Have a seat!

Yes, we're finally not entirely embarassed to have visitors!  The reason? We finally bit the bullet and got new couches!  Just in time for Easter visitors! :)

 

I'd mentioned in the past, the steady decline of our living room's soft seating.  They were the first set I had ever owned, purchased when I moved out for the first time and served their purpose for the last 8-9 years. Unfortunately, their biggest fault was that they were cream.... or at least they once were.  I will save you the disgusting photo of their last days in our house and instead share the one from a month after we moved into our current home:

(wow, things have really changed since 2009)

 

But having lived with 3 pets (2 of whom actually used the pieces as scrathing posts when they were kitttens) and a big, messy boy, things had gotten dirty.  I did try to clean them more than once, but of course, that made things worse since apparently using a household carpet cleaner on light upholstery often results in water spots.  Plus, if we're being honest here, I had really given up on them a long time ago, with hopes of them getting bad enough I'd have to get new ones.

 

Then, in the fall of last year, one of the springs went in mine.  But we weren't financially ready to shell out for new ones with Cory heading back to school with no income, so we made do.  Things eventually got so bad, that we had to shove a pillow into the gap that the broken spring had created so that we wouldn't fall in any longer and of course, to assist with the chronic back pain that I was having as a result of laying lopsided.

 

Of course, I had sneakily been looking for replacements for quite some time.  But I just couldn't find anything that met all my criteria.

 

My wish list was short:

 

1. Grey in color.  This was actually harder than I thought since I wanted a specific looking grey.  A lot of the fabric samples we took home read as either too brown or purple in our space.   The photo below doesn't read well, but the actual color is the absolute perfect dark grey.  I really wanted grey because I love it, plus after living with light, I really wanted something dark for this one.

 

2. Relatively inexpensive.  Cory being in school in November/December without an income, really set us back financially and we were just getting back on track, so we wanted to ensure that we kept it on the lower end of our budget.  Despite our best intentions, we have financed this set and while we were approved for a shocking (to both of us) amount, we probably purchased the cheapest set in the store - on sale I might add!

 

3.  Comfortable.  While I would really like to have more of a "show" space for our upstairs living room. until we ever develop our basement and create a family room space, this room is our comfy tv watching space.  This was also Cory's one big request and I know it's a reality so I am fine with it.

 

Eventually, the day just came when I couldn't take it anymore and asked Cory if he would join me the next night "just looking"....

 

When we spotted this set at Ashley   I was immediately sold. It hit all the nails on the head.  Plus, we ended up getting it one sale - CHEAPER than the sign on the table even!!

 

 

I actually now think that my biggest draw to the set may have been the GORGEOUS armchair in the set.  I was IN LOVE!!!!!  ( I apparently accidently deleted the photo of it, but you can see it above )

 I love me a statement chair, fin paisley and of course, the colors were 100% ME!!  I was HEAD OVER HEELS for it but unfortunately  we actually don't even have room for a chair in our teensy tiny space we so made the decision to forgo it for the time being (even though I had reasoned it could live in our master bedroom until we had a bigger space for it).  But, lately I have been regretting that decision and dreaming about the chair quite a bit, so I will most likely be returning for it.  :)

 

The biggest change for us was definitely the sleeker profile.  Our old one had HUGE rolled arms and I hadn't ever been able to use the end table with them.  I'm not sure, but i am thinking the profile really calls out for some nailhead detailing.... I'm gonna live with it for a while as-is before I take the plunge though!

 

 

While we really would have liked to get 2 sofas, the one wall just wasn't long enough, even if we removed the cabinet we use for our media equipment, so sofa & loveseat it was.  We were a little worried about the loveseat being super small when we first saw it, but after measuring, found out it was the same size as the old one.  Weird how the profile of a piece skews your perception of it.

 

Anyhow, we've been living with the new set for about a month now and are super happy with it.  It took a little getting used to, having a dark set and we definitely need to make some changes to lighten things up, but we're super happy with it.

 

Also, if we're being honest, 99% of the time, they look like this:

 

Yup, we keep blankets across the seats to preserve their new-ness. 

 

I really want to add some nailhead somewhere on these..maybe the bottom part?

 

 

 Thank goodness I had been pre-planning my grey sofa purchase for the last year plus... my accessories were sure to work!  :)

 

And just because, here's a gratuitous puppy shot to round out the evening!

Under Construction....

Since I ran out of space, I took a little time off to see if I would miss blogging, and of course I did.  But obviously, I want to be a BETTER blogger, so I am gonna take my time to re-design the site to better reflect me and hopefully, chnage how I approach blogging and of course, my content.

Please be patient as I am NOT a whiz at all this and can't even remember the last time I took a computer course. 

- Cindy

Storage Wars....

So apparently I have officially run out of storage space on Blogger!  Didn't know that was even a thing.  Thought the whole thing was free??

Master Bedroom Makeover : Wall Treatment

Yikes, it's been a lot longer than I expected.  Cory went back to school and I had picked up an extra part-time gig to make a little more money. When that ended I volunteered to work on a tree for the Festival of Trees which called for some late nights!  Amidst it all, I found some time to take a road trip with my mom out to Saskatchewan to visit my brother and his family.

Now that all that is done, thought I would get caught up and back in the swing of things with daily blogging.  I am on some vacation right now from work, so I am eager to get going here!

First up, I wanted to share some photos from our start to the Master Bedroom makeover!  I was so excited and went to load up the photos, but apparently "someone" deleted them from the camera card :(

Luckily, I do have some poor quality shots from my ipod! 

First up, I wanted to start with something for the huge wall behind my bed.  I went back and forth before painting an accent color, wallpapering or just using a stencil.  Since I really wanted a pattern, I figured it would be a lot less expensive and headache-inducing to just stencil.

