Pre-Opening Salon Tour

Here is a wee bit of a Salon tour. We're not open yet.... Close.... But not quite yet.

How we managed.....

Moving Forward

We've made HUGE leaps in the Super Secret New Plans department in the past month.

I'm EXHAUSTED!!! But Happy and very excited to soon be able to share all the news!

We were hit with another (very seasonal) winter storm this week. We've been buried in snow and the cold snap has us all cuddled in.

We've been fattening up with some delicious breakfasts made by Momma Beastie.

Here's a sneaky peak of some new colour choices in one of our new rooms!!!

Nammy had me do these for her. Very uncharacteristically blingy for her.

I made myself some springy almond gels over my natural nails. The pink colour is called Tu Tu..... It's delicious! 

Bedroom Floor Posies

We are forever renovating the house. With all the family changes going on around here the rooms are constantly changing functions. After 15 or so years, Mom has flown the coop and is enjoying her own space in her own flat. That left her upstairs room vacant. We have been slowly decorating and changing the space to meet our needs as a master bedroom. We've painted the once chocolate brown walls to a warm cream, we've primed the floor and added a decorative one stroke rose and leaf pattern with some beautiful paint (Thank you cousin Lindsay!!!)

Here is a closer look at the floor design. It was hard to stop making these rose sprays. I kept wanting to add more clusters and it very easily could have ended up like a bad hair cut. Adding more clusters closer together around the room until there was no more open space..... I stopped while I still wanted to add more. I think there are just enough now.....

Here's a shot of Lily on the floor to give you a spacing idea. (and to show you how cute Lily is playing on the new floor!)

We've added two coats of water based semigloss varnish and some trim to finish the room off. The varnish yellowed the floor a bit and thicker areas of varnish went almost caramel, but I really like the aged look it gave the room.

We got these gorgeous paints from The Painted Peacock in London Ontario. They are made by a company  called Homestead House Paint Co.... Fusion paint is the perfect choice for finishing furniture with almost no prep work and a built in top coat, but I fell in LOVE with the colours. I knew they would work well with a one stroke rose and leaf for the bedroom floor. We wanted something that looked like it had been in the house for years. We didn't want anything too bright or new looking.

Here are some of the colours available. They also offer a line of furniture finishing and re-finishing courses that are extremely economical and informative. Please do stop by The Painted Peacock at the London Market and say Hello from us!

Painting the House

We've had our hands full lately with work and grand baby and minor decorating. I got my hands on some gorgeous paint made by a manufacturer in Toronto. (Thank you cousin Lindsay!) More on the paint later.

There will be so many more posts coming. Some posts about renovating, some about new publications, still more exciting posts about a fantastic giveaway.... Been planning this giveaway for weeks! You're going to LOVE it!!!

It's Canada Day! We celebrated by having some delicious red and white pancakes. Love it when our local strawberries are ready! 

Some Things.

We've suddenly been swamped with spring time home repairs and spruce ups. Improvements are coming along pretty well now. Hope to have things squared away by summer so we can enjoy doing nothing for a bit.

We have had a yard full of these guys. They seem very angry about the snow this weekend. They keep looking in the windows and screaming at us. I'm a little bit worried....

Made some more of our Quinoa salad for energy. Love this stuff. Never get tired of it.

I made this batch with just quinoa, I didn't add any couscous or other grains. I did add some broad beans and basil to the mix.

Hope you're having a great spring weekend too!

The Wall

Retro-vations still loom. 

I am submitting various stage photos of our progress so those of you going through the same thing won't feel so alone.

Here is the wall with the fireplace just removed. It was bricked right into the wall and support beam. We added support beams to either side of the old beam and tightened everything right up. Then we added insulation as far as we could reach. 

 We got hold of some 1/4 inch drywall (Thanks Mr. B) and filled in the uneven cracks left over with quite a bit of mud.

It all sanded out just fine and you can barley even tell there was a fireplace there at all. Well..... except for the huge hole left in the floor and baseboards where the hearth was. It is a vast improvement as far as space goes already. Just need to fill it up with some interesting pieces. 

