Feelng all xmassy!

Lately I've been feeling all xmassy! I love xmas and this year I've wasted no time getting into the spirit and prepping the house since we'll be away most of December. We purchased a smaller tree last weekend, put our wreath on our door, decorated with some wooden ornaments and I also bought some cabin socks just cause it's cold outside.

Happy almost Wednesday :) 

We finally have a wall gallery!!!

I love wall galleries. I love the interest they add to a space and I always like to take my time to look at all of the pictures. I personally like wall galleries with a mix of frames and art (pictures, paintings, postcards, anything that has meaning and is worth displaying). I have been meaning to put up a wall gallery in our place for well over a year now. Here are a couple of pics that I used for inspiration:

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Maybe I'm just slow but it took a while for me to collect frames. I got many of  the frames I used from my mom when she moved and cleared a lot of her stuff. I also took my time to collect art. I ordered a few prints off Etsy and bought some postcards when travelling. I have some faves from our Vancouver days (the fiance lived there for about two years), engagement pics and also from travels to Europe in 2011 so I framed those. Once I had enough frames to start I laid them out on the floor and arranged and rearranged them. 

Next was putting them up on the wall. 

Here's our wall gallery which I love! It's not yet complete but it'll do for now. It already seems to be a conversation piece for visitors which is why I love them so much. 

Happy long weekend :) 

~B

Sunday Antique Market Finds

Today's a lovely sunny but cold day in Toronto. I got up super late but made it to the antique market in time. I got lucky because I found a couple of things I've been looking for. I found a lovely silver antique cake/pie plate that will be lovely for our wedding. I also scored this antique camera that's dated 1902. I love photography and have been meaning to purchase one of these for a while now. It will also work with the vintage decor for our wedding. Right now it's sitting on my shelf and I love it!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday. Mine is all now chores but maybe I'll have time for a DIY project that I can tell you about later.

~B

A Little More "Jungalow"

I haven't written about home decor for a while but that does not mean that I have forgotten about it or stopped dreaming up ways to improve my space. I previously blogged about how much I love "Jungalow" style. If you missed that post click here. 

Jungalow style is all about creative reuse, personalization, vivid colors, bold patterns and lots and lots of plants--Jungalow style is tropical and bohemian, very vintage and very cozy. Jungalow is about bringing the eclectism of nature and the wild indoors. 

Justina Blakeney 

I have been meaning to make my space a little more Jungalow so I purchased a fern this afternoon. Since I have a north facing apartment that doesn't get much natural light ferns are a good option. I originally planned to hang a few ferns from the ceiling in our living room but decided it will not work since they would be competing with our hanging lights. I may still do this in our bedroom. Anyways ... I placed my fern on our shelf/wall divider because I want it to expand and grow into long "strings" on both sides of the shelf. I am so excited to see this transformation!

Btw, I will post about my Vancouver trip as promised. It was awesome and I have so many lovely pics I want to share with you. I am just waiting for the bf to bring back my camera ;)


~B

D.I.Y. Curtains

I have been sewing sheer curtains with my mom. Okay, let me rephrase that ... my mom has been helping me sew sheer curtains. I am merely her assistant. My mom used to teach sewing and is very skilled in this area so I am trying to learn from her. I think that sewing is a useful skill that comes in handy for many home decor projects, mending clothes etc. I know how to sew some things but still have so much to learn! Unfortunately the sheer fabric I chose for our curtains is really slippery and hard to work with so I won't be doing much of this project :( You're probably all wondering why we are even bothering to make our own sheer curtains since they can often be found at a reasonable price. The problem is we have 11.5 foot ceilings and haven't had any luck finding that length in stores. It would cost a lot of get them specially made so my mom graciously offered to help out. We are working on them little by little and hope to finish sometime soon. I will post more pics when all panels are finished.

If you are considering sewing your own curtains check out this post for a tutorial. It's actually pretty fast and simple but beware if you choose a slippery fabric!

Bar Cart Envy

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Check out these awesome bar carts! Although I am not much of a drinker and really don't have much use or room for a bar cart I would love to one day own one. I think they are great for entertaining, make any space more interesting and can easily be moved from one room to another. For these reasons, I would definitely jump at the opportunity if I came across an awesome vintage bar cart at the right price at the antique market. If you're in the mood for a DIY project you can easily turn an old AV cart into a great bar cart with a coat of spray paint. What do you think about bar carts and do you have a favourite? I tend to like square or rectangular vintage ones.

Jungalow Love

Jungalow style is all about creative reuse, personalization, vivid colors, bold patterns and lots and lots of plants--Jungalow style is tropical and bohemian, very vintage and very cozy. Jungalow is about bringing the eclectism of nature and the wild indoors. 

Justina Blakeney

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I recently discovered Jungalow style and love it! I love the idea of bringing nature indoors and have been dreaming up ways I can incorporate various elements of Jungalow style into my space.

Click here for "10 ways to Turn a Pad into a Jungalow"

D.I.Y.: Pop of Cobalt!

My boyfriend and I moved into our loft about one year ago. We looked for a place for about 5 months and immediately fell in love with the space. We have come a long way in terms of making our place feel like home but we still have many D.I.Y. projects up our sleeves! I will fill you in on our past projects and will update you as more projects unfold. As some of you may know, I adore home decor and would probably be an interior designer if i were not a social worker. Here's the story of our "foyer"....

I love cobalt. I think it's a fun colour full of energy and I love to wear it. So why not have it in our home? After a long, tedious process of painting our "foyer" a lighter shade of blue and realizing almost immediately that the colour was completely different from the paint chip and did not work with the ambience of our space we finally decided to go bold with cobalt!

We lived with Benjamin Moore "Seaside Blue" for about a week, accepted that we (well I) would have to repaint so I finally got priming. We also made the decision to do this DIY the "right" way and invested in paint testers. 

From top to bottom: Benjamin Moore "Big Country Blue," "Brilliant Blue," and "Evening Blue"

We kept the testers up for about a week to get a feel for the different shades in different lighting. Our kitchen has a skylight so getting an idea of the colour in different levels of light was very important.  After debating between the two bottom colours we decided to go with Brilliant Blue since we plan to paint the door frames white and do not want the blue to look too stark. Here are some pics of the pop of cobalt in our long space:

We love it!

What do you think?

DIY Lesson Learned: Do invest in paint testers and don't be afraid to repaint and go bold with colour.