New House Tour

Here's an update!

Living Room first ...

Not much has changed here. Some books have been rearranged as well as a lamp or two. 

Some new pillows & pillow covers. But the biggest improvement was getting rid of that big ol' TV.

I have moved into what used to be the Spare Room. I was really needing to pare down how much clothing and how many of pairs shoes I have, so I figured moving into the smaller room would force me to do that! It has, but I still have a ways to go!

Clearly, the biggest changes are in here. I did finally replace the old Ikea dresser with a new Ikea dresser, as well as brought in my old childhood dresser with some new knobs added from Anthropologie. I got some new lamps from Target and I love the little rug and colourful swirly pillow both from CB2.

I added in some Ikea shelves to the wall for shoe storage, and finally got around to properly covering that vintage chair. New bedding is from Winners. And I actually bit the bullet and made new curtains from an Ikea duvet cover. The "closet" situation is also much improved by maxing out the ceiling height and hanging two of these bars from Ikea.

Here's the Kitchen which is fairly unchanged ...

Just a few Mccoys and a chopping block over the sink to create more counter space.

And the Bathroom ...

Yes, I did finally get around to hemming the Anthropologie shower curtains and goodness what a difference!

Though at this point, this room could use a good re-painting since my landlord didn't get around to it when repairing that ceiling mess.

There are no updated shots of the big back bedroom which used to be mine. Currently it is very sparsely furnished and decorated since I'm renting it out. I did however move the lovely Flora and Fauna curtains from the spare room in there and they look great on the window. I do plan to put a few of the things from the boat in there as well as a small couch and maybe a desk when the current roommie moves out in the Spring. 

ebay still loves me

It's the simple things in life that make me happy. Yesterday I treated myself to a massage. Perry made me a yummy dinner. And this arrived in the mail!

(Elevenses Puckered Trench coat from Anthropologie!)

time to break up with ebay again

Because I really do have an unhealthy attachment. I mean, I already bought two pairs of boots when I was in New York, but for some reason I felt like my new coat still needed something else ...

and what did I find on ebay ...

oh my, perfect Fryes for $50! Well I hope they're perfect; ebay hasn't let me down yet!

shopping in New York

Believe it or not I don't always do a lot of shopping when I visit. And this time I only had one thing I really wanted on my list. Of course that one thing required me to enter a shoe store. This shoe store - Infinity Shoes:

which happens to be the home of Miz Mooz - one of my favourite brands. I really wanted these! The colour is actually much warmer and they are surprisingly comfortable - love!!

Emi loves Anthropologie house stuff even more than I do so we almost always find time to pop in there. And I found this lovely number (Blurred Fresco by Elevenses) marked down from $230 to $99.99!!

I'd been wanting something with more colour in it to combat the dreary winter and I got a cute little hat to go with it. I love it, but wondered what boots shall I wear with this ensemble?

So I went back to Infinity Shoes thinking I might try something on in a nice shade of cherry. They must have known I was coming because they announced BOGO when I walked in the door. Yes, buy one, get one half off, and this is what I got:

A gorgeous pair of Fryes (for less than they are charging online) and then ...

these Miz Mooz beauties were half off for $75!!! It was a good thing I brought my big suitcase!

bathroom by ikea

When I moved into my little house I was fairly impressed by the size of the bathroom. However it was notably lacking in a couple of areas: no mirrors and no shelves ... how does that work?

Well in my world it does not, so it was off to Ikea to solve these problems "tout-suite" and wouldn't you know they had a mirror with a shelf that fit in the strange little space above the sink.

And of course they had inexpensive shower curtains and bath mats in colours that work with the pale green/grey on the walls in here - no need to paint thank goodness. I got the little bowls and cups on a trip to NYC at Pearl River. That place is amazing and clearly I'm a sucker for pretty ceramics.

The ceiling in this room is weirdly low since it is a funny little addition to the house but my Billy bookcase, which had previously only seen book & cd action fits in here perfectly and has transformed itself into a very useful bathroom shelf-thingy/organizer for make-up, towels and girly things that prefer to be hidden behind closed doors.

A friend gave me this larger Ikea mirror and I did of course put some Anthropologie knobs on little Billy quite some time ago. Now the rest of this room needs to join the party. The wall above the toilette could use a few shelves too.

I managed to score two of these Anthropologie shower curtains on sale just after x-mas, but the curtain needs some hemming due to the two open sides of the shower so I'm trying to get motivated to do that this weekend.

I also ordered a couple of sweet mccoys on ebay to vintage things up and tie this room into the kitchen since it opens directly onto it. So, toothbrushes?

Tissue roll holder? I never have any real idea of the size of these things until they arrive so who knows? but cute, right?

spring decorating

I think it's time for the bathroom to go from Ikea,

to Anthropologie.

Mccoy would like to help.

So would Amy Butler. 

welcome to the kitchen - before & after

When Anthropologie opened in Toronto last summer I realized I didn't want a mid-century modern kitchen to go with my lovely teak table - what I really wanted was an Anthropologie kitchen! I could keep my chairs and all I needed was the right table cloth and I'd be in business.

To recap, the kitchen looked like this when I moved in:

But with an Anthropologie table cloth, mirror from Urban Outfitters, and clock from Pier 1, I got exactly what I wanted.

The window went from looking like this:

to this, with some shelf brackets from Anthropologie and shelves from Ikea.

And the counter went from this:

to this, with some more shelf brackets & knobs from Anthropologie and pulls from Lee Valley.

The dingy stove went from this:

to this, with the addition of a shelf over the radiator and some paint on the old cabinets.

I really love the chairs now!

And there's a bit more counter space.

Cute measuring cups from Anthropologie (again),

my pink tea set,

and some childhood tchachkas all have happy places to live now.

Plus there's room for some Mccoys ...

my second red kitchen

When I found this apartment I couldn't believe how great the size of the kitchen was - big enough for my beloved mid-century teak table! I also couldn't believe that I would have to deal with yet another hideous red kitchen.

Painting over red is particularly fun when the other half of your kitchen is a dirty white and you want the whole thing to be the same colour when you are done. (Hmmm, I guess I thought it looked so bad that I didn't even bother to tidy up, even though this is the view from the front door - ooops).

To be clear, the splotchy-ness of the red is not due to the light or the camera, it is due to one coat of crappily-applied crappy-paint. But it took me quite a while to figure out how to deal with it all as clearly the paint-job wasn't the only problem.

No counter space and dingy, painted textured wallpaper also posed a few issues.

Anthropologie saved the day when they opened in Toronto over the summer ...