Displaying posts labeled "Kim’s House"

My new sofa

Posted on Sun, 26 Aug 2012 by KiM

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned on my page that I bought a new sofa, because my husband and I were sick and tired of the DIY sofa he built that we’ve been using for the last few years. I think the new sofa is pretty funky and will go with the theme I want for the new house we are hoping to build next year. Here is the photo I snapped at the store.

I LOVE brown leather that looks better with age, and this one I hope will age beautifully. We had it delivered a few days after purchasing it, and I had Friday off so I prettied up the living room and took some photos. Now, it’s a bit of a large sofa for our tiny living room but I don’t care, as we hope to not be in this house much longer, and it’s SO much more comfortable than the last one. I re-decorated the space with items I had around the house, because I don’t want to purchase any more stuff (I have too much crap!) until the new house. I thought the space above the sofa, while empty all this time, kind of looked bare (maybe I’m just tiring of my forest mural) so I found 2 pieces to hang there. Not ideal but the wall was making me crazy sans art. Eventually I’d love maybe some Australian aboriginal art (in black and white) above it. Anyhoo, here it is.

My dad emailed us kids the other day to say he wanted to get rid of his wine making paraphernalia and wanted to know if any of us were interested in some 10 gallon glass carboys/demijohns. HELLS YEAH! My little sister ended up with 2 clear/blue-ish ones which were gorgeous, and unfortunately all he had left were 2 green ones but hey, I’ll take what I can get (even with a dead mouse in it). I likely have to store it in the basement because again, I have too much crap and too small of a house but I’m sure I’ll find a place for it one day. (Felix approves).

Killin’ time

Posted on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 by KiM

I have been on holidays these past 2 weeks and dear gawd did I need this break (at least from one of my jobs). Since Tuesday I’ve been pretty much stuck at home during the day which I welcomed, because it meant getting lots of things done I have been putting off – including several tasks involving organzing something or other. Yesterday, after walking to the post office to pick up some hot boots, it was time to organize the bookshelves in my bedroom. I really don’t like having all this book storage in my bedroom (to me it’s like bad feng shui – too much visual stimulation for a room that’s supposed to give me tranquility), but it was the only free wall in my tiny house that could house my magazine collection and some books. I threw some of the older magazines out because holy smokes I have far too many, and made the piles neat again. Once the contents were organized (and shrunk down a bit) I went out to the storage shed and dug out some apple baskets and a couple wooden crates I had purchased some time ago at an antique shop out in the boonies. I am a FREAK for rustic/industrial storage options, and these, along with my vintage metal locker baskets, helped in the wrangling of my crap. I’m a happy camper now, and I think I can sleep a little better tonight knowing it’s not a disaster. (P.S. Before the hubby moved in, the shelves looked like this, and after when I de-feminized the space, the room looked more like this).

I was contacted recently by Canadian furniture and home decor company Urban Barn to partake in a blogger contest involving chairs, a competition, an auction and charities. I don’t think there’s much in the works publicly yet, although check it out on Twitter via the hashtag #customchairitycompetition. Due to this competition I had to pay my local Urban Barn store a visit last week. Of course, I could not leave empty handed (this is why I try and avoid home decor stores – I can’t stop myself). I picked up a few things, including one sale item I could NOT pass up…yet another freaking lamp (it was half price! 89!). This one is so cool I had to have it, even though I have to box it up and store in my basement until the new house materializes.

The shade is MASSIVE (2′ long and 2′ wide at the bottom) and drapey which I adore, and the tripod base is cool.

This crinkly STUFF basket came in 3 sizes. I snapped up the middle one for $14. I realize now I have a basket addiction.

My frame/pegboard jewelry holder has reached it’s capacity so I thought a new necklace/bracelet holder would be useful (by Umbra for $17).

Everytime I stop in at Urban Barn I always leave with some sort of vase-like object. They have really funky ones, and no I did not need another but they had 3 vases that looked like crushed cans or bottles so I picked up the little one that looked like a pop can for $6.

