Clop, Clop, Neigh: Kentucky Derby 1st Birthday!

May 10, 2016May 10, 2016Leave a comment

Welp, we survived. One full year of parenthood. The late nights, early mornings, breast feeding ups and downs, emotional roller coasters, highs and lows, fights, baby cuddles, milestones, bumps, bruises, giggles, cries, teething, ginormous poops, spit ups, fevers, stroller schlepping, tears, yelling, singing, laughing, heart-bursting-right-out-of-your-chest first year of raising a child is behind us.

So, like any parents do, we celebrated baby H’s first birthday in style. With lots of drinks.

Christian and I are fairly…preppy. We love a good Tommy Hilfiger sale, freshly pressed collared shirts, gorgeous pair of loafers and old fashioned lawn games. Yep, we’re those people. I, in particular, also have a slight obsession with the south. I actually have a theory that I was meant to be born in Georgia, South Carolina or perhaps Tennessee. I love all things southern charm: wrap-around porches, big hats and of course…the Kentucky Derby. (Fact: Attending the Kentucky Derby Race is actually on my life bucket list). So, we decided to bring the Derby to Toronto! Self-serving party theme? Maybe.

First up: a fun and creative welcome sign for our front door. I wanted to mimic a First Place ribbon from a race; this was super easy to do using:

a party “fan” decoration from the dollar store
glitter paper
white & blue bristol board
Hot glue gun
mini star hole punch

Just as I did for my mother-in-laws British Invasion themed 60th birthday party, I love to spread little touches throughout the house during any party, and I squealed out loud when I found these incredible and FREE (free!) Kentucky Derby themed printables on Pinterest from the Hostess with the Mostess. Simply amazing coordinated ready-to-print cut outs from cupcake toppers to bunting banners.

Check out the framed sign and win-place-show flags below:

What’s that? You’re wondering about those Bourbon Balls? Don’t you worry – I’ll be sharing that recipe shortly. My sister-in-law even voted them MVP of the party (next to baby H, of course!)

For the living room, which is a bit more formal feeling and also happens to be the room right at the entrance of our house, I opted for something a tad more fancy.

I found the “Run for the Roses” themed printables on-line at Polka Dot Chair …also FREE…also AMAZING. I loved the classic black-and-red color theme so much that I had to include it too. The black and red mini paper “fans” were actually left over from my friends little mans’ first birthday, so they were also FREE (do you see a theme here!?)

One of my favourite little details came from my dear friend Alison, who not only grew up riding and racing horses, but who has actually BEEN to the Derby! She dug up some old ribbons from Carriage Races her family had placed in and they were such a welcome and authentic addition to the decor around our home:

In keeping with the theme, it only seemed appropriate to tweak the traditional “pin the tail on the donkey” game. I bring to you: Pin the Baby H Jockey on the Horse! Big shout out to my friend Charlotte for masterfully photo-shopping H’s head onto the jockey. Such an awesome touch – it’s already been saved in his baby book!

You can find both the poster and jockey printable (you guessed it…also FREE!) here at Hostess with the Mostess as well)

We tried to stick to southern-style cooking as best as we could, while also offering some healthier options (we are the “Happy Healthy Huggetts” after all!). My mother-in-law whipped up some delicious finger sandwiches, our friend Merv made his epic Mac’n’Cheese (rumor has it he used FOUR bricks of cheese in that baby), and Christian and I made:

This super easy slow cooker pulled chicken from Clean Eating Magazine (I will absolutely be adding this to our regular meal planning rotation!)
Kale & Strawberry salad from Cookie and Kate (which also happens to be my absolute favorite site for healthy versions for those with sweet cravings like me)
Kentucky Hot Brown Dip (a much lower fat version of the original Derby classic dish thanks to Cupcakes and Kale Chips)

For dessert, we didn’t want to give baby H a complete sugar rush on his first time having something truly sweet, so we opted for these Mini Chocolate Quinoa Cupcakes with Avocado Icing. (TIP: They are very cocoa heavy, so if I were to do it again, I would pick to either do the cake OR the icing as cocoa-based, not both)

Here is Baby H giving the cupcake a try (he wasn’t so sure about them)

Oh…and about those Bourbon Balls. Yeah, there’s NOTHING healthy about them. But boy were they good. You can find the recipe here – we doubled the amount of Bourbon, because, why not?

