Living Beautifully...One (DIY) Step At A Time

Decorating a Nursery Wall Part 2

2014-05-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

After installing the Urban Walls decal on the wall above our change table, we were hooked. The decals were super easy to install and we loved the fact that they could be changed up whenever we wanted.

So we went crazy and bought another design for the wall above the crib. We loved the look of the "Seeing Stars" decal and decided to order it in white. The wall colour in the nursery is called "Pelican" and its a very light warm gray. We wanted something subtle and figured the white decals would blend nicely but still stand out just enough.

The decals are super easy to install. I planned out a grid on graph paper first, so that my decals would be evenly spaced. After doing that, I cut out each decal and taped them onto the wall, to get an idea of how they would look. I started with the top horizontal row and the left hand vertical row:

After I had the first 2 rows set up the way I wanted them, I taped on the rest of the rows. Then I removed the backing and placed them onto the wall. I didn't remove the parchment paper and stick them to the wall just yet (you can see in the picture a light cream coloured parchment paper on top of most of the decals- that is the final piece you remove before actually sticking them to the wall). I wanted to make SURE I liked how the room looked before actually sticking them down:

As you can see, I had a little helper :) (how else do Mom's ever get anything done?!)

You might have also noticed that I added an additional row at the top. I didn't like how much space I had created between the top decal and the ceiling, so I added in another row. I shifted things around a bit, and to be honest, I actually eye-balled putting most of the decals on the wall in the end (due to limited time with a 7 month old!)

Once I was happy with my placement (I stepped back many times, adjusted and re-adjusted), I firmly pressed the decal onto the wall, using an old plastic card (a credit card will do) and made sure the decal was firmly stuck. Then I simply peeled off the parchment paper, and done!

Here is the final product (I love it!):

I absolutely love what it adds to this wall and the overall space. Plus, they look surprisingly even (go figure!). I chose the "Seeing Stars" decal, as I thought it somewhat went with the theme in the nursery. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that we have somewhat of an "outdoorsey" theme in this room with all of the different materials, wood, fur, metal, leather, etc, the neutral colour palette and the animal influences. I also have quite a few "star" themed things in the room (pictures, blankets, clocks, etc) so the stars just seemed suiting. I liked the idea that it made the nursery wall feel like a starry night.

So overall, I absolutely loved using the decals from Urban Walls to add to this space and will definitely be using them again- I have a few ideas in mind for some other spaces in our home!

If you want to see the first post in this series of 3 (about how we did the other wall with a decal from Urban Walls) check out this post here.

And next up, we'll finish up the decal on the previous wall...and then I think we're done!

Stay tuned for the final post in this series :)

Melissa and Ian

Decorating a Nursery Wall Part 1

2014-05-12T06:00:00.000-04:00

So now that we've got our hands full with the little guy running around, we don't exactly have a ton of spare time. Regardless, we're both itching to start another renovation project around the house. The powder room reno has been finished for months (despite the fact that it took us forever to blog about it!) and I've been searching for design project to start...when I'll have time to do it, is beyond me.

Anyho, I've always felt that Cole's room wasn't completely finished. I don't know why, there was just something bugging me to add "just one more thing..." (I permanently have design ideas floating around in my head so that might be why).

Since Cole has been able to move around, he's been grabbing at the wall above his nursery change table. So, down came the pennant:

and then we replaced that with a frame of Cole's prints:

but we took that down too. Way to dangerous for a baby who's nickname is now "Bam Bam". :)

The wall felt so bare to me, so I had been searching for something to fill it with- enter: Urban Walls. I came across their newest decal "I will love you....always and forever" and it seemed perfect for the space.

We've had touches of gold in our nursery from day 1 (which I LOVE), so I thought a gold decal would be a nice way to another another "subtle" touch of gold to the space. Urban Walls sent over this gold decal for me and it literally took me about 5 minutes to put up- so easy! (and awesome when you have a very needy baby watching you!)

So this is just part 1 to this wall addition. We're planning on doing one more thing to this wall and the decal (that will be left a surprise until our next post!) and then I think THIS wall is finished. Maybe. ;)

Also, I didn't exactly say we were leaving alone the other walls in this room, so stay tuned!

Melissa and Ian

Powder Room Reno Reveal!

2014-05-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

So here it is- the powder room reveal! I know we promised you all this reveal over a week ago, but life got busy and we didn't get a chance, however I know that just helped with the anticipation...right? :)

In the end, we went with a "white" theme for this bathroom. To be honest, it made things easy (we both love white spaces, decor, etc) and in such a small space it made sense. We did try 2 light coloured testers on the wall, but neither of them seemed to be just right.

So we settled on white walls, cabinet and an interesting stone for the top. The accessories we kept simple, focusing on chrome and thats really all we needed for this space.

Lets take a look back at the before photo first:

and here is the after:

Much better! We had to work with the floors that we currently have (although we hate them), so that meant keeping the colours and palette simple. We also didn't want to choose a countertop that clashed with the floors.

We went with a basic vanity base from Lowes. From there, we chose a stone remnant that we liked and had it cut to size. We purposely did not make the stone go all the way to the wall on the sides. Reason for doing that? One day when we can replace these floors, we want to be able to slide that vanity out of the powder room and once the new floors are in, put it back. Cutting the top that way, will allow us to do that. A lot of people thought we were crazy for doing that (we had to fight with the installers!), but in the end, they loved the look of it, as do we. We also thought cutting it that way, made it look like a piece of furniture, which we prefer.

The stone we chose is a granite called "White Reef". We liked the cream, white, grey and green tones to it, and it seemed to blend well with our floors, which was another bonus. The stone will be easy to care for and the slab that this remnant was from, was actually 3/4 inches which we thought worked well.

We installed a new toilet and sink as well. The sink is a Kohler that we ordered from the same place we got the stone. We have the same sink upstairs in our small bath and love it, so that was an easy purchase. The mirror was stolen from our upstairs bathroom, and the towel bar and toilet paper holder are from Home Sense. The picture frames are from Ikea and to fill the frames, I quickly painted some initials (I, C and M) for now. The shelf above the toilet we bought at HomeSense, but modified with some trim and painted it the same colour as the walls..

The white colour we chose is Simply White by Benjamin Moore (everything white in our house is painted this colour), and it makes the room feel so much brighter.

Overall, the space feels much cleaner and fresher and I can stop feeling embarrassed about sending our guests in there!

Here's one more look at the before and after:

So there you have it!

Here is our Source List:

Countertop: Graniteworx- granite called "White Reef"
Sink: Kohler- Graniteworx
Vanity: Lowes
Toilet: Lowes
Faucet: Lowes
Light fixture: Lowes
Mirror: (stole from upstairs bathroom- purchased at Urban Barn sale years ago)
Soap dispenser: Jonathan Adler (gift at a Marilyn Denis show taping!)
Garbage pail: Walmart
Toilet paper holder and towel bar: HomeSense
White towels: Home Sense
Shelf above toilet: DIY project/HomesSense
Chrome Kleenex box holder: gift
Flower: HomeSense
Picture Frames: Ikea

Paint Colours:

Wall Colour: Simply White - Benjamin Moore
Trim Colour: Simply White - Benjamin Moore

If you want a refresher on how we got to this point, feel free to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the powder room renovation. Also, if you have any questions on anything that we forgot to list, please feel free to comment below!

We hope you enjoyed our nice bright, white space!

Melissa and Ian

Walmart.com

2014-04-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

You guys. We have something pretty cool to share. A few weeks ago I was contacted by a representative from Walmart who came across our nursery on Pinterest. She was a fan of our nursery and the fact that we had used pieces from Walmart to complete the space.

So guess who is featured on the homepage for Walmart.com's baby furniture....us!

We're pretty excited about it...well really just the fact that Walmart liked our nursery enough to feature us.

So you can check it out at the link here...look quick or you might miss it ;) I've also pasted the image below.

Thank you (our readers!) again for all of your support on this room that has meant so much to us and been so close to our hearts!

Melissa and Ian

Powder Room Reno Part 2

2014-04-11T06:00:00.000-04:00

We left you with this:

and we've come a long way since!

Next step was to choose a wall colour and add in the vanity. The wall colour was going to be picked based on the colours that were in the countertop that we chose. The countertop is a granite called "White Reef" and it has a bit of white, cream, grey and green to it. My initial choice was to paint the room "Simply White" by Benjamin Moore (the colour of all of the trim we've painted in the house), but Ian wasn't on board.

