Fancy Friday Love

April 29th! What an exciting day. I'm sure there were at least a few of you in the same boat as me, up a little early today to watch the Royal Wedding. Also exciting that May is just around the corner. I am kind of wishing time would slow down a little... still lots of prepping for baby's arrival that we need to get done. In the meantime, here's some fancy stuff from this past week...

Loved these DIY greeting cards from The Sweetest Occasion! There is nothing better than receiving a beautiful hand made card for a special occasion - talk about thoughtful... and beautiful!

How gorgeous, but simple, is this fabulous aqua and orange baby shower from Lovely Little Details. So sweet and feminine! You must check out all of the beautiful detail photographs over on the blog.

This is one awesome tutorial from Sarah on how to make a Book Mobile (she got her inspiration from this etsy shop). How incredible is that?

I found out about Coffee Joulies on Pinterest the other day... seriously cool! Must get once they are available!

Did you see the fabulous mobile home transformation that Renee shared on Tuesday? An RV transformed into a mobile "pop-up" shop for the Guelph boutique "Blush". How gorgeous and girly is this?

Mother's Day is coming up FAST! This cute little mother's day gift idea posted on little lovely this week made me smile. I'm so looking forward to being a Mommy myself...

As for us, we have a wedding to attend tomorrow. Other than that, I have plans of finally starting to get baby's room together. Cleaning that carpet and putting together the crib are high priority! Get ready for the dresser reveal next week as well. B and I finally got her all finished and she is looking mighty gorgeous in baby's bright white nursery! I hope that you all enjoy your weekend! Catch you on Monday!

Dream Home - A Castle in Portugal

This week's dream home is taking us away to Portugal... to a castle... dating to the 17th century. It blew my mind the minute I saw it and knew I had to share it. The price is available upon request, and you can find the listing from Sotheby's Realty right here.

Check this beauty out...

And the area surrounding it? Obviously just as stunning...

Are you loving it yet? If not, maybe the bare bones interior will sell you. I just think that these rooms have so much potential (they are pretty spectacular just the way they are...)

Love those floors, and the fireplaces! How about the ceilings and doors in that second room? Taking my breath away, seriously!

Or how about the windows here?...

I'm thinking that room would make a fabulous dining room! On gorgeous days you could open those doors in the middle and let the fresh air and sunshine (or sunset) flood in!

Did I mention that it comes with it's own chapel?

Yes... you're very own chapel... with stunning stained glass windows and those fabulous paintings on the wall. Unbelievable.

The details will just absolutely blow you away, like the details below from one of the castle's many fireplaces...

I could love a place like this. Imagine calling this your home (just don't try to imagine any of the bills that would come with a place like this). Just think about the history and the beauty of the place.

What do you think? Is a historical casa such as this something you'd like to escape to, or are you into something a little more new and modern? Where do you dream of laying your roots or running off to for a sweet escape? Shoot me an email or leave me a comment, and I'd be more than happy to search out your perfect dream home (or escape)!

Project Siding - Finally Complete!

Is it truly Monday again already?... and already the last Monday of April? Long weekends really do go by too fast, don't they? I don't know about where you were, but in our neck of the woods this weekend the weather was absolutely gorgeous, which meant B was finally able to get back outside and finish up our siding.

It's been so long since the day that we first ripped down the original front entrance of our home. You may remember that back in February we revealed the make over of the interior, but at the time the exterior still needed some work... mainly the siding was not yet complete. Yes, our home stood throughout the winter without all of the siding on, but we're happy to say our home is looking a little more complete after this past weekend after B and my father put in a hard day's work on Friday.

You may remember that last fall, our front entrance looked like this before it was ripped down...

Yes, not quite the vision of our dream home... a huge part of the reason we knew we had to renovate. By mid December, the exterior of our home was looking like this...

The only catch was that two of the three exterior walls (the two not visible, obviously) did not yet have siding up. Then last month, B got back to work on it before we got hit with another block of un-cooperative weather. Finally, this Friday B and my father were able to fit in a long hard day of work...

And we're so thrilled with how great our home looks now...

Looking better, but of course there is still no shortage of work left to be done out there, so we'll hold off on the big "after" reveal. The next biggest projects we plan to tackle out here are painting the red siding, our deck railing and the front door, as well as finally finding the right house number to fill the huge empty space to the left of our window. I guess we'll take down the Christmas lights at some point as well.

What did you get up to this fine long, Easter weekend?

Fancy Friday Love

Happy Good Friday! I'm so looking forward to this long weekend. Hopefully the spring weather will stick around. To try and conjure up some of that sunny, warm weather I've got some really seasonal fancy finds from this past week....

