Abandoning perfectionism

Setting up this house has been a bit of a process for me.  As I wrote a few months ago, I found the modern design and aesthetic of the house intimidating, and I have been struggling to "make it mine." Many of my things have been easy to place, and I am happy with how they go with the house.

Others just don't match up in my mind's eye - usually older pieces that I have moved from house to house and never really looked at, if that makes any sense.  The bed, for example.  I have always loved wrought iron beds, something about the deep black colour with soft curves and curlicues.  I even did a post about them in 2009 (before I knew anything about referencing images, obviously).  When I bought my bed way back in I-don't-even-remember, my only real sources for furniture were my parents' house and Ikea.  Since my parents didn't have any extra queen beds kicking around, it was off to the that big blue and yellow store, and I came home with this:

(I went to find it on the Ikea site, but apparently it is no longer available - which means I must have bought it a while ago!)

It isn't too bad, but there are a few things that bug me about it:
- it is so obviously from Ikea
- the curved line on the top of the headboard - I wish it was straight like the footboard
- those round curly flower things - not sure what it is about them that bugs me, but I think they just seem too cutesy and busy.

The poor bed bothered me in the old house as well, but when we put it in the master bedroom in the new house, it just didn't work for me at all.  I feel like this room is begging for a big upholstered bed.

Now it would be lovely to put all the stuff that bugs me up on Kijiji and go out and buy exactly what I want, but sadly, they forgot to plant that money tree in our new back yard.  So instead I used some West Elm gift cards I had for the Steven Alan euro shams and long grey pillow, and splurged on an Ikea linen duvet cover and wool pillow from Winners.

Aaaand I still don't like it.  And there still is nothing over the bed.  And I am debating about curtains. And I still don't love the colour. I feel like this room will never be finished. (Cue the violins!)

However, it finally hit me this weekend that if I wait to share photos until the rooms are "DONE", I will never blog again! So instead of beautifully-styled rooms that I am proud to share, you are going to be getting a lot of photos of not-quite-there-yet rooms that I am not yet happy with. Maybe just posting the photos will spark a moment of genius and I will figure out what the heck to do. Or maybe you guys can give me some suggestions.

Either way, I am just going to have to decide to be OK with the bed, the sofa, the colours, and the bookcases in the basement. I am going to have to be OK with living in a partly-finished house. Which means, I am going to have to be OK with having a blog that is a chronicle of making this house my own, warts and all, instead of a fancy portfolio of my impeccable style. While I would love to post about putting a room together from scratch, that just isn't realistic.

Insert deep comment about embracing the imperfections in life, then post inspirational tee photo.

T-shirt $30 at Tees in the Trap

Thanks for sticking with me folks! :)

Cam's new "vintage" big boy room

Cam has been having sleep troubles lately (ergo, we have all been having sleep troubles lately). In an effort to entice him to stay in HIS bed, we pulled out the turned-wood bedframe I bought at an auction in New Brunswick. I had intended to paint the frame, but I actually like the worn walnut colour.  Of course this prompted some full-on decor strategizing, and before I knew it I had the boys watching Netflix and was opening a mostly-full can of the paint left over from the basement.

The bed required a new mattress, so I headed to Ikea.  While I was there...I realized we would need a new duvet, and why not this young-but-not-too-cutesy duvet cover?  It's a dangerous place, that Ikea.

Other than that, the room cost $0. All the big artworks on the north wall were feeling a bit too heavy for me, so I took them all down (except for Yara's of course!).  Suddenly I remembered these wooden figures were sitting in the garage, waiting for the perfect spot.  My neighbour had them out for a garage sale a few years ago (he's an antiques dealer) and when I asked about them he gave them to us.  I love the style of them - they look straight out of TinTin to me.  I have no idea what they were originally used for - they are all two-sided.

I flipped up the Expedit shelf, and got rid of the little dresser - meaning all Cam's clothes had to go in the baskets (the white dresser is actually full of my husband's clothes!).  The artwork is mostly the same - Chris insisted that the elephant stay - and I love this photo of Chris and his brother when they were little.  I grabbed these un-used curtains and although they aren't very 'kid's room', I like how they go with the grey and white furniture.  I have a bigger, more substantial curtain rod I would like to put in, but it didn't get done - YET!

