guest room - green inspiration

As I've been putting together the design for our guest room, which you can read more in detail about in this post here, I thought I would show some of my inspiration behind the colour I've selected.

If you've been reading for a while, you've probably noticed that I tend to gravitate heavily to white. In fact, this is the third home in which everything in it has eventually been painted the same shade of white. I have never painted a room a bold colour. Bold and colourful aren't even two words that would be used to describe me or my design aesthetic. So why this seemingly uncharacteristic choice of colour?

Green really, of all the colours, save maybe blue, is one of the most natural colours. It's also a colour that evokes peacefulness and a sense of calm, two feelings that work well for a guest room when I think of how I want my guests to feel in it. I want it to be a retreat and a soothing space to unwind. This particular shade of sage green also feels very traditional and timeless, and that marries well with the rest of our home. And yet, a guest room, in my opinion, is one of the more special rooms in a home. To me, it's a room that's sort of closed off to the rest of the house and reserved for special occasions - when guests come to stay. It's the room with it's own set of linens and monogrammed towels. It's the wedding china and pearl earrings in room form.

Because it's a very natural green, it works so well with other natural shades - classic blues and warm, golden yellows, both of which I also love. And the three of them together? A dream combination.

 

Before I had settled on this colour, or even green in particular, I was looking through collections of images I loved, and started noticing a lot of these similar shades of green pop up, over and over. Sagey, blue-greens like that on this door, or the greens at Daylesford Farm. I just love that it's a colour that is just that, a colour, but it's also so neutral and natural feeling. And I think that's why I chose it.

This is the colour that I've settled on -

Calke Green by Farrow and Ball

(However, F & B Breakfast Room Green and Green Smoke were contenders.)

Luckily you can order sample pots from Farrow and Ball by mail and I can't wait to try this on our walls. Thankfully I'm covering already dark walls.

The image that completely sealed the deal for me? This beautiful entrance. This green with the shake exterior is just perfection.

Sources

Images 1-4, 7-9 from Farrow and Ball

Image 5 - Norton Cottage

Image 6 - from Daylesford Farm

Image 10 - via @susaneblakey

the boys room - before photos

The paint swatches are out and rooms are being prepped for the painters who are arriving tomorrow.

With the baby arriving in six weeks, we needed to get our bedrooms ready. Our home has three bedrooms - two upstairs and one downstairs. Currently, all three boys are sharing the bedroom upstairs and using the downstairs bedroom (this one in the photos) as their playroom. Surprisingly, this has worked out perfectly for the past few years. Though I have to admit, they are all good sleepers, which helps. However, trying to add a newborn (eventually) into the same room is just too cramped.

So we've decided that the two older boys will move downstairs, and the two littles will stay upstairs. I feel like the two oldest boys are big enough for this move now, which I wasn't comfortable with when we first moved in. The bedrooms upstairs are in the original house, and the playroom is in the furthest addition, as far away from the other bedrooms as you can get. 

So here is the room, exactly as it was when we moved in. We haven't done anything with it in the 3 years we've been here. It's their playroom and it does take a beating.

We also don't plan to do anything major in this room except freshen it up with some paint, add window treatments, new light fixtures, maybe some built ins and make it a functional bedroom and playroom for the older boys.

I've branched out from my usual Simply White by Benjamin Moore, and decided on a pretty neutral Edgecomb Gray by Benjamin Moore. It's part of their Historical Collection of colours, so I feel like it still fits the age and character of the house.

The floors are already painted, so I need to figure out what I'm going to do with them. I'm thinking I will give them a fresh coat of paint to freshen them up.

Once I draw up a design layout for this room I will share it, as well as my inspirations for the decor. For now, I'm just happy to not have to be painting.

Pumpkin Spice Waffles and Painting

I love breakfast.

I love making breakfast. 

I love setting the table and flipping pancakes while enjoying the first of the coffee. I love how much my husband loves a big breakfast on a Thursday morning, which in our house is Saturday.

I love the smell of bacon in the oven and the way my youngest says every morning "My tummy's sore... I really hungry", as he pulls out his chair and climbs onto his seat.

There are times though that there just isn't time.

On those days, when I still want something warm and comforting and dripping with syrup, I pull out a bag of frozen waffles. Not those kind of waffles. Real waffles.

Every Saturday at the store, waffles are served. They are served lots of different ways - with local strawberries in the Spring, fresh peaches in the Summer, pumpkin spice in the Fall. But no matter the flavour, one thing always remains the same - we always use real whipped cream and real maple syrup.

If there is ever left over batter, my mom bakes it all off and sends home a bag of waffles for her grandsons. They actually heat up well in the toaster, or if I'm warming a lot, in a tinfoil pouch in the oven.

This week's flavour was Pumpkin Spice. I served them with the usual - whipped cream and maple syrup, and then threw a few toasted pecans on top.

They were so delicious.

And it was exactly what I needed to start a very long day of painting...

I'm nearly finished with the painting in the family room. The panelling has been primed and painted and the trim and windows are nearly done. I can't wait to get it all back together.

Freshening Up Our Bay Window

I've been taking full advantage of the bright sun these past couple of days by freshening up the paint in the living room. This is the room I'm currently working on in my efforts to make my way through my whole house, finishing projects up and getting everything ready for spring.

