inspiration for decor

First off – hello!

I came across these fantastic fairytale prints a while ago and decided to share them with you today.  Because they are so cute. And so cool.  And I want one.

These prints are designed by Christian Jackson and are available at very reasonable prices via Image Kind in a variety of sizes.

I love how simple each print is, yet so perfectly representative of each fairytale.

In my mind, these posters are  perfect for adults who are young at heart and appreciative of good design.  Personally, I really want the Princess and the Pea poster. I love how the graphic stripes in muted colours draw your eyes down to the final pea and then you seen the title of the print and you think ” Aha! Clever.”

I also think any one of these prints (or more than one!) would be perfect in a nursery. Timeless. And will grow with your child.

For that reason I chose to include The Princess and the Pea print in a contest I just entered.

And here’s where I need your help: I need you to go Comment on my mood board because I would LOVE to win a $2,000 gift certificate from EQ3. The concept behind the contest was to design a mood board around your favourite EQ3 piece of furniture. I chose the modern  Karbon Swivel Chair whose style and function lend itself to an easy transition from nursing chair to living room chair.  A good, stylish investment.

So the EQ3 chair plus the Princess and the Pea print were my jumping off point for this mood board:

Soft, organic, and modern – yes?  Yes.  So please link over to Pinterest and leave a “Comment” (you need to have a Pinterest account – but who doesn’t these days?!)  Pretty please.  Our new house is looking empty and I could make very good use of a $2,000 gift certificate.

Go on now. Click here and leave a Comment.

Thank you!

So we hopped on the Downton Abbey bandwagon….and admittedly enjoyed the ride!  We just finished viewing Season 2 and can’t wait for the next season to start. I don’t know about you but I can’t tolerate watching TV series on TV anymore. Who wants to suffer through commercials and have to wait another week for further developments in the storyline?  Nope, not us!  We’re all about downloading/NetFlix in this household.  There is nothing better than settling in on a Friday night to watch 2-3 episodes back-to-back. Or maybe more like 3-4, or 5…

One more ramble before I move on. Is it just me or are there so many parallels between Downton Abbey and Gone With the Wind?  I mean, Come on! After almost every episode I drew comparisons. <Update> I decided to Google it and ha! I am not crazy. If you’re interested, you can read comparisons here, here, and here.

Anyway, to the point of today’s post – the English roll arm sofa.

Lee Industries

LonnyMag

Ever since I spied this style sofa in the homes of Director Sofia Coppola and Designer Lauren Liess, I have grown increasingly fond of this sofa.

House & Garden and Pure Style Home

The tight back is awesome for a family with a toddler and dog (both of whom perpetually squish our current sofa cushions), it’s deep and can accommodate lots of throw cushions, and the low arms are perfect for napping.

Jenna Lyons via Domino and Ann Mashburn via Atlanta Homes

Now I’d LOVE to be daring enough to upholster one of these sofas in periwinkle, mossy green, sunny yellow, or hot pink, but when I do take the plunge I really can’t justify spending the big bucks on a colour I may tire of in a year.  So I will probably go with a durable charcoal grey cotton velvet, similar to this (but punch it up with some colourful pillows):

Hazardous Design

I am 95% certain I will purchase an English roll arm sofa from Lee Industries but the 5% of uncertainty comes from the size of our entryway door frame. The widest part of the sofa is 34″ and our doorway is 32″. After many diagrams and calculations, my better half has concluded he is “fairly certain” the sofa can make it into the house.  Is “fairly certain” enough to take the leap and order a custom sofa?

Abigail Ahern

Kristen Marie Photography via Apartment Therapy

While I sit on the fence, I’ve been waiting to see an English roll arm sofa on Downton Abbey. And pouring over photos on the web, praying that our home can one day be graced by one of these lovely sofas.

Lonng Mag

Who thinks I should take the plunge?