And the birthday boy: he certainly looked the part. I bought this seer-sucker blazer off another mom in one of the on-line buy and sell groups I’m a part of for $8 when baby H was about 6 weeks old. I hadn’t planned the theme for his party yet, but I KNEW he was going to wear it. And wear it he did.

The bow-tie actually makes my heart melt.

… BOTTOMS UP to a fantastic FIRST BIRTHDAY celebration!! Happy birthday my love!

Baby H’s Nursery: Getting Started

August 31, 2015February 18, 2016Leave a comment

Well, this blog has been on a loooong hiatus. So long in fact, that I’ve gone through an entire pregnancy and now have a 4-month old son since my last post! Oopsie. Umm…time flies?

But, there’s no post that has excited me more than this one, so let’s get things rolling again on here! It’s time to share the story of Baby H’s nursery (in several parts, because there’s far too many details to share in just one post!)

It took zero time to come up with the theme for this room. Yes, I decided on the nursery theme of our future child long before he came along…err…dare I say, long before he was conceived!? Seriously, I think I’ve had this theme picked out for about two years. Those of you who know me know I have a ~~love for~~ major obsession with all things nautical. Perhaps it is a sub-conscious nod to my west coast upbringing? For whatever reason, it had to be addressed, and what better room to address it in that a sweet baby nursery.

Nautical can be done in so many ways. You’ve got your “Nantucket Nautical” with navy blue, red and white and lots of lighthouses and lobsters; you’ve got “Beachy Nautical” which is very soft and neutral, and I came up with “West Coast Nautical” as the type for this room. Think Nantucket-meets-Beachy-Nautical 🙂

Enter my Pinterest Board, which slowly evolved into the style that we landed on many months ago. This lovely collage is the one that caught my eye as the overall “look” we were going for:

One of the first things I bought was this amazing stencil from Cutting Edge Stencil, appropriately named “Perfect Catch”. It seemed like a good idea at the time, stenciling the entire room. But then my brilliant husband came up with the idea of add some wainscoting into the room as well. He’s been wanting to try his hand at DIY wainscoting and this provided the perfect opportunity. Yes, I love that he gets excited about this stuff too.

After we cleared out the stuff from our “home office” (which we quickly realized we never used…no harm done making room for baby!), the first step was to measure out the wainscoting. Christian used basic, pre-painted MDF trim from Home Depot. Starting in the centre of each wall, he measured out to determine the distance between each piece of trim.

Taking time with measuring is KEY. It’s all about the prep work. Christian also used a level and a chalk-line to ensure that everything was straight as an arrow.

After filling in all the nail gun holes, it was time to paint the lower half of the room in good ol’ Benjamin Moore CC-40 aka “Cloud White”, which is the colour of all the trim in our house.

What’s clever about this method is that it gives the illusion of actual wainscoting but costs waaaaay less as you’re not actually covering the entire bottom on the wall in wood panels. (If you’re really interested in some home decor nerdery, here is the wikipedia definition. FACT: I knew what wainscoting was by the time I was 10 years old…missed my calling? Perhaps).

For the top half of the room, we chose a neutral blue-grey: CIL Paddlewheel Grey. We agonized over this colour because of the next, and very tedious step (no, no, wainscoting was not enough for baby H…we also stenciled the upper wall! And by “we”, I mean Christian).

Now, let me warn you: stenciling is NOT for the weak, procrastinators, or the impatient. In fact, it’s not for perfectionists either, which is an adjective that could be used to describe Christian. He. Spent. Hours. And I mean HOURS, stenciling this room. I think it took him two full 8 hour days to just get the stencil done. He vowed we were NEVER using a stencil again ~~and I would have to agree~~, but I might try to convince him again (don’t tell him I told you that!)

But oh, the finished product…worth it!? We think so. I mean, I endured 10 months of being prego, PLUS labour, so I’d say we’re even now after the stencil incident.

Check out this beauty progress shot:

And no, we didn’t just opt for a feature wall. Christian stenciled the ENTIRE room. Initially we were worried it would be too busy (hence the concern over finding just the right base colour), but we were over the moon with the final result. I kid you not, everyone comes over and thinks its wallpaper, and Christian can’t help but beam with pride (how to compliment a perfectionist 101).

….looking for the final reveal photo? Sorry, you’ll have to wait until a few more posts! So much story to tell about this little room before I share the final result!

Come back and visit soon.

