I FINALLY completed work on my dressing room and I thought I’d share it with you all now…there was a slight sense of urgency to this post because if we do the renovations on our house that we’re planning, that room is going to be demolished. *SIGH* For that reason I did not quite finish this room as I would like (ie. I wanted to dip dye the bottoms of the curtains, considered mod podging vintage wallpaper over the table in the center etc.) What’s the point since I have no clue what I’ll do in my new dressing room (which will have more space). So it’s as done as it’s ever going to get. And I’m so happy to have the space for my clothes (and my husband’s), although it does mean we cannot have overnight guests because it’s the only other bedroom besides the master. But a girl has got to have her priorities straight (particularly when it comes to clothes/shoes). LOL

Here are some before/during photos I had to show as this was a quite a bit of work, slowly over about a year. This first photo is the only one I have that shows most of the fairly small room (6’11″x12’6″), taken right after I moved in.

After that I decided to paint the room teal, which turned out to be a dumb idea in such a small room because it became very dark, despite the fact that there’s a fairly large window (I blogged it once here – it was so hard to photograph I don’t have many photos of that first transformation – but some are on Flickr here). With the newest version of the space, the closet was torn out (the doors were heavy pieces of wood that drove me INSANE), the walls were patched up, ugly-ass laminate floor was removed and new maple hardwood was installed (clickable – so thankfully we can reuse if we want in the new space). Here are a couple photos of the closet and floor demo:

And here is a photo of the new floor right after we installed it:

Some new baseboards, paint, rods and shelving installed, curtains (to close off the clothing storage; I kept my existing windows curtains), accessories and voila, a useful and kinda cute dressing room. A whole bunch of photos of the new room are after the jump. But here’s a quick peek:

Sources: white curtains – Ikea * rods and shelving – Home Depot * laundry basket – Umbra * island/table – Ikea (Lyckhem) * flooring – Kultur * light fixure – eBay * Eames Hang-It-All – Gabriel Ross * frame with jewelry – made with vintage frame, pegboard from Home Depot, hooks from Home Hardware * tray on desk – purchased in Mexico * locker baskets, burlap basket, ikat curtain fabric – Etsy * row of baskets inside closet on shelf – Ikea

I work with a guy named Jack (well, I do when he’s not off on parental leave). Jack is married to Shannon. Jack and Shannon have 2 adorable girls (Charlie and Lily) and a dog named Chico. Jack and Shannon happen to be musicians (see previous posts here and here). They live in Morrison Heights (a community of La Pêche, next to Wakefield, Quebec). Jack and Shannon just bought a log house (COOL!). Now they need to sell their house. Jack sent me photos yesterday. I squealed in delight. I had been to their house when their kitchen renovation was completed and it was such an amazing improvement to the former dark, outdated and closed-off kitchen. They’ve renovated just about every other room, which I had not had a chance to see in person. It’s so bright and open now. The house is located on a hill in a forest, with tons of hiking and fun stuff to do (including bungee jumping – it’s so close to their house you can hear the jumpers scream!) I had to share their home here because it’s too damn cute not to, and maybe I’ll help them sell it faster. 🙂

And a couple gratuitous and unrelated to the house photos…one I took of Jack last May jammin’ at the back of our building after work (government employees gotta amuse themselves somehow), and one Jack sent me last night from his phone after a hike in his ‘hood.

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!)

The first is of my cat, Ruby, on our mid-century inspired sofa.  The second is of our big girl, Asparagus, on a chair just nabbed up at the flea market last weekend that is taking a turn with that black and white pillow.  This is pretty much what they do all-day-long.  Ahh, the life of a cat.
– Jenna (Pasadena, CA)

This is my little sweetheart Kaipo relaxing on my favorite reading chair from Anthropologie.
– Shari (New York City)

– Alison

Scout, enjoying the front yard in Sydney’s Inner West. This is how a Federation house should be enjoyed… Ikea provided the chair.
– Sarah

1 – this is sammy, our lab pup on a zebra hide next to a noguchi prismatic table in our home in reno, nevada.
2 – my cat gabby after a haircut
– Vicki

this is bella our burmese cat
– Cheryl

It is hard to find a photo of our house without Suzi and Lennie sitting on furniture but here are a few favourites from previous home. The first is Suzi la sausage as a puppy. I used to get home from work and she would be lying in the sun on the kitchen bench. The second is Suzi and Lennie enjoying the heater…which was a nobo behind the couch. It is at times very tricky moving them off furniture as they assume the dachshund paws in the air Im asleep pose regularly.
– Paula

Here are some pics of my cat on an indian day bed.
– Merel (Amsterdam)

This is Flock (means snowflake in catalán), we were trying to take some photos of my boyfriend’ s new table design, and he decided to participate in the photo shoot as well. Not a bad idea 🙂
– Ana (Barcelona)

Here are some stellar photos of my kitten Fox Lucite. His middle name is a result of his affinity for this lucite end table.  We could have named him Bertoia for his affinity for our Bertoia bird chair too!  The final photo is Fox all grown up in his second favorite chair, a silver leather armchair designed by Kelly Cole of Lo-Fi and Kelly Cole Extraordinarium.
– Kara

the boo and the boy

The Diversion Project

Designspiration

My Scandinavian Retreat

My Paradissi

Vosges Paris

My Scandianvian Retreat

Apartment Therapy

The Brick House

Design Crisis

design attractor

Little Green Notebook

La Maison d’Anna G.

automatism

design*sponge

Designtripper

homestilo

Remodelista

This is a special blog post for all my fellow Ottawans out there who have always wanted to be on TV and never got the chance. Mountain Road Productions in association with the W Network is planning a second season of the show All For Nothing and they are looking for Ottawa homeowners to participate. Here’s the scoop: Each episode pits homeowner against homeowner in a competition to get their homes market ready in just two weeks – and the homeowners do all the work (with help from anyone they can get their hands on, and spending as little as possible). Benefitting from free real estate and design advice (from agent Paul Rushforth and designer Penny Southam), the seller with the highest increase in value at the end of two weeks will win the commission-free listing services of Paul. (In a two week period homeowners have been able to increase the value of their homes by as much as $50,000!!) I caught an old episode the other morning and it looks like a blast! So if you’re interested check out this website for the entry form and more details. We also have an ad in our sidebar (see image above) that will take you to their site. Go Ottawa!