Tuesday Bluesday

Today's post is brought to you by the colour blue. Also kitchens, apparently.

Source: houzz.com via Ashley on Pinterest

Source: brabournefarm.blogspot.com via Ashley on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Ashley on Pinterest

Source: thisoldhouse.com via Ashley on Pinterest

Do you like blue? Dark or light?

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My Attempt at a Fall Table Setting

A week or so before my parents came to visit, I somehow thought it would be a good idea to see if I could put together a little fall table setting. Even though I had a giant to-do list which did not include attempting to put together a fall table setting.

It was a bit of a flop, because I am impatient and didn't want to wait for nice natural light or buy extra things that I didn't really need.

Anyway, here it is in all it's non-glory. There's a whole lotta orange going on in the first picture...










Source List:

• Mugs - Leishman Pottery
• Plates - Corelle Hearthstone, Chili Red (not sure where they are from, as they were hand me downs)
• Placemats - not sure of the brand, but they are from Home Sense
• Ramekin - XXXX, Home Sense
• Cedar box - made by my Dad
• Napkins - made from fabric remnants

Have you done a fall table setting yet? Including a link to your blog post is encouraged!

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Create Your Dream Kitchen Space

This post is brought to you by Topps Tiles.

The ideal kitchen is a well-designed room that offers plenty of space to be creative with cooking, with enough storage to ensure a place for every essential. It is a welcoming, inspiring place that reflects its user's personality.

The traditional kitchen can be created using simple colours and textures to achieve a homey feel: white classic wall tiles and coordinating white surfaces can be paired with terracotta floor tiles for a 'country cottage' look that is fresh, airy and - thanks to the tiles - easy to keep clean. Check out places like www.toppstiles.co.uk for ideas. 

When choosing accessories such as a kettle, a toaster or utensil holders, go for brightly coloured options to bring an extra uplifting element to the room.

Keep window dressings to a minimum to allow as much daylight as possible to enter, making the room even more welcoming. Low-hanging pendulum lights or a rustic-looking chandelier set over a pale wood or white dining table will give a gorgeous glow to lazy evenings spent dining and entertaining.

A modern kitchen can be the most colourful room in the home, with a wall of multi-coloured tiles as its main focal point and bright bar stools set around a breakfast bar. Choose a plain floor tile - in white or cream perhaps - to balance out the eye-catching walls.

A modern kitchen calls for the super-sleek gadgets, so place bright coffee machines, knife blocks, or blenders in pride of place on kitchen surfaces.

While colourful kitchen units and surfaces are available, a great alternative is to fill in the wall space above them with brightly-coloured mosaic tiles to inject personality into the room.

Whichever style of décor is chosen, any kitchen can be re-vamped with a few simple changes. New floor tiles, for example, can lift the whole kitchen, making it appear cleaner and fresher, or they can change its theme completely. Installing task lighting can make a kitchen much easier to work in, and atmospheric lighting such as that from a chandelier can create a much more welcoming environment.

$5 Auction Chairs - The Road to Recovery

Last week, in a fit of insanity, I proclaimed to the world that I was going to complete a gigantic list of tasks, one of which involves the rehabbing of four chairs that I bought at an auction for $5 (total, not each!).

The fabric was stained and ripped when I bought them, but it's even worse now since they spent a couple of weeks outside in the weather before Mike relocated them to the shed for me. After yanking them out of the shed this weekend, they're definitely looking a little frumpy.

Using this handy dandy reference guide, I knew I probably needed 2 yards of fabric per chair, but since I'm hopeless when it comes to measuring things, I decided to be on the safe side and get more than I probably needed.

But before I went and actually bought some fabric, I figured I needed to look around on the good ol' Internet for some inspiration.

Awhile back I found this...

Suzani Side Arm Chair from Shades of Light

I find this example particularily hilarious since it boasts a price tag of $1,199.00. Yeah. Right.

