Plints are not my friend

I love Plinths. I think they are great. One on each side of almost anything always makes a great frame.

So I decided I wanted 2 Plinths to go on either side of this book case I had.

So first I tried to make a simplified column. . . which didn't work:


Attempt 1: covering wood and cardboard
in drywall mud. I wanted it to look like
those plaster covered tables that are so trendy right now
. . . did not look like that at all.

So I also have $0 left at this point to spend on furniture so I thought PAPER. I had just seen a post by a friend about making blinds with folded paper. So I thought I could give it a tailored upholstered look but with paper, I love crisply pressed box pleats, so off I went again:


Attempt 2: Paper folded into box pleats

So yah it looks like box pleats but no, not crisply pressed or tailored . . just wavy and messy. Not really happy with it. . . . .


Final attempt: Again with paper but this time I made lots of pleats.

I think the 3rd Attempt came out best. I love the idea of using paper as a material in your home. It has a great textural quality. Obviously only a temporary solution until I can afford some real Plinths. Or better yet a great piece of furniture to replace both Plinths and the bookcase.

The end result:


They do a great job of hiding the cords for the wall sconces.

An overall shot of the wall: I think Ideally the sconces should have been centered on the wall with a wider china hutch between. But not a bad start.

Arm Chair Conundrum

I have this vision of the perfect arm chair: its comfortable, its cozy. . . but also compact. There are also 2 of them ( of course), they are amazingly cheap, and fit in my car.

They don't exist.

This weekend I trekked all over this city.

These are what we had at the beginning of the weekend, 2 ikea arm chairs:

Our current arm chairs

So I began my search, I went to a furniture liquidation place. . . no luck. Lots of chairs, no matching pairs, none without obvious fabric damage.

So I went to a used furniture store, and found these down-filled rolled arm chairs: The fabric was this horrible shiny white that was so dirty, but it was down filled, solid constuction. They where $20 each and furniture was 50% off. DONE, I thought, I've seen a few people paint fabric chairs, I can do that:

 

 

Well they did not fit in the car. And I guess also, (realistically) they would have been a little large for the space.

 

But that was ok because I found these 2 arm chairs at Crate and Barrel that where 2 days away from being marked down 90% aka each of them would have been $210, I was so excited!

 

Like, soooo excited.

 

Well I called this morning when they opened (on the day they would have been 90%). GONE; someone snatched them up at 80%  . . . an obviously wiser person than me.

 

But that's ok because at the same used furniture store I also found this down filled settee. Too bad pink isn't my thing, but I could paint them just like I was going to do with the white chairs right!?

 

 Well I have the settee, its sitting in my living room: Solid wood construction, down filled, the quality of the fabric is amazing. . . just no though, it doesn't work, it looks completely out of place.

 

Its not 2 arm chairs.  . . and It doesn't fit in: Its too high,  the lines are too formal, the seat is too shallow.

 

Its an amazing deal and an even more amazing find. . . but not the right one.  . . .

 

So now I have a settee and no where to put it, and still no arm chairs. . . .

 

ITS SUCH A CONUNDRUM!

 





20 photo frames

My boyfriend found an amazing book of animal prints. We decided to create a framed collection and put them over the sofa.

I found some super cheap frames from ikea. Even at $3 each they still came out to around $100. I got some really nice paper with some texture on them to mount the photos too. I ditched the glass acrylic sheet at the front of the frame: The texture of the paper and prints was way better without them.

The benefit of using these inexpensive frames was that they where very, very light. So I was able to use this tac I found when buying the paper, no nails, no hammering. And I will be able to adjust them as needed. I tested the frames to see how well they where secured to the wall. . they seem really strong. Time will tell. . . . if they all start falling off my wall I will let you know.

I taped some paper to the wall to make sure
I had the composition right

Getting the frames ready

Playing around with who I wanted
beside each other. . .

Them all up on the wall, still need to make some minor
adjustments

Close up. I love these photos so much.

This has got to be my favorite project in the apartment so far. I think it looks fantastic!

wrapping a coffee table in vinyl paper

We had a huge lack coffee table that was the perfect size. But the finish was scratched and bubbled. So I decided to try and wrap it in wall paper.


I found this crazy cool vinyl paper from homedepot. My inspiration was this bar area wrapped in a similar paper on fromtherightbank.  I love this effect!