So to recap, it went from this:

 to this:

 to this:

And I might be done.  For now. 

Craigslist Murphy Bunk Bed

Um, this thing is pretty amazing.  I wonder how comfortable it is?  I have always had a thing for Murphy beds, and this one is sort of blowing my mind...

Yours for only $4000.

Fall/Winter Bedroom Makeover

As the weather gets colder and the days get shorter and darker, my DNA seems to be pushing me to hunker down and get cozy.  My crisp white bedroom wasn't quite doing the trick.  I dreamed big dreams of getting this bedding from West Elm:

However, after a short and sweet discussion with the hubster, we decided groceries would take precedence.  Being a true Taurus, I did not let this financial fluff interfere with my vision, and instead purchased a couple of boxes of RIT fabric dye and attempted my first dye-it-in-the-front-loader.  After the basement disaster and the pipe fiasco, I figured that if things came in three's, wrecking the machine would at least end our streak. (I did not share this methodology with my husband.)

I grabbed a white Ikea duvet set we had on hand - my go-to white cover before the lovely West Elm one entered my life - crossed every conceivable extremity, and began pouring the inky black liquid into my defenceless machine.  It worked!!  It did turn out darker than these photos show it, although I certainly could have done with another couple of boxes of dye.  But overall I am pleased as punch.

I draped these Afgani pillows from Aunt D over the frame of the bed to help warm it up a little more.  I McGivered them on with my handy office clips so they wouldn't slip off every time we moved.  I put a spare rug we had over the foot of the bed, but it's the wrong colour and I kind of wish I had noticed and taken it off before I took the photos. I also took off the white bed skirt to show more of the rug.

Someone's camera-happy kid needed to get in the shot...amazingly with no funny face.

The Buddha is a very recent Value Village find - after paying the plumber for the pipes I needed to so some stress-relieving thrifting! He was a sad, peeled and chipped dark red colour for $4.99, and was just crying out for the my gold spray paint. I am very happy with the way he turned out, and he reminds me to just BREATHE. :)

Now I really want to change out the art for something richer... and maybe see if I have any darker curtains squirreled away somewhere...  But so far I like my bedroom change-up, hopefully it keeps the chilly weather at bay.  What do you think?  Any ideas for art?

Cam's room gets a big boy update

Above is a photo of my son Cameron's room a couple of years ago when we was a wee babe (cue wistful music.) Somehow, it seems he turned THREE this summer, and while he has grown in both height and personality, his room has not changed.  Well, that's not true, it got WAY messier than this (as did he).

I had great plans for a whole new look for his room, but as I started plotting and gathering, my elder son got wind of it and insisted that HE wanted the new look.  I debated a bit, since I don't want Cam to feel that he is always getting hand-me-downs and nothing new (even though that is the absolute truth) but at this point, he really doesn't care what's in his room, and Will does.  Plus, I haven't touched Will's room in as many years, so I decided why not.

As a result, this weekend I moved many of Will's items into Cam's room, and took out all the baby stuff. Note to new parents: don't go too crazy buying all those cute baby items, because it won't be long until you are putting them in the Goodwill/Give-to-friends bag and shedding a tear over a) the insane adorableness of it and how quickly time passes, and b) the insane amount you spent on it.

Camp style in lieu of project reveal

I was pretty excited to finish the dresser project, put the toys away, and re-set up my living room once again.  Most of this happened, but when it came to taking some photos, I was unhappily sidetracked when I dropped a bottle of olive oil in the kitchen while making dinner.  This baby shattered - I am pretty sure I witnessed a re-enactment of the Big Bang on my kitchen floor... but with oil instead of... whatever the universe is made of... Anyway, I spent over an hour cleaning up and searching on my hands and knees for the teeny shards of glass that are almost invisible but cause inordinate amounts of pain when they end up in your foot.  I was amazed at how far from the crash zone I found the little fragments.

