Projects, projects, projects..............

I admit it, I have a problem.  I'm a serial decorator/remodeller.  That would be great if I ever managed to finish a project before I moved on to the next.  But noooo.  I'll have an idea; mock it up, and then leave it like that for a year or two.  I obviously have a problem with either committing or closing.  Or maybe I'm just super lazy and can come up with the plans but would rather have someone else implement them.  Trouble is there isn't that someone else, so my house is full of strange vignettes of projects that may or may not happen.  And to make matters worse, I seem to come up with these ideas around Christmas time when I should be concentrating on decorating for the Holidays, not thinking about tiling a backsplash or fireplace. 

So here's some crazy pictures of the state of things in my house today.

I started stripping this fireplace last December.  Yeah, that's right, it's been a year!  I plan on painting it grey (when my 15 gallons of paint arrive).  Yes I know people will be tutting at me for painting the wood, but there's so much wood already in my house, that I think it will make the fireplace stand out more.  Plus I want to make it look less Victorian.  And that leads me onto the other part of this project.  More tutting I'm sure.  The tile, although original, is majorly cracked, as well as being a strangely mottled green/brown.  It's never really gone with anything else in the house.  So I've come up with an alternative.  I've always loved a classic carrara marble fireplace surround.  It's clean and crisp and timeless.  So when I went to Home Depot to chose my paint the other day, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they now sold carrara marble subway tile off the shelf.  Bingo.  I could now mock-up my project without having to order a bunch of tile off a website.  I hope to tile over the tile without doing too much damage to the original, just incase someone wants to restore it one day.

And that brings me onto my next project.  More tiling.  This time it's the backsplash in the kitchen.  When I remodelled the kitchen 8 years ago, I hadn't heard of design blogs.  I didn't even look at that many design magazines, so I really had no idea what I wanted.  Luckily I still love the cabinets that I chose, but I still remember struggling with the countertop decision.  So a backsplash was even further from my mind.  We chose granite with a four inch backsplash.  If I was to do it all over again, I would chose, what else, carrara marble.  I did mock-up some of the marble tiles on the wall.  And although the countertop does have grey in it, the marble seemed to compete with the granite too much.  So it looks like the classic white subway tile is the winner.  This is also the easiest to install and super cheap. 

classic white subway tile, held on the wall with tape!

 

I've been debating about removing the 4 inch backsplash.  Most websites say that it's difficult to do, so we'll probably keep it and then just tile above.

The tile works nicely with the white cast iron butlers sink and will complement the lights that will hopefully hang over the island one day.  Have to call an electrician about that one.

The next pictures show the laundry room/mudroom.  We started this project, I think, 3 years ago!  It's hard to remember that far back.  I plan on painting the tabletop above the washing machines and installing some kind of curtain to hide the washer and dryer.  Here's the mock-up that I did today.  The curtain rod is held on with duck tape, another one of my favourite go-tos for temporary/semi permanent installations.  The fabric is a remnant I found scrunched up in the corner of a cupboard.

I've also become obsessed with wallpaper recently.  I'm determined to have some somewhere in my house.  I ordered some samples from the company and stuck them on the wall. 

This is my bedroom that won the regional finals of the Room for Color contest on Apartment Therapy

I think that the blue and the pattern will complement the bedding.

This corner of the family room is in serious need of some pizazz.  The wallpaper will tie in with the accents of red found elsewhere in the room.  I plan on repainting this room white with one wallpapered accent wall.

And finally a project that happened by accident.  Don't you love those?  I've been wanting to get some curtains for the music room to make it more cozy in there.  I've been scouring the sale section on the Anthropologie website for ages to find something that will complement but not compete with the curtains that I have in the family room.  I bought a tablecloth from target to use to hide the washer and dryer.  When I laid it out, I realized that it looked exactly like some of the curtains that you see on Anthropologie but a fifth of the price.  What do you think?  Call me crazy, but I love it.  Now I just have to convince the hubby.

Anthropologie curtains in family room.  $$$

Target tablecloth curtains $20.

Christmas tree looking woefully neglected in the corner 

New Christmas decorations, bought & handmade.

