Sweet Solo Shopping Time

Hey all, just thought I'd squeeze in what I did while solo this weekend
 before I show you some fun shopping pics.

I stayed up late the night before last to get a coat of primer on the wood work. I love the

old doors in this house. They are solid and heavy and made by hand 130 years ago. 

Todd had previously stripped it of it's lead paint outside one summer and now it has one coat of 

Binn primer.

Now this one is another story. The hall side was shellac finish just like the
one behind it in the hall and the bedroom side

still has a scary easily chipped off layer of high gloss lead paint.
For now I'm going to prime and paint 

the hall side and leave the other side until the weather is better
 for a proper and safe paint removal.

All our doors have rim locks and strangely one day this
one decided to lock on it's own and we thought we were never going
to get it open. Todd had to take a crow bar to it.  There was
some door damage and we sourced out a new, old rim lock for it
without a privacy catch so that won't happen again (at least on this door).

It is so flakey because lead paint over old milk paint is like oil paint

over water based paint. It won't stick. So scary if you have kids or pets. 

Now I know some of you hit the stores on a regular basis 

scoring all kinds of awesome finds and deals and you really have to go often to get them.

 I live in one small town and drive east  to go to work in another  small town 

and on Mondays we drive 20 minutes west

for groceries and if there is time or if nothing frozen will melt we

quickly pop into Home Sense.  

Hubs is so sweet to entertain my need

to just look, mostly never buy anything but to just still look but I never really

take my time but today was a different story and boy did I have a good time

all by my self.

If I could I would snafu this baby for our bedroom, I just love it to bits.
I would probably lighten it up a bit with a grey wash.
$100.00

M favourite carpet, sisal with Todd's favourite, animal print border

Another great mirror

$25.00

They are too big for our home

but these Ralph Lauren lamps with their

turquoise crackle glaze caught my eye

A great set of chairs that would look 

awesome around anyone's table

I have plans to change our hallway colour

and can imagine a hit of turquoise in a little

lamp like this one on the desk. Not keen 

on the shade though, feels a little

grammaish to me.

I was ultimately searching for our bedroom lamps and wondered

if these would be a nice contemporary contrast to our curvy 

headboard, alas, they are to modern and too short and 

no tri light which is nice in a bedroom. 

These were a set for $30.00 which I thought was pretty good.

This larger one is a nice statement piece if you like to inject some 

frenchy shabby character for 

sure. 

Now I think these and the wood mirror

are my hands down favourites. They are

Ralph Lauren down filled with button 

closures, gorgeous quality and just $24.99 each.

and to boot there were four of them, so rare.

Now as you may know Mom paints and I would love for 

her to paint some watery beach inspired art for us

and this one definitely caught my eye.

Mom? 

Ok I almost snapped this one up for sure. I imagine it on 

the wall opposite our bed. I just drool over the colours 

and it's composition. 

Mom? 

I'm not a plant girl, kill them with love if you know what I mean but 

if I could find a spot in our bedroom for one I would

pic one of these babies for it. Love the texture.

    

Or maybe this one in a smaller version.

I'm gaga for the x design. 

But here is the most exciting part of my day. 

Before Home Sense I popped in to our Real Canadian Superstore 

to pick up a few groceries and wondered if they had shadow boxes, they' didn't, 

but I did find these great real wood frames and matts, 4 left on sale for  just 

$9.99. I was not sure about spending $40.00 but just the night before 

while leafing through my magazines in bed realized I needed a hit of dark 

in the room and the shell prints were  perhaps too white after all.

So I hauled them to the cash and asked if I could return them if I change my mind. 

NOPE final sale. 

Darn it, I love to change my mind,

 so I said ok as I have seen plastic ones for that price.

 She scanned one and asks me, does $3.94 sound correct.  

Oh duh, yes of course it does!

They were originally $12.99 so I got 4 for the price of one!

Did I feel smug and can't wait to show my honey as he loves black.

A nice detail is the amber wood showing underneath the black.

So I didn't find our bedroom lamps

 (I really want the clear glass ones at Crate and Barrell 

that look like this  but 

 can't afford them)

 but I did find a nice birthday gift at for 

our little Carrera so it was not a bust for sure.

I also learned that Mondays are NOT the day to go to Home Sense.

I always thought that store was terrible for selection, but I had a nice conversation with a young store clerk and the truth is they get trucks all week long starting late Monday which is not

unpacked until Tuesday and by the time I get there Monday afternoon  

 all the good stuff is gone. YIPPPEEEE now I know the little secret

and can join the "Elite Deal Shoppers Club"!

