This reader request was sent in a while ago by Kristina: My mother is really struggling with adding a wall of built in shelving around her fireplace in her living room. I told her I would try to find some inspiring reference photographs. She wants to add a wall of bookcase shelving around the (brick) fireplace, hoping to put the TV above the fireplace. I suggested some double doored cabinets to put the DVD player surround sound etc. The room has HIGH ceilings so the bookcase wall would go all the way up, pretty vast. There is also a slanted ceiling, which is driving her crazy. I suggested a decorative round piece on the top shelf to tie in the slant. Any pictures would be helpful!! I am so glad Kristina added in that last sentence because despite looking at hundreds of photos of living rooms, I could not find any photos that were perfect for her mom’s dilemma. Instead I grabbed all sorts of photos simply of built-in bookcases/shelving around fireplaces to hopefully help with ideas – and for anyone else looking to provide storage around a fireplace.

the selby

design*sponge

Jerry Jacobs Design

Nathan Egan

Colombe Stevens

Warren Heath

Dana Wolter

Fawn Galli

Insight Design Inc.

John Lum Architecture

Marie Claire Italy

Marie Claire Maison

Markham Roberts

Apartment Therapy

Nathan Egan

New York Spaces

Oak Management

Turnbull Griffin Haesloop

The London Magazine

Wayne Vincent

Amanda Nisbet

Last weekend I stumbled upon the website of Max Levy, an architect based in Dallas, Texas and was immediately taken by his creativity. I discovered lots of interesting ideas while perusing his portfolio – my favourite being the watering can drainage system in the first 2 photos. How freaking cute and genius is that?!

Kim Jeffery is a very talented and relatively new photographer (I aspire) who has a very interesting name (mine is Kim, my husband’s is Jeffrey), has photographed for covet garden (one of my favourite online mags), is Canadian I think (me too!), is a huge animal lover and wanted to be a vet until she was 14 (me too!), and has a few cats (me too!). Seems like destiny that I blog about her and her pretty photos.

I was SO EXCITED the other day when I received an email from Gillian, a local Ottawan who at one time had grand plans to turn a boring 1945 2 bedroom Ottawa bungalow into something modern and spectacular. Sounds kind of familiar. 🙂 Luckily for Gillian her plans were put into action and completed in November of last year – and the results are FABULOUS!! (and I’m totally going to hit her up for advice throughout my renos). Here’s the scoop from Gillian:

The objective was clear: build an edgy, modern, sustainable home. The wish list included: 3 bedrooms; an open concept, chef’s style eat-in kitchen for entertaining and doing heaps of cooking; an ‘urban great room’ across the back of the house to let the sun shine in and provide main floor family space; a custom, “wow” open staircase (none of that pre-fab stuff!); a mudroom; a dog bath; and an exterior that pushes the envelope. And so ensued the design process and renovation by Moneca Kaiser Design Build.

The idea was to be able to stay put, and not be forced to move in future, ‘cause that’s a whole lot of waste.To do this, for example, we put the master bedroom with ensuite on the main floor, which also features an accessible bathroom, at the side entry, that presently does double duty as a dog shower!  The 2^nd floor loft style family room on the ‘kids’ level’ can also easily be converted into a master bedroom (for now it’s our family room/gym).

Using sustainable products, like bamboo flooring and parallam beams for the staircase (and it is “wow”), as well as choosing greener options, such as spray foam insulation and a condensing hot water tank (among maaaany others), we aimed to take a practical approach to sustainability.

This forward thinking was carried right through to the decorating, where we opted to make the investment in well-designed pieces with nice clean lines that are totally timeless. With the exception of our One Stools by Magis, we chose an all-Canadian roster of designers, with the help of two amazing Ottawa-based home stores, Alteriors and Blueprint Home. Proudly, our furnishings are among the coolest designs by IZM Furniture, Gus Modern, LucyAu and William—all Canadian. The work of Louis Helbig, an abstract aerial photographer and fellow Ottawan, ups the edge factor, and its organic, context-free composition pulls the interior together in an uncanny way. (Sources mentioned above are listed at the end of this post!)

Below is a before photo of the exterior (bleh), a couple after photos (WOW!), and one peek at the interior (YES!). The rest of the photos are after the jump. (Photos via Gordon King)

Moneca Kaiser Design Build

Louis Helbig Aerial Photography

Alteriors

Blueprint Home

Magis 

IZM Furniture

Gus Modern

iLevel

Duro Design

EnviroSense Condensing Hot Water Tank

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!)

Lex just loves sitting on top of this rustic buffet where he can enjoy a nice courtyard view… or simply sleep and dream of being at least as high as we are 🙂
– Nelly

Here is our dog Ouray on our vintage green reading chairs. We found these chairs at a garage sale for $30, and immediately shaped our living room around them. And as you can see Ouray agrees on how comfortable they are.
– Sam & Candace (Pella, Iowa)

JD the 7 month old Phalene lounging in our Cotswold Cottage.  The couch is from Finland.  JD fancies himself more French than Scandinavian, or English, for that matter.
– Karena

This is a day in the life of Atticus. When he is not looking out the window watching for birds, playing with his little brother, or scarfing down “good boy treats”, you’ll find him doing this. The dog needs his rest.
– Cassi Lanie (Salt Lake City, UT)

I took this photo yesterday and thought I should include it (cause it meets all my rules listed above!). Felix, the beached whale (and #6 of my 7 kitties), sitting on my leather Eames chair next to the front door (it’s his favourite spot).

This is my dog Elliott on my Molded Plastic Eames Chair that my boyfriend bought me for my birthday.  I often come home from work to find little paw print on my favourite piece of furniture, but with a face like that how can I be mad?
– Lindsey (Toronto, Ontario)

Our best pal, old shep taking a siesta on one of my recent projects.
– Matt

George hanging out on my micro-fiber SOFA-U-LOVE couch.
– Jen

This is Mammah. She is a Dogue de Bordeaux that I rescued 4 yrs ago. We joke that we should have named her Puddle or Gravy instead of Mammah. The chair is my favorite black leather Mitchell Gold chair bought at Midnight Farm here on Martha’s Vineyard where I live year round with my husband, stepson, and three Bordeauxs.
– Melissa

Attached you find a picture of my two cats, “Gato” (white&grey) and “Itchi” (brown). The picture was taken the day Itchi came home from the animal shelter three weeks ago and it seems they both
liked that chair! The chair itself used to be my husband granfather’s armchair. Its ca. 80 years old, very creaking, but we bought some Ikea cushions and I have to say…it´s really comfortable.
– Cris

This is my cat Kydd on his favorite Italian hand carved chair. He seems to love posing for the camera. What a ham!
– Tony (Minneapolis, MN)

The black dog is “Bella” my 12 year old Lab-Rott mix on the look out post that was once one of my Grandma’s chairs.   I can’t get them upholstered because my dogs use them to sit in a look out the window.  The brown dog is “Kimbo” a Boxer-Rott mix.  He is still a puppy, and is obviously ready for a nap!
– Dayle
  

Please see attached my parent’s youngest ‘child’ Buddy, a Bichon Frise. He’s very much a part of our family and thinks he’s human. From the vantage point on the back of the white couch he can easily watch for any dogs that may pass by on the street or see when Mum and Dad come home. His hand-knit purple blanket is a newly acquired gift from a lady who recently dog-sat him. They all live in Vernon, British Columbia!
– Glenda (Seattle, Washington)

This is Tabby No Bones Lazzarro. She’s resting on the couch after a long day. She really likes to watch MTV’s 16 and Pregnant. 
– Erin (Los Angeles, CA)