Displaying posts from April, 2011

If you’d like to send us photos to include in next week’s “pets on furniture” post, please ensure your photos follow our basic rules: First, the pet must be on a piece of furniture. And said piece of furniture must be clearly visible in the photo, so it takes center stage rather than your pet. Think of it more of a photo of a great piece of furniture that you want to show off…and your pet happens to be sitting on it. And second, the photo must be of decent quality. If it’s dark or fuzzy (from a camera phone) then it may not make the cut. Thanks! (Photos, your name, location and a brief description can be sent to desiretoinspirekim[@]hotmail[.]com and PLEASE don’t send closeups of your pet!)

1 – Worked so hard to get the baby’s nursery just right, Peepers claims her spot on the modern changing table.
2 – Our new, comfortable accent chair in our living room. So comfy, even Mango squeezes himself onto it.
– Michelle Mudrock (Seattle, WA)

Here’s Cargo on a leather recliner at my aunt and uncle’s house in Moorseville, NC.
– Cody Andrews

Here is my baby Bambi, a rescue pup we think is part dachshund part beagle, lying on the gold couch I inherited from my grandmother with her favorite blankie (from TJ Maxx).
– Gena, Atlanta

A friend discovered this vintage chair  at a tag sale for $12.00, so we brought it home and put it in my studio, and it immediately became the possession of Sushi, the Norwich Terrier.
– Wendy Dreaney

This is my beloved Milo. He is a 3 year old part-Siamese; I adopted him in December 2010. He is napping on my Ikea Poang chair. I got the chair frame for a steal on Craigslist and then purchased a new cushion for it. I’ve also draped an Ikea sheepskin across it. I love the colors in Milo’s fur. I have this silly idea to one day design an entire room with Milo’s coloring as inspiration, including his beautiful blue eyes!

– Christina

I was taking a picture of my finished painted pieces of furniture and my dogs wanted to be a part of it. They are frequently in pictures I take of my house.
– Cheryl (Utah)

Lazy Miss Lexxi, livin’ in the lap of luxury on the leopard love seat.
– Madeline (Huntington Beach, CA)

This is my pet : Martini. He’s almost 2 years old. He is hyperactive and every day I have to convince him that the couch isn’t his bed! lol However, he is a great company!
– Drielly (São Paulo, Brazil)

This is my favorite vintage chair that I just sold on Craigslist. This is my sweet kitten sawyer who damaged by favorite chair that I just posted on Craiglist. Seeing as I had to post a pic of the damage, I thought a picture of the perp might help me make a sale!!
– Laurel (Vancouver, BC)

1. Reese and Guava chilling out on the Leather couch from the “famous” Acton Old Hide House in Canada (quote: “Its worth the drive to Acton”).
2. Guava , my 11 year old Lab/Border Collie mix, taking in some morning sunshine while he watches the kids play outside on the family leather.
3. Reese, my brother’s dashound, also enjoying the sunshine and view. He is smaller but manages to climb up the leather and sit on the back just like a cat.
– Leanna (Georgetown, Ontario)

This is Kofi. He is obviously a bit spoiled.  He spends his days lounging around on a Ligne Roset Togo sofa next to his Foscarini/ Diesel Fork table lamp.  And when he tires of the Togo he has a giant Love Sac to nap on.  And at night goes to bed under a Moooi Rabbit Lamp.  I suppose one of the perks of working at a furniture showroom is that our dog chills in style.
– Leah (Denver, CO)

My two boys – Oliver “Kitty-Man” Garza and the ever lounging Bodhi Boudreaux. Had to use the cell phone since they would have followed me from the room had I gone to get the camera. Its like a parade at my house, up the stairs, down the stairs, with feline and canine at my heels at all times.
– Beverly (Sugar Land, TX)

This is a picture of my cat, Loki. Loki LOVES to sleep with his head on pillows like a human. When I noticed him sleeping on THIS pillow, I knew he had the whole idea right!
– Candice (Grand Rapids, MI)

I also have a couple links to share….a petition for a pitbull who may be put to sleep and a Montreal non-profit, no-kill cat shelter currently located in a rented warehouse in an industrial neighborhood. Recently the building was sold, and the new owner raised the rent by 33%. Unable to pay the new rent, the shelter and the cats are currently facing eviction if they can’t pay the back rent. On top of that, they need to find a new place for the cats within a short amount of time. So if you can help out check out their site HERE.

Oh the view! The view! It takes my breath away. A simple, stylish holiday destination housed in a 300 year old Spycher high above Lake Lucern in Switzerland. “Simple and stylish” doesn’t really describe it does it? Spectacular and sensitive. A bygone era and a very special place. A spirit. A genius loci. It makes your heart ache with its beauty and your spirit soar. Im Spycher is truly as close to heaven as you can get.

Welcome to the first ever Desire to Inspire giveaway. We never have competitions on the blog, ever… until now. I just couldn’t resist when Freedom offered 2 gift vouchers to give to our readers. First prize is a $750 voucher to use in store and second prize $250. If you remember I skipped down to Sydney a couple of months ago to see the launch of Freedom‘s new Autumn range. I was blown away by the direction that Freedom was taking. Now Freedom wants to give our Australian and New Zealand readers the chance to experience Freedom’s fab new range themselves!!! All you have to do is :

– Visit the Freedom website here.

