Catching up….

So how is everyone? I’m great. I’ve had a ridiculous crazy end of summer, early fall, but it’s all good. I thought it’d be a good time to catch up with everyone and share all my news.

So first up, my daughter got married a few weekends ago at our cottage. And for those of you that follow me, you may remember my son, also got married at the cottage, the same weekend, last year.  Crazy two home grown weddings in one year…and yes, I’m still recovering. So pretty much for the months of August and September, we were busy getting the place wedding ready, which entailed having the exterior window frames painted, the beach roto-tillered within an inch of it’s life, roof repairs and of course, the never ending job of keeping critters from ripping up our lawn, for the oh so tasty grubs (we kind of failed on this point, but I’ll get to that later). We also were having a new furnace and air exchanger (which also acts as an air conditioner) installed the week before the wedding. So needless to say, I was a little stressed out about it all, until it was finally installed and working the Tuesday before the wedding….phew!

My daughter and son-in-law had decided on late fall, so that it would be nice and cool for them….well, not exactly how it turned out. We had our heat wave in mid to late September this year, so our cool fall wedding turned into a blazing hot 40 celsius summer wedding. So obviously, we cancelled the propane tent heaters we had ordered.  But at least it wasn’t raining and the a/c was working!!!

Here’s a few candid shots from the day.

wedding ready beach

wedding flowers

Bride and groom

Wedding

It was a spectacularly great day and since one of my son-in-law’s groomsmen, is a master of fireworks, we had a spectacular show once it got dark. You can check my Instagram video to see them. And you can’t even see the totally ripped up grass, courtesy of the family of raccoons that were being well fed with grubs….sigh…. Oh well, nothing is perfect.

So obviously the wedding kept me busy and just a few days before the wedding, the cottage was photographed for a design magazine. This was sooooooo exciting for me, of course, but it’s an incredible amount of work to try and get everything ready and picture perfect. So all the things I had put off and hadn’t finished, now needed to be done yesterday.  So there was alot of measuring, sourcing, purchasing, picking up, transporting of items, and of course, cleaning, lots and lots of cleaning. Here’s a few shots I took of the cottage prior to the photographer arriving.

Beach chairs

Conversation area on the deck with propane fire pit and

cottage dining room

cottage floral arrangement

cottage front porch

I’ll be sure and let you know when the issue comes out, but don’t hold your breath, it’s going to be awhile, as that is just the way it is, in the design magazine industry.

In between these two things, I’ve been working on completing a cottage reno and starting two bathroom renos. One bath is in full mode now, hopefully done in a week or two, and the other should start in the next few weeks. Here’s a little sneak peek of where the first one is heading, design-wise.

Bathroom tile selection, white and bright

Just realized the adhesive is showing on the top tile…opps. And the little squares are paint options for the clients to view. Once I have proper photos, I’ll let you know which paint colour was chosen.

And just yesterday, I was absolutely stunned to find out that I was nominated as one of the top 100 influencers in Interior Design for 2018. So if you have a minute and feel that I’ve somehow influenced your design style, I’d love your vote. Just click here or on the picture below and you’ll go directly to my name on the list.  Voting is open until Oct 10 and you can vote daily.  And just for that, I’m sending you a big hug and thank you!

Design Hounds Top 100 Influencers Nominee

 

So that’s all my news, sorry for such a long post, but I had a lot to cover. Have a fabulous weekend and to all my fellow Canadians, Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your turkey day!

Lisa

Bright and fresh guest bath

Before and after bath

I’m sharing a before and after of a small guest bath that was completed recently.  As you can see, it is now bright and fresh and ready for some Christmas guests.

A few befores. removing the bulkhead made such a huge difference.

Before bath before bath Before

This was a budget makeover as it is a little used bathroom and my clients just wanted to bring it up to date and make it fresh and clean.  We shopped big box stores and used budget friendly pieces wherever we could.

shower curtain, vanity and toilet view

We did a solid rectangular grey tile on the floor and a simple grey vanity from a big box store.  The client had purchased the mirror a few years prior and was itching to use it in the space. It adds a nice dose of personality to the room.

shower tile, curtain

The large scale white horizontal tile with strie detail are absolutely stunning in real life.  It’s a little hard to see the detail in a picture but trust me they are spectacular! And the graphic black and white shower curtain, just adds the right amount of pop.

horizontal shower tile,

You can see them a little better in the above photo and we laid them in a grid pattern so that it the horizontal lines were unbroken, also 2 tiles fit the length of the tub and 1 worked for the depth…perfectly. Little to no cutting involved!  When does that ever happen???

Here’s a good look at the vanity and the mirror.  I pulled the blue out of the mirror for the towels but you could use any of the accent colours in the mirror to change it up.

vanity view

We painted the walls in white that matched the shower tiles, to make it feel bigger, as there’s no demarcation line between the tiles and the walls.

shower curtain, vanity and toilet view

My clients also picked up a new low-flow toilet that is a higher more comfortable height.

close up of vanity

graphic shower curtain, toilet, flooring

A better look at the floor tile that were done in a grid pattern.

After full view bath

And if you look really close in the far left corner, you’ll see that even Phoebe approves.

Sources: Wall and floor tile – Ceragres, paint – Benjamin Moore, vanity, shelf, toilet – Home Depot, Mirror, artwork – client’s own,  faucets – Delta, shower curtain – Bed, bath and beyond

Lisa

 

From dark and drab to bright and pretty

Well, I can definitely smell fall in the air.  Makes me want to get all my cosy sweaters, leggings, tall boots and chai pumpkin tea out. It really is my favourite season, cool, sunny and not too hot.