This one caught my eye, too.

Chair upholstered with Oborne & Little fabric, photo courtesy of Kelly Interiors (but pulled from La La Linen)

But, although I like to look at white furniture with bright fabrics, I don't think it's really "me" (or Mike, for that matter). I need something that hides dirt, because the cat tends to nap on the kitchen chairs. The white parts of the fabric I used to cover the previous chairs ended up turning a little dingy. So, what to do?

I scoured my fabric board on Pinterest, which is full of great designs from Tonic Living. My top picks for these chairs are...

Ragg Tagg from Tonic Living	Sweet William, Teal from Tonic Living
Dapple Dot from Tonic Living	Brussels Washer Charcoal from Tonic Living

Clearly, a few of them still have a potential for dingey-ness. Although, I'm admittedly getting better about regularily vaccuuming these days...

That all being said, I decided to see what I could find at FabricLand.

I found nothing.

So back to the interwebs I went, and rather than ordering swatches like a normal person, I decided to just dive in and buy something. Well, two somethings.

Now you'll just have to wait and see!

Update: See a finished chair here!

Vanity Vanity

Well, I caved. I'm not building our own vanity for the bathroom overhaul. Mike doesn't like the look of open spaces underneath the sink, so we bought a mid-priced vanity off the shelf at Rona. "Mid-priced" is still crazy expensive! I can't believe what these things go for (I'll do a recap of what we've spent so far at the end of this post). While we were there we also grabbed a new faucet - the one we have currently that I had originally planned on reusing doesn't really fit in with the rest of the pieces we've collected.

We decided to bite the bullet and buy our vanity this weekend because Rona had a special promotion going on (and it helped that it was pay day yesterday!): spend $35 or more before noon and receive 15% back in Rona gift cards. Yes please! So what'd we get?

It's kind of hard to show you right now, since everything is still in it's box (and there's no point in unpacking and putting together until we're ready to install), so this is the best I can do...

via Rona.

We chose this vanity, except in "espresso" (this is the only picture of it I can find online, sorry!). They didn't have our first choice in stock, which was basically the same style only a little tiny bit larger. This one will do just fine, and was $20 cheaper at $255.

Of course (picture me saying that with some degree of disdain), that didn't include a top/sink. Mike wanted black, and I was indifferent as long as it wasn't beige. We're working with such a big room (approximately 11'4" x 8'8"), with big windows and (eventually) a lot of white (trim, door, tile, washer and dryer, toilet), plus light grey walls, so a little bit of dark isn't a bad thing.

This lovely guy is made of granite, with a porcelain under-mounted bowl. He cost us $229. Apparently, you can't lay this thing flat in the box, which I find irritating. 

And last but not least, our new faucet. My first choice was a nice little number made by Delta, but it was $119! This one looks almost exactly the same, and was pretty much half the price at $62.99. I chose a high arc faucet since the sink is occasionally going to be doing double duty as a laundry sink since the bathroom is also our laundry room.

On top of all that was 13% HST, and we ended up getting $82 on a Rona gift card.

How about another what's-it-cost-us-so-far list (excluding HST - I'll include it in our bathroom wrap-up post that likely won't be until a million years from now).

Toilet - $90 (50% off at Home Depot)
Mirror - $25 (75% off at Rona)
Fan - $35 (full price, Home Depot)
Floor tile - $1.52/sq. ft. x 120 sq. ft. (10% off, Rona)
Accent mosaic tile - $14.99/sq.ft x 3 (regular price, Home Depot)
Vanity, top & sink, faucet - $547 (regular price, Rona)

This purchase was the most expensive yet, and it doesn't feel that good, because I don't love it. I'll get over it, once I see it all together (I hope?!).

On a happier note, our new to us dishwasher has arrived!!

Hellooo time saver!

Oh, and for those of you wondering what I'm going to do with the table legs that were supposed to be for the vanity, I have some ideas churning in the back of my head for the spare bedroom revamp. But I can only focus on one room at a time or I'm going to lose it!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.