This lovely bay window is one of my biggest frustrations in my house. I love the light it lets into the room, and it probably makes the room feel slightly larger than what it is, but when it was installed by previous owners, and a front entrance was added, it really diminished the layout options for the room.

First, it's completely off to one side. This means that I can't put a couch or pair of chairs in front of it. And even when the love seat is on the far wall, it's still partly in front of the window. The problem is, due to it's size, and proximity to the front entrance closet, it wasn't possible for it to be moved more to the middle of the room. It had to be all the way to one side.

Despite all of that, it's part of my living room, and I won't be changing it any time in the near future. I've simply had to come to terms with all of this, and see it as a challenge that I need to work around.

But back to paint. First, curtain rod holders needed to be taken down. Hudson actually pulled one end out of the wall a while ago while swinging on a curtain panel from the couch to the floor. I don't even know how long this small task has been on my list, but it's been too long. Next, I needed to repaint all of the trim and sills to freshen them up. It's been three years since I've painted this room and it desperately needs to be touched up. Actually, it's beyond touch up... I just needs to be repainted. Our windows aren't new, but they're not ancient. They're easy to clean, and they're decent looking vinyl windows. That is, decent from a distance. When you actually look closely at them, they are disgusting.

I told you. I didn't even want to show this! I hope you appreciate my transparency here. Now, here's the thing - I clean my windows. Not as often as I should maybe, but I clean them. However, no matter how many times I took to them with soap and water, these ugly stains and spots just didn't come off. I thought they were some sort of glue that stuck to the vinyl and then dirtied over the years, and that the actual vinyl was just discolouring over time. One night however, while removing my nail polish, I had a brilliant idea. What if I used nail polish remover to get whatever it was off?

You can imagine how ecstatic I was to see what a difference it made! Above, you can see where I started and the difference. My excitement lasted for about 5 minutes, and then the amount of work I had ahead of me dawned on me, and suddenly I wasn't quite as ecstatic. It took my nearly an hour, and a great deal of elbow grease, to clean this one window. And now I have to do the same to all of my other windows...

They still aren't perfect, but it made a huge difference. They instantly felt newer, and it really helped make the whole room feel more clean.

I used q-tips to clean all of the corners and crevices that I couldn't reach with my rag.

 

Here you can see the hardware and how dirty they are. In the summer and fall, these windows are constantly open.

I'm not going to lie, at this point I felt a bit like Martha Stewart.

It couldn't get every little bit out, but it made an unbelievable difference.

The latches to open them were also disgusting.

A few minutes later and they were beautiful!

Next the trim and sills were washed down, and while they dried, I filled in all of the holes and spots that needed to be filled in.

You can see here just how bad the trim is in some spots. It's one of those things that when you get up close to it, it's kind of scary.

But what a difference a fresh coat of paint makes. Everything just feels so much more finished and clean. You'll have to wait to see it though until the rest of the room is finished.

A Living Room Cabinet and Welcoming Fall

I've had this cabinet sitting in our garage for over a year now. I used it in my sale last year to hold my collection of ironstone. Originally, I had planned on using it as a cabinet to house games and books and things in the basement, but it was one single inch too tall.

I found it on Kijiji, looking much more worse for the wear, for a whole $40.

It's a very simple piece, and that's why I think I fell in love with it. It's been painted Antique White, which is a nice contrast to the white walls behind.

In keeping with the simple feel of the piece, I didn't want the shelves to be too cluttered. It took me all day to find just the right pieces to display. In the end, a few of my bird's nests, some of my Opa's books, some candles and a few natural touches were all that remained.

I had grand ambitions to include orange and red and yellow pumpkins in my Fall decorating this year, however, the most beautiful varieties of squash led me astray. 

In celebrating Fall, I love bringing in the most simple, natural things. These acorns were collected from our campsite on a recent trip to the Finger Lakes. Pine cones were gathered from the towering Pines at the cottage, and all of the nests were abandonned in our back woods.

I also found a home for my small table. I picked this up at an antique store after Christmas for $25.

I'm slowly but surely adding hints of Fall around the house.

New Frames and Spring Bulbs

Is it Spring yet?

It's nearly March and it seems as though everyone except mother nature is ready for this cold weather to lift, and warm temperatures to start moving in.

This morning it's 21 degrees below zero. And that's before the wind chill!

However, to make the weather a little more bearable, the grocery store had buckets of beautiful Spring bulbs this week.

My bright, yellow Daffodils remind me that despite how deceiving the weather currently is, warm Spring weather is right around the corner. 

Another discovery while shopping was this antique frame that I found while looking for a light fixture with my mom. It was in an antique shop down the road from them called The Duke and Duchess.

The painting that I got for Christmas from Ryan fit perfectly in it. It's now beside my chair in the living room. At $35 I thought it was a good find.

You can read more about the beautiful painting here.

I also found some Hyacinths, which always fill the house with the scent of a garden blooming in early Spring.

While cleaning out an area of our basement, I came across a collection of small gold frames I've collected from thrift stores over the years. At 50 cents each, a small collection of them isn't expensive, but they make a pretty display on our dresser.

And our home isn't the only place that's ready for the arrival of Spring!

I was excited to see that my parents had started setting up the shop. It will be opening soon, and it's coming together so nicely.

The Oxalis (Four Leaf Clovers) are already out on display among some of the beautiful antique pieces they've been collecting.