Those were my purchases. Now the fun with tape part. I was flipping through a magazine recently and saw a vase that looked like it was covered in shredded strips of black fabric. It suddenly came to me to try and wrap some cheapie dollar store vases in black hockey tape….I guess because hockey tape has a sort of fabric-like texture to it. I found a huge tub of ModPodge in my office the other day so I suppose I could have just tried gluing fabric strips but whatever, hockey tape seemed alot easier. I went to a really brutal dollar store near me yesterday and this was all I could find that would work.

My husband grabbed the first vase and a roll of tape and got to work while I taped up the second one. I think they turned out pretty good, but I have to admit I like my haphazard method better.

Random on a Sunday

Posted on Sun, 27 Nov 2011 by KiM

Hey folks. Things are a little nuts here at casa di cats so I thought I’d just show you some of what I’ve been doing lately. Hope you don’t mind.
First, I published a post on my page yesterday on the subject of something not interior design related but do have a looksie here because I think it’s pretty cool.
Second, Jo shared a post last weekend of her office, so I thought I’d share a bit of mine. You see, my husband moved in to what is now OUR house a year ago last May and we attempted to share the tiny office at the back of the house. That did not go over so well so I relocated to the only other available space – the dining table in the middle of the kitchen. My laptop and I have been there ever since. Kind of annoying but hopefully this time next year I will have a fantastic office on the third level of our new house (more on that shortly). Anyway, I took some photos of my “new office” a while ago and thought I’d share some of them. Of course, they feature some of our fur children. Consider this a prelude to tomorrow’s Pets on furniture feature. 😉

Here is a shot of the kitchen with my laptop in “my spot”. In this one Mimin is on the table in her basket (made out of old tires), Felix is on the Panton chair, Milo is slightly visible behind the chair, and Felix is to the left (the others were napping).

Here’s a cute one of Felix looking up at me and Mimin wanting some love.

Here is the same cast of characters as the first shot, but Edgar and Milo switched spots.

After the jump, I’ve got something I’ve been working on with my husband when I’m not blogging or studying French. Our plans for our new house. A little recap (for those who don’t know what’s going on, and I frankly can’t remember what I’ve mentioned of this here): In the spring my husband and I started planning renovations to our 925 sq ft house which included a large addition and reworking the upper floor (see posts here and here). Work was supposed to start early summer….then late summer….then fall….and it was when we got feedback from the city that we discovered the architect our builder had set us up with had no freaking clue about the rules of building houses here in Ottawa and the plans we had submitted were essentially garbage. (We were really sorry to see the designs that our designers Dylan and Thu had created for us go to waste). We decided to scrap the architect, the builder, the plans – everything – and start fresh. Really fresh. We decided to tear the house down and rebuild. My husband and I managed to come up with some drawings (done by hand) that we think may work (based on a few phone calls with the city). Considering that I am a programmer and my husband is a network administrator and we’ve never designed a house before, we are slightly clueless so I’d love to get your thoughts. 🙂 And for reference, the plans are loosely based on this home I blogged last month.

Random on a Sunday

Posted on Sun, 11 Sep 2011 by KiM

I spent yesterday at my sister’s cottage, enjoying what is likely the last decent weekend of the summer (although I did have jeans and a hoodie on for most of the day…this time of year is SO depressing). This means I did not have time to get a blog favourites post ready. Instead, I thought I would just keep this random with some items I have on hand.

First up, some photos I took Friday since I had the day off work and decided to spend a couple minutes rearranging some pieces in my living room. I LOVE this lamp that I bought at Homesense a while back and have had it crammed in a corner of my bedroom since it came home with me. I decided to move it next to the front door alongside my black Eames leather side chair, and switch out my Mexican tin mirror with my huge beaded rosary (also picked up in Mexico). Nothing too exciting but with no renovations on the horizon for this year I’m back to giving a sh*t what my house looks like. Because that Eames chair is a favourite of Felix, he has claimed the chair in the majority of these photos.

Despite the following action being out of focus, I thought it was hilarious that I managed to capture a little brawl.

Remember Tom’s fabulous apartment that I blogged on Wednesday? Well, his apartment was filmed for a promotional video for his building and he just received a link to it on YouTube. Check it out!

One last quick item: Yesterday I came across the following photo of a kitchen that I found rather odd. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an island shaped like this before. I’m thinking a large rectangular (read ‘normal’) island would have made more sense…


via Period Living