Changes! Everywhere! But they're small. And non-earth shattering.

Change #1.

Remember this tool chest, which I blogged about awhile ago?

It's now over here...

Yeah, we're not those people that keep our fridge empty. Eventually the tool chest will have a more permanent home in the basement, but that's not likely to happen until we have a pegboard on the side of the basement stairs for frequently used tools like screwdrivers, hammers, and tape measures. Moving the tool chest to the side of the fridge left this space between the fridge and the buffet empty...

for a DISHWASHER!

Friends of Mike's parents are renovating their kitchen, and are giving us their portable dishwasher because they're getting a new one. We get to go and grab it this weekend and I can't wait! The butcher block type counter on it will be way better for the toaster oven than it's previous spot of balancing precariously on top of the tool chest.

Change #2.

This dresser, from the spare bedroom?

Is now here!

This dresser (which I snagged for free when I first moved off campus after university) houses our spare blankets, bedsheets, and pillow cases, and having them in the hall is more convenient than in the spare bedroom. Moving it also gets me one (small) step closer to revamping that bedroom into a super multi-purpose room of closet/office/craft room/guest room.

Mike picked up the globe from an auction he went to last summer. The wood box and the old books were given to me by my mom when I was home over Christmas. I love the designs on the book covers! The oil lamp was given to me by a co-worker. It did have a chimney, but it fell crashing to the floor one day, and I haven't gotten around to replacing it yet.

Change #3.

Where the dresser is now, there used to be this guy...

Total junk collector. Don't ask me why we had a jug of maple syrup upstairs? After clearing everything off and putting it in it's proper place, I thought I would take the shelf apart and send it off to Goodwill, but this space...

...could really use some contained storage.

Don't mind the door leaning against the other door - that will eventually be put back on the office (we found the door in the shack). And I need better boxes or baskets. The giant baskets on the bottom shelf are just place holders! Of course, everything I did was a temporary change. Eventually we'll overhaul the entrance way and have some sort of built in storage (I have big plans for this little space!). One day I would love to replace the cheap white dresser upstairs with a well built vintage or antique piece. The dishwasher is a little more permanent, since we're not redoing the kitchen until the next life time or so (at least that's what it feels like).

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Whether you're making changes around your own home or just taking it easy and watching the Super Bowl!

Gallery Wall Creation, Part 3: Putting It All Together

In our little corner of Blog World, things don't happen all that quickly. We both work full time at jobs that keep us out of the house, and even small projects often have to be spread out over a couple of days in order to be finished. But to quote Sherry from Young House Love, "One of the challenges with sharing stuff on a blog is that unlike a makeover show, it takes months and even years to get to the after!" And while this photo gallery wall isn't taking months or years, it's taking more time than it probably should based on the level of difficulty.

I finally got around to putting the ads in their frames, and moving them all around on the table top until I found a layout that I liked.

But after much switching and swapping, I just couldn't get it right. The space was too big, and I didn't have enough stuff.

So I revised my plan. Remember these maps?

I decided to keep them in the kitchen, and involve them in the gallery wall.

They might not stay, because Mike doesn't think they "go" with the rest of the kitchen theme. He's right. But shhhh. 

It makes me really, really happy! Let's take a look piece by piece at the things you haven't seen.

I'm a newbie Pyrex collector (and a contributor over at the Pyrex Collective II), although I typically use all of the pieces I own. This little lid is so faded on the back, so much so that I would never use it. But for 99 cents at Goodwill, I couldn't leave it there! The pattern is known as Daisy.

Quaker Oats and Kraft Cheese, both delicious! The Quaker ad is from 1964, while the Kraft ad is from the 1930s.

This little HP Sauce ad is from 1964.

The plate on the left was given to me by Mike's mom, and it dates to the 1880s, the same era our house was built. The maple leaf was given to me by my mom, and is made of cast iron. It's heavy!