So we decided to look at colours that were light and bright but that would go with the counter. After painting 2 testers on the wall, I convinced Ian that "Simply White" might look the best and he agreed.

We chose to go all white, based on the fact that we wanted the counter to be the focal point and didn't want anything else in the room competing with it. As well, the space is small and we wanted it to feel clean and bright.

So the room was painted "Simply White" by Benjamin Moore and the vanity was installed.

We also added in a new light fixture about the vanity:

So we'll leave you with that for now.
Stay tuned for the final reveal post coming up next!

Melissa and Ian

Powder Room Reno Part 1

2014-02-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

So here is what we started with:

It wasn't horrible. However, it was a a bit stuck in the 90's and not really our style. The sponge paint on the walls was going to be the first thing to go. Along- with the super old toilet that gave me the heebie-geebies.

So we started taking it apart...with a plan and a small budget in mind. We planned to overhaul this space for under $1000.00 and I think we did it! More on that to come later.

So first things first. We took out the vanity and had to move the pipes behind it. We moved the pipes that we coming up out of the floor, so that they were coming out of the back wall. We did this so that we didn't have to cut a hole up into the bottom of the new vanity.

Once we did that, we had to fix the drywall on the back wall and add tiles back onto the floor where the vanity had been.

Since the vanity was going to be going on top of the tiles, we weren't worried about chipping out the half tiles and replacing them with full tiles. We just wanted to make sure that there were tiles under the vanity as the vanity is raised off the floor and some tile will be visible.

Once the tiles were grouted, Ian removed the baseboards and fixed up the drywall:

It was his first time doing drywall, so we figured a wall that would be covered up with a vanity was a good place to start! However, I think he did a pretty good job for his first attempt!

Next, we put the baseboards back on and added some chair rail (because we apparently, really like adding mouldings to rooms!)

We then removed the ancient toilet and prepared to prime the space:

And the priming began:

and once it was done, it was already a million times better than what we started with!

So that's where we'll leave this post at for now. Next we'll talk about picking a wall colour, vanity and all of the other choices for the room! Stay tuned :)

P.S. Dont forget to enter our Giveaway! There's only 3 days left!

Melissa and Ian

WhatThePrint Giveaway!

2014-02-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

We are steps away from finishing off our latest project (the powder room reno) and we can't wait to share with all of you! We took a bit of a different direction in this room, and I'm really hoping the end result is what we envisioned.

While finishing off this room, I began looking for some prints for the bathroom wall on Etsy. I came across Chelcey's adorable store called "What The Print?" Her shop is right up my alley- she sells prints, posters, greeting cards, instant downloads, printable home decor (so cool!) and so much more. Here are just a few of my favourites:

source for all images- WhatThePrint Etsy Shop

Her designs are so pretty and would look gorgeous in any room in your home. Chelcey contacted me about doing a giveaway and of course I was super excited to pass this onto all of you!

So one lucky winner will receive one of Chelcey's instant downloadable digital prints (which can be printed at whatever size you choose!)

Contest closes Saturday February 15th and details to enter are below.
One winner will be chosen and the contest is open worldwide.

Goodluck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nursery Change Table Topper DIY

2014-02-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

Since we've posted about our nursery, one of the most asked questions we've had, has been "how did you make the change table topper in your nursery?". We had never done a post on it, as we didn't think it would be such a popular question, but based on your requests, here it is!

When we were designing the nursery, we decided that we wanted to get a dresser for the room rather than an actual change table. We think change tables are great, however based on the design of the room, we decided on getting the Ikea Hemnes 8-Drawer Dresser. We changed out the knobs to personalize it a bit, but otherwise left it as it.

We chose this dresser because it was the perfect height and depth to act as a change table as well as function as a dresser for a nursery (lots of drawers and storage). We could have just put a change pad on top of the dresser and been done with it, but I really liked the look of the topper and felt it gave a more finished look to the room (as well as making the dresser feel more like an actual change table).

So I scoured for change table toppers online. I looked for used ones and couldn't find any. I looked for new ones and couldn't afford any (the cheapest one I found was $100!). So I started to research on how we could do our own. I came across an excellent tutorial from Meg Made and used this as a bit of a guide, however we adjusted it a bit.

So here's how we did it!

DIY'ing your own Nursery Change Table Topper.

1. Purchase a change pad. Before doing anything you want to make sure you have your change pad so you can create your change table topper to fit. Most change pads are a standard size (32 x 16), but you still want to be sure.

2. Design your topper. I wanted a simple design and we determined that we didn't need a base on the topper- just the frame itself. I wanted the frame to be just a bit higher than the actual change pad as well.

3. We went off to Home Depot and purchased 2 pieces of MDF trim that were 84" length and 4" high. The actual change pad was just over 3" high, and I wanted the frame to be just a bit taller than the actual pad, which is why we chose 4". We calculated that we would make each long side 33" long and the short sides 17.5" deep. So when we added that up (33 x 2 and 17.5 x 2) we ended up with 101" plus a bit of extra for waste, so 2 pieces 84" long would work fine.

4. We cut the pieces to size on a 45 degree angle in order to make a nice smooth corner and this allowed the pieces to fit together nicely:

5. After the pieces were cut, we simply nailed them together (using small nails and a hammer, if you have a nail gun, even better), filled the nail holes with wood filler and once dry, sanded and then painted. We opted to paint the topper Simply White by Benjamin Moore, a. because we have a ton of it (all the trim in our home is painted that colour) and b. because it blended well with the colour of the dresser. If you were planning on staining your table topper, you would need to buy actual wood trim, rather than MDF, in order to be able to stain it.

6. Lastly, once it was dry, we added some rubber feet to the bottom of the topper so that it wouldn't slide around on the dresser. Done!

So there you go. Simple, easy and cost us less than $30.00.

I hope this helps all of you who were inquiring on making the topper yourselves, it's really a simple easy project that in the end, can save you a bit of money and looks great!

Melissa and Ian

Nursery Updates #2

2014-01-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

So here are a few quick updates on the nursery for ya!

Remember our blinds/curtains?

Well can you see the massive amount of light coming into this space? I love it, and it might not be an issue if Cole wasn't crazy sensitive to light...sound...pretty much everything! So, we need blackout curtains. We got some excellent ones recently, however they are pretty bulky and take up a lot of space in the room. We came across this post on Honey & Fitz and are going to try their technique to fix up the blinds this week! We'll be posting the results soon.

Cole has become a ninja when we change him, so that cute little "prints" picture that we mounted about his change table is going to have to come down. He literally almost rips it off the wall when we are changing him. So, I'm on the hunt for something else to fill that space.

Lastly, when we first found out we were expecting, the first thing I bought were the Blabla Dream rings for the nursery. I loved the natural/hand-made feel of them, and was super excited to put them in the space. We were then given another beautiful handmade mobile that also looked gorgeous in the space. In the end, this mobile won out (especially since it was a handmade gift to us):

Lately though, Cole has been loving the handmade toys. He loves his handmade Blabla dolls:

so we thought the Blabla dream rings would be a hit above his crib:

When we tested them out, he preferred the original mobile. I think he likes to watch all of the moving pieces, and so we're now on the hunt for a good place for the dream rings. I found a pin on Pinterest where a clever idea was to put them in front of the window or even a mirror, so that might be the next idea!

source

We also want to thank all of you who have pinned or asked us questions about our Nursery! This room was incredibly special for us, and it means so much that you enjoy it as much as we do. We truly put our heart and soul into that room to make it our own...the perfect space for our little guy. So thank you for pinning- it means a lot to us!

So those are the small updates we've got going on around here right now...along with a few other, more involved projects. Take a peak at our Facebook page to see what else we have going on. We posted a picture a few days ago to give you a clue as to what else we're working on!

Melissa and Ian

Now What? My thoughts on Blogging...

2014-01-19T19:00:00.001-05:00

Recently there have been a lot of bloggers who have been writing about the lack of posts in blogland. Now, before I comment on this, I want to say this post is completely my own words and thoughts. I'm not writing this to "copy" anyone else's thoughts or ideas, but rather to give my 2 cents on the topic. Plus, its been something that has been weighing on my mind for quite some time.