Paint the Wood!

Hello, I'm having a couple of much needed recuperative last minute vacation 

days off from work. I chipped away at

some bedroom painting yesterday which was a beautiful and sunny but 

cold day. I can take the cold as long as I have some sunshine to pour in

through our windows.  As I said our in my last post our hallway needs 

a ton of work upstairs. This is what the downstairs looked

like when we moved in. A dust holding dirty grasscloth like wallpaper

covered the unpainted and very rough plaster walls and the faux

grained shellacked wood was in very bad shape. 

I was over the moon about all our original mouldings and drooled

over pictures of in my favourite shelter magazines of arts and crafts

trim painted white.

Except for the kitchen, carpet covered the stairs and the main floor of our home

including the front hall and we immediately ripped it up 

to reveal wood below, most of it in bad shape.

I apologize to those who are restorationists, I don't believe in ripping out 

old original architectural features such as trim and windows but I do believe

that we don't have to live in the 18th century either if it is not our cup of tea.

Interestingly enough, our home was originally built in 1878 and 

all the trim was painted with milk based paints, then in 1915 it was renovated and some of that

trim was painted over and some was faux grained to look like wood over the paint (as in our upstairs).

This was move in day 10 years ago and you can see the icky carpet

on the floor. 

Don't miss that wallpaper one bit! 

Check out the pattern, it's actually back in style now

in more contemporary colours.

Even though I loved looking at painted wood trim in the magazines

I was so afraid that I would regret it if we did it. 

But after it was done I never doubted our decision. 

Funny thing is that Todd was always for painting it without hesitation,

most men are not.

The next couple of shots are from years ago

after we stripped all the wallpaper

and painted the trim.

The floors still have work

needed, previously patched in pieces. I would

like to keep it and fix it as I love the amber tones

and patina in the oak, Todd wants to

rip it out and lay tile. Heck I can't even get

him to do a temporary refresh just to 

make it look nice until we 

decide what we are doing.

He made the doggy gate as our rottie girl at the time

 had leg surgery and was determined

to push over any temporary gates we used.

It is such a clever and simple idea  if you want to 

keep your pooches out of the upstairs.

My favourite thing was how the mirano glass windows 

pop surrounded with white.

This weekend we are going to see our cutie grandprecious Carrera who is

one year old! I can't believe it has been a year already and we are so looking forward to seeing them.

Grampa Todd and Carrera 

Have a wonderful weekend!

hugs

Sandra

Bedroom update and a really sweet deal

We are no longer sleeping on the mattress on the floor and have moved 

the newly painted furniture back in. 

Don't you just love the power of paint and how it transforms

a space so easily! That is all we have spent money

on so far which makes me VERY VERY HAPPY.

I think the $20.00 dresser turned out nicely and 

Todd did a good job on the bottom to make

it look similar to the other dresser. 

I still have to choose some new knobs and I think a darker 

metal will add a little punch in here.

We hung the drapes temporarily but I took them down

to let enough light in for the picture.

I had purchased a new bamboo blind that you can

get a blackout liner for but I  returned it after I 

figured out it would be much cheaper

to  keep our existing bamboo blind and

line my curtains myself or make my own 

blackout liner for our existing blind.

Tomorrow after grocery shopping,

 I am aiming to finish painting the remaining three walls 

and hopefully the trim (I will have to pace myself as last weekend 

I ended up running myself down prepping everything). 

I also need to finalize the blue bed wall  as I left it until

the furniture was in to see how it looked and now

when I walk into the bedroom I think it's

starting to feel like a seaside resort.

Have you ever colour blocked one wall in a room? Were you happy with it

or did you find it too jarring and needed all the walls to be the same colour?

I'm not a fan of the usual track lighting but a while

back I fell in love with these and had them installed in 

my kitchen display area at work as it desperately needed extra lighting.

 I knew they would

be perfect in our hallway upstairs

 (which has been without any lights to speak of for years now) 

but at $75.00 a pop could not afford them.  

So with me being both stubborn and cheap

I have been allowing us to fumble around in a semi dark hall

lit by a single lamp plugged into one of the

bedrooms, 

that is until today! When I found out these brushed nickel 

traditional looking beauties

were being discontinued and on sale for a mere $19.00 

it was well worth the 2 1/2 hour drive east to another store 

to pick 3 of them up. One was the display

and so I don't even have to buy bulbs for it.

SWEET!

Our upstairs hall needs a ton of work and we can't 

agree on what to do but at least we can finally have 

some pretty lights to look at.

Have a super duper weekend!

hugs

Sandra

Master Bedroom Sneak Peak and My Style Revealed!

