29.8.13

Hallway Reveal


As you know, we've been pushing to finish our hallway this month, and I'm happy to see that it's finished.  In the future, we will want to run quarter round along the bottom of all the baseboards of the house for a cleaner look, but that's not a priority at the moment.

Instead of a full recap of our Style Cure journey, today, I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

To refresh your memories, here's a picture of our hallway taken the day we moved in:


And here it is before we started Apartment Therapy's Style Cure:

 
Now for the fun part.  I'll post pictures today and explanations and sources later. 
 

 










We are so happy with our functional and colourful new room!
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28.8.13

Business in the Front... Party in the Back!


The title of this post actually has very little nothing to do with mullets.  Are you disappointed?  I thought so!  No, the title actually refers to the fact that Corey has been working tirelessly to update the electrical at the front of the house, so it has sort of become "all business", while breaks from our work are spent in the backyard to enjoy our new patio set and fire pit... hence the "party".

We've also been working hard to spruce up our entrance hall, while the family room remains a disaster.  We never actually made a conscious decision to reno the house from front to back, but that's what seems to be happening.  Of course, when we begin our bathroom reno this fall, everything else will be put on hold.

Many of you have been asking what will come after the hallway is finished this week.  I actually have a plan to paint another room (also in Farrow and Ball paint) ... Can you guess which one???  My hope is to have two rooms semi-finished (We still need quarter round around all the baseboards, but that will come later.) before the end of the weekend.

Now, back to the point of this post... I wanted to show you our new outdoor light, (above) which Corey installed after updating the electrical circuit.  What do you think?  We wanted something a touch more contemporary than our old fixture, (below) which would have still looked bad with a proper light bulb, but was demoted to U-G-L-Y (It aint got no alibi!) when paired with an compact fluorescent bulb.  It's a small thing, but it does make our house seem more like OUR house.


On a related note, now that I feel more comfortable with the electrical work leading to the porch light, I have been making a habit of leaving our porch light on until we go to bed.  My neighbours have already commented that it makes the street feel safer and have told us they'll follow suit.  I love my street, but I was surprised that such a friendly street always appeared so dark at night, so I can only hope that this inspires others to do the same.  Not only does this make us smaller targets for burglars, I always think about teens who may be walking home at night... and for whom a well-lit street could make all the difference.  When my mother was young, she was walking home from a friend's house when a man began following her and threatening to assault her.  She was very lucky to find a house with lights on who called the police for her and I shudder to think what would have happened if the street had been dark. 

With the thought of paying it forward, I keep our light on in the evening... and I'll admit, it's easier with a light that looks more appealing. :)  Do you have your outdoor lights on a timer?  Do you leave them on for security or do you forget like most people?  Would you consider taking this small step to make your street feel safer?


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27.8.13

Rolling Out the Red (and Blue) Carpet

 
Remember this post, where I mentioned that I had found the perfect runner for our hallway, which would also tie in two of my inspiration photos?  Well it finally arrived, and we couldn't be happier.
 
Corey knows I've been checking for it every day and I had really hoped to have it before the end of Style Cure but it was looking less likely.  Yesterday, he actually intercepted the delivery guy and hid the box from me so we could open it together.  Are we total dorks for getting this excited about a runner?  Probably!
 
Before I show you the glamour shots of our new rug, I want to mention the great experience I had with the Etsy seller who sold it to us.  Yamood Turkman Carpets is still a new-ish shop, but the prices, quality of the merchandise and selection were some of the best I could find.  The shop owner communicates clearly and responds quickly.  This is the second time I've purchased a vintage rug from him (I also have a small one in the kitchen.) and I know he ships his items immediately and they arrive as described.  No, this is not a commercial or sponsored post, I just happen to think this is a great seller for someone in the market for a similar item.
 
In this case, I was looking for specific dimensions and I wanted rich colours.  I didn't see exactly what I wanted in his shop but I emailed him and he found four runners that matched my criteria, so we worked out an excellent price on my favourite.  We ended up purchasing a red and blue Afghan run, which is about 20 years old and still in excellent condition. 
 
To remind you, here's a shot of the (too short) runner that we had in the hall before.
 


And here's our new bad boy!  FYI, I snapped these pictures the day the rug arrived, because I couldn't wait, but the folds from being shipped will fall out completely in a couple of days.

 
We are so happy with it and we think it makes our entrance look much more elegant.  The pile is great and the rug feels soft and luxurious.  The rich colours make the hall feel so elegant!
 



Next step: Hanging some art!
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25.8.13

Farrow and Ballers


I know I've been a little MIA this week, but it's been a busy one.  We've been up to our necks in wedding planning.  Who knew this would be so intense???  We've made some big decisions (We both know exactly what we want, so it's easy.) and we'll be starting to book our vendors soon.  Woo hoo!  I've also been a little under the weather, so we've been trying to get lots of rest and taking care of ourselves.

On the home front, we've been plugging along with the Style Cure and have finally painted the hallway.  As I mentioned in a previous post, we used Farrow and Ball's Elephant's Breath and we're already thrilled with our investment.

The paint was so easy to apply and the coverage was excellent!  When we made mistakes, (I made tons!) the paint just wiped away with a damp cloth and, perhaps the most noticeable characteristic of F&B paints, there was no sickening paint smell! 

Here's what our hallway looked like before:


Okay, that's more of a "during" picture, but we had to scrape all chipped paint from the baseboards before we could paint them again.  You can see all our test paint on the walls.

Here's a picture I took before bed after completing the first coat:


It's still in need of some touching up around the door trim, since I have not yet figured out how to handle the wonky walls in our new/old house but it's a huge improvement already!  The door itself, is another story (Who noticed it was hung upside down?) and it is on our list of things to replace.

And here's our hallway after the second coat.  Our walls still aren't perfect, (The house is 87 years old, so we don't expect them to be.) but the Farrow and Ball paint is much more forgiving of the minor imperfections.




The colour is fabulous: warm and rich with tons of depth!  We also love the Modern Emulsion finish, which is slightly shinier than the Estate Emulsion test pot we tried, but still matte.

We also notice that the pigments are so rich that the colour truly changes depending on the light.  Sometimes blue, sometimes green and other times a pinkish grey.  It's interesting and understated and the fact that the colour is difficult to pin down, makes it feel even more sophisticated.

One step closer!
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