I think she started a bit of a trend bc it was also on the houseandhome blog:

My paper is from the same company but the colour is black:




The photos:


before





from the top

took lots of tape to keep the paper
in place when drying

all wrapped and put back together.



The glue on the back wasn't very strong. I think it would have been alot easier to use a spray adhesive. . . I think I am going to be re-gluing the legs. The paste was really meant for wall application . . . not furniture. But I am so happy with the results! 

dining room -nook- inspiration and results

Our tiny little 'eating area' was way to small for a table of any dignity. So instead I decided to try and extend out the kitchen and create a multipurpose work area.

My inspiration for this small space was:






The nook looked like this:


before.

Progress being made:

mid way

I was able to reuse the brackets and shelves from my old place. My original ideas was to use Ikea kitchen cabinets and then trim them out. But I realized it would be way easier (and less expensive) to modify one of ikeas large bedroom dressers. I picked up the 8 drawer Hemnes - which just fit -  cut down the legs a bit and added baseboard. I decided that it was all a little too white and grey with the light shelves and dresser so I decided to paint the back wall a dark accent which I had already lying around.

bedroom curtains

I talked about my passion for perfect curtains earlier and wanted to share with you a quick photo of the curtains in the bedroom.

I bought the oversized gingham from ikea at $10 a meter. It would have been great to have gotten double what I ended up getting so I really could have made dense gathers but it just wasn't in the wallet. Still happy with how they turned out.

I used a slider track from Canadian tire that was less expensive than I thought. Originally I tried using a rod but it just sagged under the span and weight. I lined them with ikea's cheapest white bed sheet ($3).



I still need to iron them but I am happy, they fit perfectly, gather nicely, and slide open and closed effortlessly.

sneak peak and progress

Progress is slow. I finished the bedroom curtains the other day, only to find that the curtain rod I used was too thin and was bowing under the weight of the curtains. . . . so much for trying to reuse my existing curtain rod. Tonight I am going to try to finish the living room curtains!

This is the fabric I picked for the bedroom:

I spent so much time and effort making sure that the curtains would fit perfectly, so that the top of the curtain just brushed the top of the bulkhead that they are recessed under and just touched the floor. . .  and then, with the bowed rod, they are gapped to the ceiling and collecting on the ground! UGH

I am going to replace the rod with a thicker one I have to see if that fixes it, and if not than I will have to move to the expensive option . . . actual slider track. . . .


I just ordered a fake Persian rug from overstock.com. . . . I really wanted a red one for under the table. A semi-antique or at the very least real-wool would have been fantastic but given that this one was 1/4 the price. . . . I'll take it. Maybe in the future I will be able to replace it with a real one! This is the photo from the website. . . I will let you know what it (actually) looks like when I get it!

all about bedroom curtains

I am very particular about curtains. I think curtains can make or break a room. I don't think any other one item can change the feel of a room like curtains can. But to do that they need to be the right size, the right colour, the right texture and the right shape.

Here are some photos of curtains that I love:









I knew that in the dark bedroom I wanted hay coloured curtains. The walls in the apartment are weird: the windows are in walls that are recessed from the main walls creating this image of an underlying beam and post structure. I wanted to accentuate that feature by having a curtain track system that was connected directly to the bottom of the 'beam' creating a floor to ceiling curtain.

Updates to come when I finish the curtains!

Paint samples

In the time between posting about my final paint selection and actually picking up the paint samples I was able to whittle down the number. I picked 3 samples for each room.

The winers where: toasted gray (behr) and midnight blue (behr).





top left: too gray, top right: too green,
bottom: just right (behr toasted gray)

 

I wanted something BOLD in the
bedroom. We picked the middle one!
Behr Midnight blue.





Toasted Gray by Behr





midnight blue by Behr

I decided to do a little bit of creative paint taping in the bedroom. I dropped the blue from the ceiling by about 9" and taped in a blue band. Still a lot of touchups to do where the paint bled through but I like the look. You can see in the photo that under the window they don't match up (but that will be hidden once the blinds go in).

We also painted the bed Downing Street (Also behr - good old home depot), still needs another coat though. I used Behrs Alkyd paint, which is meant to provide a better finish that acrylic. It is the first time I have used it and I am excited to see if it makes a difference.


(finally found my real camera so better photos to come soon!).

Before photos

We got the keys last night to our new place!

