Friday

Living Room Inspiration

I was playing around on pinterest collecting pieces of furniture and accessories that I  love for different rooms around the house. I thought I would try putting together a mood board, and jumped on youtube to see what tutorial I could find since I have never made one before. I found a good tutorial for making one on PowerPoint, and this is what I've come up with for my future living room. Now obviously, I won't be purchasing these exact items, as some of them are out of my budget, but I can certainly use this look as my inspiration.



1. West Elm
2. West Elm
3. Safavieh.com
4. Google Image
5. West Elm
6. West Elm
7. West Elm
8. West Elm
9. Good Image
10. West Elm
11. West Elm
12. amandacarolathome.com

What do you think?

Tuesday

Love this Blog...

Since it will still be a few months until I buy my first house, I need to live vicariously through others.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon veranda-interiors.com.  Melissa, the blogs author, is an interior designer, from Calgary, Ontario. She lives with her husband, who is a  builder, and their two sweet boys. Melissa's work really captures my style. She works with lots of whites and natural woods. High contrast, right up my ally.

Take a look at this kitchen



I can honestly say that this is my dream kitchen. Now, I don't have the budget for a kitchen like this (not even close!), but there are ways that I can duplicate the look. I want white cabinets, and I am willing to paint the oak ones, or whatever colour our future house has. An island is on my 'want' list, and I hope I end up with one. Since it's just me and my husband (we don't plan on having babies) I'd scrap the idea of a kitchen table and chairs, and have seating at an island, just like the one pictured above. It would be enough space for us to enjoy our meals.

And I am drooling over those oversized hanging lights. Amazing!

Let's have a look at a living room she designed



Built ins, check. Huge windows, check. Fireplace, check. Window seats, check. Light coloured couch with darker chairs, check and check. Yup, I think she read my mind when she was designing this space :) I would also like to add a little greenery here and there. A fiddle leaf tree would be nice by the far window, and maybe a fern on the coffee table. And of course, the big gaping whole about the fireplace would house our huge tv... this would not be my idea though, this would be the husbands choice, I mean, they do have to have some input right? If it was up to me I'd hang a large beautiful painting up there, maybe something abstract.


I have a big family. There are 15 people in just my immediate family alone, including my siblings spouses and children. So my dream would be to have a large enough dining room to accommodate everyone, but that probably won't happen. I love Melissa's dining room:


I love the dark grey walls. I think it looks so luxurious. And even though the walls are dark, the room as a whole doesn't feel dark, partly because of the white wainscoting and the large door ways that lead into the white hallways. I can't even pinpoint my favorite thing in this room... I mean look at the wainscoting, the big wood table, the chairs, the ceiling fixture...

One last peek into Melissa's designs: bathrooms. Here's a sampling of bathrooms she's designed:





There are no words. I love them all. Melissa you are my hero.

Please hop on over to veranda-interiors.com and check out all the other beautiful work that they have done.


Enjoy!

Monday

Pretty Pictures - Living rooms

I love looking around Pinterest. I get so much inspiration because there is so much eye candy out there.

Here's a list of a few living room's that have caught my eye recently...
1

2

3

4


unknown... anyone know?


 I love so many thing about all these photo's. They are light, bright and they have such a calming feeling. Nothing feels stuffy, or contrived. Just simple, and classic.

Enjoy your day!




Sunday

A little bit about me

Hi, I'm Jen! Welcome to my blog.

I live in the suburbs, just outside of Toronto, with my newly married husband, Bradley, and my very adorable pup Champ. We were married on September 22, 2013 in a charming Inn located on a riverbank surrounded by a forest. It was a small intimate wedding, just what I wanted.

 
Me and Bradley on our wedding day.
 
We`ve been living in an apartment for the past 4 years, but we are on our way to purchasing our own house. This spring we`ll be starting our house hunt. We will be looking at homes a couple of cities to the west of where we are now. I cannot wait. Seriously, I think about it everyday. I`m already planning furniture arrangements and colour schemes, and we don`t even know where we`ll be living.

I have classic traditional style, and love neutrals. My favorite designer is Sarah Richardson. I love the way she mixes fabrics, and I love that there is always a polished look to her finished rooms.

Over the years I've dabbled in different hobbies. I've made over furniture that I found on Kijiji and resold them, sometimes for a pretty good profit. Usually it would be dressers or side tables. Slapping on a coat of white paint can seriously make a worn out dresser a stunning feature in any room. Recently I bought my first sewing machine. I've never even sewn before I bought it, but I thought I would like to try it out by making pillow cases. Well, sewing is a lot tougher then I thought. I'm still working on it, and hope to have one perfectly sewn pillow one of these days.

 
A buffet I painted and resold. Horrible picture.

I`m starting this blog as way of documenting our house hunts, and hopefully you'll follow along as I decorate my new home. Along the way, I' ll add in some crafts and DIY.  My hope is that I can inspire others to create changes in their home so they can feel comfortable and love their own space.


Saturday

It's the most wonderful time....

Since Christmas is just around the corner (just over 4 weeks!!), I've been keeping my eye out for decorating inspiration on blogland, and man is there a lot of it out there. Last year I decorated for Christmas way too early, I think I started the first week of December, but that was a bad idea. I got so tired of seeing it all that I ripped it down as soon as Christmas was over (think Dec 26th). This year I will take my time to decide exactly how much I want to put into decorating.

Right now I am all over this look...


Classic, traditional and so inviting. This is my dream... if I had a staircase. Unfortunately with me living in an apartment, I don't have that luxury. But man, I wish I had stairs so I can decorate them like this! 

I also plan to grow some paperwhites this season. Have you ever grown them from bulbs? I think they are beautiful, but I heard the smell can be rather stinky, so we'll see how things go. I do believe a trip to Goodwill tomorrow is in the works so I can get a beautiful dish to use as the planter. I'll post some pictures to show you how they turn out.