Party Planning 101: British Invasion

January 14, 2014March 20, 20161 Comment

Well e-friends, it’s been 1.5 months in our new home and we’ve already survivied the “ice vortex” (including 3+ day power outage), nearly completed a basement renovation, spent a few sick days on the couch, and have thrown two significant parties! We’re starting to feel good and settled, with the exception of the empty living room (we’ll get there one day). I also owe you a post about buying awesome furniture on Craigslist. But today’s post is reserved for a topic that I truly love: party planning!

My former career before joining the dark side of sales was event planning. I’d like to think that I always had it in me, and that my professional experience just made me fall in love with (some) elements even more. Over the years, I have helped to plan and execute 4 friends’ weddings, plus my own wedding, and now I’m in the midst of helping my dear sis prep for her upcoming April wedding! I also threw a heck of a 30th birthday (if I do say so myself).

This past weekend, Christian and I hosted his mum’s 60th birthday. She’s was born in England and lived there for the early part of her life. Although she’s been in Canada for decades, she still loves all things Brit – I look forward to pouring over her “Hello!” magazines every time we visit. You can take the Brit out of Britain….

Christian and I chatted about a way to elevate the fun factor of the shin-dig, and quickly landed on a “British Invasion” theme. So fun.

First, the menu. A good theme starts with some menu planning. And plan we did:

Cottage Pie (basically the British version of Shepherd’s Pie)
Bangers and Mash
Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding (our first time making either)
Classic Fish n’ Chips

We cheated and just did store bought Fish n’ Chips, but everything else was made in our new kitchen! Here’s the Cottage Pie coming out of the oven on Saturday afternoon, all bubbly and delicious

Whilst our food was being prepped and cooked, I got to decorating! I managed to find a few jems on-line, including a red, white and blue pennant banner (aka – bunting) that I strung from the ceiling.

Then it was onto the little touches, some of which you can already see in the photo above (yes, there are cut-outs of a London Bus and Beefeater on my patio doors). One of my favourite big-bang-for-little-buck decorating ideas it to find simple printables on-line. Who doesn’t have a bunch of simple photo frames kicking around the house? (yes, I removed family photos from some to make way for my British invasion). Stack ’em up and replace your framed photos with some clip art or printed pics from Google images. Here below we pay homage to her Majesty the Queen. The Union Jack flags were a steal from the Dollar Store at 3 bucks a pop:

Now that the mantle is looking festive, on to the next location = the couch! We actually had Euro-sized red cushions on our bed upstairs, so I brought them down to the join the party. My wonderfully generous colleague brought a toss cushion of the London tube map from his bed at home! The best part is that the pillow is made out of tea towel (next project anyone!?). Anyways, it came together quite nicely in our living room with the red pillows in the background:

Onto other areas: the bar! The bar menu included:

Gin & Tonic (Bombay Saphire Gin is my fave, but a friend recently introduced me to Dillon’s Small Batch Gin. It’s quickly become my “lady” gin. Delicious)
Pimm’s (apparently the second most popular beverage in the UK after tea?). Check out the receipe here, but we made ours with Pimm’s, lemonade, cucumber, blueberries and strawberries. It’s very refreshing – you can see it in the pitcher below!
Boddington’s beer, Strongbow & Guiness

Yes, even Christian’s City of Oxford bar towel made an appearance – an ode to his time spent there on exchange in university!

And finally, dessert! We opted for classic English Trifle and my favourite: Sticky Toffee Pudding. To make these mess and fuss free, I actually found these neat little disposable baking cups at Home Sense (they come in mini loaf containers as well). You actually don’t even need to put them on a baking sheet or anything and they are good in the oven up to 400F. I was able to serve out of these as well. The best part? No pre-greasing required! They are coated and ready to go in all their non-sticky goodness:

Because I’m all about the presentation, I took a cardboard cake stand (also purchased from Home Sense for just $3.99! Again: big bang, little buck) and attached a Union Jack decoration that I picked up for a few bucks at a party store on top with scotch tape. Instant pizzaz!

You can see my sticky toffee puddings have now been topped with caramel sauce…and that a few have already been eaten – nom nom!

Playing in the background for most of the evening was Songza’s British Invasion Playlist. Oh, and we of course awarded the birthday girl with a jeweled crown and sash when she arrived – living like the Queen herself for the evening!

So there you have it – how to make a theme flow 101, brought to you by Melissa. The opportunities are endless…just remember to think beyond the napkins and include all the senses 🙂

makinghousetoronto – Volume 2!

