guest room design board

If you've known me for a while, or followed along for a reasonable amount of time, you would likely know that I have a very strong affinity towards white.

Design wise, it's where I feel safe, and yet based on the inevitable response I get from most people (especially when they know we have four sons), you would think it was the most unsafe selection.

For me, the white I'm drawn to is a very natural white, maybe slightly creamy in the right lighting. This white feels timeless (it is after all a historic white) and it's neither stark nor cold, or even bold for that matter. It's a sort of blank canvas to build off of. To me, it feels uncluttered and airy, it fades into the background. It allows what's layered onto it to be drawn more into focus: the delicate print of a pattern and the patina of a well-worn pine cabinet, with it's age spots and honey hues, are noticed more . There's more freedom in allowing the design to evolve through the seasons - more warmth and texture for winter, pared down and light for summer. As my tastes grow, the space can grow without a complete re-commitment to another colour, which maybe doesn't seem like all that much of a commitment until the time comes to actually repaint.

That's where I find both safety and freedom in it. It's a sort of beautiful irony really. 

Over the years, I've learned to trust what I'm naturally drawn to. I've watched very distinct patterns unfold in the things I find myself gravitating towards. One of those patterns is colour. When I sort through images that I've gathered for inspiration, be them landscapes, table settings, shops, floral arrangements, or furnishings, the same colours reveal themselves. I've noticed that my tastes are very natural - lots of green with some blue, and hints of yellow. As I've grown more confident in my own sense of taste and style, I've begun incorporating these colours more into my design - adding some traditional blue china to my table, mustard-yellow velvet pillows to the couch and always green in potted plants and fresh florals.

When we purchased our new home, I didn't sway from my usual selection of Simply White. Still, a part of me has always wanted to fully indulge my intuitions and furnish a room exactly as I envision it. When we made the decision to make the formal living room of our home a guest room, I found the perfect opportunity to do just that. It would be a room of it's own and I would allow myself carte blanche to furnish it however I desired.

So, where all good projects begin, I'm thrilled to finally be able to share my design board for our guest room with you. Later, I'm share more on how I decided on the colour.

Here is my best attempt at the sources for my inspiration.

Pillows (top left) - @cotswoldsinteriors, Cowlfax and Fowler

Pillow - Accent Marks (Etsy)

Stitched Monogram - emsheart.com

Drapes - Southern Living

Blue Plate - @houseandhistory

Paint Colour - Farrow and Ball

Light - Visual Comfort Lights

Armoire - @pearlonmain

Pillows and Blue China - @sb.sarabartholomew

Painting - @missmustardseed

Blue and White Vase - The Enchanted Home

Exterior Door - unknown via @susaneblakey

Fabric Collection and Inspiration - @nineandsixteen

the family room

Being a large family of six, living space was quite high on our list of wants when we were looking for our new home. I don't mind sharing a bathroom. (Okay, that's maybe not entirely true. It would be so much easier if they could just put the lid back on the toothpaste and not touch my face cream. But I can live with sharing.) I don't mind small, cozy bedrooms. But having space to live as a family was important. Especially when we started thinking about how we saw ourselves living in our home. I wanted space for family and friends to come and stay comfortably, and sometimes that would mean lots of kids running around. 

Our family room in this house ended up being so much more than we were hoping for. The room itself is 25' x 25', and essentially, a giant square addition off the main house. It has four large windows and french doors that make it the brightest room in the house.

The room didn't seem to require much more than a good clean and some paint when we purchased it, but after further inspection, we discovered it needed a lot more attention than we realized. There is no duct work in this part of the house, and with little insulation, as we soon found out, this room gets freezing in the winter. The wood stove that was being used for heating was actually unsafe. (You can see all the smoke stains from improper ventilation in the room.) The cement pad from the original fireplace sits in the middle of the room and was decommissioned years ago, but just kind of left.

In the end, we stripped the room back and added proper insulated. Vents were added at the entrances to the room to help with air circulation. And then we dry-walled and refinished the floors. At the last minute, we decided to put in a gas fireplace.

Then there were these structural supports to the room. Originally our contractor couldn't see how they were needed, but as we opened things up, we needed to have some sort of support in place. If we wanted, we could run headers to remove these and make the space more open, but that was a greater cost, and also, more time consuming. So the columns stayed. I decided to just make the most of them and work them into the design. I knew we wanted to have a table in this room - somewhere as extra dining space as we got rid of the formal dining room, but also a place for us to play games and use as part of the family room. They kind of act as a visual divider of the dining space from the rest of the room, and with some detailing and paint, they add some character to a very plain space. This was also the reasoning behind us keeping the shake from what was originally the exterior wall. It adds texture.