Grilled cheese (made with Kraft?!) and tomato soup, anyone? From 1938.

I'm glad that's done in time for the weekend. Because it's the weekend before Halloween, we have a couple things on our social agenda, and I also have a couple little crafty projects I'd like to work on, which I'll hopefully be sharing with you next week!

Enjoy your weekend!

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Gallery Wall Creation, Part 2: Supplies

After the preliminary planning of our gallery wall project, we knew we needed supplies. I make lists probably twice as often as I draw sketches, so of course I needed a supplies list!

• Frames - black, various sizes
• Fabric swatches or scrapbook paper - various colours
• Picture hanging strips*

We've decided to nix the shadow boxes mentioned in the last post. The objects we'd like to display don't need 'em.

Image sourced from here.

*3M Command Picture Hanging Strips are MAGIC! Our walls are made of ancient horsehair plaster and lath, covered by several layers of wall paper. Sometimes they just don't enjoy being penetrated by nails or screws and essentially vomit plaster dust instead of holding it together. These velcro-y little guys are the perfect solution! (We were not sponsered or gifted anything to say these things. All opinions are entirely our own and based on personal experience).

On my way home from work, I hit up HomeSense to see what they had going on.

Unfortunately, the frame department was a big ol' bust. But...I did find my new favourite friend!

 

Oink.

After wandering around the store, carrying my new friend in the crook of my arm, occasionally giving him a pat on the bum, I paid for him and then headed over to Wal-mart.

Here I bought the things on my supply list, including a few extras like fabric glue pens (cool!), a sharpie, and some bright  yellow acrylic paint for an addition to the gallery wall. Details on that soon.

That's as far as I got for the day. Because, in other very exciting news, we have the washing machine hooked up!!

You wouldn't believe the backlog that we have, but it will all be history soon.

Until next time...have you ever had to have something you saw in a store, even though it was obscure?

Gallery Wall Creation, Part 1: Planning

We have a wall in our kitchen that we feel is just perfect for a gallery wall.

The maps currently hanging there will be relocated. More on those in a future post.

What we really want to see in here are kitchen-y vintage advertisements and other related things.

Remember this guy? Err...girl? She won't be lonely for long.

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I mentioned in a previous post that we had a couple more vintage ads waiting to be put into frames.

Well, we were recently given a whole whack of old magazines dating as far back as the 20's and as recent as the 60's. Whoohoo!

In addition to the old ads, we'd like to incorporate a few neat objects displayed in shadow boxes. We haven't decided yet what will make the cut.

There's a lot of prep work that goes into creating a gallery wall. Some people have enough vision to be able to just throw up pictures and things and have it look amazing.

I'm not one of those people!

Enter Pinterest.

via Ann Beck Photography

I need to sketch things out by hand in order to best visualize, so here's a (really) rough sketch of our gallery wall in the making.

As we bring together the pieces that we want to display, this will likely be tweaked as needed.

Do you have a gallery wall in your home? Does it include pictures as well as objects? Did you have to sketch it out first in order to visualize it?

Turn a Vintage Ad into Wall Worthy Art

Personally, I'm not crazy about art in general (please don't hate me). I don't believe in throwing up pictures just to fill a blank space. Anything I put on my walls has to mean something to me.

I discovered the joy of vintage ads when I was browsing e-bay one day. And I came across an Orange Crush ad that I just adored! Orange Crush was the only pop I would drink growing up, so while it's not something I'm emotionally tied to, it does provide good memories of when I was growing up.

So, I ordered the ad, and rather than just slapping it into a frame, I decided to dress it up a little.

I used...

Black ribbon $0.50 for a small spool
Orange swatch of fabric $2
Plain jane frame $3

And I came up with...

I loved how this turned out! I have a couple more vintage ads waiting for their turn.

Have any of you decorated with vintage ads?

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