OCHRE is a British based furniture, lighting, and accessory design company and they have the light I NEED.

via OCHRE

The dining area in our new home is just begging for this lovely “Arctic Pear” chandelier.

via Pinterest and Elle Decor

via Elle Decor

I want to channel the look of Keri Russell’s laid-back but chic home but dang, the OCHRE  Arctic Pear is expensive! In the Toronto area, I sourced the OCHRE light at South Hill Home (for many, many more pennies than I have to spend), or I could get this Robert Abbey crystal drop fixture from Universal Lighting:

An excellent alternative I think.  Should I go for it?

We’ve bought our first home.  Cool.  Très excited.  Get ready for a a whole lot of idea-tossing over here as I search for inspiration for our new abode.

Starting with this bedroom – -

(image: via pinterest)

Love the neutral tones, white bedding, and the hit of black with an accent pillow. The over-sized map behind the headboard is an interesting approach. A sophisticated retreat. I could handle this.

Have you ever stood in your local hardware or paint store with a zillion paint chips in your hand and been completely overwhelmed with the options?  Ever wish you could simply replicate a colour palette you had seen in a magazine, but you could only source the colour of the walls?  I know I have.

So I was very excited when I discovered this really cool online tool called Chip It!  This tool allows you to take any image on the internet and colour match it with Sherwin Williams collection of 1,500+ paint colours. It’s as simple as dragging the Chip It! button onto your browser tool bar, then dropping it over an image you love.  Two seconds later you have the Sherwin Williams paint matches.  Sounds interesting, right?

So here’s a photo I love from Canadian House and Home:

Gorgeous spring colours, right?  But what are those colours?  Hmmm…

I drag the Chip It! button over the image and I get this:

Awesome!  Let’s do it again with one of my own photos (our bedroom):

Drumroll please….

Nice!

So here’s the thing – it is an online tool and there are only 1,500 SW colour matches so you may not get the absolute perfect match. In our bedroom, the duvet cover is really a mustard yellow and not exactly the muddy tan “Tea Chest”.  BUT I still like what the tool suggests, the palette is pleasing, and now I’m thinking that I should bring in a bit of a natural tone/texture into the bedroom to give it more of an organic feel.  See how useful this simple tool is?!

Check it out for yourself HERE – have fun!

Believe me, my son’s bedroom never really looked this neat and clean. Photos you see in magazines, on websites, and on blogs are all styled and staged.  Remember that. None of us are perfect and if you’re not obsessively organized stuff tends to get in the way.

Though my son is good about cleaning up his toys (while singing “clean up, clean up, everybody clean up!” -amazing what they learn at daycare), toddlers have way too many toys and stuffed animals which seem to spontaneously multiply.  Last weekend we reached a tipping point with stuff -he started climbing out of his crib so we had to by a bed. Now we have toys, furniture, and more furniture in the room. I think it’s time to go back to the design drawing board and come up with a plan with A LOT more storage. See for yourself:

(excuse the grainy photo – clearly not a planned photoshoot)

On the bright side, isn’t his new owl-printed fleece blanket so cute? What a great addition to his owl themed nursery. If it wasn’t for all the mess you could see all his cute owl paraphernalia. This blanket was a gift from my Mom for his second birthday and it’s from Simons.

Hey Canadians, you know Simons right? I loved shopping there while I did my undergrad in Montreal and I just found out they do online ordering (free delivery on purchases of $50 or more!). In addition to a great selection of clothes, they have some really fun home decor items. Here are a few throws that caught my eye:

I couldn’t find the owl fleece blanket online anymore but be sure to check out the Simons website anyway!

I have a soft spot in my heart for exposed brick walls.  Having lived the “loft life” for several years, I know brick can dominate the room and may dictate your decor to some extent, but I say embrace it!  While I do like the look of white painted brick, there is something edgy, rustic, and real about plain old exposed brick.

I am also a big fan of a modern take on a traditional toile de jouy fabric. Though typically used in French decor, a toile can be absolutely darling for a baby.

