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 :) 

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.

LANDSCAPE CHRONICLES || modern backyard patio project

Ever dream of an urban oasis that’s a little bit boutique hotel and a lot bit relaxing and lush?   Well...that’s all I can think about these days and now we're one step closer; we have a patio!  The backyard patio project has turned out to be one of the easiest and best experiences we’ve had since owning this house.  The decision on what material to use, the layout and how much grass to leave, was much more painful (as per usual with us) than the actual execution. Here’s how it all went down…

Parkview Building Supplies, whom I’ve mentioned before - pure awesomeness they are – plunked down in our front yard 6 humungo bags of crushed aggregate and concrete sand, one 4 yard bin and the 24x36” ivory limestone pavers we picked out.

The landscapers showed up with shovel in hand and were enthusiastic in their digging efforts; they excavated 8 inches.

From what I could see, as I spied from the bedroom window, they used the crushed aggregate to build the base and topped with concrete sand for the stone to rest on; you have to create a foundation that won’t shift once the stones have been laid in place, so they tell me :) . They leveled it off, with a slight slope to allow for drainage, not visible to the eye. 

Once it was all flush they began to lay the stone. You know how fast the roadrunner moves, meep, meep? Well they moved faster; 3 guys for 2 days and they were done, quickest installation ever! AND as a bonus they offered to lay the sod for us and they prepped the garden beds using triple mix, amaze!

Alas…she is everything I ever imagined, a perfectly symmetrical, mid-century modern dream.  It’s one of those projects that gives you a pit in your stomach, it’s so permanent and so expensive that no matter how it turns out you have to live with.  We couldn’t be happier with the result. It feels like it’s been there all along and it’s beyond exciting to finally have that extra space to lounge and entertain in. Now, let the fun begin, furniture placement, styling and accessorizing woohoo!

Apologies, not the most glam pic, shot through the screen of the second floor window (where I spied from)

LANDSCAPE CHRONICLES || pretty progress report

What an unbelievably gloomy day here in the Big Smoke, my Hunter boots are getting a real workout!  On the sunny side, there’s been some progress with the backyard reno, so I thought I’d share a few quick tidbits to get you up to speed.

Starting with the juiciest nugget first, we bought a fire pit! A legit, marvellously modern, glorious bowl o’ flames to stare endlessly at whilst listening to the heartbreaking sounds of the baby racoons squeal and the constant rumble of the streetcar passing by, aaaahhhh city life.

Here’s the dream. I so desperately wanted this pit, I love the light gray colour, obvi, and the mod river rock. Canadian made (Paloform) which is cool, but too freakin’ expensive.

And this is the reality. I still love, just not the exact look I was going for, but for $2000 less than its superior counterpart, we opted for this pretty Restoration Hardware model with lava rocks.  It's propane fueled, so it does have a cord that comes out of the side and knobs to adjust flame height (which they don't show in this lovely photo, grrrr). The propane has proven to be excellent, we get approximately 10 hours of burn time per 20 lb tank. 

She glows like a bride on her wedding day and I have to admit it’s kinda starting to feel like a hip boutique hotel back there.

LANDSCAPE CHRONICLES || backyard design scheme

Glorious, glorious, what a wonderful sunny day; seems like the most appropriate time to post our final design for the backyard reno.  Actually, we are pretty lucky, right now the yard is a blank slate and there aren't any major quirks; the only thing that’s staying is the deck which was here when we moved in, but everything else is being primped and polished.  

Main objective for this petite space = create two  functional areas for entertaining, one for  dining and one for lounging.  Since the lawn has been such a nightmare (can't get it to grow) we decided to simply cover the beast with a natural stone patio, problem solved,  this will be the lounge area. This means the dining area will be up top on the walk-out deck (I’m kind of cursing this decision now since I’m having a biatch of time finding a table to fit). 

Here’s a pic from last year before we moved in, didn’t I tell you, total mud pit!  

I’m sooo looking forward to having a sexy space where we can entertain, have a glass of wine or toast marshmallows over the fire pit, can you imagine?  I’m also uber excited to have a real garden, funny as this may seems since I’m a major hazard to the plant world; thankfully hubby spent his summers landscaping during high school. 

I'll leave you with a few pics that inspired us when creating this design; let's hope the backyard looks even half as fab as any of these outdoor dreams. 

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