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....

WEEKEND GETAWAY || new york - the design

I'm back from the big apple and you better believe my socks were knocked off by all of the beauty, culture and design porn that makes New York one of the best cities on earth.  I'm going to let the pictures in this post speak for themselves, a feast for the eyes.

First stop, Tory Burch boutique on Madison Ave, the highlight of our trip. First of all, the store is a giant jewel box, brass, bold colours and shiny fixtures, stunning! Then, unexpectedly the store clerk offers us beer and champagne; we sit, we sip and simply take in this New York moment, something money couldn't buy, just us and the bevies in a glorified walk-in closet. Heaven.

Moving on to the Brooklyn Flea, so many fab finds, If I could of fit this sensational ceramic stool in my suitcase, I'd be staring at it right now.

Next, well...let's just say the "mecca", my personal holy land, Bergdorf Goodman's, Kelly Wearstler boutique.  It literally took my breath away, I was SO excited to be there, nerdy I know. What would you do for one of those funky head sculptures?! *faint*

And the Kdub party didn't stop there. I creepily peeked my head into the BG cafe on the 7th floor, that Kelly herself designed, just to get a glimpse of at least one hollywood glam detail. Hubs saw the awe in my eyes (and maybe a little tear too), and suggested we stay for a drink, yes please, 1 pink champagne coming up! 

I totally want to add this moulding detail to our guest bedroom, maybe too big of a task, but I LOVE!

On our last day just before we boarded the plane my friend suggested hitting up ABC Carpet & Home , boy was that the best idea EVER! This place was so huge and so inspiring, you need a week and a drool rag to get through it all.

Around every corner this enchanting city has something visually pleasing, from architecture to art and everything in between; I came back a better women, and no doubt a more envious one too.

WEDDING WEEK || modern glamour wedding decor

What a weekend, whew, celebrated two milestone birthdays with two very special people; it was delightful and all, but I'm spent.  I'm still in the milestone mood though, my two year wedding anniversary is tomorrow, so I thought I'd share some of my fave decor pics from our "Modern Glam" inspired wedding.  Black, white, gold and glamour was on the menu for our luxe meets DIY day.

We had guests sit at 25 foot long tables to encourage conversation and to create a more intimate atmosphere, oh and P.S. we ate with gold cutlery, my fave "decor" item, try convincing your future hubs that this is a pure necessity, no small feat I tell ya.

Here are just a couple of the 14 million DIY projects I did for our wedding, including painted, wooden table numbers, and personalized, hand stamped menus.

Check out the chapel we were married in; the first time I saw it took my breath away, in fact the second time, same thing, I was basically doing lamaze down the aisle. 

Can you believe how in sync we are, both cringing during my dad's speech in our plush thrones, a splurge item for sure.

Some more of my DIY handy work and my fave glittery gold bourgie lamp *swoon*

I had such a blast planning the decor for our big day, but most importantly I have a blast everyday with the love of my life who puts up with and encourages me in all of my gold and glamour antics...

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?

LANDSCAPE CHRONICLES || industrial glamour inspiration

Talk about beautiful weather, these past few days have been lovely; the sun brings with it both freckles and anticipation of our upcoming landscape overhaul!  Yup, we’re tackling the great outdoors; a full chicification of the backyard and front of the house.  When we moved in last summer we had a mud-pit out back, but coming from a teeny tiny condo we were pumped about any type of greenish/brown space; as for the the front of the house, let me tell you, she’s not a looker.

So, we’ve decided to make it more functional, do some soft and hard landscaping and turn it into something FA-BU-LOUS! What’s on the list (P.S. lists are my life, drives hubby insane): painting the fence, porch and back deck, adding a limestone patio to the backyard, furnishing a lounge and outdoor dining area and planting the gardens with all new foliage.

My fave part of his whole project, creating a vision board of course, I give you  “Industrial Glamour”.  

I completely heart these ghost chairs, but the seats are narrow and they aren’t the most comfy so I didn’t want to commit to them for our dining room, but I’m thinking they might work for outdoor dining? Pairing them with an industrial style sawhorse table will be tres chic.

I'd also love to hang a cool light fixture – the one above from Design Within Reach, is a great mix of industrial and glamour with the brass finish and exposed filament. We’ve already purchased a Cane Line sofa for the lounge area (it has charcoal coloured cushions), it was the floor model and was such a STEAL so I snapped it up.

Our budget for this project is decent, but most of it will go towards labour so I’ll need to get creative with the decor – apparently according to hubby this or this is not in the budget, boooo. We have some DIY projects on the horizon which will help keep the funds in check and allow us to splurge on a natural gas/propane fire pit!

Lots of decisions to make in the next few weeks, time to roll up the sleeves and dig deep into the savings account!