The left side of my living room looked like this right after we moved in. This is a very long and narrow space (23’x11′) so while it’s easy to break it up into different zones on each end, it gets a little tough fitting in a really large sofa and TV cabinet and not having everything running along the walls and ending up with a boring layout. And while you may recall I had received a new sofa not that long ago, my choice of wool fabric was really not smart in a house with a bunch of cats so I moved it upstairs to the storage room and may use it when we convert the space into a library. Since then I did however score the rug of my dreams and that caused an entire re-arrangement of the space and I bought a few new pieces to go with it.

This rug is Fool’s Paradise by Marcel Wanders for Moooi Carpets from The Modern Shop. It is soooooo gorgeous, and pretty much ideal in this house of many pets because it is essentially commercial grade and very low pile so it will stand up to wear and tear and fur and constant vacuuming. The flower photo printed on it is SO sharp and the colours are incredible. I opted for round instead of rectangular (and the smaller of the 2 sizes) because I didn’t want to emphasize the long and narrow shape to the room. Even though my sofa is rather big and bulky, by placing it on an angle in the corner it makes it look SO much smaller and really opens up the space.

I had to find a new chair to work with the rug, and came across this Victorian grandfather chair at Yardley’s Antiques. I love the competing florals together. The glass sculpture on the pile of books and glass vase on a stand are from West Elm. The gold with marble top table is from Homesense. The star light under the table is from Gaslight Electric Sign Co.. The antique fireplace screen turned artwork is from Highjinx. The light is the Flos Aim pendant designed by the Bouroullec brothers.

This is a REALLY old chair, and I need to find some trim to cover those staples.

The vase and lidded bowl are vintage. That’s a watermelon peperomia plant. The leaves are adorable.

The art is this photo by Amanda Sebayang from Bali. I purchased a digital copy and had it printed on photoboard 40’x40′ by Posterjack, with a simple frame made by my husband. The fleece blanket is by David Fussenegger and plastic watering can by Qui est Paul? from Alteriors. Pillow from Homesense.

This rug also called for a new coffee table, and I wanted something small so I splurged and purchased an Eero Saarinen for Knoll black marble top side table from Alteriors. Kin tealight holders by Claesson Koivisto Rune for Skultuna from The Modern Shop. Bud vase from General Fine Craft.

More pillows from Homesense.

Vintage media cabinet. Lamp from Homesense. Table base by Pretty Pegs. Vintage wire sculpture from a shop in Montreal and Jieldé light from eBay.

These alcoves were awful. They had a piece of mirror down the center, and curved glass shelves on one side. That had to go. Husband patched the holes and built floating shelves. They are now filled with random trinkets – my cabinets of curiosities.

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.

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.

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

As soon as I spotted this 1854 Cape Dutch home (located in Montagu, Cape Town) featured in Visi, I knew there was something magical about it. And when I read the story, I realized I was right. As the homeowners tell it: “For a year before we started renovating, I spent every weekend sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the empty entrance hall. It was important to do this, because only then did I hear the house. I could hear her breathe. I could hear the creaking of the wood, the sounds the pipes make, how the wind whispers through the rooms and where she ached. And in doing so I realised that ours would have to be a historical renovation; it wasn’t so much what we wanted the house to be but rather what it should be.” You can read the rest of the story here. (Photos: Micky Hoyle)