2012 Home Goals

Lately I have been reading everyone's 2012 Home Goals and feeling inspired and definitely a little lacking on what we've done to the house.

In my defence, I need to get more comfortable tackling working with tools and the such, since Cory has absolutely NO interest in helping with the home related tasks. He just doesn't get the same enjoyment out of it as I do and he saw the house as "finished" , the day we moved into it. Of course, he appreciates my hard work, trusts my judgement and loves how things look when I am done, but he really just has no desire to work a minimum of 12 hour days, 6 days a week and then come home and tackle home improvement projects. So, I've decided that this is the year I will learn to do more of the stuff I typically asked him to do, so that I can only bug him when I REALLY need his help!

I have a lot of stuff I want to do around the house, but thankfully it's most just cosmetic. I'd really like to move into a larger home, but we've decided that it probably isn't going to be a reality for another 1 - 2 years and so, I'd rather just make the place better suited to how I want it to look for now. But we've got some big financial goals for the year so everything we DO tackle will need to be done on a serious budget. Here's a room by room breakdown on what I'd like to do:

Powder Room
~ finally hang wallpaper that we started cutting out over a year ago
~ possibly hang the towel ring we bought around the same time
~ find art better suited to the space

Dining Space
~ BUY NEW DINING CHAIRS (this is a top priority as our chairs are not only unattractive, but broken)
~ refinish dining table (Cory has told me there is no point in buying a new table that we'll only end up replacing once we move to a new house in a few years, which I sort of agree on...) so something less chipped, cherry toned and glossy is in order
~ do something to the large wall behind the table (maybe wallpaper, maybe a stencil, maybe just different art work)
~ replace the ugly, broken, white plastic vertical blinds we hung on the slider door in there shortly after moving in as a "temporary solution until we decide on something we love".... since it has now been almost 2 1/2 years.... yikes!
~ hang light fixture I received LAST YEAR as a Christmas present

Living Room
~ purchase new sofa and loveseat (or second sofa) to replace our current, ugly, stained and broken set (something slightly feminine but comfortable and most likely grey)
~ hang drapes on the wall of windows behind sofa. I have a couple fabric options in mind, just have to get the sofas first to commit to a fabric and then attempt sewing these myself
~ re-re-finish the coffee and sidetables since we did them in a cold garage last year and they didn't turn out as I quite hoped
~ new art for the large wall above loveseat
~ possible crown moulding for entire main floor

Master Bedroom
~ decide on new duvet cover for our bed. Since our bed is a very difficult to find size, this will determine everything else in the room so is a required starting point
~ Make upholstered headboard once duvet fabric is decided. We have had the frame sitting in our garage for almost 4 years.... just need to execute this one and stop waffling on fabric choices.
~ Decide on drapery fabric once the other two main fabrics in the room are selected
~ New bench or chair for underneath window

Guest Bedroom
~ Decide which of the following pieces of furniture are staying in the room (armoire, nightstand, dresser and hope chest) and paint those and all new hardware
~ make headboard for bed
~ Drapes for this room
~ possible new ceiling fixture
~ accessorize properly

Office
~ PURGE
~ Drapes to finish window wall
~ Paint frame on cork board to hang above desk
~ Re-arrange furniture for better layout
~ fix or replace dresser in closet for storage

Backyard
~ fix sod that was damaged by dog shortly before snowfall
~ paint fence
~ clad posts from upper deck that builder never did
~ replace upper deck light fixture
~ purchase lounge furniture for lower patio (possible sectional, 2 chairs and coffee table)
~ purchase moveable pagoda-style fire pit
~ add stepped, raised retaining wall-style flower beds along rear fence
~ add lush, tall trees and shubbery to top bed; brightly colored annuals and perrenials to lower bed
~ create fretwork panel to hang from upper deck to create privacy on lower patio from peeking neighbours

Basement
~ Start and finish!!

We have a very small basement (and house I suppose) so this space will contain a small laundry room, a 2nd powder room, the furnace room and a family room at the back.

I also would like to install central air and we are toying with the idea of getting the central vac installed as well.

Lots to do so we hope to make a nice dent in it this year along with some other, fun projects!

Just a little peek

Popped into HomeSense the other night to grab a gift for a babyshower this weekend.  Wish I had some $$ to spend as it was FULL of gorgeous furniture.  My phone was dying, but I managed to snag this photo of these great Hollywood Regency style nightstands that I LOVED!!

excuse the crappy photo with my crappy bb....

While I have no place to use them as nighstands, I'm now thinking these would be perfect to use as sidetables in our living room.  The white would really lighten things up.  The mirrored tops are glam.  The pattern on the front is GORGEOUS and the drawers would give us some much needed storage for the most commonly used space in our home!

The price point was a little high though at $350 EACH!!
Sigh...

P-interesting

After many months of requesting a Pinterest request to no avail, I cheated.  I used my work email account to request one and finally got my invite.  I'll be busy pinning like crazy for the next couple days I'm sure...

Follow me on Pinterest by clicking on my link!!

Have a great weekend!