I recently read Janice's post and loved it. It made me feel slightly relieved about the whole "blogging thing". To be honest, I thought it was just us who had stopped posting so often. Once we had our baby (our very colicky baby, I might like to add!), our priorities in life changed. We barely had time to eat during the day, much less work on a project, take photos of it and write a blog post. I tried to be ok with it...I had to, but it was still weighing on my mind. Then I started to see these posts popping up in blogland- about how bloggers weren't posting as much, about how other media sources may contributing to the lack of blogs, etc. I began to realise it wasn't just us.

I had been feeling pressured to keep up with blogging. To try and balance my life so that I could fit blogging in again. But then I took some time and really thought about it. What about the blog did I love? What was it bringing to my life?

For us, blogging began as sort of a diary/document of the work we were doing to our home. We wanted to keep it at just that. We aimed to post a few times a week and if people were reading our blog (and liked it!), that was just a bonus. We decided not to advertise on the blog or partner with sponsors and really just to keep the blog casual. We also didn't want to blog much about our personal lives: what we were making for dinner or wearing that day, weekend outings with our family, etc. That was just the way we chose to blog- to keep the blog focused on one topic- designing our home. Now, I know some fantastic bloggers who manage to talk about a variety of topics, Christine and Janice are two amazing examples, and I absolutely love reading their blogs, however, regardless of our blog topics, we all have one thing in common. We love to share ideas, information and express our creativity.

Blogging also brought me close to some amazing people. Shannon, Lauren and Katy are 3 people I've met through blogging that I can honestly say, I admire and would consider some of my best "blogging buddies". I know if we lived closer, we would hang out (at least I'd be up for it!). Not only do we have blogging in common but other interests as well. (P.S. I miss you girls!)

So blogging wasn't just a creative outlet for us. It became a way to document ideas, express our creativity and also a social connection- it brought us closer to people who shared similar interests to us. It truly has brought a lot to our lives and its been an amazing creative outlet for us both. Plus its helped us to discover a true passion in our lives.

So if blogging can bring us so much, then why are we all posting less?

I think we've all begun to really look at how much time blogging takes away from personal connections in our lives. For us, when we get home from work and spend multiple evenings and weekends working on a project and then need to spend more time to edit and post about it, it takes away from the only time we can spend together as a family. An easier way to document these projects is to use Instagram or Pinterest and to simply just post some action photos of our lives and projects in progress.

So if you've noticed that your favourite bloggers might be slowing down a bit, maybe this is just the beginning of a shift in the use of social media? I'm not sure, but I honestly love when someone "pins" one of the rooms we've worked on. I used to love seeing comments on the blog, but I understand that readers may not have time for that anymore. Simply "liking" or "pinning" a photo of our work might be what we bloggers should be expecting from our readers from now on. And that's totally fine with me (although comments are ALWAYS welcomed!).

All I would say, is that if you like the work that a blogger has done, to please let them know! We put our heart and soul into what we do, and it means a lot to us when someone pins our work. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, so please give kudos when they are deserved. Plus, it will keep your favourite blogger blogging!

So to conclude this post, we'll be still blogging like we did before- when we have something new to share and that we think you'll find useful or inspirational. Speaking of which, we've got a few great projects to share fairly soon ;)

Melissa and Ian

Nursery Updates

2013-12-18T17:10:00.002-05:00

Wow, those past few months just flew by! Its been a while since we've had the chance to blog... for as you may know, we've been busy with a new little person who entered our lives in August :) We are so in love with our little guy and are definitely getting into the swing of things, but blogging took a bit of a back-seat while we adjusted to one of the biggest changes in our lives!

We're slowly starting to talk about home projects again and are looking forward to getting some things started. In the meantime, I actually made a few adjustments to the nursery after Baby B (Cole) was born.

We added some new photos and an adorable new print (thanks to Christine from Just Bella and Justine from Justine Ma Design):

and added a beautiful canvas print of our little guy. If anyone has any suggestions on affordable and good quality canvas printing companies, please let us know!

We also took some foot and hand prints when we first brought Cole home, and framed those as well:

I think I can officially say that this room is finished! Its so comfortable and cozy and I think Cole feels pretty at home here :)

Also, a HUGE thank you to all of you who voted for our nursery on Project Nursery as well! We truly appreciate all of your support. For those of you who missed it, you can check out our nursery as one of the top September nurseries on Project Nursery here.

Melissa and Ian

Nursery Reveal

2013-08-21T12:24:00.001-04:00

The nursery is finished! I think...
It's hard for me to say that we're officially done with the nursery since I constantly think of new things I want to add, but I'm doing my best to try and leave it alone for now :)

For me, the nursery was something that I spent a great deal of time planning in my mind. I had saved ideas for years and once we found out we were pregnant, it was one of the things I was most excited to start. We knew we had definite ideas for a boy or girl nursery and since we are having a little boy, the nursery has been decorated in a way which we felt said "boy".

In my previous post, I mentioned that it was hard for us to describe the nursery under a specific theme. We really felt that the nursery was a collection of things we loved, things that represented us, and things that we hoped the baby would enjoy now...or eventually :) We stuck to a neutral/calming colour palette and included rustic elements.

There are a lot of elements to the nursery that we created or made ourselves, which may be why it took us so long to put together. We love how the nursery has turned out. It may not be the typical nursery, but for us its perfect and we love it.

We chose to focus on texture as well. Metals, woods, soft fabrics were all used to add interest to the space.

Our crib is the "Olivia" crib from Baby Mod. You can read about our crib search here. In the end, we ended up not liking the 'amber' colour that the crib base came in (it didn't match with our hardwood floors), so we opted to have it stripped and stained darker. We love how it turned out and it matches exactly with our floors.

We didn't want to hang anything large or heavy above the crib, so when I came across these vintage letters on Etsy, spelling out the baby's initials, I knew they would be perfect. They are super light and we stuck them to the wall with some heavy duty double sided tape that we found at Home Depot. A sales associate recommended it to us, as this tape is used to hang house numbers on brick and it worked out great. We've had the letters hanging there for about 3 months so we figure they're pretty much stuck there!

The baby's name has been decided for quite some time (we talked names on our honeymoon 4 years ago!), but we're waiting until the baby is born before we share it with the world. There are a few pictures in this post where I've edited the baby's name out of the pictures (and replaced it with a mustache!)

We also hung a handmade mobile above the crib that has a rustic (and also slightly Canadian!) theme to it and feel it goes perfectly with the style of the nursery.

Our nursery chair works well in the space and most importantly, it's SO comfortable! You can read about our search for the nursery chair and what we eventually decided on here. I feel it will be a chair that we can work into multiple spaces and the neutral colour also helps with that.

Rather than opt for the matching foot stool, I chose this dark leather poof that I found on Etsy and it is gorgeous! It's handmade and I love how it adds a new element to the space. I've seen similar ones for hundreds of dollars on some designer sites, however this one from Etsy was much cheaper and the quality is superb.

The print on the wall above the chair was made for us by a good friend. I also added a handmade pillow cover to a pillow I had, along with a cozy throw from Indigo and a bunny from a special friend to the chair.

You might have also noticed the lamp behind the chair. I noticed this lamp used in another nursery and loved how unconventional it was. I had seen lamps like this at Restoration Hardware and other designer stores for hundreds of dollars and since that wasn't in the budget I didn't expect to find one. However, one day I popped into HomeSense and there it was sitting there. For $69.99 it was too good to pass up. The brass colour matches the ceiling light exactly and it definitely fills up that corner of the room too.

The only thing missing on this side of the room is a little end table for beside the chair. I never ended up finding that little brass one from Target I put a call for help out for on our Facebook page a while back, but I know I'll come across something sooner or later that works in the space.

We chose the Ikea Hemnes 8-drawer dresser for a change table/dresser and its perfect- tons of storage, perfect size for a change table and nice clean lines to work in the room.

We also opted for different knobs on the dresser. I had some old black glass knobs hanging around that my dad had given me and chose to paint them a nice light grey.

Ian made the change table topper for me. I searched online and the cheapest one I could find was over $150.00, so we decided to make our own. It ended up costing us less than $20.00 and it's designed exactly to size for the dresser. I would highly recommend making one if you can...later I'll be doing up a blog post about exactly how we made ours to hopefully give you some direction!

