Trim the Tree

Well it officially feels like Christmas in our house. I set up the tree and put up our Christmas decorations today. I even got The Boy (who can be a bit of a Grinch) to play Christmas music this afternoon!

Now I just have to start the dreaded shopping and put some presents under that pretty tree.

Lisa.xo

Tulips are Better Than One

Ok...that was bad...

I'm sorry you had to read that.

What I meant was: I bought some beautiful tulips at the grocery store the other day! All of this live beauty for $5! Can't beat it!

I need to do this more often. These make me happy! :)

Lisa.xo

Dining Room Cabinets Completed!

Yeah! I couldn't be happier that these are finally done. And they look fantastic!

Magazines make this kind of project look so easy. And really, I guess in essence it was easy, but it was incredibly time consuming. The prep, the painting, the wallpapering. Changing the hardware was the quickest thing about this project.

And speaking of quick, you may have noticed that nothing really gets done quickly at our house. Since I painted the cabinets in August the cabinets have looked like this.

please ignore the case of beer on the floor. I. Am. Canadian.

We've been waiting for a little free time to tackle it all at once. Yesterday I got sick of looking at the mess and made The Boy pry the backings off of the cabinets.

Prior to this I had marked where the shelves were on the backing with a black felt tipped marker so I could line up the wallpaper like so. The seams sit behind the shelves.

I wanted them to look as seamless as possible.

After I finished lining up the paper we (and by "we" I mean The Boy) nailed the backings back onto the cabinets.

Then the fun part started. Decorating the shelves! I really tried to keep it simple. I edited A LOT of stuff off of these shelves.

And for fun. Here's what the room looked like 2 1/2 years ago right after we moved in.

And last year.

Now all that's left for this room is some bamboo blinds and to paint my dining room furniture (another project looong overdue...one thing at a time.)

What do you think?

Lisa.xo

Weekend Update

It's been a busy weekend! The Boy went fishing up north and took the camera with him, so I was left noticably camera-less this weekend (how I missed it!).

I kept myself busy on Saturday shopping with Mom and eating delicious steak and sundaes! Yum!

Yesterday I did this:

I finally painted my dining room shelves. And I am very happy with the results. Remember when they looked like this?

Before:

After:

And yes, I realize they are not done yet, I have to go buy wallpaper to back my shelves with. The worst part is that I thought I had it all figured out and now that the shelves are painted I'm not sure my pattern choice is any good. Shoot! Back to the paint store for more samples!

This is the wallpapaer sample I've got picked out. It's much more teal in colour in actuality. I'm not sure it's the one anymore...

I've also got to go buy new door knobs. I think I'll be purchasing glass knobs like this guy:

I'm in the home stretch though. Painting was for sure the biggest hurdle in this project. I used a dry brushing technique using Behr Paint and Primer in one so the old "wood tones" (they are particle board after all!) would show through giving the shelves some depth. I'm pleased as punch with how they turned out!

I'm also very shocked at how much crap I have stored in those babies!! This is the current state of my dining room! Yikes!!

What were you up to this weekend? Any wallpaper suggestions?

Did you notice my half primed dining chairs? They too are ready for paint! Another half done project! Woo hoo! lol!

Lisa.xo

Dining Tablescape

More decorating! I told you, I'm obssessed again.

Here's what's sitting on my dining table at the moment. Fresh, with a hint of summer (oh please come soon!).

Remember when I said I was gonna paint the other day? I think the dining room set is first on my hit list...

Lisa.xo

Spectacular Sputnik

A while ago I posted a little To Do list for my dining room here. Well, I can cross off one major purchase from that list.

If you can't guess what it is from the title of this post well....I don't really know what to say.

We bought a Sputnik Chandelier!!

And not from Z Gallerie as I was anticipating. I found one here in Winnipeg at EQ3!

Here it is in all it's glory:

I feel the need to include few notes on these photos. The chandelier looks a little out of place at the moment due to the fact that we have not painted any of our furniture (check link above for more info on that). I personally think the chandelier is hung about 4 inches too high and it's too close to the far wall. We have plans to center it on the table and lower it a little when we're not so busy around here.

You may have also noticed I moved the bookcase from the side wall onto the feature wall. I like it there. I think it's got great impact in the room. Simpler, more streamine shelf arrangements are needed though. I'm trying. I'm usually a more is more kinda gal.

It's still a work in progress, but it's come a long way.

The dining room as we were painting

In livable condition, before we hung curtains. (See the rods in the corner?) 

And how it looks today.

What about you? Do you have any decorating projects in the works? Any big, exciting purchases?

Lisa.xo

Dining Room Dreams

I've been consumed with thoughts of a new chandelier for our dining room and of painting our dining room furniture lately.

Here's our dining room as is it right now:

Well this is actually an older picture. I've got drapes hung that match the living room drapes now. You get the idea.

This room has been puzzling me until recently. All of the furniture in this room (minus the bookcase against the side wall) was free. The table and chairs were given to us when The Boy's aunt moved to B.C. The "hutch" (as I like to call it) on the back wall was in our garage when we bought the house.
I thought we needed a new table and chairs at least, but I could not find ANYTHING I liked. Nothing. Anything new was too big and anything antique that I liked just seemed too similar to what we already had.
I was stumped.

