An Artful Home

I love having art in the home and Jeff and I have quite the collection going. We've been lucky to have been gifted with some great pieces and found some lovely ones ourselves. When considering a new piece we usually go through a checklist of sorts:
- Do we like it? Why do we like it? It's more than just thinking something is pretty. Prettiness comes and goes, but if it actually makes us feel something then it's worth a second look.
- Where are we going to put it? Though this one isn't a dealbreaker we do like to have a plan in mind for where our new piece will eventually end up.
- Does it fit with the rest of the house? I'm not trying to make our entire house match (that would be cuckoo) it's more about keeping it all in the same theme - which is currently bright, fun and a little funky.

Not too long ago I revealed our master bedroom, but we weren't quite done. There was no art! It took us a little while to find the right mix of pieces. We wanted them to work with the room, but not be too matchy matchy.

First came our DIY monogrammed pictures above the headboard.

These were super simple to do. I just typed our initials and 'and' into a word document, messed around until I found some fonts we liked and then printed them. We popped them into IKEA frames and voila - instant personalized art.

[The fonts are Graf Circulum (J), Handstand (and) and Chopin (S)}

In December Jeff and I went to the One of a Kind show and we were just about to give up on finding anything we wanted to take home when we found an amazing Japanese artist who still does traditional marbling. The artist, Robert Wu, was so nice and super helpful in helping us find the perfect prints which now hang over our little reading nook.

Marbling is done one sheet at a time, so each one is unique - which I love.

Lastly, our 'gallery wall' above the dresser. Part of being art junkies is that sometimes we have more pieces than we know what to do with. This system lets us move around our current collection and add/subtract pieces when we get bored of them.

Our current collection consists of some pretty special pieces...

1. A photograph taken by Jeff's late grandfather who was an amazing photographer.
2. A painting by my bestfriend and former roommate, Carrie.
3. A photograph from our engagement shoot. Taken by the amazing Angela Y Martin.
4. Our kitty cat, Kuro.
5. Buddha. He's been with me since I moved to Toronto. This is our 4th home together.
6. I collect elephants (as well as art). This little wooden guy is from our recent trip to Dominican Republic.
7. This elephant is one of the first gifts Jeff ever bought me. He's from a little shop in Niagara on the Lake that we picked up our first summer together.
8. All our wedding mementos fit in this cute little wooden box (our invites, menu, my veil and wedding jewelry).
9. Cute converse sneakers print was a bonus from JohnWGolden's Etsy shop where we got our robot prints from (yay for freebies).

I think adding art can really personalize a home, and that's all what we're about!

Naked Shed

When we first toured the house last Auguest we noticed a lack of storage and because we have a lot of junk stuff personal items we knew we'd have to fix that. We moved in late October and didn't have a lot of time to get to work before the real cold set in. We didn't have the time to plan, design and build our own shed so we ordered a 'shed kit' from Shedman. Jeff visited their Pickering location where he got to check out all their different styles and get a sense for the quality of the workmanship. He was happy and because it was the end of the season we got a smoking deal on one of their 'barn style' sheds. What they basically delivered was a pile of wood (all cut to length), screws, roofing shingles and the directions (which we promptly discarded). We figured it ended up costing us less than if we had bought everything piecemeal from a hardware store AND it was delivered right into our backyard. Score!

First we had to remove the rotting planter at the very back of the yard. When we tore it apart it was a treasure trove of discarded junk; pieces of concrete, rocks, a 2' length of pipe, random childrens toys, a ballon and other random bits of garbage. It was like the previous owner had chosen to use his planter as a garbage instead of a place for pretty flowers.

Sometimes Jeff likes to tackle major projects by himself. After all, he's a man and can do anything. But when it came to building our new shed he called in reinforcements. On a bitter cold Sunday in November my dad, father-in-law and sister's boyfriend all came up to lend a hand (I ordered pizza and kept the cat company inside). After many hot cups of coffee and a 24 slice pizza we had this monstrous thing of beauty...