Ian also found some pieces of wood in the cold room in our basement (left there from the previous homeowners), that he felt would work perfectly for shelving. We loved the rustic feel to the wood and the pieces were the exact right size. We cleaned them off and lightly sanded them as well. One piece we kept whole to act as the longer shelf above the dresser and the other we cut in half to act as 2 shelves on an opposite wall.

Beside the dresser we chose to put up a family photo collage. We added in pictures of many of the male relatives of Baby B including Ian, both grandparents and some of the great-grand parents, etc. The frames we purchased all over- Target, Walmart, Ikea, second hand, etc.

We also wanted to create a little reading area for the baby to have (once he starts looking at books of course!) so we cut the other piece of wood in half to create 2 small shelves. Ian purchased some rustic looking nails at Lee Valley Tools and hammered them into the wood so that the books would eventually sit on the shelves (and not slide off the front).

For now, we chose to frame some adorable prints from Etsy for the shelves.

We couldn't forget to include our little handmade rocking horse (that we scored from a thrift store a while back for only $12!) as well.

We also adore the little vintage roadster style car, I was given by some special friends at my baby shower a few months back. Ian and I registered for it at Indigo last winter and knew it would be an awesome addition to the room! Since receiving this car, I've seen it pop in in so many nursery spaces, and honestly it is such a cute little car it doesn't really surprise me!

Lastly, the closet system that Ian installed a few months ago has come in VERY handy. Its allowed me to organize so much of the supplies for the baby, clothes, books, etc. I was fortunate enough to have some wonderful work colleagues who threw me a book shower for the baby and I ended up with a full library! For now, the closet is housing Baby B's extensive collection.

Seriously, I love that he has so many books already!

and check out his pretty awesome shoe collection:

In the end, we're really happy with how the space has turned out. I still have a few other items I'm adding (something for the door, a handmade wooden box for the dresser etc), but we'll see if I get to finishing them before the baby arrives.

For now, I think the nursery has all we need and hopefully Baby B will be comfortable in here :)

We've added a source list below, but feel free to leave us a comment if we've forgotten something! We hope you've enjoyed our nursery :)

Melissa and Ian

Source List:

Crib- Baby Mod (Olivia Crib): Walmart
Dresser/Change Table- Hemnes 8-Drawer Dresser: Ikea
Knobs on Dresser- Vintage/Handmade
Glider- Newco International Grand Bella Velvet Glider: Walmart.com
Vintage Style Roadster- Indigo (gift)
Rocking Horse- Vintage (Second Hand)
CLB Letters above crib- TheOldTimeJunkShop: Etsy
Moroccan Poof- Marauthentics: Etsy
Pillow on Gilder- Studio Pillow: Etsy
Mobile- (gift) Pi'lo
Area rug- Costco- similar
Sheepskin Rugs- Ikea
Orchid (plastic) flower on Dresser- HomeSense
Frames- Target, Walmart, HomeSense, Ikea, Second Hand
Floor Lamp- HomeSense
Ceiling Light- HomeSense
Curtains- Lenda: Ikea
Bamboo Blinds- Walmart
Curtain rod and rings- Walmart
Crib Skirt- Indigo (no longer available)
Crib Sheet- Dwell Studio: Snugglebugz
Shelving- Handmade
Dinosaur on shelf- Zuny: Indigo
Stuffed bear on shelf- Second Hand
Print on Shelf- "I love you to the Moon and Back" (MyFabulessLife): Etsy
Print on Shelf- "Our little Man" (T3DesignsCo): Etsy
Change Pad table topper: Handmade
Change Pad: Babies R Us
Change Pad sheet: Handmade by my mom :)
ZigZag Bin beside crib and in closets: Pehr Designs- Indigo
Woodland Bunny on glider: (gift) Indigo
Lamp on Dresser: Walmart
Musical lamb hanging from shelf above dresser: Indigo
Garbage Bin- Target
Pillow in crib (for pictures only!)- Handmade by me
Stuffed animals in crib- (gifts)

Wall Colour: Pelican - ICI/Dulux Paints
Trim Colour: Simply White - Benjamin Moore

A few nursery sneak peeks!

2013-08-06T15:38:00.001-04:00

Hello friends!

We've been busy around here, however I've been fighting off a terrible cold for the past 2 weeks, which has made me pretty much useless for projects and things around the house. Boo to that!

Ian's been working away like a busy little bee though, and we're excited to share the nursery with all of you! I don't know if it will ever feel done to me- I could keep adding and changing things around, but this baby is coming anytime now so I'm forcing myself to stop and just let it be.

Here are a few peeks at some of the things we've been working on....

Looking forward to sharing all of the details with you and the finished product!

Melissa and Ian

Nursery Idea Board

2013-07-12T13:40:00.000-04:00

I've had a lot of people ask me about the "theme" or style for our nursery. The funny thing is, I've had a hard time answering that question! We've known what we wanted for our nursery for a looooong time, (we had both "boy" and "girl" nursery designs planned out), but I don't think we really ever had a theme in mind.

We looked at a LOT of nursery's online and collected a lot of ideas but we also wanted it to have our own style. The concepts we liked were calming, vintage, relaxing, natural, eclectic, rustic and warm. We wanted the nursery to have a put together, just not "matchy" feeling to it and we loved the idea of incorporating neutral colours and injecting vintage, rustic and contemporary pieces into it.

The main piece we used as inspiration, was an old rocking horse I picked up at a second hand store...for a mere $12.00. Its one of our favorite finds to date and we just loved the vintage feeling from it and the fact that it was handmade. I was also given this little guy from a friend and loved his rustic look.

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We also come across this adorable car from Indigo kids, and knew it was perfect for the nursery. We had some wonderful friends and family go in together on this gift for us, and it looks absolutely perfect in the nursery space:

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So you can see our nursery is really a mix of many things. Basically we ended up with a variety of different textures and materials in the room. I designed an idea board incorporating ideas we had found online along with my our inspiration and ended up with this:

There are still a lot of aspects to the room that we did not include on this board, but that we have added along the way. The nursery has been coming together very nicely, and we can't wait to show you all the finished product :)

Have any of you been designing a nursery lately?! Did you have a theme in mind?

Melissa and Ian

Blog land changes!

2013-06-30T12:20:00.003-04:00

Hi Everyone!

Just popping in, to mention that Google Reader is going away tomorrow. You've probably seen tons of posts about this in blog land, but just a reminder that you can continue to follow us through BlogLovin.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin here:

You can also continue to follow our blog with email. Just type your e-mail into the box under the "Keep up to date by email" box on the right hand menu and all new posts will go directly to your email inbox.

Oh and you can also continue to follow us through Google Friend Connect. Just simply click "join this site" on the blue button on our side menu.

So there you go! 3 easy ways to keep up to date with our posts and to stay connected with us- Bloglovin, E-mail or Google Friend Connect.

Don't forget you can always connect with us through Facebook and Twitter as well:

Looking forward to sharing many more projects and updates with you all!

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Melissa and Ian

What we've been up to: Update

2013-06-28T11:54:00.002-04:00

This week has been a whirlwind. We've gotten a lot done around here, but its not without a lack of sleep or energy and we're both really looking forward to the Canada Day long weekend!

If you've been keeping an eye on our project list ("What we've been up to"), the "To Do" list is definitely getting shorter!

So here's a quick update (we'll be blogging about a bunch of these projects next week):

The upstairs floors are DONE:

and they match the bedroom floors :)

We are so happy with how they turned out-phew!

The nursery room floors are in, and we're in the process of putting together that room:

Nursery room closet system has been installed (Ian did an amazing job!):

and we installed a few new lights outside the house (some for style, some for function!):

so there you have it! We're working away and things are getting done around here!
Are any of you working on any projects this weekend!?

Have a great long weekend everyone!

Melissa and Ian

Nursery Before

2013-06-24T07:00:00.000-04:00

When designing the nursery, the first decision was which room to turn into the nursery. We had 2 spare rooms to decide between- one small and the other a big larger and closer to our bedroom. In the end we chose the larger room that was closer to our bedroom. It just made sense to utilize the larger space and have the baby closer to us to begin with.

