Hudson's Bedroom

The next room that I have been busy working through is Hudson's room. Originally, this was a guest room. It then became our nursery when Willen was born. When Hudson came along, Willen was moved into the second upstairs bedroom, formerly our office.

Half a year ago, on Hudson's second birthday, I purchased a pair of the beautiful four poster single beds. I wanted them to match because I loved the look of matching beds in a shared room.

When Hudson graduated out of our crib, we moved the boys into the same room. This allowed for a smooth transition into a proper bed, and it also freed up the second room for a play room for toys.

Now that Hudson is settled in his "big boy bed" though, we felt it was time to move him back. Willen has many little toys that are a little small for Hudson to play gently with. And at times, Willen would prefer to read a bit before bed and that doesn't make for the smoothest of bedtimes for Hudson.

So, this week the rooms were once again rearranged, and this is the result.

This trunk is a family heirloom that's quite special to us, if one can be more special than another. This was the boys' great grandfather's trunk (Ryan's Papa). It's stamped with his address on it because it was what his entire life travelled in as he toured around during the second World War. I can't imagine the places this trunk and been and how precious all of it's contents must have been at that time.

This old buffet has been used as a change table for both boys and now houses baskets with toys. It's very worn, but I have a hard time parting with it. I found it before we were married and kept it in my parent's garage. It was the first piece of furniture that I hauled home, abandoned at the side of the road by a neighbor.

Not much changed with the room other than some rearranging and cleaning, but here is what the room looked like the first time we did it.

It was a chartreuse green colour and it had carpet. After countless times of trying to carpet clean these carpets (we actually have one!), and seeing how disgusting the water was every time, we ripped it all out.

The Living Room

We have had a whirlwind of a week, and before the week is over, I wanted to share some photos of what the living room looks like now that it's finished.

Now, let's be honest. By "finished", I don't really mean finished, finished. Is a room ever really finished? I don't think so.

But, for now, it's as finished as it's going to be.

You'll notice my large empty frame is missing. I intended to hang it above the loveseat, but I'm afraid it might be too much on that wall. It's still undecided.

As you can see, the layout has changed around a bit. Our love seat has been moved to the right wall, and the display case where the love seat used to be. Because of the narrow depth of the display case, we were able to squeeze in an arm chair in front of it by the bay window. I've been on the hunt for a smaller occasional chair, and I've come across some good options, but until then, this one adds an extra seat.

The general opinion is that this layout is the most flattering for the space. 

Here are a few photos of different variations of this same room. It's actually quite ridiculous how many times it's changed... But it's been an evolvement of personal style, and finding what's most efficient.

Our living room when we first moved in. It was very dark.

After a year or two, I finally tackled trying to put my own stamp on the space.

Theses couches are actually burnt orange, and because they're a camel-back shape, you can't buy slipcovers for them. I did find generic covers though, and I tucked and tied to try to make them work on a budget. I still have these couches in hopes of one day recovering them.

Also, I had painted the entire space grey. This was when grey started to become quite popular. I regretted it as soon as I put away my paintbrushes. I forced myself to live with it for a few weeks, but I didn't love it. So out everything came again, and I repainted it white - the colour I really wanted to paint it, but was too scared to.

Five years later, I've never repainted a different colour, and am just as happy today as I was then with the look.

Here we have the white walls, and you can see that over time, my style is becoming less cluttered and more focused. However, this layout provided us with only three seats thanks to the piano. Soon after, the piano left, and while I loved the look of it, I was thankful for the extra space.

A new coffee table was purchased, as well as a darker slip cover, and any clutter that was in the space was now completely removed.

Today, while I wouldn't call the room cluttered, I do feel it's more curated.

There is now comfortable enough seating for five, with an occasional chair to the side of the room for the possibility of seating for six.

This is the view from our master. The main bath is to the right, and the front entrance is the french door behind the pair of arm chairs.

It's funny how different the space looks, and how quickly you forget.

Recent Finds - A Salvaged Ceiling Tile

My parent's recently picked up this old ceiling tile from a salvage shop across the river. They actually have been quite lucky lately in finding old ceiling tiles.

I took two home before they could put them in the shop. They would have made one large tile, but were cut into two pieces. My original plan was to display both, side by side, above my couch in the living room. However, they would be within reach of little fingers and even if I sealed them, I still didn't want them that low. So I decided to put one on it's side, up on top of my dining room cabinet.

It makes the ironstone pitchers stand out more obviously.

I loved the colours and the patina, and even the Fleur de Lis pattern of the tile itself. 

A Valentine's Weekend

I've been enjoying a lovely Valentine's Day weekend. Yes, a whole weekend.

Willen had a long weekend off of school, and Ryan worked extra hours last week and could therefore take an extra long weekend. So we've had some much needed family time together.

I can't say that we've done much of anything. We spent Friday decorating the house for our little Valentine's party. We thought it would be fun to spend the night in and make the boys feel like it was a special day for them too. Thanks to more wonderful winter weather, I was rear-ended on my way to work on Saturday. I'm very thankful that it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, but, I decided it was best for me to head back home. We had a nice little get together on Saturday night, and a relaxing Sunday and Monday. Today, Ryan and I are spending the afternoon together.

Willen and Auntie Monica spent the afternoon cutting out hear decorations.

We displayed some beautiful artwork he made at school.

He even made little cupcake toppers for his cupcakes. He later added some cinnamon hearts to make them even more festive.

I made a batch of chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert.

They were so delicious.

We also spent some of Saturday reading through all of Willen's valentines from his friends at school.

And my beautiful bouquet of flowers from Ryan, from Bremfield's of course.

The Myrtle and the Rice Flower makes the bouquet smell so wonderful, as will the Lilies when they are more open.

I hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day.

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.