Until my Mom showed me this picture from Canadian House and Home magazine:

This set is very similar in style to mine. What I love is the updated punchy colour of the chairs. I won't be covering the backs of mine with fabric though. Too country for my look, but this photo has inspired me to work with what we've got and paint our dining room furniture.
Here's what I'm thinking. Bright high gloss white on the table and for the chairs, Benjamin Moore's Florida Keys:

Hmmm...Florida Keys is actually much more sea green than this scan. This is far too blue.

The Brown (called Black Bean Soup) will be for the "hutch". I'll also be lining the back of the "hutch" in wallpaper. This design from Seabrook Designs British Tropical collection is currently stealing my heart.

This scan is actually showing too blue as well. This wallpaper is more aqua coloured.

The bookcase will be relocated elsewhere in the house to open up the room.

In my opinion the chandelier is hideous. Sure, there are worst chadeliers we could have inherited with our house, but I just despise this one. It's a boob-lamp with arms. Ugh.

I have been on an exhaustive search since we moved into our house for a replacement. At first I wanted a chandelier with a drum shade. Like this one:

Sorry, no link for this pic. I can't remember where I snagged it last year.

That thought was eventually nixed as I realized this is a pretty trendy look at the moment and I wasn't sure if I would love a fixture like this for more than a year or two. I was also concerned about blocking the view of the hutch on the far wall. I needed something airier.
Then I was leaning towards something more traditional and sparkly. I showed you this chandelier on my last post about the dining room.

This guy was found at Home Depot.

The Boy was very much against anything too sparkly. He was convinced it wouldn't fit with our bright, modern meets vintage vibe the rest of our house has going for it.
So in the end this option was nixed as well...

It wasn't until I was watching HGTV and saw an interior sporting a funky, retro inspired sputnik chandelier that the light bulb went off above my head (pun intended!!)!! Something mid-century modern would be the perfect foil to my painted table and chairs! So the search was on for a cool sputnik light.

It didn't take long for me to find this beauty on Z Gallerie:

They call it the Orbit Chandelier. I don't care what they call it! I want it! And better yet, The Boy loves it too! Plus! it's only $250 US! Score! We have a winner!
The only real problem is that Z Gallerie doesn't ship internationally, so when we purchase it we will have to ship it to the border and drive to pick it up. No Biggie. The Boy does this for car parts all the time.

So now we're just waiting until we can save up a little cash to put in our order. I'm soo excited!

What about you? Are you having decorating dreams about your space? Do share!

Lisa.xo

Living and Dining Rooms: The Next Phase

I'm still having coughing fits and still not ready for public viewing.

So I thought I would share another couple rooms in my house with you. I've already shown you my kitchen. Which is still in the same state it was when I posted that picture. I'm waiting for The Boy's Dad to get well from surgery he had a few weeks ago. Then we'll be tackling painting the walls. Then the cupboards. *Whew* That will be a BIG job.

But first: A few Before photos of the living and dining rooms while we were prepping to paint. As you can see, there were A LOT of dings on the walls.

The Living Room

The Dining Room

Here are their current states:

The Living Room

You've seen this corner before!

The Dining Room

This week The Boy and I will be hanging curtain rods. Bought at Walmart. And I will begin tackling sewing drapes and pillows.

The curtains will primarily be the print with about a foot and a half band of the blue on the bottom.

Curtain Finial.

In the next week or two we will also be ordering this couch and chair from Urban Barn (my new place of employment!).

This sofa has the most AMAZING leather! And it's SUPER comfy!

This is the chair/fabric that inspired the whole room. The colour is a little off in this photo.

The brown leaves and stems are flocked! Can't wait!

I'm hoping to order this tempered glass coffee table as soon as we've got the cash. It's also Urban Barn.

I will also be on the hunt for a small pedestal table for the corner by the new chair. I would die if I could get my hands on something like this for a good price:

I've got new lamps picked out from work which I don't have photos for unfortunatly.  One floor lamp to replace the one in the corner behind the sofa which only works when it feels like it and a new table lamp for the corner with the chair. They look a little like this. Only the base is silver and the shade is white. Other than that this one's a dead ringer for silhouette:

As for the dining room. I've got a lot of painting ahead of me. The table and chairs will be white. The "Hutch" (which is just two bookcases with doors on the bottom pushed together which we found in the garage of our new house! FREE! Yeah!) and bookcase will be painted a deep deep brown or black (can't decide yet) and I will be papering the back with blue wallpaper. This is pretty much exactly what I had in mind (sorry, I got lazy and took a photo of the magazine instead of scanning it. You get the idea.):

From Spring 2010 BH&G "100 Decorating Ideas Big Style for small rooms" magazine

Here's what the "hutch" and bookcase look like right now: I like the way I've arranged the shelves. That will probably stay after I spruce them up.

The "Hutch"

The Bookcase.

We still have to paint this wall. We'll do it when we paint the kitchen.

And finally a new chandelier. Something like this I think:

Heritage Chandelier from Home Depot. Buy it here.

So as you can see, unlike my very retro kitchen, the living room (especially) will be pretty fresh and modern. I have to meet The Boy somewhere in the middle you know. :)

Lisa.xo