So that bedroom started looking like this (minus the décor and furniture that was the previous home owners):

Once we ripped out the laminate floors we were left with a pretty bare room:

We picked a paint colour and after painting all of the walls, closet, and re-painting the trim and mouldings (and caulking) we ended up with this:

We chose the colour "Pelican" by ICI/Dulux paints as we found it had a bit of a taupe/grey base to it, which we loved. Its just a bit less grey than the other rooms in our house, but still matches well. The picture doesn't really show the true colour of the walls- lighting really changes everything, but here is the swatch:

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Looks pretty grey to me on my computer screen! However, it is much less grey in person. Just after finishing this room we decided on installing hardwood/bamboo floors in our entire upstairs and all of the baseboards need to be removed. After all the work Ian had put into painting the walls, baseboards and caulking everything, this was a bit of a pain. So he's removed them all and now this room is just waiting for the floors to finally be finished. Once that happens we'll replace the baseboards, caulk and repaint if necessary and then we can start officially putting this room together!

Stay tuned for more progress on this room :)

Want to see how our nursery turned out?! Check out our post on the final reveal HERE!

Flooring Mishaps

2013-06-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

Flooring woes. Honestly, this family has a lot of issues with flooring...and I don't just mean Ian and I. My parents have struggled with their own flooring issues and I can't say this is the first time Ian and I have struggled...if you recall our marble bathroom flooring problem. In each of these cases, the issue hasn't been a flaw with the materials themselves (thankfully!), but rather the install or the store we purchased them from. So you can probably see where this is going....we've had issues with the bamboo floors upstairs.

Lets start from the beginning shall we?

We debated and debated on what kind of flooring to choose. After finding a great deal on our bamboo floors we decided to go with them and happily took home the 25 boxes of flooring that we needed.

We didn't bother checking the flooring inside the boxes, since we had already installed this EXACT floor from this exact store in the past. We've loved how these floors look, in our living and dining rooms, office and master bedroom you can see here.

We saw the sample in the store and it looked perfect and the boxes were the exact same as what we'd had in the past. Lesson learned: even if you are 150% SURE that you have the right flooring, check the boxes. Seriously, it will give you a piece of mind and could save you money in the end (if something were to be wrong).

We hired an installer and he showed up right on time to start with the floors. About halfway through the morning, he mentioned to Ian that something looked a bit off. Ian was able to tell right away that the floors were not the same floors we had already installed in our bedroom. Since he had started from the bedroom, the old floors were right up against the new ones, and it was easy to see the difference. It was subtle, yet noticeable. Ian told him to continue with the install, thinking it could just be the lighting or the fact that the bedroom floors had changed over the past year from the sunlight.

We came home from work that evening and the installer had finished the majority of the hallway. I instantly noticed the difference and did not like the new floors. Since we had never had problems with these floors before and the boxes were labelled the same we assumed it might have been a different dye lot and that we were being too picky.

The installer came back the next day, finished the hallway and nursery and Ian managed to re-install the baseboards, fill all nail holes and caulk and paint them before I get home. I came home (and I'm going to partly blame it on pregnancy hormones, ok?), but I looked at the floors and started to cry. Like really cry. I honestly did not like the new floors AT ALL. So, we debated and finally decided to go back to the store. You can see here that the difference is pretty noticeable:

We brought them a piece of the old flooring (that we had leftover from our bedroom) as well as the new flooring and the sales associates were honestly shocked. They brought over their sample and of course the new floors looked nothing like it. They went and checked all of the boxes of flooring and they all had the "new" floors in them. They went through a box in every pallet and finally when they got to the back of the piles, they found the old style of flooring. The manufacturer had changed the staining process and had not told them. The new floors looked more red in colour and did not have that same "bamboo streak effect" that the old floors had. The sales associates were pretty surprised and thankfully felt sorry for us. They had enough of the older style to give us as a replacement (and did not charge us for that).

The problems were, that we had already installed 10 out of the 25 boxes of flooring so we were only able to return 15 to the store. Also, we already had paid our installer for 2 days of work and now had to start all over again. As well, the installer had custom cut multiple pieces to fit around our railing (which had taken him hours) and he would now need to do that all over again.

That night, we spend the rest of the evening ripping out the new floors. Ian would rip up each board, I would fill a crate with as many as I could and Ian would carry them downstairs and dump them in the garage. 4 hours later we were done and back to where we started from. We left a few pieces around the railing so the installer could use them as a template.

Our installer was great and said he would be fine with starting over with whatever we wanted.

The next day we went back to the store, picked up the correct flooring and brought it home. We let it acclimatize over the weekend and the installer planned to start Monday. Sunday night, Ian and I went through each and every box (allll 25 of them) and checked each and every piece of flooring to make sure it was correct. It may have been overkill, but hey, better safe than sorry (and we are honestly not going to fix this a second time...could you imagine!?)

So there you have it. With the amount of renovations we do, we expect some set-backs here and there, however flooring has been a constant problem of ours. I would highly recommend that you double and triple check any materials that you bring home for renovations. It might take a bit of time, but in the end you'll feel better knowing the right product is being installed. Back to square one!

With this mishap, we now have to pay more for the floors than anticipated, however in the end its still going to cost us less than what we budgeted (barely, but we made it!), and my true feelings are that anything worth having is going to take time...so I'm expecting the floors to look awesome :)

So there you have it, not all projects go perfectly...but it makes it all worth it in the end when they do. Have any of you experienced any similar "mishaps" during a home reno project?! Please tell us we're not the only ones!

Melissa and Ian

Backyard Projects Part 1

2013-06-18T07:00:00.000-04:00

So we have a pretty long list of the things going on around here right now. In-between the indoor projects we're working on, we have multiple backyard projects on the go. I actually have a chalkboard in our office with all of the projects listed...yet it doesn't seem that I'm crossing a lot of them off lately. Every time Ian suggests another project, I point to that chalkboard and that pretty much ends the conversation...I think we often forgot how many things we have on the list.

Here's a quick run-through of what we're in the middle of right now:

To Do:

- Finishing the floors upstairs (hallway and all 3 bedrooms)
- Fill nail holes and paint all baseboards in 3 bedrooms after floors are installed
- Caulk all baseboards in 3 bedrooms after floors are installed
- Install nursery closet system
- Put together crib
- Put together nursery dresser/change table
- Put up blinds, curtains, photo frames, mobile and all other nursery accessories
- Sew crib skirt
- Create and paint change pad table topper
- Finish painting and sealing knobs for dresser/change table
- Finish buying major nursery purchases
- Fix all electrical/switches in house
- Finish putting plates and new switches around house
- Finish sanding and staining wood floor transition pieces
- Finish building up stairway posts
- Re-paint stairway railings
- Fix stone pathway and seal stones
- Plant tree and bushes in large back garden
- Plant flowers and bushes in smaller back gardens
- Seal deck
- Put up solar shade and patio furniture
- Prepare pool for use
- Finish mouldings in master bedroom
- Create roman shade for kids bathroom
- Put up mudroom light
- Put up new side porch light
- Fix up front garden (postpone to next year)
- Re-build pool deck (postpone to next year)

Completed:

- ~~Finish privacy fence~~
- ~~Rip out old plants/bushes in backyard~~
- ~~Level and rebuild back garden~~
- ~~Plant clematis in front of privacy fence~~
- ~~Move side gate up to house~~
- ~~Complete sod~~
- ~~Build air conditioner sound wall~~
- ~~Prepare deck for sealant~~
- ~~Paint nursery~~
- ~~Paint middle bedroom~~
- ~~Put up nursery light~~

Ok that makes me tired just looking at it all! So obviously we'll blog about these things as we finish, but we have about 2.5 months to finish it all before baby arrives, so we'll see how that goes :) To keep us on track, I've posted this list on the right hand side of our menu bar of the website...now we have each other AND all of you to keep us on our toes!

So back to the backyard projects. We managed to knock 3 of them off the list this past weekend (despite the flooring mishap we had last week that I'll blog about later on), so we were pretty happy with that.

We finished the privacy fence, moved the side gate up and sodded the lawn and built the air conditioner sound wall. When I say "we" for these particular projects, I say that lightly. Most of this was Ian. I mean, I was helping...however its getting harder and harder for me to help with these projects as I get more and more pregnant, so the easy things like watering the sod, carrying back plants, etc., become my job.

So lets talk privacy fence first, shall we? We actually built this fence last year and decided to stain the deck and privacy fence as well. Finding stain was a big challenge for us last year but after 5 attempts, we did purchase a stain that we thought we liked. Since we couldn't seem to find a long period of time when it wasn't raining, we figured we'd start with staining the lattice in the privacy fence. We ended up deciding to leave the deck staining until this year and in the process made the decision to just leave the deck natural. Back to square one. So, since we were leaving the deck natural, we needed to replace the stained lattice in the privacy fence (so everything looks consistent).