{That shed is perfectly level. It's our entire lawn that's on a slope}

Excitedly we went out and bought 2 gallons of paint to pretty this girl up. And then the temperatures dropped and it was too cold to actually get any paint on her. We thought about giving it a shot and crossing our fingers but apparently if you paint when it's too cold out it doesn't stick well and it could bubble off. Which would be gross and counter productive. So we waited. All winter. And our shed was naked.

Then it got nice again and we got off our butts and dug out the cans of paint that had been sitting unused all winter and got to work. ***sidenote: When I say 'we' I mean 'Jeff' - this was all his baby.

{One coat of 'Elephant Skin' and she doesn't look too pretty)

Halfway through we ran out of paint (because that's how we do things around here). It took 2 whole weekends but she was finally done.

It only took us 7 months from start to finish, but I think it was worth the wait. Not only is the shed super pretty, but also HUGE (8'x10'x10') and solves so many of our storage problems. Jeff has already installed a loft for added vertical storage, he's built a workbench and currently working on an organization system for everything. Once he's done I'll post pictures but for now I am sworn to secrecy.

I love looking back on where we started and seeing how far we've come. The backyard (and frontyard) are in need of some major rehabilitation which we plan to spread over the next few summers, at least now we have a place to start those projects and store all the necessary stuffs needed to make it happen.

{Click to enlarge}

Living Room: The Reveal

When we first viewed the house there was a very small room at the front of the house, originally it had a couch, coffee table and tv. It felt really small, but we figured that we could make it work. Because this is the first room you see when you come home and the last room you see when you leave I wanted the space to be welcoming and cheerful, something that would put a smile on your face as soon as you walked in the front door. Choosing the right colour combination was tricky but I am so happy with how everything turned out.

I think I'm going to paint the front door red - surprise surprise.

We can now fit a 7' couch, 2 chairs, coffee table, 2 bookshelves and a fireplace and the room feels 2x larger.

Walter proudly guards our awesome fireplace and to hide some of our clutter we snagged some bookshelf doors from IKEA and found some 'coral' fabric from Designer Fabrics for a funky new look.
 

Jeff's favourite couch has secured its place in our home - for now. And Jeff's 26th birthday present is the perfect 'family portrait.'
 
I love how the light streams through these front windows, it's the perfect place to curl up with a book.

Most of the objects on our bookshelves were carefully chosen because they mean something to us or work with the palette of the room. All the books were wrapped with plain white computer paper for a less cluttered look.

We have plans to make this 'message centre' a little more functional, but for now we're just happy to enjoy our finally completed living room.

Before + After

{click on the images to enlarge them}

Fawesome Fit: In Memory

When Hubs was in university he bought a shiny new car. A Honda Fit. We called him Mr Fit and and we loved him. He bought it for a couple reasons but my favourite was because of it's amazing storage capabilities. The backseats fold completely flat and the hatch has a HUGE opening so you can really get a lot of stuff in there.

Proof 1

2 full size interior doors - not a problem.

 Proof 2

8' long workbench materials - no sweat.

Proof 3

Bringing home 8' x 4' ply - I find this picture hilarious. Yes, those are beach towels protecting our roof.

Sadly, our time together was not meant to last. A couple weeks ago Hubs and Mr Fit got into an accident on the highway. Thank my lucky stars that Hubs is fine, but Mr Fit was not.

He looks like he's wincing in pain. Without going into all the details Mr Fit was totalled. And though another car could never replace him we couldn't really just buy a couple of scooters and call it a day (though I really, really wanted to).

We got a new-to-us Fit and call him Professor Fit and he's just as awesome as his brother. 

Proof 1

8 piece patio set all in one trip! You can see Professor in the background peeking his head over.

Don't believe me?

Oh yeah, it happened. Now I just have to wait for sunny skies to snap some pics of our 'in progress' patio!

UPDATE:

 Here she is, all set up and ready for summer fun!