 Saturdays are  the end of my work week and then my weekend starts. My mind is

always going on the 40 minute drive home about what I want to accomplish and 

this weekend one of them is tackling some more master bedroom painting.  

I asked Todd to haul upstairs 

one of the my revamped dressers that has just one coat of Designer Grey 

paint on it so I could see if it was the right choice. I have yet

to determine how dark to go with the 

blue on the walls and this weekend I will decide and hopefully

get it painted.  I also got to see how

the Ikea curtains will look and am very happy with them.

I added a little too large

 drum shade that I had  to one of our old lamps

and brought the antique iron chandelier in 

to see how it will all come together.

One day this room is to be the office or guest bedroom but I am so glad we did 

not leave it like it was until then. 

I cannot tell you what a thrill it is to finally feel well

enough to see the proverbial trees for the forest. Clarity has been my

blessing in pockets and has allowed me to focus on what I love.

Although we live about 20 minutes to the closest body of water, I wanted our

home to feel as simple, light and airy with colours of sand and sea
 as if the beach
 was right outside our door

and 

I have always, always been drawn to the 

second hand shabby chic painted furniture,
pretty chandeliers

and  white slipcovered furniture.....

So without further delay I announce that

I have discovered that I can have both and 

HAVE CREATED  

MY NEW STYLE
WHAT I CALL

"NANTUCKET CHIC STYLE"


A BLEND OF 
COASTAL STYLE AND COLOURS
WITH TOUCHES OF 
SHABBY CHIC STYLE

I can't wait for this room to be finished  in my new 


NANTUCKET CHIC STYLE

and to show you what it is.

 I had thought of this name  quite a while
ago and   googled it

to see that  only two other people had used the name
 Nantucket Chic to describe a room

 but they were not a blend of the two interior design styles that 

I love
 to create my 

NANTUCKET CHIC STYLE

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend so far and I would love
to hear what you think!

hugs 

Sandra

Barn Lights

Today I came home and found this nice little surprise,

Todd had painted the walls and the trim aaaaaannnnnnnd....

YES! he hung my absolutely favourite barn light sconces.

 I love them so much! 

As you may have gathered I am

a light junky. If my lighting isn't right then I'm so

 not ok. What I hate is that many times it's hard to 

 find what I love a in our bare bones budget but 

not these beauties, under $30.00 each.

 Don't you just love spaces that the lighting

takes and sets the stage for the room.

These have such a relaxed style and yet 

the brushed nickel finish is an updated necessity 

in our old house. I believe

when you have an old house you should give it new lighting

and when you have a new house, give it

old lighting.

The cabinets are painted with two coats of  

 semi-gloss latex enamel in Benjamin Moore's 

Oxford White and the walls are a custom 

colour of a light cream the same as the kitchen.

I don't have a before picture but I wish  you

could have seen this area before with it's crumbling 

 ivy wallpapered plaster walls  and tons of cold air 

coming in from the wall behind the built-ins. 

I am going to have to put my lamps for 

the bedroom on hold so that I can order the doors

for the built-ins instead and that is ok (it's not like we don't

already have some)

 because

Todd has worked hard on this and I can't

wait to see it all finished. 

Well no one ever accused us of 

sticking to just one project until it's finished! Ha Ha!
Hopefully we can get the bedroom finished soon too.

Here is my really really REALLY rough sketch

of the design so you can see where the

doors will go and the beadboard which is not

too clear in the pictures. I need to find the perfect

brackets for under the middle cabinet,

 some nice baskets

for the open shelves 

and some artwork or 

pictures.

We are tossing up between staining the floor and stairs the same as the 

bench top or paint in an extremely durable porch floor oil paint in

 Benjamin Moore's Manchester Tan that we

painted our front porch floor with. I think the porch paint

would be more durable and keep things light and airy as 

I tend to like but the dark wood would look nice too, 

what do you think? If we go for the paint then it 

will definitely not be done until the better weather to get

some ventilation. Oil paint fumes are very bad for your health.

This side has removable shelves so 

I can put a big bin of our one day pooches food

and yes it will probably be a big bin for he or she, 

as we have always loved big dogs.

Todd now thinks that it looks too good for an

ugly blue recycle bin and I sure do agree so if he's 

hip to transferring the recycles from a nicer bin

to the curb side bin every single week then 

power to him. We'll have to see how long that will 

last.

This is going to be such a great overflow area for storage from the 

kitchen for bulk foods, infrequently used appliances etc and will be 

a great selling feature if we ever have to sell. After all  isn't it all about storage

these days!!