– Find the piece that speaks to you the most, the one you just have to have in your home from their Autumn 2011 collection.

– Leave a comment here on the blog, telling us in 25 words or less “What is your favourite piece from the Freedom New Autumn 2011 Collection and why”.

We’ll read every one and choose the two winners. The competition starts today Monday 04/04/11 and ends at 11:59pm AEST on Friday 08/04/11. The winners will be announced the next day. Remember this competition is open to only Australian and New Zealand residents. (I know, apologies to all our other readers but it is so seldom that great competitions like this come up on Aussie blogs. I just couldn’t say no.) Please read the terms and conditions here.  You can enter more than once but each entry must be substantially unique and each entry must be submitted separately and in accordance with entry requirements. Get cracking! Start dreaming and start commenting!

Competition is now closed. Congratulations to our winners. The $750 voucher goes to Jenny comment 195 and the $250 voucher goes to Grant comment 18. I will email you soon to let you know how to claim your prizes. Thanks to all who entered and a big thanks to Freedom!!

In case you missed my previous mentions of what’s going on at my house, we’re planning some rather large additions to what we have discovered is a house FAR too small for 2 people (especially when one likes to collect furniture and lamps) and 7 cats. At the beginning of February I blogged about some initial plans we had gotten from our architect. We had discussed simply adding on a section to the side of the house (luckily we have a rather large lot for a house in the heart of the city) and replacing the old addition at the back of the house that has crappy insulation. This seemed the most feasible because dealing with construction when you have 7 cats is a nightmare. So we were going to live in the old part of the house while the work was happening. Before we left on vacation to Mexico, I received an email from the fabulous folks of local design firm Vok Design Group (Dylan and Thu) who wanted to help with the exterior plans. When we met with Dylan and Thu they also expressed interest in coming up with suggestions for the interior and we were SO game. We met Friday so they could show us their interior ideas before they delved into the exterior. We were rendered completely speechless. It turned out to be WAY more work than we were anticipating but it makes SO much sense and will make this house incredible.

Let me show you what they came up with for the main floor.

Here is a photo of the initial plans from the architect with a couple minor changes made by me. The existing house is marked off in red.
And this is what Dylan and Thu came up with (sorry the measurements aren’t clear because I had to photograph it):

{Now, we have no idea how much this is going to cost, and I’m frankly afraid to find out. Which means at this point we’re not even sure if this can happen. And, to make matters worse, the plans for the upstairs (as you’ll see in a moment) means we’re in serious trouble if we plan to live here, with the cats, while the work happens. Not an ideal situation but we REALLY want this to work out.}

We absolutely adore their ideas for the main floor. The new entrance is open to the upper level, which makes the house finally feel sort of grand. And OMG there’s a FOYER. Right now you walk into the house and you’re standing in the living room. And if you want to put your coat somewhere you had to walk all the way to the back of the house and hang it on some hooks we installed next to the back door. Right there is also a new staircase to the second floor. The new plans have the old staircase (currently in the living room) being removed. Which creates a very large dining room. 🙂 Love the powder room being off the foyer and more out of the way. This all shrinks the new living room a bit but I think it’s worth it – and 13’x17′ and some change is a decent size. Most of the back wall will be doors to the backyard and windows so the light coming in will be awesome. Dylan and Thu suggested moving the fridge to the left of the kitchen so the opening to the back of the house will be in line with the windows at the back. Since these plans eliminated my new pantry (a bit of a bummer), I now instead need to do something on the wall with the fridge to incorporate the storage I was looking for.

Now for the second floor. HUGE changes up there. Initially we were going to create a huge master suite with a bathroom, and a laundry room, and that was pretty much it.

The new plans have a complete redesign of the upstairs, with only the current master bedroom at the front of the house staying relatively the same.

I don’t even know what to say about this it’s so different. We’ll now have 3 normal sized bedrooms, because the current second bedroom which I use as dressing room, is only 7′ wide. And the existing hallway is reeeeally narrow. These plans include a big laundry room – SO EXCITING. After doing laundry in a dingy basement for over 3 years passing puddles and litter boxes to get to the washer dryer, to a proper laundry near the bedrooms with a SINK and a WINDOW and some storage makes me so giddy. Since we don’t have kids and only really need 1 guest room, I’ll make bedroom #2 a dressing room and my hubby can have the walk-in closet.

That, my friends, is hopefully my future home. I am going to be saying alot of prayers over the next little while, because after seeing these plans, I don’t know how we could do anything less and be as happy about it. Perhaps I should start a Kim’s House fund. Or get a third job. (Too bad cats can’t work). While I’m on this subject, now would be a good time to mention if anyone wants to donate or give us a really good price on products we’d need for this project (flooring, sinks, toilets, fireplace, exterior materials etc.) we’d totally appreciate it and it would not go unmentioned here on the blog I assure you… 🙂 (I’m not very good at begging).

First Mexico now Spain. Another reader’s lovely home. A fun and colourful family home. Fresh and stylish. Spy some IKEA? That’s the reason why Carmina and her family made the cover of the Spanish IKEA Family Live.  Congratulations Carmina! What a wonderful home! Photos from Carmina’s blog Interiors Originals and IKEA Family Live.