November 22, 2013March 20, 20163 Comments

Yes friends, we’ve got some exciting news to share! After 4 long years of never-ending renovations, stories to share, pictures to post and general ups and downs, we’ve taken to plunge and bought a new home!

I have to be honest that this happened VERY FAST. It was about a week from the time that we started seriously looking at places, visited the bank for financing, and put an offer in on our dream home. We’re still in shock, and can’t actually comprehend that this baby is ours:

Yes, that’s a brand new build. In Toronto. We are over the moon excited. We have plans to put in a basement suite for rental income, however, that project is a whole lot of nothing compared to what we’ve been through at our original home in Leslieville.

We’re moving a bit north from where we are now, and will absolutely miss the charm the comes with our street and neighborhood, however, we’re so jazzed to start exploring our new ‘hood.

And what do I keep dreaming about, every single night? This. Kitchen.

There are no words. I think I’m going to have to become a professional chef. Watch out, Jamie Oliver.

So, with just a more sleeps until moving day, we are frantically packing and prepping. So stay tuned. While the DIY stories might be slowing down, we’ll still have lots to share when it comes to design, decor, entertaining, decorating for the holidays and beautifying our new (and much larger!) back yard.

Stay tuned!

Melissa

Mirror, Mirror

November 19, 2013Leave a comment

Sometimes I go a little crazy trying to find the right thing. Then I find what I think it’s the right thing, and Christian hates it. So back to the store I go. This cycle happened once already during my hunt for a mirror to put above the fireplace in our dining room.

Here’s the previous mirror (yes, it looks lovely, however, it’s borrowed from our upstairs bedroom! So was just a temporary fix):

The good news is, we finally found a great option from the wonderful world of HomeSense. At an already decent price $129.99 + a bunch of saved up gift cards, we were able to score this beauty for a mere $40 out of pocket. So, off this glam mirror went back up to our bedroom, and enter our new Home Sense friend

The final product? Stay tuned….we’ve had a few er…changes since we bought this, so let’s just say that this mirror isn’t the only thing that’s finding a new home 🙂

Beyond our 4 walls: Tracy’s Guestroom Redesign

July 30, 2013January 22, 2016Leave a comment

I love my job, and my company. I enjoy going to work every day and work with amazing colleagues. Honestly. But, if I had to give it up and pick something completely different to fill my days, I’m pretty certain it would be some combination of decorating/ staging/ making-over people’s spaces. It just brings me such joy.

A few months back, my dear friend Tracy asked for my help with her guest room. She had this sort of pained expression on her face when she said “I have this guest room, that you can hardly call a guestroom…it’s so un-inviting! Would you be willing to help me fix it up?”.

I first laughed, because she was acting like this would feel like work for me. Hardly. I had a field day. As Tracy’s wedding was approaching, I set up a gift registry that ended up bringing together most of the items needed for a welcoming guest room. A few weekends ago, Christian and I headed to Peterborough (or P-town as the cool kids are saying these days) and completed the transformation. It’s almost like we could hear angels singing from the rafters of Tracy’s 10-foot ceilings.

First, a before picture…because who doesn’t love a good before and after!? Here we have the view from when you walk into the room. Gorgeous old wood floors, lovely blue-grey walls and a big, bright window. It’s a dream….except for the fact that it’s just…err…a bed. And a mis-matched antique floor lamp with an IKEA Lack side table:

Well, this bride-to-be had plenty of other things to do, such as plan her May wedding…enter Melissa!

The best thing about working with Tracy was that she is incredibly easy-going. Actually, she is probably one of the most easy-going people I know. Her only stipulation was that we weren’t going to paint. Well, perfect, because I’ve painted enough walls at my own house, thank you very much.

Fast forward a few months, insert a wedding shower, wedding, and the invasion of Christian and Melissa, and this is now the vision that welcomes guests as they walk into the guest room:

For the win! There are still a few finishing touches remaining, but you get the idea (for example, you will notice we have only one side lamp, and I’m working on a few additions, such as a repurposed old bench for the foot of the bed). The headboard was something that Christian and I built as our wedding shower gift for Tracy and her hubby to be, and we actually ended up reusing the duvet, which was a total bonus. Those light, airy curtains were a total at $10 per panel and I just love how they frame those gorgeous, giant windows and blow in the breeze. Ahhhhh.