It was a little dim out but I still managed to take some photos to get a sense of the space.

Obviously there is a ton of exiting work to do!



The dining 'nook,' clearly not big enough for a table. But
we are thinking that a kitchen work surface here
would be great.



living area looking from the dining nook.



dining nook, kitchen wall and living space.




kitchen wall and living space and hallway (which leads to bedroom
and front door)



living space from the entry



kitchen



bedroom.



A rough floor plan of the space. I'm so excited about the huge
(south facing) balcony!

(I used the panorama feature on my phone which is why the walls are all a little curved.) But I was able to get so much more of each room into the photo that way.

Try anything once

I am a huge fan of designers who aren't afraid to experiment with design, and I love trying new design ideas myself.

The important thing is to not be too tied to the results. If your a DIY'er you know what I'm talking about. Not all of your projects are going to turn out great. Some of them will turn out better than you expected, and some much worse.

Some of the projects I've done have been a complete (and often comical) disaster, but I would like to think that I've learned something in each one.

I've taken a few photos of some of the successful and not-so-successful DIY projects I've done in the past as I get ready to move/ pack up my room.

a basket made from newspaper

I added trim and doors to a boring white dresser
and painted it a dark grey (still needs handles). I also
painted the pattern on the carpet
 

I added cool legs and new back pillows to this ikea
sofa. Although the pillows are great, the legs
provided to be less then stable if you sat on the
front edge. . . . rocking sofa anyone? I had to
put the old ones back on.

I can't wait to get started on some new DIY's once we get the keys to our new place!

picking paint

Picking paint has got to be one of the hardest tasks of any design project; it generally happens at the beginning -when everything is in flux- and when you go to the hardware store -with a specific colour in mind- you'll almost always come out with a hundred shades of everything ( not at all what you had planned). Because lets face the facts, once you walk up to that huge wall of paint chips your mind just pretty much turns to mush.

So if your anything like me you've found yourself here: sitting in your room, on the floor, eyes glazed over a huge pile of colour chips that you've hopelessly arranged into ridiculous groups that in your mind are somehow going to help you work through this impossible challenge. . . picking the perfect paint colour.

Here are some quick pictures of the mess I got myself into:


I'm not sure how long this has been a thing, I only recently discovered it  -probably in great part to pinterest- but people have started to post pictures of their rooms with their paint colours online! So now to confuse matters even more, once you have managed to whittle down your colour selection to a reasonable number, you can search said paint names online and see if what it looks like on the wall is actually what you thought it would be. And yes, "to confuse matters more." Because this is also about the time that you come to realize that the same colour can look completely different in varying situations(depending on which way the room faces, how many windows it has, how the other items in the room interact with it. . . the list is endless).


Our apartment faces east and south, windows on both sides, so nice and bright and the floors are typical 60 year old apartment parquet, aka very yellow. I found this photo on apartment therapy that would be an accurate representation of my situation.



So with all that in mind I have selected 6 paint colours for the living space to test on the walls which are:

• Behr wheat bread 
• Behr Dolphin fin
• Farrow and Ball french gray
• Farrow and Ball Blue gray
• CIL Designer grey
• Farrow and Ball Hardwick White
  

And 3 paint colours for the bedroom:

• Para State of the Art (blue)
• Martha Stewart Living Seal
• Martha Stewart Feather Duster
  

The biggest piece of advice I would give anyone when picking a paint colour: get the tester pots. Its $4 for a pot, so get a few. Paint chips are too small to be any real indication of the final colour. Paint at least a 2'x2' square.

Updates to come once we get to the painting stage.

Getting started - Inspriational Photos

Hello and welcome to my blog!

 I (a wanna-be designer/decorator and avid DIY'er) am about to  embark on a mad journey to transform my partner and I's new apartment into a livable, lovable space.


AND, I will be doing it on a shoe-string budget.

Before photo's are coming soon, but until then I wanted to share some inspirational photos with you! Photos that show the type of mood/feeling we are trying to create. I was only 5 minutes into my Pinterest boards when I realized it was going to be way harder to nail down a design direction than I thought. None the less, so far we are thinking of a dark bedroom, and a cozy but bright living space.

First for the dark inspirational photos:






And the cozy but light photos:




I realize that there are competing design elements in these photos but what I love about each of them is the atmosphere they create in the space!