Displaying posts from October, 2016

My living room makeover – part 1

Posted on Tue, 11 Oct 2016 by KiM

Last week I shared my dining room makeover here and here, and today I wanted to share my now dark and dramatic living room. I have featured little bits and pieces of it over the past year or so but I never had all the finishing touches done (like trim, and painting out the fireplace tile) until recently. It was finally time to snap some photos and do a little feature on the blog. This is now my favourite room in the house and I am really stoked at the result, even if it will never REALLY be finished because as I mentioned last week, I’m always on the hunt for that “perfect” item. Ok, so here is a before shot:

This photo was taken right after we moved in. Gross taupe walls, even grosser yellow/orange oak floors, mahogany varnished trim and terracotta coloured dirty fireplace tiles.

Everything has been replaced, re-painted or re-stained. The floors, like in the dining room, were stripped and re-stained with Minwax’s Classic Grey. The walls are Farrow & Ball’s Downpipe with Plummett on the ceiling. These 2 colours are incredible and in my top 5 colours of all time. Especially Downpipe – it can look green, yellow, blue, black depending on the amount of light coming in the room.

Sources: The unit next to my desk is vintage Marc Held for Prisunic, manufactured by Flair. Vintage Panton S chair by Vitra. Ikea Alex desk. Artemide Tizio lamp from GR Shop. Vintage Jieldé wall mount light via eBay. Tall plastic plant stand from Plust Collection by Euro3plast from Alteriors. Console table legs by Pretty Pegs. Table top by Daff Design. Featuring former ferals Bernie and Frankie.

This vase is from a local shop now closed, and used to be a really bad minty green. I spray painted it glossy grey. Funky little dried pineapple flowers from blumenstudio.

Vintage flower frog holding feathers (including an eagle feather from P.E.I.). Original butterfly drawing by Nicomi Nix Turner.  MAD et LEN candle from Cendre and Lvnea candle.

Notebook I think from Chapters, Hay Denmark pencil from The Modern Shop.

Bug ad from a magazine from Decadisme, my cat tattoo drawing by Pari Corbitt, embroidered bat by Caitlin T. McCormack.

Cheap pots from Rona/Home Depot/Lowe’s, small handmade pot by Wolf + Sadie (le lou ula)

I have 4 of these white plastic pots from Ikea from many years ago and a crazy big aloe.

Lounge chair from Green Light District. Pillow by Fotofibre. Original painting from a blog reader named Angela from Singapore. Vintage Jieldé purchased from a blog reader. Hanging pot with a fishbone cactus from a shop in Montreal whose name I can’t recall.

Reproduction tulip table from WISEMAN + CROMWELL. Ferm Living pot from The Modern Shop. Thrifted teal West German vase and Japanese (?) box. Vintage grey vase from a care package sent from Jo. Swirly pot handmade by Jeremy Ford.

Here is a photo of my fireplace taken right after we moved in. Boring. Ugly. Those tiles were so terrible.

When the I had tile work done in the foyer and kitchen I also had the tile guy replace the fireplace tile along the front and I painted the tile inside the fireplace with special heat-resistant spray paint. I even had painters tape on hand that was the size of the grout lines to make the tiles stand out a bit more.

I like this MUCH better 🙂

This tile was pretty costly considering I only needed less than 1 box but I really wanted to do a statement tile and these are really fun (and tile selection in this city sucks and it was pretty much the only thing I even remotely liked for this space). They’re a mix of mirrored and cement and other materials that I found at Euro Tile & Stone.

Stay tuned for the other half of the room.

Colour spin

Posted on Tue, 11 Oct 2016 by midcenturyjo

Just when I thought that the simple life was for me along comes a big, bold kaleidoscope of colour and pattern and puts me in a spin. A riot of references from Hollywood Regency to old world Europe to sleek moderne with colour splashes more Gaudí than gaudy. A seriously sexy inner Sydney apartment by POCO Designs.

Happy Thanksgiving fellow Canadians! I am going to use this day off from my day job to tweak some photos of my living room/workspace and share them on the blog tomorrow. Because I am short on pets submissions for today’s post this photo acts as a sneak peek for tomorrow as well as my entry for Monday’s pets on furniture. That’s former feral Frankie in the window (that table was built espeically for the cats to bird watch) and his brother Bernie streaking across the space.

Living large in Minnesota

Posted on Mon, 10 Oct 2016 by KiM

Oh, to have this much space to decorate and live. Martha O’Hara went with a mostly black and white theme in this absolutely stunning home in Minnesota which is always a winner, and I love that this home is not overly precious or pretentious. This home proves my point (as if I ever needed to prove it) that black framed windows are the only way to go. (And is perhaps something I should consider down the road when I’m looking for another project in my home – the white frames of my leaded and stained glass windows aren’t really doing it for me). 

Furnishings & Photo Styling: Martha O’Hara Interiors
Builder: Detail Design + Build
Architect: Charlie & Co. Design
Photography: Corey Gaffer

Effortless colour

Posted on Mon, 10 Oct 2016 by midcenturyjo

Bold without being brash. Casual without being careless. Bright and fresh with fun colour choices, a mix of styles and high meets low. I love this family home by Charleston-based interior designer Angie Hranowsky.