I LOVE when Kelley Moore shares her table settings (and all other events) on her blog. Last week she shared a kids table for Easter, based on the Dr. Seuss classic, Green Eggs and Ham. Every detail is perfect and so incredibly fun...

Shannon acquired these fantastic goblets and put them to good use for a dinner party. Absolutely love the shape of them, and they look gorgeous with hydrangeas in them...

Did you see all of the details of the 2nd birthday party that Jennifer threw for her little one? Her theme was "Little Bug Picnic" and she nailed every single detail of the day! See all of the pictures over here...

We all know how talented Lindsay is when it comes to decorating her home and creating beautiful prints for her business. This past week she shared this great little Easter project she completed in an afternoon. Rocks as colourful "easter eggs"! So smart and look so great!

Nicole finally gave us a real look at her gorgeous laundry room this past week! I love how their red washer and dryer pop in the space! I believe that nice clean, bright rooms make laundry a lot less of a chore...

We all saw it, and I'm sure we all loved it! The Console that John and Sherry DIY'd for behind Karl turned out fabulous! I especially love the idea they came up with for hidden storage!



After the first time they posted about this project, I mentioned to B that building a small console table for behind out basement couch is exactly what we need for placing drinks, a lamp, etc. We'll see if / when that happens...

Yesterday, one of my new blog reads, Ginger Flinch shared some Easter decorating ideas from Martha Stewart. My favorite had to be these awesome Daffodil Candy Cups! Great for kids or just place cards for Easter Brunch. Aren't they adorable?



OH... and how could I possibly forget to mention how excited I was to win an awesome giveaway from Janice? What was it? This beautiful faucet exactly like the one she just put in her basement bathroom (you have been following their basement reno... right?)

Big huge thanks to Janice, Delta Faucets and Beige is Dead for this fabulous prize! I'm looking forward to getting our reno on in the upstairs bathroom!

Our plans for this weekend? Today we just plan on sticking close to home. I think B would like to work outside (if weather permits) and I plan to make more progress on that dresser! Other than that, lots of time with family and friends... oh, and we may or may not purchase our new car as well. Very much looking forward to that! Whatever you're doing this long weekend, I hope it's as fabulous as all of you are! 

The Final Product

As I have mentioned more times than I am sure any of you cared to read about, I've spent the majority of my time over the last couple of weeks finishing up my final project. Monday night I headed to class with my two giant boards in hand, and a binder full of client questionnaires, a design concept statement, finishes and furniture schedules and all kinds of other fun stuff, and presented my final concept and space plan.

Since I already shared some of my inspiration photos with you the other week, I thought it would only be appropriate for me to share with you my final work.

Everyone in the class was given the same floor plan and we were given permission to remove and change interior walls as needed. Exterior walls were not to be changed. Here's what I came up with...

Please be kind... with the exception of the walls, I was drawing everything by hand. No fancy computer programs for me.

So what you're seeing is what B's dream home would look like if he were a bachelor. The double doors in the centre of the plan are the entrance. Everything to the right are the social spaces in the home, while the left portion of the home contains the private spaces. Let's start with the social spaces, shall we?

B wanted an open concept that was suitable for entertaining large numbers of guests... every weekend. He didn't require formal dining, but wanted special feeding stations for his two dogs. He also asked for somewhere to display his sports awards, memorabilia and professional recognitions, along with a large TV that would be visible to  the entire open plan entertaining space...

I removed all of the walls, and pushed the kitchen from it's original location in the middle, to where the formal dining area once existed. This gives him a ton of space to cook and still interact with his guests. At the bottom of the kitchen, there is a small bar area with a sink and under counter double "beverage" refrigerator.

The seating area located in the bay window also doubles as the dog's feeding station. Drawers underneath pull out and contain the dogs water and feeding dishes, and cupboards on either end act as storage for leashes, treats, dog food etc.

Since B didn't require formal dining, we decided to go with a Fushion Table just off the kitchen area which I am sure, would mostly be a pool table, but could also become a dining table when necessary (or a great place to just hang out with friends and play cards, etc). The far right is a seating area, where we placed the Fulham Leather L Sectional, a Leather Copenhagen Chair and a Brickmaker's Table, all from Restoration Hardware. The TV would be mounted over the fireplace, and all along the walls we installed built-in bookcases for B to display his collections. He loved that the TV over the fireplace would make for easy viewing right into the kitchen. Mission accomplished.

The other room considered part of his social space was the "Smoking Lounge" (again, B is not a smoker... I guess if he was a bachelor he would just enjoy cigars with his buddies).

I kept the layout pretty simple in here. Two humidors on either side the doorway, two Leather Copenhagen Chairs, a basic Fulham Leather Sofa and the Rotunda Coffee Table from Anthropologie.

