Basement Makeover: The Vision

These past few weeks I've been itching to spruce up our basement living area. Every time I go down to look for tool or sort through my holiday decor, I remember why I don't like to hang out there...DRAB.  We have furniture from a past life (and not in a chic vintage way) that I can't get rid of fast enough. 

Here's what it looks like now.

I started to think about just how much I would love one of those sofas with a chaise lounge attached...and it all spiraled from there.  I whipped up a little inspiration board, these are just my fave things ever to make!  According to hubs, I'm "allowed" to redo the space on the condition that we add some colour - he's a bit sick of my usual black, white and grey palette. Pourquoi? Anyhoo... I went WILD and landed on blue, lol, I don't know...it just felt right. 

The existing items I own and need to work with are the ever-glorious Eames lounge and ottoman, industrial-ish side table and black lamp and that's about it, it's open season on the rest! I felt this space should be a bit more comfy than the rest of the house, so I toned down the glam a wee bit and tried to keep it a bit masculine, because let's be honest, I send hubs down there most of the time to watch sports...although...the chaise lounge may change that?!

The wall colour is still settling with me, but never fear, of course I managed to squeeze some black and white elements in :) 

Creative, custom cake...from a box!

For our glamping extravaganza this past weekend I wanted a unique birthday cake that didn't cost a fortune. I'm a self professed baker-wannabe, I def don't know my way around a scratch cake mix, I bake from a box - there I said it. So, I had to pull out all of the other stops I could think of to make up for my baking inadequacies; a theme, edible custom topper, a friend with mad icing skills and food colouring! 

Do you love that my GF matches the cake? 

Nothing says fashionable-great outdoors like Canada's chic Hudson's Bay Co. I dreamt up the idea to colour each layer of the cake to match the brands signature stripes (many a rainbow cake have come across my Pinterest feed lately...an idea was born).

Of course I went right to my fave resource Etsy, to seek out a creative genius who could recreate the Bay's logo (with a small tweak to the date to represent the year the hubs was born) and add in a birthday message. The TopACake shop turned my logo around in hours and it was a flawless match! I was nervous about the application of the frosting sheet, but this sheet was sturdy and literally peel n' stick.

Cutting into the middle was the most exciting part! The reveal of these multicoloured layers was a fun surprise - TIP: for rich colour use food colouring gel, I used the drops and didn't quite get the dark colours I was going for.

I couldn't have been more pleased with this custom cake masterpiece, and the best part is the total costs was less than $30 (custom cake topper was only $10!!).  Not bad for this Betty Crocker connoisseur.

Glamping Style Weekend Getaway

This weekend was the hub's 30th birthday, woohoo! In honour of this milestone we set out to arrange a fun filled "Glamping" theme weekend and invited some of our closest friends. We headed in to the deep woods for this one, and there we uncovered a glorious gem. I took a few shots of the place we stayed in, I simply HAVE to share because well...this may be the prettiest "cottage" I've ever seen!  I'm less of a camper, more of a glam gal, but I could def get down with this woodland masterpiece. 

The space was designed to be modern, yet they respected the natural elements that make this land special. Everything started with douglas fir beams, doors and mouldings, but finished with modern industrial details such as this fireplace - with cool storage compartments for wood, and (heated) concrete floors throughout.

The kitchen was a complete dream! High end appliance, a HUGE island and definitely the place where we all ended up gathering most of the weekend.

Move now to the master bathroom, and it gets even more exciting! A stunning view of the great outdoors that can be enjoyed as you shower in a fully exposed area, no glass! It took a bit of bravery to indulge in this amenity, but once I did it was very freeing.

Other than the beautiful setting, modern design and luxurious details, this weekend wouldn't have been complete without the best set of friends anyone could ask for. We gathered by the fire at water's edge and had many laughs over roasted hot dogs and inside jokes, which for us made this weekend very special. 

My Master Bedroom Inspiration: Pink, gold and fowl all over

My, my, my....talk about silence over the airways, sorry about that. I've been busy at work and the change in the weather/pitch black darkness by 6pm, has lead me to lots of -feeling sorry for myself-couch surfing-snacking situations at the end of the day.

Anyhow, I'm climbing outta my funk and have managed to think a bit about our master bedroom project, I've ordered the wallpaper, step one, and now I've finally finished a vision board for how I'd like it to go down.

I was inspired in Paris by all of the beautiful shades of pink, gold details, busy wall coverings and of course by Versailles! I want a girly space, but I have to keep the hubs happy, so I tried to keep the basics neutral and used pink just for accessories.

Not all of this furniture, nor the art piece, will be placed against this one wall - was hard to show.

I own most of the items in the room already, bed, curtains, dresser, mirror, chandelier, rug and side table, I got a bit hasty when we moved in and bought all kinds of stuff without a plan (as you know), so I'm working with it and I think it's going to be ok. P.S. stay tuned for my DIY gold leaf ceiling medallion project, WOWSA, it really turned out well!

This wallpaper for me will hopefully be the biggest payoff, it's SOOO dramatic and I'm hoping to direct all of the focus to that wall. I've mentioned this before but Lowe's wallpaperstudio.com is awesome! I ordered 2 rolls of this for $120, which certainly beats the $1000 I paid for the hallway wallpaper (that's including designer discount), so let's see when it gets here if my selection was the right one.

Ok, time to get off the couch and make this happen....

DIY PAINTED PICTURE FRAME MAT

So, I got up to some major DIYing this weekend, how about you?  I painted my fall pumpkins gold, gold leafed a ceiling medallion AND spruced up an old picture frame mat to give it some much needed colour. Because I knew it would take me another year to decide on a new piece of art that was a bit more colourful, I decided to go about it in a different way; I painted the mat.

The blase before...

Before

The tools were as simple as craft paint, mini roller and IKEA picture frame (I experimented with an inexpensive frame just in case it didn't turn out the way I wanted).

And the process was even simpler, dip roller in paint and roll on the mat (making sure to get the inside edges so you don't see any white).

After it dried, I popped it back in to the frame and found it a new home.

After

Instant facelift! Love.