Displaying posts labeled "Kim’s House"

Little projects around my house

Posted on Sun, 8 Sep 2013 by KiM

I didn’t really know what to blog today and since there are a couple of new little projects around my house I thought I would just share that today (a sad day I might add – we’re heading to my sister’s cottage with the family to help close it up for the winter). Aside from the cat house and new paint job on my desk, I did more painting and some fabric dying which I had never attempted before. Fabric dying was quite the experience. Since I don’t have a big laundry sink I’m grateful to have a backyard with half dead grass where I could make a mess without harming anything. I have had a very large piece of white linen in my fabric stash for several years that I have been dying (pun intended) to do something with. I decided I would use a piece of it for a curtain over my desk and another for a seat cushion for a chair in my bedroom. So off to the fabric store for some black dye. All they had was ‘black velvet’ which I assumed meant a light black. I tested a couple of strips of fabric – one bundled up tight and wrapped in rope, and the other I dipped right in. 

I opted for bundling up the fabric and wrapping it because I wanted it to look really odd with faded parts. Unfortunately not knowing what the frig I was doing, I bundled it too tight and there were too many light spots, and the fabric didn’t turn out dark enough. So I had to do it all over again. 

After a second bath in the black dye the result was perfect! Much more subtle and dark but not too black. While I was at it I added all of my vintage doilies that I had dyed dark grey a while back but they turned out too blue. 

After washing and hanging them to dry, I balled up the fabric and left it like that for a while because I LOVE the look of wrinkled linen. 

In reality the lighter parts are not as bright as in the photo above. It turned out pretty awesome. My doilies are still fairly blue. Ah well. I have wanted to stitch them together into a table runner for ages but never got around to it. 

It was a rainy day today, and the added fun of trying to photograph towards a window made for kind of crappy photos but you get the idea of how the curtain looks. 


Next project. I have a vintage bamboo-like chair that I had painted Chinese red and used in my dressing room a while ago. Since I redid that room it has been in a corner of my bedroom and I had been wanting to paint it flat black. 

It is one of my favourite chairs as it is surprisingly comfy. And the cats love it so that is one less animal on the bed at night. It looks SO much better black. And since I can’t sew I just tucked the fabric around the old seat cushion, and grabbed an accent pillow from my linen closet. 

I had to snap a couple quick photos of my living room today for an interview so I thought I’d randomly share them too. 

When you don’t have room for a liquor cabinet…

Our next project is converting the back room, formerly my office, into a pantry. The room is an addition, essentially added on top of a deck so it is freezing cold in the winter and raccoons live under it in the summer. It is the perfect pantry space and coat closet since we have no closets on the main floor. The space is awkward as it’s square but the previous owners added a fairly large powder room to be used by someone wheelchair-bound. This means the room is annoyingly L-shaped. Coats hang on one wall by the back door and where my desk was we want to make into a storage wall. (These photos are several years old).

I never got around to painting that little ramp into the room after my kitchen reno so I woul like to finally get that done. And we will do something with the hideous bathroom as I have not done anything to it since moving in. My husband was talking about building shelving for the ‘pantry’ himself but I think he is now leaning towards buying cheap Ikea shelving. Whatever works! I want something we can take down and reuse when we get around to wrecking this house. Right now we have some metro shelving and other random storage pieces in there for extra food and small appliances and it’s been great but I can’t wait to have proper storage. Photos to come when we’re done!

A mag feature and some dishes

Posted on Sun, 28 Apr 2013 by KiM

It’s a busy week & weekend for me so I didn’t have time to do much blog surfing for my blog favourites post so instead I give you more stuff I took photos of. First up is a magazine feature – 6 whole pages! – of my kitchen renovation. It’s the Well-Styled Home summer 2013 issue of Kitchens & Baths. 

Another major event this week was the arrival of more of my Wonkiware dishes from Green Light District. When Deborah & David’s shop was located here in Ottawa, I discovered these gorgeous handmade dishes from an artist in South Africa and fell in love. I purchased a few pieces each time I visited (they’re investment dishes shall I say) hoping to eventually acquire a decent amount to be able to use them when having peeps over for a meal. I had a set of 4 (soup bowls, pasta bowls, side plates and dinner plates) and when I heard from Deborah that the artist had unexpectedly changed up the style of some of them, she agreed to bring some to Ottawa with her on a recent trip. I totally adore these dishes and have blogged them before (I think the last time was here) but could not resist taking more photos as these are my dream dishes and I am overjoyed to now have a set of 8 (except for side plates, Deborah only had 2 left of the original style). 