Dining Room Chairs Recovered

We're still working away on our little corner of paradise.

Trying to make things comfy and homey for ourselves.

This weekend it was dry-walling in the living room and finishing up the chairs in the dining room.

Here's the result of the hard work so far.

 I covered some rope with turquoise cotton......

Sewed it to the edge of the seat covers.....

Made sure they fit by slipping them on over the old cover.

Here they are all done. 

James an I removed hundreds of staples and teeny tacks to get the old covers off. Once the new covers were on I decided I liked the look of the covered cord along the bottom edge of the cushion too. I'm pretty happy with these.

Now..... on to more dry wall repairs and painting.

Hope you all had a productive and relaxing weekend too.

Out With the Old.....Retrovation Puzzle.

 We've been busy with the retrovations around here.

Working on some major projects and trying to make our small space more live-able.

This is our front sitting room fireplace. It was made by the Majestic fire place company. I can't seem to get a hold of the company directly, they just keep sending me to a dealer nearest me. I want to ask them when the fireplace was made and wonder if anyone knows if it's rare or not. It seems to be brass plate. It has a water trough for holding water under the top canopy piece that is removable. It has four elements that heat up and two switches on the front I assume one is for the heating elements and one is for a fan?

Our front sitting room is a teeny weeny 12 X 12 foot square space. Here's a pic to let you know we did love the fireplace and we used it well over the years....

However........

This is what the space looks like now. We have three windows and two doorways (one double) in that room and absolutely nowhere to put a sofa without having to disjoint a kneecap to pass through the room. So what started out as a fairly innocent suggestion like, "Hey honey, what if we get rid of the fireplace?" has turned into a giant hole in the lath and plaster in the front room, many pieces of floor to patch because of hearth removal and a wall beam that defied gravity for an hour. We fixed that guy right away!

This making the house the way we want it is frightening business!

We are removing a retro and very cool fireplace to make room for retro decorating...... I think it's acceptable if we make sure the fireplace goes to a good home. 

What do you guys think? 

Is it ok to remove retro fixtures to update and personalize a space as long as the pieces are saved for future use?

Decorating in the Colour of Retro

The retrovations continue....

 We recently purchased scads of fabric to make curtains for the living room / dining room windows. We're planning on using all three of these fabrics and the new geranium flowers somehow. I think the turquoise will be just an accent and the citron will be the main colour...... But things often change.

 These colours are already in the living room on the stool.

 and the colours are in the kitchen on the cafe curtains.....

and the cupboards....

 and they're in the dining room on the accent wall.

I am all excited to get started on the new curtains but cutting into that much fabric makes my knees a little weak. 

Any encouraging thoughts? 

Tips to bolster my nerves?

How do you gather the guts to cut into large amounts of fresh new fabric?

Re-Making a Matchy Stool

This is a pictorial tutorial........ Very little words, mostly pics...... Ask questions in the comments spot if you have any. Hope this helps with any re-stooling projects at your house.

after

before

don't ruin the wood prying the staples out

sanding

cleaning the groves with a dry paintbrush

painting with an interior semi gloss

laying out fabric squares

quilting the squares together

making sure the colours are matchy

staple the center of each of the four sides

work to each corner and fold them in

 Trim off extra fabric

glue on trim

 Here is the little stool where she will live, under the coffee table in the sitting room.

It's Curtains For Me.

Dear Mr. Curtains...... I need you to stop being so adorable so I can stop looking at you and go to sleep.

I worked my patootie off tonight and made two full sets of cafe curtains and one top flounce for the kitchen windows. They are DONE!!!! I just need the hardware to hang them.

Here is a bit of a detail shot. I couldn't get anymore of the eyeball looking turquoise and lime print so I just made a whole bunch of bias tape out of the half yard I did have. I have Loads of trim left over too for...... um.... tea towels? I added some rick rack trim in red to jazz things up and keep the colours matchy.

I'll take better shots as the kitchen progresses. I really do love these little curtains. I finished these three window covering sets in like four or five hours start to finish. Tomorrow I'll find all the mistakes I made because I rushed through the sewing but for tonight...... I'm proud!