Here's the fence last year:

then we stained it....

Then we decided to "un"-stain it....i.e. rebuild it;

The process for building this fence the first time around, began with 2 posts dug into the ground and cemented in. We hired someone to come by and do this for us, so they actually dug 3 holes and put in 3 posts for us. 2 posts were used for the privacy fence, and 1 was used for the air conditioner sound fence. Once the posts were finished, Ian built the rest of the frame (we actually measured how big we wanted this fence to be first and that determined where the post guys dug their holes):

We installed the top piece of the frame and then measured the distance from the ground to the top. We divided that number in half and cut 2 pieces of lattice to that size. Ian then installed a middle piece of wood to support the top lattice and to help give more support to the frame. Always level as you go...very important part or you'll end up with a lopsided privacy fence!

Next step was to install the first piece of lattice:

Finally the second piece:

and you're done!

So this year, the only thing that had to be done, was to remove the top finishing piece, unscrew the old lattice and insert the new pieces. It didn't take us as long since the frame was already in place. Since taking this photo yesterday, we've planted 2 clematis that will hopefully grow up the fence over time and give us some additional privacy. So privacy fence- done!

We also completed the sound wall for the air conditioner. As I mentioned above, when Ian had the guys dig the holes for the privacy fence, he had them dig one post for the air conditioner sound wall. This wall goes directly from the side of the house into the post, so we really only needed that one post dug into the ground.

Before the post was dug into the ground, we started off with this:

We basically re-did the gardens around the backyard this year, so we didn't need to remove any plants or work around much.

From that point, Ian was able to install the second post against the house and then attach the middle and bottom bracing pieces:

The boards were each attached to fill in the frame and finally the top piece to finish it off. It already makes a big difference visually and will be nice when we are sitting on the deck to mask some of the sound from the AC unit:

Lastly, we moved the fence gate up and sodded behind it. Almost 2 years ago, Ian decided to rebuild our side gate. We have 2 side gates, however the one side mainly acts as an access to the pool shed. When Ian rebuilt the gate, he kept it in the same place it had originally been, which was a good distance away from the pool shed. However, this left us with a large area of ground that either needed to be filled in with patio stones or grass. If we chose grass, he'd have to open the gate to mow it, which was a pain. The solution? To move the gate closer to the end of the house/edge of the patio stone. This would still allow us to lay sod, but on the OUTSIDE of the fence, for easy access with mowing.

Ian basically disassembled the gates and reinstalled them against the patio stone:

From this picture you can tell where the gate used to be- basically where the dirt begins:

Now that we had moved the gate up, we needed to sod the large area of dirt. Ian had a summer job laying sod once, so it tends to be a pretty quick process around here. In 10 minutes we had gone from the picture above to this:

It definitely looks much better and will be a lot easier to maintain.

So that's what kept us busy this weekend! Not a huge dent into our list of projects, but I'd say we're on our way.

Have any of you been working on backyard projects lately?!

Melissa and Ian

Choosing a Hardwood Floor

2013-06-14T13:33:00.003-04:00

So now that I've shared the details on our flooring choice with all of you, lets get into the specifics, shall we? We chose to go with a bamboo flooring, rather than a hardwood and I'm going to explain what helped us to make our decision.

When we first decided that we wanted to replace the flooring in our living and dining rooms, we knew a hardwood of some sort was what we were after. There were actually hardwood floors already installed in those rooms, but the boards were pretty thin, not in the best condition and would have had to be stripped and stained. We decided that rather than take the risk of stripping and staining (and potentially spending a lot and not liking the end look) we would rip them out and start fresh.

The living room began looking like this (previous homeowners decor):

After we installed the new floor, we ended up with flooring that looked just like our bedroom floors:

We love the final product and are very happy with how it has turned out in every room we have installed it in.

We had previously installed laminate flooring in our last home and it was a great choice for that house. We knew it was not our forever home and based on the value of the house, we didn't want to put a lot into it, so laminate seemed like a good choice. We were also hoping that it would slightly increase the value of the home when we sold it (since the carpet we replaced was AWFUL). We purchased a medium-dark coloured laminate and installed it ourselves. It took a few days (and a bit of getting used to!), but once we got started, it was smooth sailing. We bascially laid each board on the floor and tapped it in, using a rubber mallet. Some pieces went in smoother than others, but once you get the hang of it, its not that difficult.

Upon putting that house up for sale, we actually had people asking us if the floors were in fact hardwood (despite the high gloss finish), so we figured we made a good choice in the flooring.

Fast forward to our current house and although we liked the laminate, we decided to upgrade slightly and install some type of hardwood instead.

The first decision we made was the type of wood. We loved the look of maple, however one of the downfalls to maple is that it is a softer wood. For us, that wasn't very logical. Not only do we have an 85 pound dog, but we also didn't want to have to worry about scratches and dents from kids in the future. So maple was out.

We knew we had to pick a harder floor and were recommended to consider oak but we didn't like the look of oak as much. Oak tends to show a lot of grain and that wasn't a look we preferred, so oak was out. There were a lot of other choices in wood floors, however we couldn't seem to find a wood or stain that fit our preferences. Many of the wood floors we looked at, were way out of our price range and we needed to find something that fit within our budget.

Through our research, we started to see a great deal of postive information about bamboo flooring and this intrigued us so we decided to investigate. When we went to look at a sample of bamboo, we compared it to a sample of maple and with a dark stain, the grains of the boards looked very similar. Bamboo definitely has a very specific look to it, but when comparing it to hardwood, it had a similiar look to the maple.

You can see in this picture here (bamboo on the left, hardwood on the right) that there is a very distinctive look to it:

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We also found that bamboo does come in a fair amount of colour options. We often read that bamboo only comes in light or dark colours, but we found a fair amount of colours in between- it all depends on how it is manufactured. We chose a dark colour called "coffee" and although if I were to choose flooring all over again, I might go a bit lighter, I love the colour we picked. Since we went with a darker colour, its more likely that the flooring was produced through a more complex process which can make it slightly softer, however we haven't found this to be an issue yet.

So we liked the look of the grain, liked the colour options available, the next step was to find out the postive aspects of choosing bamboo over hardwood.

First off, we loved that bamboo floors were helpful to the environment, as they are a renewable resource. Bamboo floors are believed to be more sustainable than synthetic flooring products since they are generally made from natural sources-such as FSC-certified wood, bamboo, cork or eucalyptus. Bamboo is also a rapidly renewal resource. Since bamboo grows incredibly fast (much faster than tree's that can take decades to grow), bamboo is ready for harvest in about 4-6 years. As well, bamboo is not a tree, rather a grass which means that its root system is left intact when it is harvested, so it can continue to re-grow. Another positive aspect for the environment, is that bamboo requires less pesticides or chemical fertilizers (if any) compared to hardwoods during production.

This information helped us to understand that bamboo was an very environmentally friendly, but we also wanted to learn about the construction of bamboo flooring. Bamboo floors are constructed as the bamboo stalks are cut into strips and assembled in a variety of different ways. I thought this basic guide from TLC was an easy way to explain the different ways in which the construction is completed and the floors are stained a variety of different colours.

So in doing our research, we loved the look, loved the functionality of the wood and thats why we went with the flooring we did (bamboo). In the end, Im really happy that we chose to keep with the bamboo upstairs. Its going to be easy to clean and I think its going to look great. We've had a few set-backs with the flooring this week, but we'll update you on all of that next week :)

Happy Friday everyone!

Melissa and Ian

Carpet v.s Hardwood

2013-06-11T07:00:00.000-04:00

Over 2 months ago, we ripped out the carpeting in our upstairs hallway and got rid of all the laminate flooring in our upstairs bedrooms. Our master bedroom had already been given the update of new bamboo hardwood, but we weren't sure what we wanted to do for the rest of the upstairs.

