Ethan Thomas

I am happy to announce the arrival of my son.....

                                                      Ethan Thomas.

Born April 14th, 2011 at 5:02 am. Weighing in at 10 pounds and measuring a whopping 21.5 inches.
My big boy is doing wonderful and the whole family is in heaven.

And you know what this means...a whole new room to decorate with a boy in mind. My brain is already planning away Ethan's future room.

Drawing a floor plan

Unit One of my Interior Design course has finally made it's way back into my hands with rave reviews. I am happy to announce that I received an A- for my first unit. While I would have preferred a higher mark my teacher was quick to point out that the mark for the first unit is usually the lowest. So things should be looking up the next time around.

Speaking of which Unit Two of my course has finally arrived in the mail and I have been busy working my way through it.  I have completed all the lessons and have now started on the project for this unit, drawing a floor plan for my previously sketched living room and sketching and drawing a floor plan for a bedroom.
Along with the lessons I also received 5 interior design books, a drafting tablet, pencils, t-rule, an eraser and brush, sharpener, door template and rulers. I am slowly feeling more and more professional as we go on.

Here is the break down of what Unit Two has taught me.

Lesson one got right to the heart of the matter and went through the process of how to draw a finished floor plan. We practised on a fictional room and then as our final project we had to draw a finished floor plan for both a bedroom and a living room. The work I have done in the first two units is accumalative and I will continue to adapt and add on to these rooms, as well as start work on new rooms.
Lesson two focused on two key issues of design, furniture selection and colour scale. the first half of the lesson went over the guidelines for what to look for in furniture, where to buy it and how to know if it suits a particular room. The second half of the lesson got me painting up a storm as I learned how to vary the value and intensity of colours.
Lesson three delved into period furniture, and the first period we looked at was Early American Farmhouse Style. Which turns out to be the style I am mist particularly drawn to. We had a mini test after this lesson in which we had to select all the American Farmhouse furniture out of a drawing of twenty different furniture styles.
Lesson four was on the business side of things and had us looking over how to write up a Letter of Agreement with our clients. This section of the course really makes it clear that what I might now consider a hobby could potential be a future career.

I look forward to receiving feedback on my work and getting started on the next unit. However with a baby due any day now I am not sure how much time I will have to devote to my studies. I am just happy I am off to a good start and that I am truly enjoying the work.

Shopping

My hubby and I have been out shopping, and not of the window shopping variety, but real purchases and all.
We have decided to tackle one room at a time in our home and the first on the list is the mudroom.
So as not to get sidetracked by the arrival of our new baby in two weeks time we decided to go get a few of the most have essentials needed to finish of the room.

1) We ordered the two closet doors from Dimension doors. Instead of the standard bi-fold closet doors we wanted a more custom look and we thought that two small solid wood doors would give the mudroom the character it needed. Also the doors match the rest of the doors in our house. We plan on painting them red, actually Orchard red from Sarah Richardson's PARA paint line.

However they do not carry her colours here in the good ol' province of Qc. So we are having Benjamin Moore match it for us.

2) Speaking of Benjamin Moore, the local retailer here also sells Robert Allen fabric and I am very happy to announce that we have ordered the fabric for the mudroom.

In two weeks time we should be receiving this Paisely Flower fabric in Date, and although it is expensive I really think that the wow factor of this fabric is worth it. Especially since the mudroom will be the introduction to the rest of our house.

3) Deciding that the plain pine paneling was a bit too much wood we decided to buy a white stain to try out on the lower portion of the wall. While I wasn't happy with the pine being plain I also felt that painting it would ruin the country charm of the paneling. So we opted to try staining the wood white, this way we still see the knots and grain of the pine. We will know for sure if it was the right move once everything is in place.

4) We found ourselves a perfect little bench to fit nicely in the mudroom. We didn't have a lot of space to work with, 43'x18' to be exact, and this little fellow just made the cut. We plan on painting it, but want to wait and see the fabric and red doors in place before choosing a colour.

5) This next purchase applies to the whole house, although we will be using it in the mudroom as well.

DOORKNOBS!! I am so excited to finally found doorknobs we like. Here it is in all it's glory, the Weiser Wickham knob in black. 