Now, in an attempt to be transparent, most of what is on display here does not stay out all the time. If it did, my favourite blue pots would inevitably end up broken on the floor, and only my most favourite books would be doodled in. Half our boys are still very small, and anything I want to keep needs to stay further out of reach of their little fingers. Plus, we use the table, and it's just inconvenient to move most of this when we want to play a board game.

This old round table was a table I bought years ago and painted. Then it sat in our basement for the last seven or so years. I didn't want to get rid of it because I really loved it, and I'm so glad I didn't.

I always love a table styled with interesting books and collected items and pretty things to look at. I also look forward to having a large arrangement of flowers in the middle.

The patio doors lead to the back deck, which is multiple small levels, and is connected to the porch off the kitchen. It won't be staying come spring as it's not structurally sound any more. It's sinking in places and looks ugly. The covered porch will stay and outside of the doors I plan to build a couple steps down, and then have a patio area under some sort of pergola with vines growing on it.

The sofa is from Lee Industries and it was an amazing find on Kijiji. A couple in Toronto was moving back to NYC and needed it picked up asap. We literally drove there that night (it helps that Ryan had access to a Sprinter van), and I pretty much stole it for $400. It's in amazing condition. I will eventually order slipcovers for it, as well as a matching chair to go beside it. It's extra deep and perfect for watching TV, curled up in front of the fireplace. I will also keep my eye out for two chairs to go where the rocker is, antique wood ones with custom slips, that I can put squared off, opposite to the couch. The coffee table will also be replaced with a large ottoman.

Because it's our family room, we have toys for the little boys in here as well. The larger toys are stored away in this trunk. The beauty of this space is that it's so nice and open, and it offers so much room for them to play.

And then we have a small corner where they can sit and play as well, a few pails of cars and animals, and then two woven baskets for storage - one is filled with Hot Wheel tracks, and the other is filled with blocks.

Here you can see the temporary fireplace. We had planned to eventually put one in the same place as the original fireplace, but not for a while as it also meant adding built-in bookshelves to either side and having a hidden TV cabinet above it. We knew that if we added it during phase one of our renovations we would have to live with it in a very basic state for a while. Finishing all of that just wasn't part of our budget.

In this decision though, function beat out design and the fireplace was installed. A very basic box was constructed, and while it's quite ugly, we were very thankful to have it this winter. It kept this whole part of our house warm and comfortable, and in turn saved us a lot on having the furnace try to heat everything. It also meant we had a heat source in the event of a power outage, which is quite common here. Note the same tiny little television - a new TV will also wait to happen until we build the cabinets. Until then, we're making do, and honestly, I don't even mind.

We designed the fireplace around the existing cement pad. The original flooring ends here, at the pad, and these floorboards have so much character from being by the hearth of a working fireplace. We wanted to save that character, so we plan to install thin brick pavers on top of the cement. The fireplace seems quite far out, but with deep book shelves on either side, and a cabinet above it, it will seem more proportionate. 

I just love the little charred bits of the floorboards, where cinders have jumped out of the fire and sat smoldering for a while, leaving behind blackened indents.

This is also where I have my desk. Eventually I will have my own writing desk in my room, but for now I just use our computer in here. It's also handy for the boys to work on homework.

You can see here where it's open to the living room. Originally that was the dining room (the formal living room was where the guest room now is). There were saloon type doors here. We removed them and opened it wider so that it would fit a pair of standard french doors if we ever wanted to close it off in the future.

When we opened this doorway up, we had to cut into the exterior more, and what we found was a really old way of waterproofing the house under the shake. They used strips of birch bark as waterproofing.

There is also a small washroom in the large area, which is really nice, especially with little ones. It even has a shower, though it's the smallest shower we've ever seen - maybe three feet squared.

The butler's pantry is also off the dining area, which you walk through to get to the kitchen.

My mother in law has two more chairs to match these that she will bring in the spring. I will also look for two smaller occasional chairs on either side of the buffet and a rug to ground the table.

Because of the scale of the room, I wanted a large lantern style light fixture. Originally, when I opened it, I felt like it might have been too large. There were tons of tools and saws and building supplies piled into the room and it just felt like too much. But once everything was cleared out, and painted white and open, the fixture was perfect. Large, but not obtrusive.