My favourite “I love my husband” moment was when he suggested swapping out the light fixture. You can’t see it in the original photo, but these glorious 10 ft ceilings were adorned with….a basic builders light fixture. Womp womp.

Tracy and I are both all about finding great deals, so I promised her that the only way we would replace the light, would be with something under $50. Victory was mine at Home Depot when I scored this adorable antique-looking chandelier for…. $18! Yes!! It was already marked down on clearance to $35 and then marked down again to $18. Amazing. I was like a kid at Christmas, babbling away to the check-out lady at Home Depot about what an amazing deal it was. I do that. A lot.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the lovely blue, grey, white and yellow combo on the bed:
Purrrrrrrrdy.

In my opinion, a great guest room should always include the following:

Extra pillows (you never know if your guests like firm, flat, or somewhere in between. Having extras lets them decide)
The feeling of checking into a charming B&B (because, really, who doesn’t want that?)
At least one bedside lamp and one nightstand (no one wants to fumble for their phone in the night in a foreign room)
Access to a wall outlet (speaking of phones, we all need to charge our phone – make it easy for guests)
Water glass/ pitcher beside the bed (see point above re: fumbling through the night in a foreign room)
Handy guest towels (I like to put these in a basket on top of the dresser; don’t make your guests ask – always anticipate!)

Here’s a close up of the charming Eclipse bedside lamp from Urban Barn – I love the touch of glam in a somewhat “country chic” bedroom. The night stands are IKEA Hemnes in white.

I’ll be back in the coming weeks with a few more updates here….I joked with Tracy that I will likely keep going for the next year until I have it just “so”.

So there you have it….another happy customer. Okay, well she wasn’t a customer, but that’s fun to say 🙂

One day…..

Bathroom reno inspiration!

January 22, 2013March 20, 2016Leave a comment

It’s official = 2013 is the year of the major bathroom renovation!

Here’s to having a proper sized bathtub, not hitting our elbows on the wall every time we shower, being able to brush our teeth at the sink together (at the same time…what a concept) and not having the top of our toilet tank overlapping with our sink (true story)! Before, during and after photos will come as the weeks pass – we plan on starting this overhaul in mid-February. Until then, and as we begin shopping for all of the elements that go into a bathroom reno, I thought I’d share with you our ideas and inspiration for the design and aesthetic of the soon-to-be-finished product.

Our goals:

make use of the existing window inside the bathroom and allow natural light in
create a ‘spa’ feeling
create enough room so that we can both be in the bathroom at the same time

I’ve been adding to our Pinterest board for…about the past 6 months (what can I say? I was excited!) and it’s been neat to watch the progression of our vision. First, ‘spa’ meant more grey tones: stone tiles, and neutrals. But as the months progressed, our images started to move towards lighter, clean and crisp tones with pops of ice blue or seafoam green. I suppose spending a week on the west coast over the holidays, including a trip down to Cannon Beach, helped us to channel “sea shore” inspiration into our plan!

So, with beach inspiration fresh in our brains, it was back to the Pinterest drawing board! Here’s where we are at, and as we finalize our tile choices in the coming weeks, we are feeling great about our percolated vision (yep, it’s like coffee…you just have to let it brew, and it will come):

The main bathroom images above come from here, here, here and here…let’s highlight the one the really started it all, and really got us thinking about the beauty that is blue and white:

I love the simplicity of this bathroom (from Houzz.com). Plus, the fact that is the very same layout that we are moving towards, complete with an in-shower window, the look just clicked. So, our path is set and this shopping has begun! New bathroom coming very soon…

The Great Craigslist Challenge!

August 9, 2011January 22, 2013Leave a comment

I write this post while sitting on my living room couch, with my back to the massive hole in the wall behind me (on purpose; I can’t stand to look at it). Yep, we’re mid project, dust and dirt everywhere. Christian decided to tackle our “2nd” front door, which is one of the remaining key parts of our almost-complete front porch reno. So this is a bit of a we’re-in-between projects post, however, it is related to MY current project: the home office!

Our third bedroom, or “office” has been somewhat of a catch-all since we moved in. Over the past few months, I’ve been tackling it bit by bit, finding new homes for things and giving away/ throwing away things we no longer need. A few weeks back, I posted a few items on Craigslist: a love seat from my bachelorette days in my basement apartment (woo!), striped area rug, and a swivel office chair. All were in pretty good shape and we felt we could get a decent buck from the items – here are a few of the goods:

Christian and I agreed on the room make-over terms before we posted our pre-loved goodies on line: whatever we make off of these items will become our budget for the office makeover.

