Displaying posts from April, 2009

It’s settled – I’m going to sell my home in lovely Ottawa and buy a little rustic Italian villa. OK, maybe not, but in the meantime I am happy to settle for the portfolio of Italian design diva Barbara Frua De Angeli. So simple yet so effective.

This is the last day of my Easter weekend (5 days!) and it was fix-up-my-bedroom weekend. Plaster, sand, wait for it to dry, plaster, sand, wait for it to dry…..still waiting…..to hell with it, paint, paint, paint. This went on for 3.5 straight days. I was too impatient to do a great job but it was good enough. You can hardly tell there used to be a closet in my bedroom. Mission accomplished.

Here’s a quick glimpse (as I showed you all the other day) of the former room, looking at the mess that used to be the closet (and what a b*tch that was to patch):

I went with a very pale pink on the walls, which turns out to be hard to photograph accurately. I chose BM’s Elephant Pink at 25% strength, and BM’s Snowfall White for the trim and the floors. I need to give the floor a few days to cure so in the meantime I am sleeping on my DIY couch. Turns out painting laminate floors works quite well. (I plan on replacing all that cheap laminate with hardwood eventually). This morning I put out a few items I hope to use in the new bedroom, to give you an idea of where I’m going with this project. Vintage boho I’ll call it – which means I get to reuse alot of junk I already have as I am still trying to pay off my kitchen and funds are reeeeeally low.

Hopefully next weekend I’ll be able to move some furniture in there and get out to Ikea to get the rest of what I need (new headboard-less/footboard-less bed frame and bookcases). More photos to come after that happens.

Amanda Martocchio Architecture and Design is a firm based in New Canaan, CT that embraces sustainable design and new technologies. Amanda’s designs are classic and very much timeless, with modern touches to keep the spaces current. Perfection I’d call it….in particular some of the bathrooms featured below. (I’ve already saved them to my inspiration file for my future bathroom renos).

I’m this close to buying a new home… well new for me. I can smell it, almost taste it. Soon, fingers crossed soon. We think we have found it but unlike many property markets around the world Australia’s market is still stubbornly overpriced. Buyers aren’t buying because prices are high and owners are renting their properties instead of selling for a lower price. It’s a stand off at the moment and no one is quite sure what is going to happen. Our new dream property is tenanted…. until January next year so if we do go ahead and buy I will certainly have plenty of time to pack all those boxes for moving.

So on a brighter note I wanted to share this L.A. home currently on the market here. Maybe I can snap my fingers and “magic” it over here. Dreaming 🙂

Pierre Emmanuel Martin and Stéphane Garotin are the names behind Hand, an interior design firm from France. They have some home furnishing stores as well that are designed so beautifully you could simply walk in and think you were “home”. Their work is contemporary but filled with warm neutral colours and plush, simple furnishings – the kind you can put your feet up on. They also mix in mid-century modern furniture pieces that add a bit of funkiness. I’m taking many notes, because these spaces are totally my style.