I can't wait to see how this room will evolve over time. It will make such a difference when I hang floor to ceiling drapes on each of the windows, all on one long rod. I will add so much warmth. Then, as I find pieces to fill out the space, and more layers are added, I think it will be one of my favourite rooms in the house. It's definitely the room where we spend most of our time together.

the butler's pantry

Because in some ways it's an extension of the kitchen, I wanted to also show you the progress I've been making on our butler's pantry.

Having a butler's pantry, as wonderful as the idea would have been to me, was not even slightly a consideration when pursuing possible properties. However, stumbling upon a house that did have one felt like the luckiest of surprises.

For someone who spends a great deal of time in the kitchen and loves to entertain, a space to keep all the items for setting a pretty table, a charming old sink perfect for arranging flowers and lots of space to house pantry items was, well, probably the equivalent to a gorgeous walk in closet. But in my opinion, even better, because I'm constantly passing through it!

Now, before I show you it as it is right now, I feel like you need to see it before...

Here it is as of last October, post demolition. The door frame was tiny (just over five feet!), all of the beautiful beams were covered up. There was a great deal of duct work and plumbing running through it and the window needed to be re-supported as it wasn't structurally sound.

There's always a part of me that's sad I never got a chance to walk through it before, but at the same time, there's also a very tiny part of me that wonders if it's good that I didn't. What a difference.

We essentially stripped everything away. Plumbing and venting was all rerouted to be hidden neatly, and the ceiling was left exposed (but cleaned up). We raised the height of the doorway to the kitchen and added the transom to allow extra light into this space. There isn't much natural light as the only window is under our large covered back porch. Wonder of all wonders, one of the only things in the house (which was sitting vacant for a number of months), was this beautiful old cast iron farm sink.

Eventually, the butler's pantry will be finished with custom cabinets. The sink will be mounted slightly more to the left of the window, in an extra deep counter (thought it will still have an open bottom underneath it), with plenty of storage on the right side, right to the kitchen wall. And the opposite wall will have very tall built in cabinets that are on either side of the original chimney.

For now, we tweaked the sink as it was mounted (which meant we saved time and money just using what it was already in), and used an old cabinet I had as a sort of counter top beside it. That cabinet is currently holding all of my pantry type items (canned foods, baking ingredients, dried pasta and legumes etc...) I will add some open shelves on the opposite wall soon as that is where my ironstone collection will be displayed. The dish rack was from my mother in law. She had it in her kitchen for years and I always loved it. At our old home, I didn't have a space on our kitchen walls that it could fit it. I'm so glad that I stored it away though, because it's perfect here.

I decided I wanted to display a lot of my blue pieces in this space. It's still clean, and neutral, but I love the traditional feel. I will have a shade made for this window, hopefully in Lee Jofa's Hollyhock print in lemon and aqua (see below) It's probably one of my favourite prints.  I will keep the curtain for the bottom of the sink quite simple though, likely a natural linen, or very plain windowpane pattern, but maybe with some pleats to add a bit of character. 

In the spring, when the garden centers open again, I will add some more green in the form of a few pretty topiaries in some of my old terracotta pots. I also have an Audubon print in an old gilt frame to hang as well. I would also like to find an old sconce that holds a candle for on the walls by the door to the kitchen, and I have been waiting for an Etsy shop to return from vacation so I can order the prettiest cord pendant light.

The sink was so helpful while we waited for the stone to be placed on the island, and then the plumbing to be attached. It meant I only needed to wash dishes in a pail for one weekend!

The top of the dish rack made the perfect little impromptu wine rack.

And the baskets are pretty, but also functional as they hold my napkins and a few sets of antique cutlery and napkin rings.

This is the opposite side. As much as I would have loved to expose the chimney brick, it had been covered in something and wasn't pretty, so it was easiest to just cover it all in and keep it clean. The two built ins will be narrow and very tall. One will be shelving on the top (the left side) so I can display my ironstone collection, and the other side will be closed in (to the right of the chimney). Those cabinet will be done in the same style and colour as the island. We absolutely love the exposed ceiling.

For now, three little bins are where I sort my paper and plastic.

The flooring is also slightly different from the rest of the house. We ran out of flooring and had to go with something kiln dried so we could install it right away. The man who did our floors happened to have this on hand, so we used this. When the cabinetry is in, and the runner is down, it will be a fairly small amount of flooring actually visible, but I do like the warmth of it.

The butler's pantry is between the kitchen (the doorway I'm standing in taking this photo) and the family room (beyond). In the family room we have a small formal dining area, so it's handy having things like my table linens and candles here.

I can't wait to get the curtain hung to cover up the sink, but for now, it's at least pretty to look at.