I love the raw edges of some of the pieces. It gives them a rustic, more handmade flavour. 

I nearly had a coronary when Deborah told me she included some desert bowls in my package as a gift. !!! They are so adorable. The desert bowls and the dinner plates all have the raw edge and plain, no-pattern design. The rest of the pieces have a sort of lace pattern and finished edges. 

Platters for this set were on sale so I requested one of those as well (although my mom now has 2 of the dinner plates that are large enough that she uses them as platters).

Unfortunately my house is tiny and I have no designated dining room where a hutch or something similar would be perfect for displaying these gorgeous dishes. Instead, I have to improvise, and have spread the dishes throughout the kitchen (there’s no way they are being hidden in a cabinet – plus, my cabinets are full!). I placed the platter is in some narrow shelving leading into the kitchen, the side plates and soup bowl on the shelves over my cabinets, the dinner plates and pasta bowls on top of the fridge, and the dessert bowls in my dining table centrepiece. 

Now I’ve got to run and get ready for the Ottawa Vintage Clothing Show!!!

New bits and bobs around my house

Posted on Sun, 21 Apr 2013 by KiM

I thought I’d do a little something different today since I spent just about all day yesterday organizing parts of my house, taking photos, sorting through the photos and tweaking the photos. (Amazing how time consuming this ends up being). I acquired a few things recently so I thought I’d share them with you. Keep in mind I still have plans to tear this house down in the (hopefully) near future but in the meantime I still need to keep myself amused with decorating it.

I did a little something in my dressing room which you can check out over on themourningcloak.com. On the same wavelength as that little project, there are a couple of new additions to my living room. First, I decided that I was tired of not really having anything over the sofa (it’s been 5 or 6 years) and since I have next to no space to display anything in this house, I decided to stick a shelf there. My husband took me out to a lumber yard and we found some gorgeous raw edge planks of wood. We bought 3 and used 2 in the dressing room and one over the sofa. My vintage cameras have been in storage for a while so I pulled those out and for some reason I like displaying lightbulbs (but I need a better bowl) so there we have it – a little display of stuff and things. 

I stopped in at the new Modern Shop downtown location last weekend (I blogged it here) and could not resist picking up a couple things. (More on that and other goodies after the jump!)

Two of my favourite brands – Normann Copenhagen and HAY. 🙂 The Normann Copenhagen Dropit hooks (large) now reside on the wall next to the front door. We don’t have a closet or anywhere to hang a purse of jacket when you walk in so I thought they would come in handy.

These Scholten & Baijings tea towels by Hay are amazing. The fabric is to die for and the colours and patterns are really fun. I seriously lack cute tea towels – not anymore!

Also in the kitchen, I’ve got a new centrepiece on my dining table thanks to a bunch of goodies from Highjinx (a local non-profit thrift shop where proceeds help the homeless). For about $40 I scored some really cool silver items (that I added to some I already had). I dug out a silver tray from the basement that my grandmother had given me and voilà, new bling on my table. 

The piece above is really neat. It is a vase on one end and a candleholder on the other. (It is marked with “NORWAY PEWTER”). My candle didn’t fit the candle end so I just shoved a few in the vase end. 🙂

Last but not least – my bedroom. I had cheap rattan blinds that stuck out from the window a good 4 inches so light would shine right in our eyes if we were lucky enough to sleep in (or the streetlights would shine in). I FINALLY got rid of them and found some cute black and white retro tree curtains at Ikea (that I “hemmed” with hockey tape temporarily – it was all I had). I also picked up a new duvet cover that I thought would work with the curtains and the very pale pink walls. The room has had no real colour or pattern going on lately so this was a HUGE improvement. And a few of the cats were stoked that I actually made the bed (in my defense there are always cats or a husband asleep on it so I have given up bothering – unless I take photos). On the bed is an otami pillow that my parents brought me back from Puerto Vallarta (I stupidly didn’t buy it when I was there but got them to pick it up before they came home). I had never seen otami in black and white there so I was stoked to find it and the piece of otami fabric I did end up buying there.  