Well, I love a good challenge and Christian loves to be thrifty, so this little project was a match made in heaven!

And it just so happens that today marked the day that my make-over budget would be revealed! $215….whoop! Not too shabby.

We’re going for a sort of a 60’s inspired look with some modern pops. I’ll be suing the fab peacok blue and chartreuse green fabric that I recently picked up and shared with y’all in this post on DIY inspiration. Here’s another little bit of inspiration to help me stay focused, found here:

Gorgous. I love the modern look, the bright blue sofa and chairs, and that funky lamp! $215 will certainly not get me this room, but I’m excited to see what I can do!

In terms of great feature items for the room, we’re off to a good start. We scored a cool teak desk off of Craigslist (where else?) last year for $100, and inherited a lovely teak chair from Christian’s grandmother (here’s a sneak peak of our new desk chair…the recovering will be coming soon to a DIY post near you!):

Here’s what we plan on accomplishing within the room:

window coverings – fun fabric panels in a colourful print or solid textured material
covered bulletin board
black and white photo wall/ collage
recovered office chair
new handles for the Craigslist desk
recovered lamp shade
pillows for the amazing FREE arm chair that we scored on Craigslist a few months back
throw blanket for some extra colour
area rug to replace my striped friend that we recently sold
backing of existing bookcase with shelf paper/ wrapping paper for an added pop of colour behind our book collection

Good heavens this is a longer list than I thought! And I only have $215 to do it! Ah well, I’ll get crafty.

So I leave you with this challenge: what room are you looking to update? What “not perfect” or unused items do you have that you could sell to free up some cash for your project? How creative can you get?!

Bring it!

Inspiration all around us!

July 29, 2011February 8, 20131 Comment

Sometimes, it’s hard to get started on a project. You just aren’t sure what colour to work into a room, and walking into decor stores or even big-box stores can be extremely overwhelming, and cause you to spend 45 minutes considering the life and times of mailboxes (yes, I’ve done this…more on that another time).

So, where do we find inspiration for a room, design, or project? Well, everywhere. Start taking notes of things that make you go “Hey, I really like that!” If you see something you love, nab a picture on your phone and make a place to file your ideas and inspirations…it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t match anything right now, or perfectly fit into the guest bedroom you’re dying to dress up…just keep it….you never know when that idea or inspiration will come in handy! Here are a few quick examples:

I nabbed this fabric during a recent trip to Fabricland (during their down-town location closing-out sale…*sniff*) and was immediately drawn to the colours. I’m pretty certain it is going to be the inspiration for our office make-over project. So pumped!

This next one is all things funky. I was out for dinner last night with some girl-friends at Southern BBQ style restaurant, Harlem, on Queen West in Toronto.

Near our table was an array of funky prints, and this one caught my eye immediately. Welcome to DIY-ville, population: YOU! (or me). It’s a really cool twist on a large picture frame, involving what seemed to be an old window, handle and all, with distress marks for good measure. The classic print that is framed just met its match with this one! This is the kind of thing you can create with awesome garage sale, antique or auction finds.

Finally, a little vay-cay inspiration. Christian and I recently went on a little road-trip to Essex County, Ontario. En route, we stopped at the WindJammer Inn, in Port Stanley, ON, an adorable B&B with out-of-this-world food. Our room was cozy, and had a great rustic-cottage-meets-contemporary vibe to it. Right away I was drawn to the curtain head-board. I apologize that I don’t have an amazing picture of it, but here’s this one from their own website (they have since changed the cover to crisp white and light blue strip rather than this busy guy, which looks really awesome):And here’s one of me shortly after launching myself onto the giant king-sized bed (we have a Queen at home, and it never ceases to amaze me just how big King beds are). So for the quality…our camera was really acting up. But you get the idea, plus, who doesn’t love dorky pictures like this one on a Friday?:

Finally, here is a waaaaay better version to help with your headboard inspiration from (where else) Apartment Therapy:

Love the yellow-teal-chocolate brown combo!

So, there you have it – go out this weekend and get INSPIRED!

