In print

Livingetc magazine included a photo of our basement in their August publication! Fun!

Except, now I want the whole house photo shoot ready! Uh-oh...time to move the furniture! (I swear everything is heavier than I remember it being...)


Source: Livingetc, August 2014 issue, lifestyleetc.co.uk

Good Bye Rainbow Books

The paperback books used to be stacked and colour coded. It looked pretty, but I couldn't find a darn thing!

This is better.

One row of sci-fi fantasy adventure favorites (Asimov, Anthony, Brooks, Clarke, Card, Fiest, Lawhead, Leguin...Goodkind and Starwars stuffed in on the second row), two rows of fiction with a few non fiction, graphic novels on the bottom shelf.

ps. The top shelf is bowing. I may have to do something different with the travel books that are up there.

I made a mess out of this Ikea Hack and I am counting on you to help me save it!

We needed more big truck toy storage in the basement.

I decided to stack the extra IKEA Lack side tables (they were stored under the counter in the storage room, and I am clearing out stuff for the street sale...so it was street sale or bust!)

I wanted them the same height as the ledge.  I needed to cut 3 3/8th's off each leg.

The ban saw power tool ripped the hollow legs to shreds. I switched to the hack saw, but my hands and forearms were already a mess of pulled muscles from planting new grass seed in the back lawn yesterday (I had to mow the lawn, then rake the debris, then use the garden rake - the one with big claws, to break up the dry soil. Pounding the garden rake into the dry mud over and over under it loosened. Then breaking up the large clumps of dirt in my hands. Tedious, but I wanted the seed and new soil down because they were calling for rain this week.  Yes, I pulled my palm muscles, if there is such a thing!)

Anyways, the hack saw teeth were too coarse but they cut so I went for it.

I think I need to file the edges and get some sort of all purpose industrial strength glue to finish this.  I used craft glue and the glue gun, but who am I kidding? this will hold for maybe 3 seconds.

Any tips!? Thanks!!!
 

Butterfly chair from Craigslist

I fell in love with a chair on Craigslist. A brindle cowhide butterfly chair.

The other night, my husband went to pick it up, and when he brought it through the door, my heart sank. This is not what I expected. It's so low to the ground. There's packing tape holding the rods together! It wobbles!  What.the.HELL!

I need to pay more attention when I buy off Craigslist.  I get emotionally attached to the item, I stop thinking. I don't question it. I just want it! I don't want to lose out! I WANT IT NOW!

In this case, I thought I was getting a Circa 50 chair. We could have bought two new Circa 50's for $540usd plus $30 shipping to Buffalo. Then drive down and pick them up, paying additional duty and tax. This chair was $325 - about the same price as a new one - but it had packing tape on its legs.

I am pretty sure the Circa 50 base is two continuous metal rods, not 4 rods connected by 4 base rods. Tremendous buyer's remorse overcame me.

"Oh well", my husband said, "we can always pick up a new base, the cowhide is in perfect condition."

But, I felt like a total failure. I took it HARD. I contacted the seller, she sent me a link to where they bought it from:

http://naturemadehides.eurofull.com/shop/detalle.asp?oynprodid=389

I felt a bit better. 

Then I took the chair apart, figured out how to stop the wobble, re-assembled it (boy was that a ridiculous challenge), and removed the tape.

I have gone from in total love, to tummy ache, back to love...I sit in the chair every time I am downstairs.



ps. watching clist for a lower round coffee table now!
pss. Here's what my basement looked like when I went down to take a few photos:

New art on basement landing

I bought this painting specifically for the basement landing. We went with a white portrait frame, even though the image is landscape. I used kraft paper to test out the size of the matte to make sure I got the dimensions right.  I wanted to see the image as you came down the stairs, without hanging it too low.

I love the fresh pastel colours alongside the grey tones! 


ps. I bought the picture on impulse from another blogger, Samantha Sano, here is my original post.
pps. Here is the link to Samantha's other works, and her blog. 
ppps. Don't forget to tune into the Steven & Chris show today to see our house tour!! 