OK wait, don't leave, I promise I will stop talking about olive oil disasters.  Instead I will distract you with this awesome photo of the attic bedroom in a lake house in New Hampshire.  There are so many things I like about it, first and formost the general camp/cottage/cabin* feel to it.  I love the bare joists on the walls, the plywood floor, the mattresses on the floor, the old wool blankets, the maps pinned on the wall.  I love that it was styled with a guitar on the bed and a tray and thermos on the floor.  I immediately can imagine it being a quiet refuge from the world and whatever craziness is happening in the kitchen below (which may or may not involve olive oil).  A dreamy retreat where songs are composed, poems written, and naps taken.  Or perhaps a kids-only zone where secrets are whispered and photos of cute boys are passed back and forth...

What do you think - does this look hold the same romanticism for you, or do you see spider webs, splinters and mildew?

*I read such an interesting article in the Globe about whether it is called a cottage, a camp, or a cabin.  Apparently it depends on what part of Canada you live in.  New Brunswick and Northwestern Ontario say camp, Southern Ontario says cottage, Newfoundland and Victoria BC say cabin.

Photo from Country Living - the rest of the rooms are also amazing.

New Rug for the Bedroom

There was an estate sale in the fancy neighbourhood behind us last weekend, so I actually got up early on a Saturday morning (unheard of for me) and lined up outside.  I came home with a few nice things, mostly books and games for the boys.  However... At about 2pm, when I knew it was ending, I decided to swing around and see what was left in case I could do any haggling.  Well.  I left with my car stuffed to the gills (earning the silent treatment from my better half for the good part of the afternoon).  Guys, it was epic.  I got a laundry basket full of Fiestaware for my mom (who has a beautiful collection) for $80.  So many pieces, including a gorgeous teapot and serving platter.

And this rug, above, I saw in the corner on my way out, all crumpled up.  I thought I remembered it as a worn rug from one of the rooms upstairs that had a ridiculous price on it earlier that morning.  I brought it home for $100.  I unrolled it on the front lawn and was temped to do a cartwheel on it.  (Good thing I didn't - after rolling it back up my left eye swelled shut.  I think they must have had a cat!) Part of it was more worn than I thought - but I put that under the bed.  I cleaned it up, put it in the bedroom, and sat back feeling vindicated.

On a roll, I also cleaned up the bentwood chair I had found on the street that had been languishing in the garage and stuck it in the corner, and put up some crisp white curtains.  My teddy bear likes it.

I am thinking maybe I need something less graphic over the bed now - what do you think?  Any ideas?

Another day, another Rast make-over

I got a second Rast in the as-is section of Ikea and this weekend finally got around to fixing it up.  It was not quite as involved as my last Rast make-over, but I am pretty happy with it.  I used the left-over paint from our downstairs walls and got some new knobs from Home Depot to add a little sparkle.  I love how the colour worked on it, and it is much more useful than our previous bedside table.

As it looked in June

New and improved?

 I love it when I can check something off my daunting to do list!

Change of scenery

I finally framed the print I bought from weiden + kennedy, where the proceeds went to help the relief efforts in Japan after the earthquake. Then I had to figure out where to put it.  It didn't seem to fit anywhere downstairs, so I thought I would try it over the bed.  Can't decide if I like it or not.

Here is what was there for a reference point.  I do love my Fred Ross print, but the proportions didn't work for me.  I think I also was unconsciously referencing the room by Emily Henderson below (I saw it again recently on a blog and thought ohhhhh yeahhhhhhhh.....)  I love this room below, maybe I need a deep blue velvet bedspread...

So the Fred Ross print joined its friends over on the random photo wall and he seems to be fitting in rather well.  And I finally got around to hanging the mom thinger I made eons ago.  It had been sitting on this shelf for ages and I thought it would look better hung.  

So there you have it, earth-shattering changes in my life...can you stand the drama?

Rast-tastic

I went to Ikea the other day to get some new train track accessories for the boys... and, well, you know how that ends...  One of my 'other' purchases was this ever-so-hackable Rast drawer set from As-Is.  You can see the light damage on the side, but since I would never leave au naturel, it matters not.  The trouble now is deciding what to do with it!  I could of course go with Lindsay's classic (and classy) version - a distinct possibility:

...or one of these inspiring ideas floating about online:

Sources: 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10

Here's another colourful contender that Barb suggested would make a great rast-hack:

...and I also enjoy this lovely version from A Charming Nest - the pedestal base puts it over the top:

Ahhhh - so many options!  Any others you like?  Which one should I do?