A years a long time to wait.

When you start actively living in a house you start to forget about all the little things that need doing. The unfinished paint jobs, the missing side tables, the lack of art work just become a normality. I became comfortable with the fact that I had so many knots left untied, and I would tell myself (and husband) that it was no big deal that we lived in a state of in-between.  I justified the unfinished pantry,    the artwork left sitting in a corner and the un-sewn curtains because many other people live in unfinished houses.

But I finally came to the realization that we are not other people and I want more for my home. I also reminded myself that if I wanted to be a "real" designer I needed to prove myself where it mattered most!

So far the list of accomplishments is small, but its a start.
The list goes as follows:

• Finished painting my husbands bureau
• 
  
• Hung the kitchen curtains
• Painted the completed bay window
• Purchased a mirror for the family bathroom and powder room
• Painted the powder room
• Hung curtains in my daughters room
• Hung art work in my daughters room
• Bought new bedding for my sons room
• Hung art work in my sons room
• Hung wallpaper and painted the mudroom
• Bought a dining room table set

Now this is but a dent in my long list of things to do. But I will happily share my experience completing all the above in my future posts. Stay tuned!

                   
                                                                           

Sugar and Spice

Sugar and Spice and all things nice, that's what little girls 

are made of.

Here are a few of my favourite pinspiration for Niamh's room.

Snips and Snails

"Snips and snails and puppy dog tails, that's what little boys are made of."

Here are a few of my favourite pinspirations for Ethan's room.

 theinspiredroom

houzz

flickr

apartmenttherapy

 blogs.babble

apartmenttherapy 

livebreathedecor

A few updates

Not much has changed in our home since we finished the renovations two years ago.
My excuse is that we moved away to the Arctic and had another baby......
But we've been home now for over a year and that baby turns one tomorrow so I guess I've run out of things to blame for my lack of motivation in the home decor area.

I have checked two things off my list however and I thought I'd at least post an updated shot of these two areas, my master bedroom bureau situation and the kids wing landing.

First of all remember my fiasco with the dresser I found in my sisters basement. Well I decided to go new instead of trying to find an antique. Tried, tested and true Ikea came to the rescue with this Hemnes white lacquered bureau.

I quite enjoy the finished look and must say my master feels more like a grown up room now that I have a stylized bureau to call my own.

The next area as I mentioned is  the landing off the kids bedrooms. We added some bookshelves to house books and toys, a cozy reading chair, a light and a carpet and called it a day. Now at the end of the day we have a place to wine down the kids.

Both kids love "reading" here, and even if reading means taking all the books off the shelves we love that we have this special place to spend quality time with them.

I hope to find more time, money and inspiration to help get the rest of the house decorated.
Until then......

Spring Fever

Spring is here and with it's arrival comes the fresh and vibrant colours. Multicoloured flowers, golden sunshine, green grass and blue skies/rain fill me with happiness. In honour of this time of year here are a few of my favourite spring inspired designs.

oncewed

sadieandstella

shelterinteriordesign

 

houseandhome

houseandhome

stylebyemilyhenderson

cococozy

luxefinds

Happy Spring!!!!

Obsessions

Recently I have been wasting my time on the internet.....in a productive design knowledge building sort of way. Two web sites have me to glued to the computer....and unfortunately taken my time away from updating this here blog.

The first is pinterest. What a wonderful site to find and hoard all kinds of wonderful pictures, ideas and inspiration. Whether it's a great design idea I want to keep in mind for my house, a trend that has me itching to try it out or just something pretty to look at I am pining it.
Here are a few pins that have perked my interest this week.

The black modern windsor chairs have me drooling.....must have for my dining room.

westelm 

This kid friendly center is a must for any busy family kitchen.

ohdeedoh

The setee, the artwork, the colours scream tailored and classic.

 houseandhome

The second site, which helps with my pining obsession is Houzz. A wonderful website full of house design related articles. A weekly e-mail arrives in my inbox and I spend my coffee break enjoying all the wonderful houses and the interior and exteriors design ideas.
Here are a few houzz' I've saved for further reference.


                                               I'm loving this scandnavian beach look.

houzz

The layout, the steamlined look, the sparkle.....the obssession!

houzz

Who wouldn't want magical, magnetic wallpaper in their room?

houzz

One good thing about these two websites is that it has me feeling a bit neglectful of my own. I hope to get back on here and post a few updates on our house, on my course and on what my new found obsessions bring my way.

The chest of drawers

Since we have moved in, our Master bedroom has remained unchanged. Sure we have a beautiful headboard and a few pieces of furniture, but the room is unfinished. One of the pieces of furniture that we do have is a antique chest of drawers which I had been using. However I had envisioned this high and narrow chest of drawers placed on Neil's side of the room between the two windows and on my side a nice low and long chest of drawers. I hadn`t really done much searching, but I knew I wanted......

....something like this.

And wouldn`t you know my sister moves into a new place and hiding, unused in her basement is a chest of drawers just like it. Well I was ecstatic. Here was the chest of drawers I had been coveting free for the taking.

So I brought it home and got to cleaning it. For you see it used to belong in a little girls room....a little girl who seemed to like colouring and putting stickers on her chest of drawers. So I scrubbed and sprayed it with water and hoped for the best. The best was not meant to be as it turns out the drawers were not made of real wood, but presswood. The water absorbed right into the drawers and warped them all.

Still I didn`t want to give up, and even though the drawers were all wonky, the stickers didn`t come off, and the paint was starting to look bubbly, I felt that I could still make it work.

However after hauling it upstairs to our room and spending an evening lying beside it we realised that we had another problem.....it stank. I guess 10 years hiding in a damp and mildewy basement takes its toll, because no matter how much more I cleaned, or how much febreeze I sprayed, it still stunk.

So I decided to cut my losses (I mean it was free to begin with). I took off all the pulls, because I have something creative in mind for a replacement bureau and threw the smelly thing out the door. Literally.



So although my attempt at reusing the old bureau went up in smoke....literally. I hope to one day show you a beautiful bureau in our master bedroom. Meanwhile I am busy spray panting the old chest of drawers we already had white so Neil can move his clothes into it. And for now my clothes have found a very, very temporary home in our laundry hampers.