The main accessory at IDS18

So what was the main accessory that you saw everywhere at IDS18?

It was plants, plants and more plants!  Take a look at just a few of them and get your gardening gloves out.

IDS18

Somehow, I missed the name of this booth, if you know it, please let me know and I’ll add it in.

Seedlip

The Seedlip booth had the most beautiful botanicals and they received lots of attention.

Seedlip

Mobilia’s booth was divided up into different rooms with different themes and it was a stunner. Here’s just a few pics from a couple of the rooms, with lots of green!

Mobilia

And how about these interesting globe lights on stands. Perfect to light up a dark corner.

Mobilia

A little nod back to the 70’s in this vignette, with those hanging plants and a shaggy throw pillow.

And my favourite booth, Benjamin Moore’s living space, had lots of greenery and an especially cute little clementine tree. Now I want one. I wonder how long it takes to actually get fruit that you can eat, assuming of course, it survives.

Benjamin Moore ids18

Homebody Collective had the cutest little cactuses and airplants displayed. The bottom containers are actually moulded from avocado skins.

Decimal

I couldn’t resist and came home with these two. They can be placed on their sides and used as a ring holder as well. I love a multi-purpose!

Homebody Collective

 

Lisa

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

Reveal of my wicker chair makeover

Hope you are all enjoying some warmer weather now. It appears Spring is finally here. I’m gearing up to put away all the winter clothes, I hope I don’t jinx it!

So I’m here to share my wicker chairs’ makeover (click here to read my previous post).  For a quick refresher, they started out looking like this:

Sun room with black wicker chairs

And now they look like this.

Wicker chair cushion makeover

On a side note, that cute little beach print is from Minted, and I just framed it with an Ikea Ribba frame in high gloss grey, that I already had.  The floor lamp is also from Ikea, many, many, years.

Wicker chair cushion makeover

Wicker chair cushion makeover

The adorable terrarium is from my son’s wedding, last Fall. It’s such a great keepsake and it’s sitting on a sturdy metal side table that was from Pier 1.

Wicker chair cushion makeover

I sewed up the matching throw cushions with the left overs from the piping material. They were cut on the diagonal to make the piping so I decided to make that a feature on the pillow, hence the diagonal line.  I then found it a little boring, so I added in the mother of pearl buttons to finish them off.

Wicker chair cushion makeover

A much more fresher look than the black and red, don’t you think?

Lisa

Updating some wicker chairs

Sorry for the long absence, like everyone else, life gets so busy.  We were lucky to get away again this winter, this time for a Caribbean cruise and then just like that we were right back in it. Add to that my hubby’s minor knee surgery and you can imagine why I haven’t been blogging.

I made an impulse fabric buy recently, as Tonic Living had a remnant sale and I am a SUCKER for pretty fabric.  They had a remnant of the fabric that I used to make throw cushions on my family room sofa, so I decided I should pick it up….I could make some more cushions or perhaps it would find a home somewhere else.

Isn’t it a pretty fabric?

Clarice Dove fabric

Clarice Dove

Even a few years on I still love my throw pillows.

Family room

Once I received the remnant, all 1.5 yards of it, I had the brain storm that I could use it to recover my wicker chair seats in the sun room, as it is right off the family room. I have been wanting to recover those seats as the covers that came with the chairs were never “me”.  Sorry for the crappy before pic, as usual I forgot to take a before photo before I trotted them off to Wayne to be recovered. I guess I was a little anxious.  Anyways, there really are two of them in here….trust me, the cats each have one 🙂

Sun room with black wicker chairs

I’m just not really a red person and I definitely wasn’t keen on that generic upholstery.  Anyways, I went off to my drapery/cushion maker, Wayne, and he informed me, as I had suspected, that I didn’t have quite enough fabric for the two chairs. So I decided to do a contrasting piping that would free up enough fabric to squeak out two cushions.

fabrics

I decided to pull out the turquoise for the piping and found some fabric that had the texture and colour that I needed.

The cushions are now completed and look fabulous, Wayne did a great job as usual.  I am going to make up two small throw cushions to add to the back of the chairs and once they are done I’ll be showcasing the after pictures here.  Here’s just a little teaser.

Wicker cushion

 

Have a wonderful weekend, and please….tell Mother Nature that we have had enough snow! Bring on spring!

Lisa

Two mantels, two different looks

Mantels are one of the best places to decorate for the holidays and if you are like me, you love looking at different ones and different styles to get some ideas for your own.

I’m lucky enough to get to do two totally different ones every year, just for me.  Here’s my cottage mantel that I keep pretty minimal and rustic, totally appropriate for the country setting that it is in.

RUSTIC COUNTRY CHRISTMAS FIREPLACE

 

Photo credit: Justin Frost

RUSTIC COUNTRY CHRISTMAS MANTEL RUSTIC COUNTRY CHRISTMAS MANTEL RUSTIC COUNTRY CHRISTMAS MANTEL

 

I used lots of fresh local greenery, some pinecones in a vintage apothecary jar, some antique encyclopedias (which I have sprinkled around the entire place), some sparkly grapevine balls, a birdcage and of course some candleholders. Honestly, this mantel took me all of half an hour to do. Quick, simple and rustic, just the way I like my country Christmas mantels.

Now for my city house, I went with a more sophisticated style.

CHIC AND CLASSIC, GREEN, BLACK AND WHITE CHRISTMAS MANTEL

CHIC AND CLASSIC, GREEN, BLACK AND WHITE CHRISTMAS MANTEL

CHIC AND CLASSIC, GREEN, BLACK AND WHITE CHRISTMAS MANTEL

Some similar elements here, fresh greenery and some dried magnolia leaves (they do last a few years, if you are careful when you store them), some fairy lights and of course candlesticks and candles. I may just tuck in some white and clear christmas balls amongst the leaves, at some point.  Pretty, simple and classic, perfect for my home in the city.

Merry Christmas!

Lisa