Design Decisions - Making Progress

As you've all noticed, I have been slacking in our personal design posts (with the exception of the two posts this week). This is for a few reasons, the number 1 being that things are slow going with Halle being around. She is quite obviously top priority for us these days (as well as leaving us pretty sleep deprived). With baby stuff aside though, I haven't posted a whole lot on our bathroom design decisions because I haven't really had time to sit down and pull together a solid design plan. This means we've been working blindly, which left me feeling uncertain about where we were headed. Of course, there was also the issue of B and I not seeing eye to eye on design plans. However, I can finally say I'm feeling better about things and I'm ready to share some decisions that we've made, with you.

One big decision that saved us quite a bit of money was to not get my father to build us a custom vanity. Instead we opted for the IKEA Godmorgon vanity (in birch veneer), and lucky for us they just had a bathroom sale. This means for our sink and vanity, we only paid just over $400. HUGE savings!

We have plans to add our own hardware choice to the front, which I am very happy about. Now if you are really observant, you will remember that we have a widespread Delta faucet for the sink, and IKEA sinks only have 1 hole for faucets. Well - wish us luck on this hack! My Dad picked us up a diamond blade hole saw for adding the extra holes we need for our faucet. Yes, I'm nervous, but I have complete faith it will not be a (complete) disaster. 

Now, with the vanity out of the way, this brings us to our paint choice. As I had previously mentioned, B was pulling for yellow while I wanted blue. I knew yellow would just not mesh well with our vanity, and thankfully B agreed once we got in there with the vanity and my paint deck from Para Paints. In the end, we decided on Ephiany, which is the perfect combination of blue grey, that works fabulously with the birch veneer.

As for tile, we knew without a doubt that the tub enclosure will be done with white subway tile, and we are leaning towards using grey or silver grout. For the floor we were stuck again. We knew we wanted a 12 x 24, but couldn't decide if we wanted a light grey or plain white. So last Thursday we took a trip out to Dufferin Tile to look around. We spotted a grey tile that we liked, but of course I forgot our paint chip, and wasn't sure if it would be to "matchy-matchy" with our paint choice (backwards decision making there, right?). So, we left on Thursday with nothing and headed back on Friday with my Para Paint deck in hand. Thankfully, our blue looked lovely with the grey tile, so home it came - all under $220. 

So things are most definitely coming together (finally). It's been a long road, and the fact that I'm sleep deprived is not helping with my decision making or stress levels, but I have hope everything will balance itself out soon... and we can bang this whole renovation thing out as quickly as possible.

... and I'll try to get better with sharing what's happening on our end with reno and decor decisions!

Brick by Brick...

Yesterday you only got a small look at our newly painted living room... and that's because I had no photos of the room painted and mostly put back together without giving away the other (unplanned) project that we tackled. The only hint I gave was this photo...

Were you able to figure it out? If not, here are some photos that will give you a better idea...

Yes, at some point in the history of our 91 year old home, someone decided to brick over the beautiful original brick fireplace... and they did an awful job. Just take a really good look at the brick on the right side of the fireplace. Huge gaps, and many of them sagging. It was really a disaster, and a huge monstrosity in our tiny living room.

It didn't take much to get the white brick off either, just a little pressure loosened up those bricks and one by one they came right off. As previously stated, whoever did this didn't do a very good job, when we got near the end, we had huge chunks of bricks coming right off...

It took us less than an hour to get all the brick off the fireplace itself (and Halle squealed with excitement from my Mother's lap the entire time), and then my Dad took care of removing the brick hearth and ugly brown red tile from the floor. But here's a better idea of what we are now left with...

Though the original brick is a little rough looking, it does look a lot nicer than that white brick mess we had before. We also all agreed that it makes the room look a lot bigger. Now we have to do more sprucing up! My Dad is building us a temporary mantle to use until we are ready to renovate the room and put in new flooring and built-in's on either side of the fireplace. We have also discussed cleaning up the red brick and leaving it, since there is original brick hiding behind the panelling above the fireplace, that we would like to reveal in the future. However, when we went to clean it up (gently) with a wire brush it seemed to do more damage to the brick than we had anticipated, which leaves us thinking maybe it will be best to once again paint the brick? We did't really hate that the previous brick was white... we just hated the poor job that was done bricking it up.

What would you do if you were left with a fireplace looking like this in your home? Any other suggestions on how we can clean our brick without damaging it too much? We are open to any tips you may have!

Good-bye Grey!

Happy Monday friends! I hope you all enjoyed a lovely weekend, and did something that made you smile. For us, we were busy, busy. On Saturday my parents came by while B was at a softball tournament, to help me out in the living room. Before they arrived, I got our living room cleared out as best I could (and our slipcovers into the wash)...