And with that, I share with you one of the best nurseries I’ve seen in awhile:

Brick. Pink toile. Soft grey. Seagrass baskets. Casual fun. What a sweet nursery by NYC designer Jenny Wolf.

Though you may not have the exposed brick in your own home, you can certainly pull inspiration from the traditional toile canopy, clean-lined furniture, and overall relaxed feel of the room above.

To give you an idea, I pulled together a few sources that would be a great start for a gender-neutral nursery:

Sources:

1. “Toile N Around” by Waverly, available through Tonic Living
2. Custom pillows, also through Tonic Living
3. Turning Pendant from West Elm
4. Seagrass Hamper from Restoration Hardware, Baby & Child
5. Stokke crib

(images: 1&2- jenny wolf interiors, inspiration board-dayna simpon interiors)

Today is installment #2 of my illustration of Canadian House & Home’s “Timeless Design Tips“. If you missed the recap on using bold colour in small spaces, click HERE. This was supposed to be a weekly series starting in November.  Whoops. It is a new year and I will try to post on a more regular basis!  Here we go.

“Black will make a wall recede into the distance. For a strikingly dramatic effect, use it with white trim”, (Norma King, Norma King Design, H&H October 1989)

I am taking a little liberty with this design tip, so rather than show you an array of different rooms, I’m sticking with the bedroom because there are some FANTASTIC black bedrooms out there.

Kudos to all those brave enough to swathe your walls in black. Gutsy but it pays off. Prime example: the gorgeous, sexy, masculine room of Nicole Cohen:

Even Martha does black! (left below). And loving the simplicity of J.Crew Creative Director’s  (Jenna Lyon) former bedroom (right below)… although on my screen the walls are looking more like a dark inky blue. Just pretend it’s black, ok?

More modern bedrooms with a black accent wall:

And keep in mind, black is not just for those with modern tastes, it can go traditional too:

Black walls are striking aren’t they?  Stylish in the ’80s and still going strong…

(images: 1-nicole cohen, 2-martha stewart, 3-jenna lyons via habitually chic, 4-nest instinctual interiors, 5-pinterest, 6- canadian house & home, 7-roco rennie , 8-the old painted cottage)

It’s a new year!  Hello 2012 and everything you will bring!  I’m not making any drastic resolutions since it is going to be a busy year. But I am going to try to post twice a week.  Hold me to it, ok?

I’m bringing back my [room of the week] posts.  That’s me sharing my new favourite pics with you.

To kick off 2012, here is a living room that is totally doing it for me:

Why? Gorgeous chandelier, huge amazing mirror, low marble coffee table, look at that molding!, interesting art (and placement), cozy area rug, and a cool yellow sofa (something I struggle with!).

(image: melanie acevedo)

Over the past few weeks I’ve seen a lot of beautiful gift wrapping around the web. Gorgeous Martha Stewart-like creations and lots of handmade-with-love gifts.  Inspired, I decided this year I would forgo the usual brightly coloured papers and sparkly bows in favour of a more subdued handcrafted look.  Kraft Paper, ribbon, and something….I just didn’t know what that something was.

I headed to the dollar store with my sister. She laughed at the Kraft Paper and scornfully asked if I was going to use twine too. Ha! Please. Dollarama has a lot of junk. And some really good finds.

I found these somewhat tacky tree decorations. Think lots of plastic and really fake looking leaves.  But they had potential. So I picked up a few berry sticks and a few sparkling gold sticks and took them home. Then ripped them apart.

Kraft Paper + satin ribbon + reassembled dollar store decorations =

Pretty and festive, don’t you think?!  I couldn’t find any leftover Christmas tags so I used these recycled BINGO tags I had purchased from an Etsy vendor (here). Somehow they still work.

1/2 my presents are wrapped. So much more to do tomorrow night!  In case I don’t get a chance to post again before the holidays,

Merry Christmas / Happy Hannukah / Best Wishes for 2012 to you ALL!

(images: dayna simpson)