This is an apartment I can get behind, and move into immediately. Clean lines, earth tones with hits of mustard yellow (I loooooove yellow), deep ochre(?) and salmon. Lots of comfy places to sit surrounded by pale woods and chalky walls. Appealing to the masses. By interior design duo Espejo & Goyanes. (Jo featured them back in February).

Letícia of Lisbon-based Roof Design Studio (interior design, architecture and renovations, product design and graphic design) sent over photos of a beautiful apartment in a duplex in Lisbon that overlooks the Tagus river. In a perfect balance between neutral colors and the explosion of colours, between modern and clean design and pieces full of travel memories, between collector art and emerging illustration, walls have been torn down to create wider spaces and doors were eliminated to create greater visual connections. In these residential 170m2 you can find portuguese brands such as Mambo Unlimited Ideas, Dooq details, Theia tiles, Utu Lamps and many furniture pieces designed by the creative team of studio Roof, meticulously manufactured by the best national artisans. Sophistication and functionality were the keywords of the project, where each chosen material, each combination of colours and patterns and each perspective reflect the owner’s taste and personality.

Really lively and bright colours, playful wallpaper, an elaborate gallery wall, and vintage vibes are abundant in this Pennsylvania forever home designed by Michelle Gage. She has added so much energy to each space. Forever indeed! (Photos: Rebecca McAlpin)

When a Victorian home in Pennsylvania gets a modernized update, but maintains its original features that makes it special, you know it’s going to be a winner. Michelle Gage livened the heck out of this home with some bold colour and artwork, mid-century classic furniture and lighting and the bonus of an adorable dog. (Photos: Rebecca McAlpin)

When we first moved in to our current house for some reason I had the bright idea that we needed a really long dining table. Possibly because our previous house had no dining room and therefore the table was in the middle of the kitchen. My husband spent many hours and much $$$ building me a 8 foot long dining table out of hemlock (with a steel base we had fabricated). As shown above. I love that dining table. But it took up the whole room. Having to walk around it to get to the bluetooth speaker/radio my husband converted, or getting to the buffet cabinet was annoying. And there’s 2 of us. And we never have anyone over for a meal. We both agreed a round or oval table would be ideal that seat 6, and I would use the 8ft table as a desk in the living room (more on that another day). I went hunting on MarketPlace and Kijiji. For months. Then the pandemic hit and I was working from home and figured this would be a great time to get this going. So I changed my strategy and stopped hunting for the perfect table and opted to just find something that was the right size. I found a round office table for $50 on Kijiji and figured what the hell, I could pimp it out and if I end up hating it, I’ll get rid of it and try again.

This was the table 5 minutes after bringing it home and disinfecting it. Stains all over the top, and boring all around. At this point all hardware stores were closed here and only offering online ordering which takes some time so I decided to try and work with what we had. I ended up spending nothing to fix up this table. First we cut strips of wood from some Ikea shelving we were no longer using and trimmed out the base with it. I then stained the slats black. I wasn’t sure what to do with the top but husband wanted to try sanding it down and seeing what the wood looked like (turned out it was solid wood). In the end the wood turned out to have such a gorgeous grain we just used some Livos on it and that was it.

As soon as we had everything in place we realized this table was in fact too small and we could have gone for something bigger (that fit 6 – this one only fits 5). But it is such an improvement for flow in the room and we absolutely love it so we’ll live with it until my dream table is found. Welcome to my $50 dining table!

Also, I think this might be the first time you’re seeing my new Lambert & Fils light fixture. I love the smaller scale of this one compared to what I had before.

I had to add in some pics of a special piece I got my hands on this past Friday. I spotted a quirky little side table for sale in the Instagram stories of Toronto-based Bettencourt Manor a while ago but could not justify the 4.5 or so hour drive to go pick it up. Turns out the guys of B.M. were headed to Ottawa and they delivered it for me. I put it in the dining room for a quick IG story but it turned out to be the perfect spot so I left it there. I love the angles on it.