Front Room: Progress Report

Our front room took forever to come together. After we finished painting it looked like this...

And then it sorta stayed that way for a little while. Our crazy/opposite/overbooked schedules made completing this room a bit of a challenge. With Hubs and I busy at work my father was busing building us this awesome faux fireplace.

{checking out the progress on a trip home}

So, why did we want a faux fireplace? Why not just get an electric one? Well...we looked at some electric options, but in the end we didn't need it to be practical. I just wanted the look of a fireplace without the cost of an actual one. Jeff designed the aesthetics of the piece and my dad generously offered to build it.

{Kuro has decided that it isn't a fireplace, just a large cat bed}

Next I whipped up some curtains made from this awesome fabric from Tonic Living.

We snagged a couple adorable robot prints from JohnWGolden's Etsy Shop

The finishing touch was Walter {he will stay a surprise for now} who came to the house like this...

{excuse the blurry BB picture, I was so excited when he came I lost my mind a little}

It took us another couple weeks to arrange the furniture how we wanted and make it resemble a living room again. There's still a couple things we're tweaking now but it is miles away from where we started...

The Great Patio Furniture Hunt

After living in an apartment for a few years I've gotten used to small scale furniture, but with a whole house to stretch out in we've been finding that many of our pieces are a little small for the new space. Our deck is a massive 12' by 16' (well it's massive by our standards) and our tiny bistro set is totally dwarfed and impractical for all the summer bbqs we have planned.

{please ignore the spraypaint on the table...i got a little impatient with a project one day}

When the sun started shining about a month ago we started researching patio furniture and man is it expensive (again, by our standards). We started looking at conversation sets at local hardware stores like this one from Martha Stewart...

 High quality workmanship and materials, great colour and really comfy - all with a $500 price tag. Ouch.

Then we found this set for $300...

Still comfortable, but not as nice as the Martha set (and who can beat Martha?) plus it was still little too pricey for us. When you think that only 4 people can comfortably use this set and eating bqq might be a little tricky trying to balance a plate on your lap we started considering the traditional table and chair sets.

We also needed to keep in mind that our storage space isn't unlimited and stackable chairs might be a good idea when the winter hits. We want to be able to pack the set up and hide it in the shed to make sure it stays nice looking as long as possible. With  a little more research we found this set...

With a $250 price tag, seating for 8 and an umbrella I think we may have found our winner! I know it's super neutral and boring but that's sort of why I like it. It will be really easy to jazz it up with colourful pillows and accessories and even easier to switch the colour scheme when I get bored of it a couple summers from now.

Hubs is swinging by tonight to check it out and with any luck I will have a patio set to put together tomorrow, just in time for our first bbq of the season this Sunday.

Eventually this is my plan for the patio...

{Bonus Points for anyone who can tell what the heck I'm thinking of with this plan}

Basement 1/2 Bath: The Reveal

Despite how crazy frustrating it was to paint the stripes in our basement bathroom (check out that saga here), I am totally thrilled with the results. We managed to turn a boring, basic bathroom into a chic and sophisticated powder room without spending a ton of cash.

Because this is the basement bathroom with no windows I wanted it to be bright and warm (not dark and dank). Orange and yellow seemed to be a naturally cheerful combination and the gray added a touch of style.

Just because this is a bathroom doesn't mean it has to have typical bathroom art (florals or seashells).We went with a couple unique and quirky pieces for visual interest.

Before + After

There you have it, classy style on a budget!

Cost Breakdown:

• white paint - free! (old owner left it behind)
• Chinchilla White (gray) paint - $5 tester pot
• orange hand towel and facecloth - $10 (on clearance from HomeSense)
• large painting - $40 (on sale from local decor store)
• lightbulb print - $11 (from Etsy shop Rococco Co)
• frame - $8 (from Value Village)
• toilet paper dispenser and garbage can - $30 (from Home Outfitters)
• soap and lotion - free! (christmas gift from the in-laws)
• TOTAL: $104 (for a completely new look!)