Things I've Got My Eye On

Just a quickie post for today...a few things that I found over on Pinterest that made me go hubba hubba.

THIS ROOM.


via House and Home
Tommy Smythe is a brilliant man.

So this next things doesn't make my heart flutter, but I'd like to give it a shot and see what happens.


via DIY Natural
I made some of these two weeks ago and they've been working great, so I'm definitely interested in seeing what else I can do.

Next up, this stone.


via Home Depot
I'd like to use something like this to pretty up the two small walkways we have outside, and possibly also for a little patio to put our picnic table on so that we don't have to deal with grass growing up underneath it. We thought about putting the picnic table on the back porch, but it's so big that it's not a good use of space.

Finally, this shower curtain.


via PB Teen
You can see it in action over on Making it Lovely. I love her entire bathroom and kind of want to copy her colour scheme.


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Switch It Up Some

In a rare moment of rational discussion about the house, the other night Mike and I tossed around the idea of moving into the spare bedroom from the room that we're currently in. There are a few positive aspects of doing so.

• 1. There are a whopping TWO outlets in that room, compared to one in the room that we're in right now.
• 2. There's a heat register! We currently use a space heater when it's cold enough.
• 3. It's a bigger room. I think around 9' by 12'?
• 4. The wiring is new and safe. We ran new stuff up when we had the walls down in the bathroom.

You're probably wondering why we didn't just move in there in the first place. I am too. Update to add: This won't be our permanent bedroom. We will have a master bedroom, but you can see why we aren't moving into it yet here.

Of course, I want to paint it before we get settled in there. Right now it's rocking Behr's Lotus Leaf.


It's a nice colour, but a little too vibrant for what I'd like in my bedroom. It should come as no surprise that I immediately started looking at Sarah Richardson's paint line by Para. The three below are top contenders right now. Very neutral, pretty boring, but in a house that's in a constant state of mess and chaos I need a visual break. The trim and ceiling will stay as Behr's Snowy Pine.

Bisque (SR44)

Sunbeam (SR45)

Lily (SR59)

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to win a $100 Ikea gift card, thanks to their "Pin & Win" contest they had to celebrate the release of the 2013 catalogue. Watch out for these guys in our new room!

Emmie Kvist cushion

Arstid wall lamp

Gurli throw
This won't be a major overhaul by any means - we still eventually have to fix the walls from the crumbling mess that they are, so doing anything more than painting would be a poor decision. At the very least, I'm hoping that the end result will be more comfortable and cozy than what we're currently sleeping in!

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Frivolous Friday

If you read the last post, you know that I'm gearing up to make one of our spare bedrooms way more functional than it currently is. And the biggest step to doing that is giving the current bed the ol' heave-ho. In it's place, we're going to bring in a sofa-bed!

This is one Frivolous Friday feature that is most definitely going to be purchased.

At $799, this Ikea Manstad sofa-bed will be the most expensive thing we've purchased for the house so far(excluding the new oil tank we had to get last year). But, despite the cost, we (well, me, because Mike is essentially indifferent) like it for several reasons:

• it will open up a ton of space, especially in the center, of the room
• it has storage in the chaise end
• it pulls out to a pretty generous "bed"
• we like it enough to use in the living room, if/when we need to use this room as a bedroom again

It comes in two colours, and while on it's own I like the blue-gray (pictured) much better, I think the dark beige will work with the wall colour better. Just to make sure, I decided to check it out in Paint.

In real life, the trim colour leans more to white than how it's appearing above, so I think the dark beige sofa-bed is a better choice. I don't think the blue works quite right with the green of the walls, but I'm interested in hearing what other people think.

Before we can actually purchase the sofa-bed, a few things need to happen. We need to get rid of the old bed (at least the mattress and box spring - the frame we'll keep because it is easy to store and will likely come in handy some day) and I want to refinish the floor. Might as well get it done when the big furniture is out of the way!

In other news, today is my 25th birthday and I'm making Mike take me to The Simcoe County Museum's Christmas, Past and Present exhibit! I've also just discovered that the museum has a Victorian Wing...hooray for old things!

Have a wonderful weekend!

The most finished room in the house...

...is not so finished. Although it has come a long way.

What started out as this

Is now this

 

Please excuse the picture quality. This was in March/April 2011 before I was blogging and taking pictures with the good camera.

That being said, it's current state is a hot mess (something a little like this, maybe). And that's because the spare bedroom is hardly ever used as a bedroom (we have had over night guests once). Instead, it acts as a holding room for my clothes (until we do the master bedroom), book storage, and craft/sewing junk storage. Basically, if I were to have a home office and a walk in closet in one, this would be it.

The majority of what you see in here was either free or a gift, or something I bought long ago. The only things I bought specifically for this room are the mirror, the black frame and photo print above the bed, the curtain rod and panel, pillow cases, throw pillow, and pillows (which we were long over due for anyway and have since moved onto our bed). Of course I had to buy paint, too (walls - Behr Lotus Leaf, trim and ceiling - Behr Snowy Pine).

None of the furniture cost us anything. Rocking chair? Free from family. Antique bookcase/desk? Free from family. Bed? Free from family. Dresser? Free from Craigslist back when I was moving into my first place by myself.

That's all well and good, but it doesn't help the fact that this space is not being used to it's full potential. And after Christmas, I have plans to fix that.

Check back on Friday for what will be one of our biggest purchases yet!