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 :) 

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....

CHIC SHACK || master bedroom design, or lack thereof...

Hellooooo! I'm back from vacation, ahhhhh what a glorious trip of a lifetime indeed. As you can imagine a 19 day tour with 4 major destinations has left me wiped. Quite honestly, I'm not organized enough to show you some of the awe inspiring things I came across in my travels, so instead I'm going to complain about my unfinished bedroom!

This new motivation to finish what I started in our master is driven by all of the wonderful ideas and inspiration I soaked in while gallivanting around the globe.

This is what the bedroom looked like when we bought the house.

And here we are now, as you can see not much has changed. We've moved the bed out from under the window, bought curtains, a rug, side table, dresser and a lamp. Why you ask would someone purchase these items without a bigger plan or vision for the space? Who knows?! I was excited when we moved in to fully complete every space, I was on a buying frenzy, but a couple of months ago I realized, I don't have a plan!

Note the many paint testers on the wall, like I said, no plan.

I'm back now with a fresh set of eyes and a head full of ideas; I'm gettin' this room done! Stay tuned for the vision...

BEFORE & AFTER || teak dining table transformation

Nothing excites me more than finding a diamond in the rough; a beat up, tossed aside or flat out ugly treasure that's crying out to be refinished, refurbished or even re purposed.  Our dining room table was one of these hidden gems. For a cool $350 (including delivery) this gorgeous antique Danish, teak table would become the future meeting place for dinner parties, game nights and crafting projects for many years to come.

Its unique oval shape fit well into our tight space, it had a beautiful base and an extra leaf which made this baby a done deal! I couldn't live with teak, it's nice, but not my style, so I decided I would stain it black (a choice that was NOT popular with the purist, craftsman we hired to do the dirty work).

Before: sad little fellow

Personally, I LOVE the transformation! Went from flat to glam in just a few short days and it tucked in perfectly to our petite dining area.

After: black beauty

It's a beautiful, well made vintage piece that I can keep around forever, and with a $400 stain job and a grand total of $750 all in, I feel like I won the furniture lottery!

CHIC SHACK || fornasetti golden goodness

It's official, I was recently gifted one of my favourite decor pieces EVER!  And who would know exactly what would give me the ultimate design high? Yep...the hubs.  This was one of his brightest, shining moments, he presented me with the golden gift of whit and whimsy, a Fornasetti plate!  What makes this even more special is this gift was for our two year wedding anniversary; two years married symbolizes cotton or china gifts, so he went china, and totally nailed it.

I proudly hung this stunning piece of art and then died. Hubs even splurged for one of the uber glam plates in gold, it couldn't get any better.

Can you see my reflection? It's like a funhouse mirror, bleh.

The plate choices are endless, I loooove my version, but could stand to get about 30 more! This brochure came with and taunted me beyond.  The plan is to get three for the space above, stack them up vertically.

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Haunting and innocent, these iconic eyes are now watching over our happy household, and now it's just a wee bit happier.

CHIC SHACK || upstairs hallway art project

The time has come to drag you all in to my twisted  web of indecision that is our upstairs hallway art project.  These walls couldn’t be calling out any louder for some pretty pals to join them, but thanks to my innate ability to research and mull over every option available on planet earth, they’ve been lonely for some time.

This is what the hallway looks like now, there are 2 prime spaces for some big size beauties  (the other plot is to the right of this wall, separated by a door).  Directly across the way is the staircase and my most favourite, monochromo graphic wallpaper adorning the wall leading upstairs.

So here we are...of course my natural (some may say boring) instinct is to gravitate towards something black and white, but I think I need to spice it up. Here are 3 fab options; help me pick!

 If I’ve learned anything about myself during the decorating process it’s that I’m OBSESSED with animal art, statues and accessories of all kinds, so these stunning beasts are definite contenders.

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But then there's my obsession with doors. These are colourful and glammy with their pretty accents, a pop of colour might be what the design doctor ordered?                                                                              via via

And lastly, some retro looking pics of Palm Springs (Joshua Tree Park) our honeymoon hot spot and a more natural option, these trees are soooo cool!

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So there you have it, 3 very different pairs that I totally adore, I just can't make up my mind. What do you think?

P.S Happy long weekend to my Canadian pals, enjoy!

LANDSCAPE CHRONICLES || urban backyard makeover

The time has finally come, yes I know you've all been waiting with bated breath - well hopefully at least some of you have!? The BIG backyard reveal!!!

I'll give you one last look at the bland before pic...

If you head back over here, this is where I ranted about my industrial glamour vision for our urban yard reno.  I think we managed to execute the essence of the vision BUT... the backyard ended up having more of a mid-century modern flava, still glam, less industrial.  Either way we LOVE! 

Drum roll please......

WHA BAM! Squealing with JOY! I didn't dare step foot outside last summer, now I can't stay away.

CHIC SHACK || 1 year anniversary of our first home

It's a special day; this morning hubby and I looked at each other and realized, it's the 1 year anniversary of the day we bought this house, our first home!  Since neither of us really remembered until we rolled outta bed, we hadn't planned a celebration, hubs went off to watch a rugby game with the boys, so that leaves me here with a glass of wine writing this celebratory post - I'm suuuuure he will make it up to me ;).

I've been reflecting on the past year of ours in this sweet little home; I tell ya,  it's been jam packed with decorating o'plenty, entertaining, projects, laughs, cries, milestones and certainly lots of reflection on how grateful we are for all that we have and for the people that we share it with. 

Thought it would be fun to post a few highlights from our first year in our new home....

June 15th, 2011, the day we finally sealed the deal, a serious relief after a year of searching.

1 year ago today, new keys in hand!

Just a month and a bit later, we celebrated our one year wedding anniversary. Hubs did good with the gift, he got me my wedding bouquet all over again, romantic right? Shoot, cue the waterworks,  tear drops on the keyboard, I'm a sentimental gal what can I say?

Garden roses and ranunculus 

CHIC SHACK || our living room

Happy day all! BIG post today - big in my mind anyhow - it’s my pride and joy, the transformation of our living room!  Thought I’d take you on a little tour of one room in our house that we're finally done decorating, however, I’ll warn you, my work is never really done.  I’ll get this out in the open now, I’m THE queen of monochromatic: black, white, gray and gold of course, they are my besties when it comes to colour schemes. 

Here’s a “before” pic of the living room, this is how it was "staged" at the open house.  A veritable blank slate *salivating*.

Before: Living room June 2011

The plan was to create a functional modern glam space that was clearly defined as a living room but also flowed well with the rest of the main floor. Since we're constantly entertaining we designed it to be a practical conversation area too.

After: Living room March 2012

We painted the entire main floor in Benjamin Moore Cement Gray and added a darker accent wall in Benjamin Moore Stone to create depth and importance, this wall is home to our art gallery (an attempt to disguise the T.V). 

We injected hits of colour with yellow, just so it didn’t feel like we were living in a black and white photo. Colour is a stretch for me, I hate committing, but I say hip hip hooray for these velvety, tufted yellow arm chairs nabbed at West Elm. Did you notice the coffee table? My FAVE (brass ram heads) I mean really, a total stunner, found on Kijiji for a whopping $150– Best Brass Find award winner!

And there you have it. There are definitely still tweaks to be made to the decor, I’d like to replace some of the art – truth be told a few frames are filled with decorative paper, got a bit overzealous in a paper shop one day, oops, I think they can be improved, and I’m realizing some more hits of colour might do some good, maybe pillows?