Once Dad was there he had to help me move some of the bigger stuff - like the bookcase out of the corner, and the mirror off of our mantel. Want to know what embarrassing secret we were hiding behind our mirror? The bracket for our TV that used to hang in the living room... that we just painted around when the room went grey...

Nice right? Well, thankfully the bracket was coming down and the wall was getting painted, so we didn't really have to worry about that too much anymore! 


We used Para's Ultra paint, which is low VOC (and it really is, there was no hint of paint smell in the living room at all! Perfect with our wee one around). It also covered like a dream! One coat on all of the walls was all that we needed to get this room painted up! Thank you so much to Para Paints for sending along our chosen colour - we are HUGE fans!

Oh right, so I guess you are all interested in knowing what colour we selected? It's called Cote D'Azur (P5156-34), and it's very... blue...

We were so pleased with the coverage, and how quickly it dried! Not too quickly that made it hard to paint - honestly, just the right amount. Actually, it dried so nicely that once we were done painting, we still had the whole afternoon ahead of us to start another project (just what we needed, right?). Here's a little hint for you...

Any guesses? You'll have to come back to see what we got up to after painting...

Fancy Friday Love

Happy Friday! Here's what I was loving this week...

A simple yet elegant entry from a life's design. I crave simplicity these days...

So inspired by this Shabby Chic first birthday party, over on The Sweetest Occasion on Wednesday! Such sweet details, and so very girly.

Every year around this time I look forward to the round ups of beautiful day planners and calendars over on Oh So Beautiful Paper. Day planners are so useful for so many things, and I think if you're using it all of the time, it should be something pretty, right? Well, I fell in love with this day planner by Jessica Hische that was featured this week. Hint, hint for anyone looking for Christmas gift ideas for me....

So yes, a busy weekend ahead (as usual). B has a softball tournament tomorrow (crazy boy), so my parents are coming by tomorrow to help with painting the living room. I may also ask for my Mom's sewing machine to help with a few other projects that we want to cross of our to-do list. I jut plan on finishing a lot around here if I can help it.

Do you have anything fun planned for this weekend?

Packing Up...

... Our living room! I'm putting away the fall decorations a little early this year, as well as moving around a lot of our every day decor. "Why?" you ask? Well, thanks to the wonderful people at Para Paints, we have a beautiful new hue picked out, and ready and waiting to grace our walls! I can hardly wait! Here is our room at the moment...

Keeping it real again, with our vanity boxes on the floor, random stuff on our side table... and of course Halle hanging out in her high chair (the only way I can get stuff done these days). Can you spot any of the changes that I have made so far? It's been slow going, but well worth it so far! I may also play around with the arrangement of some of our furniture this weekend - we'll see.


If you were to move things around in here, what would you do differently? I know you have no concept of space and furniture size, but I'm always interested to hear how others view our space!

Preparations Begin

I may not be able to start decorating our home until after American Thanksgiving... but since this is my little blog space, I'd like to start daydreaming about this year's Christmas decor and projects (if Halle allows me to get around to them. Here's some of the inspiration that I have been collecting for the coming holiday season...

{pinterest via the glitter guide}

Sparkle spray painted sticks and twigs! Pretty, easy and inexpensive - just how I like my DIY projects! The best part is, this could be classified as "winter decor"... so I may even be able to squeeze them in before American Thanksgiving!

{pinterest via young house love}

Kitchen's very rarely get the holiday love that they deserve... unless you count holiday cooking and baking love. BUT, I love these ornament magnets from YHL, and think it's a great way to bring a more festive feeling to the one place that people gather the most over the holidays!

{via Martha Stewart}

I am forever searching for the best way to display all of the beautiful Christmas cards that are sent our way during the holiday season. This one is by far, my favourite. I think it would be perfect on our console table in our front entrance. Maybe I should start collecting twigs now?

{pinterest via Oak Ridge Revival}

I ador everything about this sweet mantel... especially that adorable garland. I would love to bring some elements of this space into our home for the holidays this year. You'll just have to wait and see what I come up with! 

Am I too early to start thinking about holiday decor and gift giving? Is anyone else a crazy Christmas person? Is anyone lucky enough to have started pulling together their holiday decor already?

Inquiring Minds Want to Know...

... what Halle was for Halloween. At least that's what I'm telling myself. While she didn't get "out" on Halloween, she got to wear her costume for her Grandpa's surprise party this past Saturday in Massachusetts, and again today for our final Mommy Connections class (which is where I snapped these photos of her)...

I may be a little biased, but I think she is the cutest little lady bug ever! 

I'll be back tomorrow with some non-baby related content... I promise! Hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween (yesterday)!