Primping and Preening

I have been switching things up, moving things around, freshening paint, you know, being a busy little bee. When the boys go down for bed I go into full on try-this-try-that-stand back-take-iphone-pic-switch-things-try-something-else-then-put-all-the-extra-stuff-back-away mode.

Here are a few changes:

1- Hung a second framed postcard in the bathroom - the higher one. Why didn't I do this sooner? We had the matching frame just sitting in the storage room - duh!

I also switched back to a white shower curtain and donated the busy print shower curtain to goodwill. I liked the wild yellow green and blue ikat print, but it really wasn't me...I was inspired by blogs. I say that's like it's a bad thing, but, I am happy I gave it a shot! Inevitably, I was going to switch back to something neutral.

2- Switched to the grey rug in the foyer. The cream one needs to be taken in to the dry cleaners after all the snow we had last winter. Maybe it's a little too early to speak about winter in the past tense, there is still snow on the ground, after all!

3- Shopping and putting together some bright spring outfits...(camera worthy bright spring outfits)
 
4- Herb garden on the kitchen window shelf! The herbs are from Loblaws ($2.99, or maybe $3.99, I should have paid more attention...they were $3.99 at metro, I noticed)...they are a little yellow so I better get cooking!!

5 - Ditched the tray of cooking oil, salt & pepper and other miscellaneous things that was sitting on the counter next to the stove. (For now, you can see it in the house tour) I remember when I set this up! I was so excited! It was something else that I saw on a blog. I even ordered the vintage tin tray from etsy specifically for this purpose! Except, when I took a good hard look at the kitchen the other night, I knew I had to tuck the clutter back away. I stashed everything the cupboard immediately above where the tray was. Everything is still very accessible.

I also bought some new wooden spoons. My little guy loves to play with spoons, whenever he sees me stirring something he begs at my legs to be up. He only knows a handful of words, 'HOT' is one of them!

6 - Using the covered dish from last year's Blogpodium Swag bag. The dish is from Chapter/Indigo and is a great size to secretly hold my Nespresso pods. My previous apple shaped dish was pretty cute, but didn't have a lid.

7 - Painted the stairwell in the basement as well as the desk/wall under the stairs. Fresh and white and clean! A few hours (no taping, no drop clothes) and it was done! Now I will want to repaint every time the walls get scuffed!

8 - Taped a bunch of new roads on the toy mat. At first I went all random, and then decided to try and make a pattern...I like it! It's graphic!

The IKEA slide has been downstairs since the fall, I am not sure I mentioned it? I haven't met a kid that doesn't love it! The IKEA circus tent comes out periodically, then gets folded up and put away when the boys start to ignore it.  Right now the game is to zoom hot wheels down the slide into the tent. Hours of fun! (ok, minutes of fun!)

9- Hung a small painting over the thermometer. I thought since it is almost time to turn the furnace off anyways (not really, I wish!)...ok, maybe this was only temporary but I love it!

Ask me what's up!  I'm begging to be asked!

Photo printer

Our colour printer is up and running!

My husband printed a photo* that he took in 2010 outside the Pompidou Centre in Paris.  Let's
find it a home!

I originally wanted the photo to go in the basement bathroom, in the empty space across from the toilet**, but at 22 inches tall, it is too small (sorry dude). 50 inches tall is what I'm talking about!  To fill the entire wall space.  Do you think we should splurge and get this blown up? Black and white? or colour?

We have no shortage of photos to process and print!  I am considering a grid of images in the bar area downstairs (on the side walls, flanking the stainless steel back splash). This might give me the incentive to finally, finally, get a shelf up there to cover the seem (the artwork that is resting on the counter should be on the shelf)

I keep looking around the house for walls that I can fill with photos...I don't want to go overboard...but, you know what? Sometimes overboard looks pretty good too!

Please let me know what you think about getting it enlarged!


*I trimmed the right-hand side to make the pipes even
**remember voting? Well, we never acted on it...I want to print a small image of the Vatican steps in that room, to honor the fact that the majority of you liked it best!

Urban Outfitting the basement!

We have a rug!