I ordered the Casablanca AllOver Stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils and am super pleased with my order.  It included the main stencil, and individual stencil of the pattern and a top part stencil which made the job soooo much easier.


Well, it took an entire weekend to do the huge wall, but it was well worth it.  I knew I wanted it to be a little shimmery and kind of subtle, so I went with a tone on tone look.  Literally, I had the same wall color  - Antique Sterling by ICI mixed up with a glossy version.

I wasn't sure how it would turn out at first, and have to say I hated it when I first removed the stencil, but I stuck with it and once everythign started to dry, I was sooooo happy I did!

(excuse the shoddy shots...)

 

I really love the look overall.  It looks best late at night with just the nightstand lamps on, it makes it really shimmer!

 

 

I was really worried about whether or not Cory would be a fan, thank goodness he was!  Infat, he said it felt like sleeping in a fancy hotel!

 

But we also realized that the lamps just weren't going to cut it anymore.  They were not only too small, but the bright aqua color just didn't seem "sophisticated" enough for the space.

 

 

I swapped them out for these taller silver lamps I had in the offie, but just kept the white drum shades.  They look 100 times better than the other ones!

 

I was also going to get the headboard done the following weekend, but as soon as the wall was done, we realized the fabric we had, was ABSOLUTELY not going to work!  Again, way to aqua... so it is back to the drawing board.

 

Luckily, the duvet cover that I want to replace, doesn't look too bad in there for the time being.

 

For the headboard, I am thinking something in a bluey-grey, silver or even a linen color.

 

Thoughts?

 

Handmade Table Linens

My mom stopped by on the weekend to take me for dinner.  Her bithday gift for me this year was a little something for the house.

Her neighbour is a wonderful quilter who made me a small quilt a few years back.  She had me come out to the house and select some fabrics from her stash as well as look through some of the quilts she had made and select a pattern.

She surprised me with a set of table runners and placemats in some beautiful greys and blues.  It was an incredibly thoughtful gift and I absolutely love them, even though are quite a bit different than my usual style.

 

Everythng was made reversible which perfect for days when you have unexpected visitors - I can just flip it over!

 

 

Here's the reverse of the runner. 

 

My favorite part is actually the detailing on the front, especially the ombre stripes:

 

 

The gift included two runners and 2 placemats.  I wish there were 4 so I might have to see if I can get her to make a few more.

 

 

I really like them but I am too worried to get them dirty, so while I am eating on them, I have a paper towel between the placemats and my dish....  at least for now!

 

 

For an 80 year old lady, she really nailed down some pretty great fabrics for me.  This black and white one is even laced with metallic threads!

 

 

It's a great addition to the table, especially until I refinish it and no longer need to cover the scratched sections!

Last Day as a Twenty Something....

Today was officially my last day as a 20 something.   I've been ridiculously scared to turn 30 for some time now but now that it's here, I'm remarkably calm!

My mom came in last night to take us for dinner which was nice.  I will be sharing her birthday gift tomorrow.

She left early this morning and while I was supposed to work a furniture sale today, I managed to get the day off since it was slow and I had a migraine for most of the day, which I appreciated since I got to spend the day being lazy and hanging out with Cory. 

First up, he gave me my Birthday gift early!

The first thing (which wasn't technically a bday git but a replacement) was a new ipod since he accidently threw mine out a month ago. They no longer sell the one I had, so I got a better one!  YAY! Was starting to miss my pinterest and instagramming! :)

I also got the beautiful Coach bangle I'd had my eye on:

(via my Instagram)

Love me some zebra print!

 

Plus the sweet guy threw in a little something else, just because he knew I'd like it:

 

Simply Vanilla candle was the perfect thing to add to the desk in my office tonight while I was making my calls tonight.

 

It was just a little something, but with him going back to school, we're minding our spending and he listened to exactly what I wanted!

 

We spent the rest of the day at the dog park. What a great day to prepare for ushering in 30!!

 

 

 

Re-purposing!

A couple months ago Cory stopped by a buddy's house while they were having a Garage Sale.  He was picking something up and stayed for a few beers before coming home.  When he came home, he had little gift for me!

I was BEYOND suprised as it's been quite some time since he's shown up with a present out of the blue.  At first I thought it might be one of the neat items they had for sale that he sent me pictures of, like the old steamer trunk that would have been kind of cool as a coffee table, but I think that sold.

What he did have was a cute little bath product gift basket dealio, cause "I know you like all that bath stuff..."  :)  Now, in all honesty, those baskets can be hit or miss.  A lot of the times the stuff smells awful or the quality is kinda crappy.  But I lucked out - this set was huge, smelled good AND the creams were nice and nourishing.  Plus it came with a nice nail scrub brush, the mesh poufs, cotton moisturizing gloves and all that jazz.

But of course, this post isn't about the bath products, it's about re-using the container that it all came in.  That's usually one of the best parts of these things isn't it?  They always have it all packed into something neat that you can re-use.

In my case, this three-tiered wood caddy.  I was glad to see it was something nice, bur then stared at it for a couple hours before even having an idea of where to use it.

Then I had a brilliant idea.  You see, we have a couple of these weird little nook things in the house.  The first one in the main hall where they installed a corner shelf...??  And the second in the powder room, where they decided to extend the countertops all the way across, but not the cabinets...????

We've been in the house 3 years and the only thing that had ever sat there was a little basket that I used to throw dirty handtowels and rags from the kitchen into, as a hamper of sorts instead of tossing them down the stairs in a dirty pile.

Since the caddy was a gorgeous dark wood, it would blend nicely with the flooring and cabinets and would be the perfect size to hold extra hand towels.

Admittedly, the towels, when rolled are actually a little big for some of the shelves, but I crammed them in there and love the way it looks!   Plus, it makes the little nook space look a little bit finished!