All of the flooring through the social spaces was natural stone (12 x 24 tiles) with in floor heating. I wanted to use something durable that would stand up to the abuse of the guest's he would be entertaining, as well as two dogs. B was pleased.

Then there are the private spaces...

One of the additional bedrooms became B's home gym, while the second was transformed into a guest suite with it's own small seating area and TV, as well as access to the home's second full bathroom.

B's master retreat (at the top), is where I used two Industrial Tool Chest's as nightstand's on either side of the bed, and the Industrial Tool Chest Console was placed by the foot of the bed to hold his TV, and act as additional storage.

His master bath had double sinks, a separate water closet and a huge steam shower... Lucky boy.

My final concept board looked like this...

There you have it... my final project. I'll know on Monday how I did, but I felt pretty good about it - this being my first crack at interviewing a client and designing an entire home. Definitely a learning experience, and I for sure need to practice my rendering skills.

But that's it! I'm off until September, so I hope to have more time to share nursery progress and other home projects that I plan to take care of in the next few months! We're busy bees over here!

Lighting Love - Lamp Goods

Recently I've been thinking a lot about all of the horrible, ugly light fixtures in our home (among a million other things). I'd love to replace the ugly boob lights on the top floor and the not so nice fan that we have in the living room. It may not be in the budget at the moment, but that hasn't kept me from looking around at different options. During one of my "browsing sprees" the other day, I stumbled across the Etsy shop Lamp Goods. I instantly fell in love with EVERYTHING...

I'd love to see one of the below in our tiny little upstairs landing (yes a tiny patch of carpet off of which are the doors to both bedrooms and the bathroom).

Cary's Mill Clear Holophane Ceiling Light - $89.00

Island Falls II Clear Globe Made Ceiling Light - $89.00

There is also a beautiful selection of Milkglass / Schoolhouse fixtures that I absolutely adore. Just were to put them...

Ellisworth Vintage Milkglass Pendant - $69.00

Vintage Art Deco Milkglass Pendant - $69.00

In all, I just loved browsing through all of the lovely fixtures that they had on offer...

Industrial Original Mix Media Pendant Light - $89.00

Vintage Canning Jar Chandelier - $169.00

Vintage Canning Jar Ceiling Light - $149.00

I'd say the price is pretty good for these creations! Where is your favorite place to shop for beautiful or unique lighting options? I'm always on the look out for new sources, with reasonable prices. Who knows... maybe if I were to stumble across the right light fixture at the right price, I may be able to convince B of replacing some of the fixtures in our home! (A girl can dream)

Dream Home - NYC Pied-a-Terre

It's been a while since my last Dream Home post, in which we escaped to the countryside in Spain. On that post I got a comment from Tara saying she dreams of a pied-a-terre in NYC... so I thought I'd go back to find another gorgeous NYC home (you can check out my first one here). My search this time, brought me back once again to trusy ol' Sotheby's Realty and I was so happy with what I found...

I think the description from the listing captures it pretty well...

"Deluxe apartment in superb condition by top interior designer, and with every amenity, including a view of a beautiful cupola reminiscent of the rooftops of Florence. Grand, elegant living room, with beamed ceilings, herringbone floors, glorious light, and mirrored dining area. The charming and whimsical master bedroom, its walls canvassed with a scene from an 18th century Italian painting, has an entire wall of mirrored closets, and en suite sophisticated master bath. The kitchen, in addition, to top gourmet appliances, encompasses floor to ceiling bookcases. A lovely powder room completes the apartment. This spacious-one-of-a kind residence is in a premier Park Avenue building in the best Park Avenue location, and near Central Park. Concierge services, daily maid service 5 days per week, all utilities, and private storage room are included in the maintenance. There is a fitness center, and the Park Avenue Café is in the building. Sorry, no pets."

Is there anything this place is missing? Just check out these photos...

Love these mirrored walls in the living room... and check out the furniture...

The soft, muted tones of everything really brightens up the space and makes that huge art piece the focal point of the room. Looks like the perfect spot to enjoy a few cocktails before a fabulous night out in the city, no?

The mirrors in the dining room, and those fabulous chairs won me over immediately. Staged so perfectly, how could you possibly say no to this space?

The bedroom looks like a perfect retreat as well, away from the hustle and bustle of the city...

Again, the muted tones and mirrors just make the room feel so airy and bright. I could probably do with a little less of the mural on the walls, but it does add character to the space.

And not to be out done by the glamour on the interior... the view is just as gorgeous...

What a dreamy place to escape to, in such a large busy city! The perfect little retreat! Where do you dream of living or taking off to? I love searching out these little gems and would love to search one out for you. Just leave a comment or shoot me an email, and I'll do my best to find your Dream Home!