                                                           

We originally wanted porcelain to go with the country feel of our house, but seeing that the price was out of our reach we went with the black as it gave off the same "old" look we were after. I can not wait to get them installed. It's going to make our place seemed that much more finished.

We still have a few purchases left to make, like the grass cloth wallpaper for the upper portion of wall and closet storage, shelves and hooks.

I love shopping!!

Window Seats

Now that we are back home the to-do list for our home looms over our heads. I sat down the other day and decided to write down everything we still have left to do in the house. While I know as home owners we will never be truly finished when it comes to our home, we have a few must have things we need to do to make our house a home.

One of this such things is finishing off the bay window. And part of finishing the bay window involves building a window seat. I have always wanted one and felt that the space definitely warranted one. But before we get building I have to know what I want the seat to look like. So for inspiration I hit the web and found a few windows that really caught my attention.

To me this is an ideal window seat. Enough room to sit comfortably and read, but also functional for guests to perch at a party.

I could definitely see myself curled up here for hours with a good book.

Love the bead board. This just might be the perfect inspiration photo for my own window seat.

Such amazing vibrant colours. A window seat is a perfect place to go a bit crazy with fabric.

While at the same time simplicity reigns.

I guess I have a few choices to work with. Now to make a decision and start building. I can't wait to hear the pitter patter of hammers once again.

Back to School

I came home early. There was a carbon monoxide leak at school and due to the fact that I was 31 weeks pregnant at the time the health professionals in my village didn't want to take any chances. So they quickly flew me down from my Northern village (which I probably will never see again) to Montreal.  It was quite the journey, with a nurse accompanying me the entire way and an ambulance waiting for me at the airport. Luckily both the baby and I are doing great.

So yeah I am home early.
Not what I intended, but it happened and I had to leave hubby and Niamh behind.
So instead of sulking in bed I decided to get started on my interior design course. I had enrolled with the Sheffield School of Interior Design back in January and most of my course material had arrived at my home down south.

I opened up Unit One and got to work.

Unit One

Unit One has 6 mini lessons in it, all of which are accompanied by a book and a CD recording of two designers discussing the subject at hand. It starts out by explaining the basics of design and how one needs to practise developing the "eye of a designer".
The next lesson is on getting to know your clients. You are set up with a fake couple to interview and get to know them and what they want out of their home.
Lesson three is on how to measure and free-hand sketch a room and the main project for this unit is to find a real living room to practise on. Luckily for me I have a living room so I got out my pink measuring tape and got to work. If I had a scanner I would post a picture of my lovely sketch, but you`ll just have to imagine it for now.
 Lesson four is on the use of colour and I got to go back to my primary days of mixing water colours to make a colour wheel. It was messy but fun.
Lesson five was on how to charge clients for your design ($ fun!) and finally lesson six was on green design.

I completed the unit in record time, but I will not be boastful. After all I am all by myself, with nothing much else to do. Once hubby and Niamh arrive home I will not have as much free time. Throw in a newborn and I hope to remember what design is.
So I will take advantage of my time and get working on this new exciting chapter in my life.

The only thing is......Unit two is still in the mail.

Seeing red

After spending some time pouring over the red rooms in my previous post I got to thinking about the second kids room in our house. I was drawn to using the colour red from the get go and thought I might post a few photos that inspire the future decore of this room.

Here is the room as it is now.

I have two hand me down dark stained wood twin beds which I thought I would lay side by side. The 'duvet' covers are Ikea curtains I got for 2$ at a garage sale, and one day I will get out my sewing machien and make them into proper duvets.

I got this side table in the Ikea liquidation section and thought it would work perfectly between the two beds.


However this is as far as I have come in the styling department for this room. Since I am still on the lookout for some fresh and fun red ideas for this room I thought I would share some of the great rooms I found during my search for inspiration.

The season of love

Happy Valentines Day everyone.
In honour of the day of love I thought I would post some of my favourite room designs featuring the valentine duo; red and pink.

Decorpad

Sarah Richardson

IDS (Sarah Richardson)

Martha Stewart

Decorpad

Unknown

Sarah Richardson

Counry Living

Hope everyone enjoys a bit of bright colour in their lives this time of year. Looking through these pictures makes me want to incorporate more of these colours in my own home.