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!).