some favourites though. Here's four of them.

aqua blue clock. it turned out to be painted metal and not plastic. nice. (HomeSense)
mr. owl. he's actually a tea light candle holder. he's a throw back to the 70's, no? (HomeSense)
i seriously adore this mirror. (Pier 1 Imports)
my favourite original painting. i love it!! doggy digging a hole. this is the artist's original watercolour. i think she still sells the prints. (Ebay)

couldn't find a place for it!

I bought the following cool retro nightstand off of kijiji. I got it for a song. The song went something like "oh lady, would you take $25 for this". I didn't pursue it right away since it came up before payday. Now it's mine and I was delighted to have it. The problem is that many retro pieces are short. I had visions of a 70's shade of green on it, and perhaps even a glass top added to top it off, but the reality is that it looks seriously dwarfed beside my big couches. Whaaaa!


It may end up as my daughter's night stand. Sniff sniff.

skinny wall shelves and decorating style identity crisis

Oh I'm a nasty poor excuse of a decorating blogger. Lately I post "other" people's photos. I've decided I'm going to keep my dining room makeover under wraps and unveil it's final state when she's all done.

In the meantime, I'll keep posting photos that inspire me or give me ideas for what the heck to do with my poor unadorned walls and spaces.

My latest pre-occupation is with skinny shelves, as in those with a shallow depth in regards to it's profile. Something to place various objects for display. The more eclectic the better. I get the feeling I'm a wannabe eclectic-retro-modern-design kinda girl, but one has to work with one's current possessions and work with what one has (or has access to and can afford).

I don't live in a big-city-converted-warehouse-loft and so I must work with my little bungalow rather than against it. It's funny, sometimes I wish I lived in an old adorable farmhouse, other times I wished I lived where you could fall asleep to the sound of passing traffic and people. Twelve foot high ceilings, conduit, and walls of high windows. And brick. A gallery wall on brick.

I blame it on the movies.

sprouting shelf

Design*Sponge 'Kate's Sprouting Shelf
Okay, this is my final Design*Sponge project post. I love this shelf! At least I think I do. It's like a sculpture. I'm just not sure whether I could do the painted styrofoam pieces and not think "solar system science project". Maybe I could scour Michaels for something colourful and organic to use.

Another fun girlfriend DIY project, dontcha think?

pretty coat rack

Design*Sponge Pretty Paper Coat Rack
Another future DIY project I'd like to do. Considering the fact that I'm not the kind of girl to go shopping much (if at all...lack of funds you know), the trick will be to find some great paper. Poop! Where to hunt?!

This would be a great project for friends to do in an afternoon. You could share supplies like a can of spray adhesive and a protective spray. Would be fun!

fall decorating - floaty minimalist style

Design*Sponge Leaf Mobile

i like this better

Design*Sponge Embroidered Headboard

Love this idea, though I think I'd almost rather just paint it right on the wall. I think the shutters headboard posted below is a little, too, um, country-bumpkin.

I started cutting in on some of the recessed paneling in my dining room. It's not all done, but while waiting for payday to buy more MDF, I thought it would be fun to get to the painting part. Wrong. I hate cutting it. Hate it. What I can't wait for is the rolling part!!!! Cutting in sucks!!

more gallery walls

Yes, more gallery wall photos. The results of a little late night googling. I have quite a few walls that would be great for such an artsy display. I'd like a wall of my own photography, one of our photos of our trip to Old Quebec City, and a quirky eclectic wall, just for starters. I've discovered I have a couple of vintage floral prints that seem to be perfect for a starter collection for a wall in the dining room. It's really not my style, but its funny how some rooms take on a personality of their own and maybe I shouldn't fight it. Jon reminded me that I've always wanted a house where each room said it's own thing.

Enjoy the inspirational photos below. I've collected them for future reference.