For a while now, I`ve wanted to lighten up the look in the guest room.  I never set out to decorate it that way, but all the furniture in there is pine, which isn`t really my style.  Admittedly, we didn`t really do much to the space after we moved in, other than set up the furniture and occassionally arrange a few items accessories on the dresser since we semin0regularly have family come in from out of town. 

It has long been on my wishlist to actually get something going in there that I would be a little happier showcasing to our guests, but time and budget haven't really allowed for it, so we made due with what we had.  I've decided that this is the year we're gonna see it through.

The first step was setting a color scheme.  This past summer, we found the perfect bedding set at Walmart and somehow managed to snag the whole bed-in-a-bag for something like $20!!  I absolutely love the color combination of the grey and silver so it's the jumping off point for the room.  I like to think that when I eventually get around to having kids, this will be the perfect bedding for our little girl to grow into so a nursery would definitely be these colors!  :)

(excuse the fabric swatch, I was testing out some drapery options and these obviously do NOT work)

The crazy fur bolster is from Ikea YEARS ago, in my teenage bedroom.  I love it in here and it works well with the bedding.  We still really need a headboard and I plan on getting that done in the spring once we tackle the one in our bedroom first.

I finally hung the painting to get it out of the way am not really loving it.  The green is throwing me, plus the height and scale of it aren't working. 

I'm also starting to think we need to switch the paint color out to something with a bit more grey or more white.....

Currently, all of the furniture in the room is pine. (Nightstand, armoire, tallboy dresser and hope chest)   That color scheme is absolutely NOT working for me!  So  I hope to get a paint sprayer this summer so we can spray it all out white. Plus, we'll most likely move one or two pieces out altogether and bring in a nice chair. Although, I was a little worried that going all white would be too "cutesy" and little girl....

We did however pick up one new addition last week, this feminine little table:

I love her curvy lines!  There's something so feminine about her that I love for this room.

So, to test my theory, I shoved her in the corner so I could take some photos and see how I felt about the color change for the space. 

She's actually a lot more cream than white, but I figured it was close enough for me to judge.

So far, I am liking the lighter option!  We may choose to paint this a brighter white when we do the other pieces for the room, but overall, a better fit! 

I'll have to stage the table to see how well it works for a nightstand, but for the meantime, I am gonna try playing around with some item placement in there to see if I can come up with something a little better!

We're also going to be adding some curtains to the window.  Ikea used to carry a nice grey velvet drape that I can't find online, so I may have to do some sleuthing to find those.

Once the drapes are hung, the headboard complete, the furniture revamped and the addition of some new art and accessories, this room will be a lot fresher and ready for guests! :)

Bargain Beauty

Back in December when I was busy picking up stuff for my Secret Santa, including this frame I also found another white beauty:

This little white mirror was too cute to pass up.  At $1.50 from the Dollarama, I didn't even feel guilty about starting to have more items in my cart for me than my Santee!

You see, for the longest time, I have wanted to do a little arrangement in our stairwell of old vintagey frames painted white, but haven't yet gotten around to starting a collection of them.  I figured that if I removed the mirror, this might be a good place to start.  Even though it's plastic, I figured I could always throw some matte white primer on it if it clashes with the rest once the collection gets going. 

(I don't think you can tell at all how cheap it really is)

For the meantime though, I really wanted to see how it looked on the wall,  so I hung it next to my desk in the office beneath a little magnetic board we have with some photos of loved ones pinned up!

The scale is a little off, so it won't be staying there long but for now, I am using it as inspiration for the design direction I want to take as I slowly undertake the office makeover (more details on that coming later next week!)

Simple and Beautiful

One of my favorite snags from the big warehouse clearout at work has got to be this GORGEOUS Ginger Jar.  I'm not actually sure that's what it is, but that's what I am calling it....

This thing is HUGE and actually pretty heavy.  I'm pretty sure it was originally from HomeSense as well and even though the colors are a little different than what we usually go for around here, after a few months of thinking about it, I had to snag it!

I love how the paint job is kinda imperfect and really looks hand-done.  You can see the great patina on the metal on the top and base.  The latch top is nice and you could even put a lock on there if you wanted.  I mean, you'd have a have a gorgeous old, weathered padlock or something.... I wouldn't rightly go and use the brand new, bright blue master lock that Cory has on the kitchen counter from a brand new 3 pack he bought...

Until the office gets cleared out, cleaned up and re-done, it's sitting atop a filing cabinet and I get turning around to peek at it! :)

Reflections of a Mess

After taking some measurements and realizing that I need a gigantic new house, I realized that for the meantime, the only place we have room for the new mirror where it can lean against something is in the office.  I begged Cory to help me carry it upstairs and it is now resting in its temporary home.

It's obviously too large for the bookcase below it, but it's the best I can do currently.  Plus, I must say it actually looks a lot better in person than its showing here.

It will look a ton better when I get around to cleaning and organizing everything else in the room.  Epsecially since I moved a ton of stuff to accomodate it in the first place :)

2 more new additions:  these very tall silver lamps.  They're originally from HomeSense.  While the shades aren't my favorite, they'll stay until I find them a new home.

