The Blog

Whilst perusing Pinterest I discovered a new artist.

Emily creates beautiful original oil paintings at her home in South Carolina.
Emily’s paintings are so full of life, have gorgeous colour & a simple calmness to them.
If you ask me, I think they would be beautiful just about anywhere.

Aren’t they pretty?!

Emily also has a Etsy shop for those looking for smaller pieces & at a more affordable price point, like $20 affordable.
See Emily’s Etsy shop here.

Emily just doesn’t limit her talents to painting. She also creates collages that are on both wood and metal. These collages involve the use of inks & various found objects.
They are quite beautiful & unique.

What did I tell you? Beautiful right?!

 Click here to see more of Emily’s original oil paintings, oh & she does commissions too!

Welcome to another week friends. 

A few weeks ago I introduced you to #projectfirsthome. This couple is so sweet. They know what design direction they want but needed some help pulling it all together. 

I finally got my hands on the floor plans, up to this point I was going off photos that they took during a site visit. After reviewing the plans I’ve discovered that this place is on the small side but has awesome potential & perfect for the clients.

The painting is beginning this week, so we met over the weekend to finalize paint & wall coverings.

We’ve decided to go with the same wall colour throughout the house.

Benjamin Moore’s Colour Story Collection, Museum Piece CSP-40. It is a lovely shade of neutral grey. 

All of the trim doors, casing & ceilings will be painted in a bright white.

The powder room is being wallpapered in Cole & Son Feathered Fan.

While the bed wall in the master bedroom will be accented with Cole & Son’s Pompeian wallpaper.

Once I got the floor plans with the dimensions, it was made clear to me that the foyer & the living room which are essentially the same space are actually only 14ft x 14 ft. Can you say tight squeeze!

Here are the newly revised living room / foyer.

We also made some changes to the master & I have proposed 2 options.

Which bedroom do you prefer?

Bye for now.

I am going to keep this short & sweet today. My little bunny was up all might with a fever & a very upset tummy, if you catch my drift! I had designs on sneaking back to the #IDS14 show today, but my kids come first, just as they should.

Over at Pillotopia I have added a few new items to the shop. 

Here you have it to see more of what’s over at Pillotopia click here.

I was also hoping to maybe pick up this book for a little light reading, Babe Walker style.
I have no idea what it’s about, but I do know it will be very entertaining!

Enjoy your weekend.

Good Thursday to you!

I am currently obsessed with this room.

The whole colour combination has me intrigued, high ceiling & the mix of furniture styles is very pleasing. I have to admit that it has been on my desktop for ages & I haven’t a clue who the designer is, so I can’t give them the proper credit. Do you know who it is?

The IDS14 Gala/ Opening Party is tonight & I am very excited to go. I haven’t been in a few years, so I am looking forward to being dazzled & inspired.  Follow my Instagram to see some of my faves. On Monday I’ll do a recap of the show.

But as a lady, the bigger question remains “What the haystacks am I going to wear this fabulous event?” Here is what I’d love to wear.

Sexy & Glam or Sophisticated Edge?

Only my closet will tell, so with that I’m off to try on just about every item in my closet.

Stay warm, baby it’s cold outside.

I have had some inquiries about this french chair in my living room that I had painted and reupholstered. 

All going well it will be going to live with someones else.

So that got me thinking about what to replace it with, not that anything will be happening soon with the fridge on the fritz & a new dishwasher has suddenly jumped to the top of the list!

 The Mr. & I are both in agreement that a pair of statement chairs are a must. Although I still really love these chairs from Caracole, the price is a little steep & I don’t want to be afraid of the kids getting some mysterious & gooey stuff on them.

I went online to check out what my source for used furniture has in store, hoping of find something that has great shape, is in reasonably good condition & is available in a pair, before I look at something new.

I  really like the size & shape of these & they are only $45 each.

 I envision black painted legs with these unpolished brass casters in either a rich blue or green velvet.

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Thoughts?

Happy Tuesday.

Over the weekend I got busy making a few pillows out of some ponchos we picked up on our recent trip to Mexico. 

I was drawn to the vibrant colours & the nubbly textures & finished the back off with a white linen.
These new pillows remind me of Emily Henderson & that’s A-OK in my book! I adore the way she embraces colour.
If you like these I will be adding some to the shop Friday.

I also created this painting for my master bath. 

The best part about this little DIY is that is cost me nothing. I already had the canvas & the paints.

The staircase has been on the list for a while & I am so happy that it got it’s facelift!
While we were on holiday the staircase was painted in Benjamin Moore’s Oxford White & Midnight Dream.
FYI- These are my favourite white & black paints.

Yesterday a very talented gent named Simon re-installed my leopard carpet runner, I say talented because he literally had to piece together the 12 pieces of carpet that were removed & no one is the wiser.

Just to refresh you memory here is the before.

To say that I am happy with the staircase makeover is an understatement.

The SAG Awards were on Saturday. 

To me a few knocked it out of the park, so naturally I paired them with a room!

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Well There you have it!

Until tomorrow my friends.

I was at IKEA yesterday for a specific reason, however these prints caught my eye.

I couldn’t leave them.

I hung them in my upstairs hall.

I also hung up these little guys on the kids bathroom wall that my Mom brought back from her recent trip to Barbados.

This collection all started with the tropical fish Batik that my parents picked up from Barbados for me about 20 years ago, no joke & I finally got it framed last year! I’ve been adding little trinkets in bright colours to this wall that we have collected on trips or have been gifted to the kids.

I’m liking how it is all coming together, fun & playful!
This is the tinest bathroom ever but, all going well I hope to make it a bit more functional on a dime sized budget by replacing the kids pedestal sink with a vanity with storage & a new ceiling light fixture later this year.
My ultimate design for this jack & jill bathroom is to tile every inch of wall ceiling & floor, rip out the tub / shower unit and in its place have one huge shower & a sleek floor to ceiling vanity to give us some much needed storage, but one can dream.

See you back here tomorrow.

I love being away on holiday & no matter how much fun is being had, it is always so nice to get home & sleep in your own bed, right? I’ll have our #hardrockholiday recap later this week.

While we were enjoying some fun in the sun, back here, in the GTA the temps were, from what I hear, beyond cold, however, I was so happy to return home to see the staircase all painted & looking very pretty, if I do say so myself.

The runner will be put back on in the coming weeks – when the installer has some time to “squeeze” me in. 

As we all know, coming back from a  holiday means there is a mountain of work to do, so yesterday was spent catching up on emails, tracking missing/delayed fabric orders & trying to get all of my ducks back in a row. 

While getting the said ducks straightened out I was reminded of something that I had completely blanked out on for a project & I feel like a fool. I will have to do some running around to get things sorted out. For this same project, there seems to be an extra long delivery time for the drapery fabrics. The plan was that the fabric be delivered directly to my workroom, early last week & be manufactured, then it would be ready to install this week. We chose 3 different fabrics to make our own vertical stripe pattern, there are 5 very wide panels, oh & did I mention that they are 230″long! Not something that my fabulous seamstress can just “whip up”. Sometimes things just won’t / can’t / don’t fall into place like they should or like were used to.

I pride myself in meeting deadlines, building loyal relationships, keeping my word & not leaving things to the last minute, but it seem as though this project is no seeing my best side & for that, as my son would say, I am not happy. 

But enough of that.

I have been working with a great couple who have just purchased their first home.
We’ll call this #projectfirsthome.
Here’s a peek at some of the approved design boards I created.

Until tomorrow.