Starting small: a little bit of DIY inspiration

July 25, 2011August 17, 2011Leave a comment

My husband and I are often asked: “How do you learn the ways of DIY?”, and for those of you who are well-versed in this past-time, you will know that it is purely trial and error. Christian is Mr. Handy, and was fortunate enough to learn many of the tricks of the trade from working with his dad growing up. Me on the other hand, well, my mother likes to shop at Ethan Allan and Restoration Hardware – HA! Yeah, not in the budget for us.

The problem: “I want pretty things in my home, but should really put my money towards renovations/ fixing broken pipes/ leaky roofs/ etc!”

The solution: Furniture DIY. I’m addicted. It’s my new-found favourite past-time and it is sooooo satisfying.

Allow me to share with you some wonderful before-and-after shots of various items that we have spruced up for next-to-nothing. Who doesn’t LOVE before-and-after shots!?

First up, the dresser. Well, it was a dresser, passed on to Christian waaay back in University. Then is was repurposed into a bar for him and his roommate for another 3 years (glass ring stains and all!) and found it’s way into our Leslieville home. I hated it. But, we needed it and again the little-dresser-that-could found itself in the starring role of: entry-way table! Time for a face-lift. Here’s our over-loved friend before:

I used some left over grey paint (from our Master Bedroom walls), white trim paint, and knobs from Lee Valley Tools (the best location in the city for knobs, pulls and handles, in my opinion). Total cost for the project? One long weekend and 40 bucks. Voila – my masterpiece:

Well, I was on a bit of a roll after this.

Next up, we have our rescued-by-the-roadside night stands. Yep, we were driving somewhere near Gerrard-ish and Christian hit the breaks and started backing up. It was like the heavens had opened and revealed two night-stands, just waiting for some TLC and a new home! It was love at first sight…well, almost. We had a vision. I actually wrote a quick thank you note for the previous home-owners because I felt it was good karma to share my joy…

Here are the orphan night-stands before (well one of two – they looked the same!)

Remember: we had a vision. A vision of glossy pops of red in our bedroom….BAM! Here is the after:

Total cost for these babies? About $35 on paint + $10 on knobs (these ones are from Central Fairbank Lumber). We splurged and bought High-Gloss red paint and a can of Varathane. TIP: do not, I repeat, DO NOT use anything but foam rollers for this stuff. We used a sort of synthetic roller and got little bits of plasticy-fluff in the paint. So frustrating.

Now onto my vanity bench. Yes, I LOVE my vanity. Ladies, for those of you with the my-house-was-built-in-the-30’s sized bathroom, the in-room vanity table is your best friend. We picked ours up at IKEA for about $200 and it looks pretty awesome (no one believes it’s from IKEA). But, when it came to a seat for said vanity, I felt that it needed a bit of flair (on a budget, of course).

Here is a before(ish) – I didn’t actually take a before…isn’t that sad? But you get the idea…the legs are a different style, but this is pretty much what it looked like: Grandma’s old sewing bench (which is what it was, so it was free):

And the after – yes, it’s all about the pops of red in this room!

Cost? Can of spray paint @ $6.00 and a steal of a deal on this bold-striped Marimekko fabric from a bin at Crate&Barrel. For those of you who aren’t family with Marimekko fabric, it’s very bold, fun and pretty mod…and also pricey! Crate&Barrel collaborates with Marimekko on a bunch of stuff in the store and what’s cool is that the fabric ends and extra yards are available for sale at a super low cost (I think I paid $10 for 2 yards of this stuff). I. LOVE. DEALS.

And finally, the most simple face-lift of all – recovering a chair seat. We picked up this adorable diner-inspired kitchen set off of Craigslist for $25:

It sat happily in our kitchen for about a year, but I was inspired while on a recent trip to Fabricland during their closing sale (*sniff* the only downtown location is CLOSING!) and found this killer black-and-white geometric, very durable, indoor/outdoor fabric for a steal. The best part? They had an end that was more than enough for this project, but not quite a yard, so I paid $4.00 – whoop! Here’s a close-up of the new seat cushion:

I completed this project in under an hour, seated on the living room floor whilst watching Ashely cry her way through another *heartbreak* on the bachelor. All you need are scissors and a staple gun.

Here that? That’s the sound of my heart singing. It’s a sickness, people.

Next up on the furniture DIY hit-list? Upholstered headboard for our master bedroom – stay tuned!

What are you guys working on? Any quick and easy DIY projects that you’ve tackled recently?

happy healthy huggetts

a lifestyle blog for those looking for a bit more "happy" in their life.

Tag: decor