I think they help the balance out the scale of the mirror.

Thoughts?

Mirror, Mirror on the wall floor?

About a year ago, one of our showhomes sold and the new homeowners opted to purchase the home with MOST of the furniture and accessories.  Of the items they chose NOT to take, I sold a good portion of them on kijji however, one of the items, the one I wanted soooo badly, was rather expensive and just was not getting any bites, which really surprised me.

It's come time for me to find something to do with the remainder of the items as we desperately need the space in the warehouse so the next couple days will be the last time to snag some incredibly discounted home decor and furniture if you're in the Edmonton area before I pack it all up for charity.  Unfortunately, due to the bed bug outbreak that ran rampant around the cith the past year, NO ONE will take anything upholstered, as there is foam inside, it's considered upholstered despite the fact that the exterior fabric is more like a vinyl and wipeable. 

This worked out well for me, especially since I just could not bear to see the mirror go to someone who didn't really appreciate it, so I snatched it up and can't be happier!

Sorry about this crappy photo, I took it last night since I just couldn't wait and then was gone during daylight hours today.

The mirror was custom made and is really large (probably 4 feet x 4 feet) and is ridiculously heavy.  Cory estimates it was about 60 lbs. so it would be best leant against a wall atop a dresser or something similar.

There's just something about the upholsterey that I LOVE!

I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it's kind of like a shagreen, almost like a python texture. 

 The color is a nice mix of cream, grey and beige so even though it's a little "funky", it reads as a neutral which is perfect.

Then of course, there's the nailhead detail.  Who doesn't love a little nailhead?

For the meantime, it will be getting moved into the office since it is the only place right now with a big enough wall with a large piece underneath for it to lean on.  I'll be clearing the space tonight so I will share pics of it in the space when it's moved!

What do you think?

Clean-up Day

Arrgh!  We've had a rough week!  New Year's Eve started out with someone walking right into the shop where Cory works, stealing his wallet from his (and someone else's) locker, taking my keys outta his jacket and helping himself to both his and my gym bags.

Didn't think it would amount to much but after tabulating everything up, looks like we lost $1200 worth of stuff!  Yikes! Least the thief didn't take my car, just left the doors open and threw the keys underneath it.  Unfortunately, the camera weren't able to make out a plate :(  .

So the week was pretty crummy and since I had nothing nice to say, I said nothing at all.  But I am over pouting.  Today was suppossed to be a Girl's Weekend at the lake house but since people were dropping like flies, we've postponed it to another weekend.  Unfortunately, since I had planned to be away, Cory picked up a shift at work, so I am all by my lonesome.  Gonna use the time to read magazines, put away the Christmas decor and general cleaning.

Hoping to share a few new house finds either today or tomorrow, so I might be back.

For now, before I completely dismantle it, here's a pretty shoddy shot of our tree this year (lights off). It's the same as the last two years with the addition of the Antiquey looking initial ornaments and some new vintage mercury glass balls from Restoration Hardware. And the addition of white pointsettia garland (which I will definitely pick up more of next year!!)
It looks pretty sparse by now since the ornaments have been moved around as they taken a tumble from a wild animal whipping past, plus without the lights (blue and white) showing, there are some obvious gaps but it looked great when we first put it up, I swear!

In addition to glass balls of various white, silver and peacock-y and teal blue, there are some fun stuff like the glittery snowflakes, disco balls, glass birsds and the glass picture frames in need of photos and of course coordinating ribbon!

I searched high and low for more of the Restoration Hardware monogram ornaments but they didn't make an appearance this year.  Good thing I substituted an upside down "W" for the "M" I couldn't find last year!

Getting Back in the Swing of Things and a Great Frugal Find!

Yikes, it's been a while....   :(  I never meant to take a break, but with my mom being pretty sick and me working a lot of long nights (and getting a promotion to boot :)  )  I just didn't have anything in me to get things done around the house, let alone try and find something to blog about.

But now that my Christmas vacation and much needed break, is dwindling down to the end of its days, I am feeling refreshed and re-charged and ready to tackle 2012, Head on!

We have big plans to make some big changes around here in the next few months so I am eager to share. Our biggest being some new furniture that we're diligently saving our pennies for (even forgoing gifts for one another this Christmas to instead save up for the sofas I have my eye on).... Actually, I followed the rule, Cory cheated and spoiled me anyhow like the little sneakster he is, which left me feeling like a jerk!

Before I head off to bed, I wanted to share one of my favorite new buys.  I spotted these when I was out shopping at the beginning of December for something to put in my Secret Santa (at work)'s stocking.
These frames stopped me in my tracks:

Love, love love them.  They had them in silver, white and gold.  I grabbed 2 white ones for myself, a silver for my Secret Santa receipient and opted out of the gold.  I loved them so much that I decided that 2 just was not enough and went back a week later to get more... unfortunately they were all sold out :(

That'll teach me!

I've since printed off a black and white photo of Cory and I for my dresser and love how it looks with this frame!

What great things have YOU snagged from the dollar store lately?