We still don't have our tree.  If Damian had it his way, we probably wouldn't have it til the 20th, but it doesn't stop me from buying ornaments, or even making them, sooner.

I've always liked colourful decorations.  Since I've had kids I can't help but like decorations that are particularly kid centric.  Anything to do with candy, dolls, toys, cupcakes, bears, you name it.  I'll save the sophisticated all white Christmas decorating for when the kids are older, or maybe not at all.

I like to make at least one decoration each year.  Many years ago, I handmade some ornaments out of papier mache and hand painted glass baubles.  A couple of years ago I made real gumdrop garlands and baubles.  I hot glued colourful sugared gumdrops onto Styrofoam balls and hung them on the tree.  They were so heavy, they were a bit of a hazard and almost brought the whole tree down at one point!  Stringing the gumballs into garlands was also a bit of a pain.  The sewing needles would become so encrusted with gummy goo that it was nearly impossible to thread the little buggers.  Not to mention I had visions of mice having a lovely feast on the gummy candy when the decorations were stored in the basement.  (I wasn't going to simply discard them after all of the effort!)  Last year I made a square wreath out of cranberries and hung it on the front door.  It looked lovely until the cranberries decided to become unglued and were promptly trodden on and dragged through the house by the kids.  But I digress.....

This year I'm making a non-perishable, non-gooey, non-hazardous (at least to anyone over the age of 3) garland out of colourful wooden beads.  I bought a pack of beads from Michaels using a 40% off coupon that came to under $10.  I strung them onto wool that I already had using a large wool needle.  I made 2 garlands approx 12 feet long and a couple of candy canes (strung onto pipe cleaners).  I feel pretty proud of myself because I came up with this idea all by myself.  Most of my other decorating forays had been copying other peoples' design, usually Marthas.  Maybe I should make a bunch and sell them for an outrageous price on Etsy.  But someone is probably already doing that!

Here's a couple of piccys of the work in progress.

 The kids were being very helpful; Ringo not so much.
 

  



A couple of new purchases from Homegoods.  Real Steinbach ornaments for a fraction of their normal selling price.  The nutcracker was $50 and the wooden airplane ornaments were $5.

 



Felt birds & bells from Trifecta Design.

In our house, you never know where the nutcracker is going to end up.  Here he is giving his own rock concert complete with flashing lights, stage & backing singers.

Rock on Mr. Nutcracker.  More Christmas decorations coming soon! 

Week-end at the Cottage

My family and I feel very fortunate to own a little condo (and I do mean little) at The Canyons (soon to be renamed to just Canyons) ski resort in Park City, Utah.  The condo is a 1 bed, 1 1/2 bath, in a larger chalet style building circa 1980.  It's not fancy, but what it does have is gorgeous views and amenities.  It also had a tonne of potential as it hadn't been touched since 1980 (I don't think it had even been cleaned since then either). 

I love the mountain style decor of Sundance ski resort, it's more eclectic than what you would typically find in mountain homes in Utah.  It's also more cozy and cottagie (I know that's not a word).  Luckily for us Utahns we are fortunate to have the Sundance Catalog Outlet Store right here in Salt Lake City.  If anyone knows me, they'll know that I love to pick up a bargain or two there.  They often have as-is furniture that is a fourth of the price or even less than in the current catalog.  So I decided that I would decorate the condo like one of the Sundance cabins.  We decided to call it The Cottage which may irk some people who think we're being pretentious, but we're British and that is what people call their week-end getaways.  Some of our friends call it The Condage or The Cobin, but it's mostly known as The Cottage.  I'll do a whole post on before and afters sometime in the near future, but for now, here is a sneak peek!

The boys got the bedroom, so we can close the door on them when they're being loud.  We sleep on the sleeper sofa which is a bit uncomfortable, but is is right in front of the fire and the TV, so it's not too bad.

Hey, what you looking at?

  

One of my favourite elements is the cuckoo clock.  It makes a great tweeting sound.  Unfortunately, I think my bird may have croaked, because it appears to be permanently out.  I'm hoping that it's just the battery.



Hope you had a great week-end.