Actually, we have 3 rugs!

I love them!!!  It reminds me of this photo from our trip to Hay Home.

I will hand stitch the rugs together ...or... maybe not? They can be tossed into the washing machine this way...hmmm    

Adding colourful pillows was great advice! Of course, I am still using standard size bed pillows since they are way more comfortable for lounging around than throw pillows.  Actually, we have two extra 20 x 20 throw pillows in the linen closet upstairs, do you think I should add them into the mix? 

Thanks for your feedback yesterday!

ps. I rotated the cushions inside the kivik
pps. The blue and off white rug is very scratchy.  These rugs are super soft!
ppps.  Cost breakdown: 3 x 5 area rugs $59 each // Round pillow $15 (on sale!!) //  Rainbow Shams $10 for both (on sale!!)

New basement coffee table and rug shopping

We picked up a new coffee table today for the basement from Craigslist (IKEA IMFORS).  When I sent the CL listing to my husband, he asked, "Do we need a coffee table in the basement?"...I thought we did..or, that is, we do...and for $40, he was willing to try it out!

Now all we need is a new rug!

We removed the 8x10 jute rug that was under the couch, and put it in the nursery (I had enough of the squeaky floors).  We are looking for a replacement.  I am leaning towards cowhide, that is, if I can score one for around $200*.  Do you think cowhide and kids mix? We normally avoid drinking juice or eating anything sticky downstairs...

Here are other rugs I am drawn to:

Lanart Grey Hide Stripes Area rug at Home Depot. In person, it's NICE! (way nice).  It costs over $1000 - so, yah... not happening. 

I like the FAMILY rug from CB2.  However, $899 is too much to spend on something that will likely get dirty.  Accidents will happen.

The Olin rug at Crate and Barrel is nice (I haven't seen it in person), and the right price...what do you think of stripes? 

The Paxton Mink Rug, from Crate and Barrel, is another option.  Pretty neutral...

We are also exploring carpet remnants.  We checked out Alexanian. They don't keep scraps, so you have to custom order a rug. A carpet remnant with binding starts just under $300.  Home depot has carpet remnants for $79 - however, none of them were going to work in our space.  We we try a few more Home Depots and see what turns up (we went to the one in Leaside).

What rug do you think would work best the space? Do you have any rug recommendations? We want to avoid anything shaggy, or anything that might shed.  If you have a cowhide & kids - please let me know how that is working out!

 

Truck shelf

It works...but...too many sharp corners...it makes me nervous.  Coming down again soon!

(I flipped each of the shelves over so they were deep enough to hold the trucks)

Before:

DIY Audio Rack

As in, 'Do-It-For-Us'

We finally paid someone to help us make a new audio rack for the basement. This design was not my first, or even fiftieth choice...but it is much nicer than most of the options presented (called a 'flexi-rack').  Apparently, incredibly ugly stereo racks have a function...they control vibrations and help make the sound pure* (I am totally making this up because I only half listened when it was explained). Decent looking audio racks are RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE...as in over $5,000.  The problem, I think, - now, this is my own biased opinion...is that stereo geeks think audio racks ARE nice...you know? "Nothing to improve upon here!" "Why mess with a good thing?!!" 

Anyways, definitely an upgrade...and definitely nicer than I thought when my husband first described it to me!

We had Kerry, from First Time Fancy's dad, cut out the MDF shelves, drill three holes in each, and paint the shelves glossy black.  We sourced the metal rods, washers, nuts, end caps, feet and rubber washers ourselves, and we assembled it with my three-year-old's help. (My son styled it up too!)

Cost breakdown, approximately $540
$240 for mdf and labor
$100 for painting (labor)
$200 for parts

Here is a before shot...I will show you the after when he has put everything in place!

*This is important to you if you are an audio nerd ...and my husband is the king of audio nerds.  

ps. I should link to my  husband's inevitable post on some audio forum or another...or even better...get him to guest post when he has his system set up! Maybe we can call learn a thing or two!!! 
pss...remember this sketch?  This almost started an all-out-war (not really, but it was sparky!)