As promised I thought I’d catch you up on some design projects that I worked on this past winter/spring.  And this ensuite bath renovation definitely brings to mind a fresh, bright, spring day.

Quite a bit of work has been done on this client’s home, as the previous owner used a wheelchair and there was some retrofitting that needed to be done for my client.  High up on the wish list, was her dark, brown and dreary ensuite bathroom.

Here’s the befores and I apologize for the absolutely terrible before pics. In my defence, it’s a small bath so it is very hard to get some good pictures but I think I accidentally deleted a few that actually were better than theses (shakes head).

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My client explained that she really wanted a white, clean, spare, spa bath with a freestanding tub and no shower (there’s one in the basement).

So, first up was removing the large brown walk-in shower.  I gave my client the exact measurements she’d need for a tub that would fit into small alcove (where the shower had been) and she was off shopping.  It was very important that she tried out the tub herself and made sure it was comfortable for her, tubs are like mattresses and seating, everyone fits in them differently.

And happily, she found the perfect one, modern, clean, oval and exactly the right size for our space.

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Vanico Maronyx – Vesso

Isn’t she pretty?

Now it was time to find tiles. She loved the look of marble but with budget being an issue, I found some marble lookalike, large scale porcelain tile which fit the look and budget perfectly. We used them on the floor and then ran them up the wall about a third of the way, but just around the tub.

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Ceragres Anima & Onix Nature

When I came upon this pretty matte and  iridescence mini hexagon tile border, I had an aha moment. However, the large scale tile and the border tile were different thicknesses, but after adding in the chair rail moulding tile and pencil tile, it will never be noticed.

Due to budget constraints we decided to keep the existing white vanity.

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Caesarstone Organic white quartz

But upgraded to a new Caesarstone’s Organic White quartz countertop (above). Together with a simple white square undermount sink, shiny new Moen faucets and hardware you’d never guess it was the same cabinet. Feminine and sparkly!

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Moen Weymouth

We added the matching two handle tub filer from Moen, which really makes a statement in the small bath.

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Moen Weymouth

Again, excuse the photos, I haven’t had it professionally photographed yet, or even photographed by me properly, but here’s a few iPhone pics of the after.  And yes we were still waiting for the new handles to be installed in this pic as well as for a small shelf above the toilet.

White. grey and yellow master bath

White, grey and yellow master bath tub

White, grey and yellow master bath detail

Quite a difference from the previous space, wouldn’t you say?  Bright and pretty, it’s the perfect spot to enjoy a nice soak.

Lisa

Glass railings and weddings…oh my

Happy Friday Everyone! I’m sorry for the lack of posts here, but with trying to get some client work completed, getting the cottage ready for a wedding, and being saddled with a bad cold, not to mention a shortened work week, it’s been a little crazy.

My hubby did manage to complete the new glass railing at the cottage and it looks as good as I thought it would 🙂

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We had a great long weekend at the cottage with all the family and I was thrilled to see that my article that I shared here online, was printed up in the Ottawa Citizen on Saturday.  So fun to see my powder room in print!

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And the tent went up this week for the wedding being held here tomorrow. So exciting, we will be checking it out tomorrow to see how it’s all been set up, since two of my children are talking about perhaps getting married here as well 🙂

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Have a great weekend everyone! I’ll be back on Monday to share some of my recent mood boards.

Lisa

 

A tray table makeover, how to turn souvenirs into decor and cottage updates

As the title suggests this post is a little meandering 🙂

So first off, I had a busy back to work week, but I’m so excited to share an Ottawa Citizen interview I did recently that has been published online this past weekend. It’s on how to turn vacation souvenirs into decor items that will fit with your home’s style and decor.  And yes, that’s my powder room featured with some Paris vacation photos turned into art.

Read it here.  

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In my last post, I mentioned that I had done a few DIY projects at the cottage, while on vacation.  Well, here’s another one.  I was a bad blogger and forgot to get a before photo but trust me, it looked just like this but with a totally damaged top (due to being left out in the rain one evening…d’oh).

 

white-butlers-tray

I sanded the top and even smoothed on some polyfil to try and even it out.  I then painted it all over, with some of my leftover Fat paint in a custom blue that I used for my bathroom vanity.

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I did paint the legs after this photo was taken.

I knew I wanted to do some sort of pattern or stencil on the top but hadn’t figured out what, until I was inspired by some pretty striped fabric I saw.

So out came the painters tape and some little jars of sample paints that I have hanging around, that I thought would go together well.   And, I just randomly laid down the tape some with thicker stripes and some with thinner stripes.

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Then I just painted some lines.

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The first pass turned out like this.

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Not quite enough stripes, so I added more tape and kept painting.  I also fixed up any little boo boos.  You can nicely see the tree shadow on this one, as I was painting outside on the deck.

photo 4 copy 2

My final step was giving it two coats of semi gloss varnish to protect the top, as I fully intend to use this tray for serving drinks and snacks on the deck 🙂

Ta Da!

photo 3

And hubby made a ton of progress on the glass railing.  I am so happy to see the old, rotting wood railing gone, I actually couldn’t stop smiling all day!  We are really hoping to have this part finished up soon.  Just one more side to do, that will have to wait for next year’s budget.

photo 1 copy

 

Lisa


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