My new side table

Posted on Sun, 2 Dec 2012 by KiM

Over a year ago I blogged a really cool idea I saw on The Selby – a vintage safe as a side table.

Low and behold, I recently came across one on Kijiji and my husband nearly lost his marbles. Turns out he is a huge fan of vintage safes too! Yesterday we drove for what seemed like hours to some little town out in the middle of nowhere and arrived at the home of a really nice man who sold us a very similar safe for $250 (I’m thinking this was a steal based on what little I’ve seen via some quick googling). It took 3 men to heave the 300 lb (or so) safe into our vehicule and somehow my husband and I managed to carry it into the house last night. Now it takes pride of place in the corner of my living room. The previous owner does not remember the combination (he’s had it for over 40 years – when he was younger while drinking with his buddies they’d see who could lift it) so we’ll have to figure out how to open it or find someone who can. In the meantime, I think it makes a sweet side table. 🙂

Random photos around my home

Posted on Sun, 2 Sep 2012 by KiM

I spent the day at my sister’s cottage yesterday (trying to enjoy every last bit of summer while I can) so I had no idea what to blog today. I decided to simply take some photos around my house – inside and out. Hope you like. 🙂

First up, some photos in my kitchen.

I have a wall-mount Tolomeo on either side of my stove. Still one of my favourite lights of all time. 

Branches from a tree at the cottage ended up on top of the fridge (less cats can eat them up there).

Antlers from Alberta that I adore and some baskets on top of my pantry.

There are always cheap herbs from the grocery store sitting on my kitchen window sill. Oregano is one of the cutest plants.

I am obsessed with avocados. I could eat them at every meal. I just bought a whole bunch so they’re sitting in a stack of Green Light District pasta bowls (next to one of their vases) on my dining table.

A few photos in my living room (we still adore the new sofa, just wish I had more time to spend on it)…

My favourite vintage fan ended up on the floor in the corner. 

The same corner with spiky plant to fill the space, DIY light fixture and busroll art from Homesense. 

I love the colours of fall flowers. Picked these up at the grocery store. Milo is enjoying the view out front. 

Couple of shots from my bedroom…

I love collecting blankets. It’s not easy to display them in a house with many cats. Right now they’re in a basket on top of shelving – a cat-free zone until winter comes.

I bought this coat rack at least a year ago and it’s been sitting in a heap of crap in the basement since. I was worried it would warp/break/etc. so it’s now hanging on a wall next to the bed. 

Here is my office at the back of the house…

My Frye moto boots at the backdoor next to a shelving unit my husband built to store his shoes. 

Phoebe watching birds from the Ikea hacked baby changetable turned cat perch. Behind her is a tall branch that is nice and straight that I found at the cottage – perfect for a curtain rod. 

That’s it for inside. Here are some around the yard. 

Formerly a field of weeds, my view out the front of the house is now a bunch of these 3 story townhomes. Awesome. At least they somewhat block the noise of the highway (just beyond that metal fence you can see to the left). 

Lucky losing his mind in the living room window because I was on the porch snapping pics and he was stuck inside. 

Some chrysanthemums to decorate the front porch and help me forget summer is almost done (stupid brown pots).

I only went to the plant section of Home Depot for those baskets above, but had to bring home this massive rosemary plant for $5. I’ll plant it in a decent pot and bring it indoors when it gets too cold. Of course, that means it won’t last long. LOVE the smell and will take what I can get. 

My husband was bored one day so he took some wood from the DIY couch we tore apart and made this BBQ utensil holder next to the shed. AWESOME because I those utensils are huge and annoying and I don’t want them in the kitchen.

Despite the fact that I am not taking care of any of the plants in the yard since I will likely have to replace them all when we do real landscaping after new house is built, this bamboo has survived and looks adorable. It makes me think we’re in the tropics. HA!

Another quick project the husband came up with out of boredom. A cute little table for the back deck. 

And a little extra I had to add…we finally created a sign for the pontoon boat at the cottage to put its name. The S.S. Shapoopie. A favourite Family Guy word we all love.