We still hadn't made a decision on what we wanted to do, however we had decided to install pot-lights in the main floor hallway. In order to properly install these, we had to cut into the ceilings from upstairs....which meant removing any flooring we had upstairs:

This wasn't a major issue, since we knew we were planning on replacing these floors anyways. We decided to rip everything out, have the pot-lights installed and then decide later on what flooring we wanted to include. While ripping out the carpet, we ran into some issues. The previous homeowners had 3 cats, which hadn't had a major impact on us yet, however Ian is SERIOUSLY allergic to cats. When we ripped up the carpet, it stirred up all kinds of cat hair, dander, etc- that didn't impact us right away, but did eventually. Once the pot-lights were installed, we had made the mistake of setting the carpet back on the floors (just so we had something nice to walk on before we replaced the flooring) and Ian was barely able to function for weeks- we finally threw out the carpet and this seemed to help. After seeing an allergist, Ian was told that despite the cats, carpeting really wasn't the best option for him to have in a house so we kept this in mind.

Fast forward 2 months and we've been getting pretty tired of walking on the subfloors...it was time to replace the upstairs flooring.

We had narrowed down our choices to either carpet or the same bamboo that we installed in our bedroom/office/living and dining rooms. Our first choice was to install the bamboo/hardwood. We liked the idea of consistency upstairs and felt it would help with the value of the home, along with Ian's (and potential kids) allergies. However, after looking into carpeting, we felt this might be a better option. Softer to walk on, more cozy feeling for kids rooms, potentially more durable for kids and babies, etc.

We went back and forth on our decision for a long time, however in the end the main factor that played into our decision was cost. We knew the bamboo was going to cost us about $4.00/ sq ft for the purchase price (based on what we paid before), plus the cost of install (around $2.00-$3.00/sq ft) and the cost of additional materials- subfloor, etc. With 560 square feet to do, we couldn't afford the hefty price of $4000-$5000 for the bamboo floors. We wanted to be able to do all the floors upstairs for under $3000 (if possible) so whatever fit into that budget was going to be the final choice.

We even made a pros and cons list for both carpet and flooring:

Pro's for Bamboo/Hardwood:
* May increase home value
* Consistent look upstairs
* Easy to clean
* Good for allergies (Ian)
* Easy to use in designing
* Environmentally friendly
* No off-gassing effects
* Know exactly what to purchase

Con's for Bamboo/Hardwood:
* COST
* Can see dirt easily (dark floors)
* May get scratched
* Not as soft for kids/baby

Pros for Carpet:
* COST
* Soft for kids/baby

Cons for Carpet:
* Allergies
* Not sure where to start- what to buy
* Off-gassing = Must install soon- (so off-gassing can occur before baby goes into nursery)
* Colour matching- hard to find colour design to match with walls, etc
* Durability- will it wear well?
* Not as easy to clean?- spills, etc
* Not as good for re-sale

We stared at the list for a while, but in the end carpet won. Well really, cost won. Based on what we expected carpet to cost, we figured carpeting was our only option.

So we went carpet shopping. We did our homework on carpet and although wool carpet was highly recommended (highly durable and super eco friendly), we couldn't afford the hefty price tag of $7-10/sq ft. I had an idea of the style of carpeting I wanted, and this was the look:

source

I loved the look of carpet with a stripe/line pattern, however this was NOT easy to find. Every store we went into, did not have any carpet samples with this pattern...even the one company that had a brochure with this pattern in it, did not have a sample of it.

We had also decided that a combination carpet (cut pile and loop) would be the style that would work best for us and a polypropylene or nylon made carpet would last longer. However, most of the sales associates we talked to, kept trying to talk us into a high priced carpet and we felt very lost. There were so many options and possibilities with carpet, we had no idea where to begin.

While running into multiple carpet stores, we drove by the store that we originally purchased our bamboo from and decided to just take a look inside and check the cost of our flooring again. Lone behold, we walked over to our bamboo and the flooring gods were smiling on us. There was our bamboo, on clearance for $1.99/sq ft as they were no longer carrying this product.

They had plenty left in stock and we were able to purchase all of the flooring for our upstairs for under $1350.00. Boom.

We didn't even debate on it. We literally just looked at each other and said "done". This had solved our dilemma and we knew in the long run, hardwood flooring would be best for us. The other major reason why we were so keen on the hardwood, was because of Ian's allergies. Not only have they been ridiculously awful this spring (the worst in years), but also brought on asthma (which has hasn't had since childhood) and we worried that if our babe were to have these same allergies that carpet might not be the best for the nursery.

So now that we had our flooring we needed to find an installer. We called around and found someone who was able to start this week (because of a delay in another project) and was willing to charge us $2.00/sq ft for install (all in). So $1100.00 for the install, plus the cost of the flooring ($1350) came to $2450 all-together. Amazing! We beat our budget of keeping it under $3000.00 even with the cost of the additional materials for install ($180) and the cost of areas rugs for the bedrooms ($300 for rugs for all 3 rooms)!

In prepping for the install of the new floors, we had to remove all of the baseboards, which was a bit of a pain since Ian had just painted, caulked and fixed them all up, however it had to be done:

Thankfully all of the baseboards came off fairly easily and we don't think we are going to have to replace any of them. Not only is this easier when putting them back in, but also helps to keep our costs down. In order to make the process smoother when putting the baseboards back, Ian labelled the wall and the back of each baseboard with a number, so we know which ones go where:

So come tomorrow, the floors are going to be installed and we can finally start putting the upstairs back together- including the nursery :)

Our house is a bit of a disaster zone right now. We wanted to make sure to acclimate the new floors to the house before the install (which I would highly recommend). You want to make sure if you are installing hardwood floors, that the wood is in the house or room they are going to be installed in, for at least 48 hours before install. This allows the moisture content of the wood to adjust to the conditions in the room. You don't really need to do this with engineered hardwood floors, however I would still recommend taking the precautions. So, the flooring boxes have been taking over the hallway and mudroom for the past few days. Here's just the tip of the iceberg...

Now, although we have decided on hardwood floor for our upstairs, we have nothing against carpet. I personally like the warmth it brings to a space and softness. We have decided that when renovating our basement (dont hold your breath for that one!), we will do carpet as it makes the most sense down there. So, this carpet hunt will happen again eventually. Hopefully we'll be a bit more prepared at that point!

Melissa and Ian

Nursery Design- The Chair

2013-05-30T07:00:00.000-04:00

After we decided on a crib, the next major purchase for the nursery was the chair. I had definite ideas in mind of what I wanted for a chair and Ian was pretty much open to anything...since he figures I'll be the one using it the most...which he's probably right about.

In any space we design, there is always going to be one splurge item and this time it was the chair. We decided that we were willing to save money on all of the other items in this space, but weren't willing to compromise on the chair. We wanted it to be comfortable, stylish, work for a boy or a girl (since down the road, who knows what the future holds) and also be the right size for the space.

Regardless of all of our criteria, I had a chair in mind that I've loved for a very long time:

Nurseryworks Empire Rocker

This rocker is EXACTLY what I was looking for and after some convincing Ian, he agreed to it. There were a few hesitations about this chair though. First of all, the price tag isn't exactly favourable at $900.00. The other issue we had with this chair, was that we weren't sure where we could test it out before buying it. We found a place locally that sells them, however they don't have any in-store and we'd have to purchase it, and then send it back if we didn't like it.

So we figured we might as well continue our search. If we came across something else comparable that we liked, we'd look into it, otherwise this was going to be our rocker.

While searching for the perfect chair, we came across a few others that we considered:

This glider from Room & Board was a dream, yet we knew the colour was very limiting and that we needed to go neutral if we wanted to be able to redecorate the nursery for another baby one day (if that ends up being a possibility).

Shay Swivel Chair Glider

This glider had a nice look and was a little less expensive than the Nurseryworks glider at $799.00, however we weren't sure about the design of the back and neither of the colours were exactly what we were looking for.

Babyletto Nara glider

The next glider we were fortunate enough to test out in store, and it was high on the list as well. The Dutailier Moderno Collection had a good selection of incredibly comfortable chairs and this one had a nice modern look that we both liked. However, I was almost worried it was a bit too modern for me (although Ian didn't mind that), but again the price wasn't exactly favourable at $897.00.

Dutailier Moderno Collection

I honestly wasn't a fan of that many other chairs we came across. We had an experience at one baby store, that literally made me feel like Goldilocks. They had 3 chairs out on the floor, and I literally went from chair to chair stating "too soft", "too hard", etc etc. None of them seemed to be right except for one and even still the price was just a bit too much.

Throughout our search, we also came across some chairs that didn't work for us, but that we thought would fit wonderfully in other nursery's and are also easy on the budget.

