Rethinking Colour

There's been a few changes at the casa as of late, and I wanted to give you a peek.

While it pains me to do so, I am not afraid to admit when I've made a mistake. After all, we can't *always* be right!

When selecting the paint colours for the house, we made a conscious effort to depart from our comfort zone of earthy taupes and warm caramels and tans in favour of light, creamy pastels. At the time we saw the paint go on the walls, we were very happy with our choices. They were right on!

Benjamin Moore - Limesickle

Now? After two years in the house it's just not "us". The light colour in the main areas of the house don't have any warmth or substance, are much too "minty", and are difficult to co-ordinate with decor and furnishings. They don't give off the feeling that we'd like and remind me of The Golden Girls house (yeh, it`s *that* minty). So...it's time to right this wrong!

Enter: GREY! Off I toodled to Home Depot to get this painting party started.

Now, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I did this 100%, completely, totally without Mr.Mel's knowledge, consent or input. In fact, I waited until he was out of town on business before I tackled this little project. Sneaky, right?

I am starting this colour revamp with the dining room. I figure if I do this in stages, it's entirely possible that Mr. Mel (who always has a zillion things on the go) won't actually notice until it's almost all done! Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But worth a shot! I want the feeling of this room to be warm, moody, and (dare I say) dark. Simmer down, peeps, the window is HUGE in here and it gets loads of natural light, so it's gonna be just fine. Here is the dining room before:

Here is the dining room after:

I used Obsidian Glass by CIL in here and it's friggin' awesome! I gotta give props so my friend for using it in her home and inspiring me! I am so glad that I took the plunge and went with a dramatic colour. It's exactly what I wanted, and it's much more "us".

Same drapes, same artwork, same furniture. What a difference paint makes! I love how all of the details, trim, lighting all just pops off the dark grey.

I am now on the hunt for an area rug for this room. I need to break up all of that wood...it's nearly all the same shade! Oopsie. 

Basement Inspiration

Now that the warm weather is just around the corner and we have some solid plans for what we'll be doing outdoors this year, I am already thinking ahead to the fall and winter when we'll be getting started on finishing the basement.

Our basement is a totally blank slate right now. We have done *nothing* down there except to fill it with stuff! Hopefully, a garage sale this spring will help us find new homes for lots of what's down there, but for now it's a big concrete box.

We aren't "basement people", even when I was a kid I didn't like spending time in our basements, so trying to come up with a design plan that would create a space we'd actually use and enjoy has been especially challenging. Needless to say, I did alot of Googling "basement ideas". More often than not, when I found a basement design I loved and felt particularly drawn to, it was by Canadian designer Candice Olson.

There is something about her designs that I totally relate to. She manages to pull together designs that are really welcoming, but have just enough of glitz that they feel special to the people spending time in them.

One of the things I love most about her rooms is that she isn't afraid to use dark colours. Many people shy away from using dark colours in a basement because they fear it will make the room(s) feel small, dark, or claustrophobic.I am always excited when I see her use a dark brown or taupe in a basement...then lighten it up with pops of fun colours and fun fabrics! Lesson #1: Warm neutrals + bright coloured accents = great and hard to mess up colour scheme.

Another constant in Candice's designs is how she maximizes every piece of furniture. She obviously gets that basements are often used for casual entertaining, not just family time, and understands that means everyone must have a place to park their butts! One word...SECTIONAL! Sectional sofas are in almost every one of her basements. They have a tremendous amount of comfortable seating, and are also great for lounging when not entertaining.

We could all take a lesson from her use of double duty, easily movable furniture. She uses small, circular side tables, nesting tables, ottomans, stools and built in benches. Everything is transitional, and can be used for different things depending on your need.

I also love her use of wall units and built ins to minimize the number of separate furniture pieces needed to hold all of the various t.v. and stereo components, toys, and various collections we all have and can't part with (you know we all have 'em). Sometimes the size and scale of her units can seem overwhelming, but certainly not as much as a collection of mismatched and randomly placed pieces would be.

So much inspiration for our own basement! Thanks Candice!

What's on my Mind

I've got 'gazebo' on the brain. I am so excited to get started on the yard this spring that I am already in full on countdown, prep mode! I am especially having fun gathering inspiration photos for my gazebo. Take a gander......

Source

 
 BySteel

Coastal Living

DIY Network

Access1

Source

Balmoral Interiors

Source

Pottery Barn

Ok, I couldn't resist, just a few more...

Of course, my reality is far more modest than many of my inspiration photos, but that's what being inspired is all about! 

I am literally countiing down the days until I can get this project started and am curious...

Have you built your own backyard gazebo? I'd love to see what you've created!

Garage Addition

When we decided to build our house we had a short list of absolute "must haves". One of those was a three car garage. Since the floor plan was custom deigned, it was really easy to tack on a third bay to the house and have it look like it fit with the rest of the plan. We'd make it a through-and-through (doors at the front and back of the third bay) and it would be awesome. Yep, we thought we were so clever.

We were so happy to be moving forward once the plan was complete that we started construction guns a blazin'! But, uhm, take a look at the space behind the third garage bay. Yeh, that BIG, EMPTY space. Well, we realized after we moved in that it gets NO sunlight. Not such a bad thing, except we had planned to plant a garden and some bushes and creeping vines back there.

Darn it!! Not feeling so clever anymore.

Fast forward to this week. After countless ideas for the space while developing our landscaping plan, we finally decided that the best idea is to add to the garage and enclose the whole space. So, this week I am having a contractor come and give me a quote for the project, including the price to add a bathroom to the garage (think about it...no one running in and out of the house to use the facilites when having a BBQ, or cleaning paintbrushes in the kitchen sink).

On the down side, this will seriously eat into my landscaping budget for this year. On the plus side, we will have a four car garage, and will be able to right an error our contractor made by putting a basement window in the wrong location.

Wish me luck! For once, I have zero clue about what a project will cost. Yikes.