Ian has owned an Ikea Poang chair forever...like since he first moved out on his own over 12 years ago and it still lives with us to this day. Although I personally am not crazy about the look for our nursery, it is pretty darn comfortable. I actually thought these options from Ikea were pretty cute and would be super comfy...plus they are easy on the budget at $169.00:

I thought the lighter wood was nice too and there are tons of fabric colour choices and 3 frame colour choices:

Ikea Poang chair

I also liked this chair from Walmart.com. The Enchanted Coronado Glider for a more streamlined look and again easier on the wallet. It also comes in 4 different colour options. In the end, none of the colour options were exactly what we wanted, but this glider rings in at a great price of $399.00:

The Enchanted Coronado Glider

For those wanting a more traditional wooden rocker, I thought this one from The Land of Nod was beautiful and nicely designed. I personally need a softer chair, however I know many mom's who have been perfectly comfortable in a wooden rocker. Although gorgeous and sure to become a family heirloom, this one is not exactly cheap, priced at $499.00:

Classic Wooden Rocker

We had both given up on the chair search for a while, until one evening I came across this little chair on a blog post showcasing Capri's nursery from Sweet Little Peanut:

Source

I absolutely adore this nursery and this chair fit all of our criteria- looks comfortable, a great size, not too modern or traditional, nice colour and could be incorporated into a boy or girl nursery. Ian was a bit concerend at first about the tufting, but with a bit of my persuasion, he got over it. I like the detail it adds to the chair and as someone who tends to gravitate towards more traditional pieces, thats what I loved about it.

The only problem was that the above blog post did not state the source or name of the chair, so I had to search around the internet to see if I could find it. I then came across this image at Project Nursery:

Project Nursery

From this, I was able to get a name for this chair- The Grand Glider, and started to search for the best price I could find. Most companies that carried the chair were charging around $700.00-$799.00, which was still more than we could afford. Many sites had different variations of the name for this chair, so when I typed in "Grand Glider" into a search, I ended up with results from everywhere. One of the sites that appeared to have it was Target, so I went onto the Target site, and there it was:

Target

The best part was that the Target site had it listed cheapest at $579.00. Now that was a price we could work with. Again, the only issue: Target doesn't carry this chair in store, and they do not ship store-to-store or to Canada. So thankfully my new favorite baby store Walmart.com also had the chair ($10.00 less) at $569.00.

Walmart was willing to ship this item store-to-store and it arrived in about 10 days (7 days earlier than the expected delivery date). We chose to order the chair in the white/beige colour (shown above).

I did have a few concerns with ordering this chair online. The first was that if it arrived damaged, we would have no way to order another one as we were making a special trip to the USA to pick it up. Fingers crossed it didn't come damaged (and it didn't!). The second concern was that if it wasn't comfortable, I'd have to leave it and start my search all over again. However, Walmart has an amazing return policy, so we figured if it wasn't comfortable, we'd just return it right there.

My third concern was the colour. On all of the different sites we found the chair, each of them had different colours listed and different photos for what they called "white/beige/buckwheat". We wanted the colour to be slightly off white, but not tan/khaki coloured and not bright white.

Walmart.com listed this photo of the chair calling it white/beige:

And Target.com listed this photo of the chair calling it white/buckwheat:

We hoped that the actual chair looked more like the Target.com picture, and based on the images we found online of those who had actually bought the chair, the Target image seemed more accurate. But again, this was a gamble.

So upon getting to the states and seeing our chair, we ended up with this:

Pretty much exactly what we were hoping for! The chair came in perfect condition. The fabric colour looks great (similar to the Target picture above) and its going to be super easy to clean as the water just beeds up on it. The tufting was done well and the chair itself glides nicely and swivels as well (which is a nice bonus). The other thing I like about the chair is that the back is high enough for me. Im somewhat tall and I wanted to be able to rest my head on the back of the chair...no problems with that at all.

The only thing I would suggest, is that you get some sort of ottoman to go with the chair. I have one in mind Im going to purchase- I don't think I would enjoy the gliding motion in the chair as much without an ottoman. There is one that matches this chair- Newco International Grand Bella Velvet Ottoman, but we opted for something else.

We're overall very happy with it and think its going to work great :) We'll post an update of how we are enjoying the chair once we really get to use it, but for now I'm loving it!

Melissa and Ian

Guest Room Reveal

2013-05-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

So we finished with the guest room...I think.

This room has been a work in process for quite some time now, and with so many other projects on the go, I think its pretty much done...for now.

With the baby arriving in September, we wanted to ensure that any work-in-progress rooms we had started, were finished and scratched off our to-do-list, so we didn't need to worry about them.

So we're leaving this room as is for now. We're fairly happy with how the white-washed shutters turned out and still plan on making some changes to the side tables and lamps, but for now they'll have to do as they are!

We incorporated this sewing table that used to belong to my grandmother, and seemed to fit in with the feel of the room:

Other than that, we finished off the curtains, and added a bunch of fun coloured pillows:

We still love how the walls add just a bit of interest, but keep the room nice and neutral at the same time:

So there you have it, the finished space.

We've compiled a source list, but please feel free to message us if there's anything we might have missed:

Wall Shutters: Kijiji

Bedframe: Kijiji

Bed linens: HomeSense

Side Tables: Ikea

Side Table Lamps: HomeSense

Suitcases (blue): Kijiji, brown suitcase- HomeSense

Laundry Hamper: HomeSense

Ceiling Light: HomeSense (clearance)

Pillow Fabric: Tonic Living

Curtain Fabric: Tonic Living

Sewing Table: My grandmother's antique

Small desk clock: HomeSense

Painted Vases: DIY Project

Paint Colours:

Wall Colours (stripes):
Light Colour- "Fence Post"- Behr (Home Depot)
Dark Colour- "Natural Choice"- Sherwin Williams
Trim Colour: Simply White - Benjamin Moore

So that's all for the guest room for now!

Melissa and Ian

Painting the Hallway

2013-05-24T07:00:00.000-04:00

We painted our hallway. I *may* have had a minor panic attack the day before the painting began, but thankfully it all turned out great.

Painting a hallway is a big commitment. Its not like a small room that's easy to repaint if you aren't crazy about the colour. On top of that we had to hire someone to come in and paint the open part of our ceiling (since we need scaffolding to reach those high areas) so we needed to make SURE we were happy with the colour...7 tester pots later and 3 days of debating we had finally chosen our colour.

From the day we moved into this house, we had planned to change the colours.

As you can probably tell from many of the other rooms in this house, we prefer light colours (blues, white, light grey's) so the dark, earthy colours weren't right for us.

Here's what we started with:

We also planned to change out the light fixtures, but I'll save that for another post :)

So we chose the colour Blizzard Fog from ICI/Duluxe paints:

Source

It has a light greenish- grey tone to it, but once we painted it on, we noticed a great deal of blue, which we were still happy with.

So here's how the hallway looks now:

We have a lot more to still do in this space (stairs are still a work in progress), as is the hanging lighting and we need to decorate the space, but it will all come with time.

You might have also noticed that the hanging fixtures that were there before are now gone. We had them replaced with potlights and love the look. There was a big debate on getting new fixtures or potlights, but we finally settled on the potlights. Our reasoning for this, was that the fixtures we wanted were almost $100 each and even still we didn't totally love them. So up went the potlights, down came the fixtures we highly disliked leaving us with a nice clean look in the hallway.

We still need to replace the large hanging fixture and we did purchase a fixture for this (which we've had for over a year), so we're excited to change that out and see how it changes the look.

For now, its so nice to walk into our home, into a nice bright entranceway...we love it.

Have any of you chosen to paint a light colour in your front entrance way? What did you think of it?

Melissa and Ian

Stairs Update

2013-05-23T13:52:00.000-04:00

A lot of you have been asking us for an update on the stairs.

The first thing we have to tell you is that they are still a work in progress....we haven't decided what to do with the railing yet. Do we paint it darker? Save up for a new railing that we can stain? We really aren't sure. The simple solution would be to re-paint it, but finding the right paint has been quite the challenge.

Secondly, we need to deal with the end post and potentially making it larger. We aren't happy with its size in comparison to the stairs (we feel it should be more substantial), so we're working on a plan to build it up.

Here's where we're at:

They are definitely getting there. The new paint colour in the hallway has made a huge difference, along with the new lighting.

So not much of a dramatic update, but we'll keep you posted on their progress as we go!

Melissa and Ian