Map it out

I have travel on the mind, and would love to incorporate it in my house.  This was spurred by an antique-y globe that I bought the Mister last year for Christmas, and an old post by the fabulous Mrs.Limestone about passport art. Oh, and the fact that I love - LOVE - to travel.

via Brooklyn Limestone

Isn't that a great idea to remember your travels? I always get so sad when I have to start a new passport and I "lose" all my stamps. This is a perfect venue to feature them.

I have tons of photos from my travels that I could frame, but I also like the look of framed maps.



via



via Country Living

via Remodelista

via Life Begins at Thirty, Right?

via Casa Diseno

via Elle Decor

via Elle Decor

Don't worry, I will not be doing maps on walls and lamps and books, but I like the variety of options!

I initially was planning to do this in our office, but I think it's just too pretty to be tucked away...now thinking that this idea will find a home in our living room.

New look blog

My blog finally has a "look". Still have some work to do on the background, but the header is a vast improvement over my initial graphic design attempt. 

Thanks to MagPro Design for the header design. Love it!

Dreamy drawers

As ecstatic as we are with our closet project, I soon realized that while gaining valuable closet space, we were losing a lot of drawer space.  We used to have a 6-drawer dresser (ugly as it was) that housed a lot of drawer items (socks, underwear, jogging pants, workout clothes, etc.). With the new closet, we each had 2 drawers that were each half the size of one of our previous drawers.

I looked for drawer dividers, but wasn't keen on spending upwards of $40 per divider for wooden dividers. I mean really, who is ever going to see them?  There were also white plastic ones for $20 or so, but they weren't all that nice.

So, I got crafty with the most basic supplies available:

I measured the cardboard for the length of the drawers and had some extra shelf-lining paper from a dresser proejct, which I used to cover the cardboard.

The cardboard I used (from a packing box) is sturdy enough to stand up in the drawer, especially when supported by drawer items. I then inserted the "divider" in my drawer, et voila! no more mixed up socks and tights! 

I made them for each drawer, and although an incredibly simple solution, they really make life in 2 drawers easier. Total cost...hmm I don't know, $0.07?  Total time - for all 4 - about 1/2 hour.

The key to happiness...

Ok, maybe this isn't so important to everyone. But I have a sneaking suspicion that at least 98% of the population would be grateful for extra closet space. Are you with me?

The only type of closet in our house is the corner closet. I should say we are grateful to have some of these closets where in many Toronto homes none exist (especially the entrance way and the upstairs linen closet). In both of those cases, corner closets, even with their limitations, are really a God-send when compared to the alternative of nothing.

Of our three bedrooms, the guest bedroom has no closet (but lots of room for a cabinet/armoire), the second bedroom (used as an office right now) has a corner closet (currently used to house some of my extra shoes, dresses, and workout clothes), and our master bedroom had a corner closet.  This was woefully undersized for our needs, and to deal with it we had a hideous dresser to carry the load.  Here is what it looked like before (disclaimer: not our decor choices):

Thankfully, with a bit of work, we got rid of our corner closet in favour of a long, lovely, every-time-i-open-the-door-it-makes-me-happy, closet. Hooray!  We had to get a new radiator (the old one was in the corner), and move it under the window. Those suckers are heavy. Due to using an unbeknownst-to-us leaky rad the first time around we actually had to replace it one more time. Many thanks to my husband's friends for the first round of back breaking moving the rad downstairs, and more thanks to the stove delivery guys who did the second round, and took it away for us (there is not enough beer to get hubby's friends to do it again).

Here are some photos of the closet process.  We considered using Ikea PAX options, but none of them fit our space that well, and we weren't crazy about the options available.  Instead, we hired someone who had done patching and some drywall work for us before to come back and frame the closet. He did a great job with the framing, doors, and trim. It took him 4 days to do what would have taken us I don't know how long (not to mention the stress it would have caused!).

The inside of the closet is ClosetMaid from Lowe's. We knew we wanted wood and not the white wire closet inserts. This interior option originally had 3 closet rods but we added one on the other side to make it even. We also added the drawers at bottom (the base is usually just shelves), and shelves above the rods(those shelves are pretty high...I don't consider myself that short but we had to get a step stool for me to reach my clothes on the top shelf!).

The Mr. also installed a light and switch on the inside of the closet. This makes all the difference in the world when one of us is getting ready earlier than the other in the morning!

So there you have it, my happy closet. 

Friday faves



Today I'm going to focus on February...ahh the month of love. I'm typically not that into February - it tends to be blah blah blah and just a short month (thankfully) before March, and the promise (hopefully) of spring.  But some of you bloggers have done such a great job with early February posts that I have to say I'm kind of excited about the month.  This could be due to the fact that we've had a couple of days of sunshine (rebounding off the massive snow piles) to help my outlook a bit.

Here are some of my fave Feb posts so far:

10 Rooms

via 10 Rooms

Really cute cake on Mrs.Limestone:

via Mrs.Limestone

The Design Pages - Cork Wreath



via The Design Pages

Love at Life in the Fun Lane:

via Life in the Fun Lane

Happy first Friday Faves of February!

Inbox inspiration

Some great inspiration landed in my inbox tonight for our night tables (from Craigslist, need to be refinished...initial post can be seen here). As a reminder, here are our tables:

Effortless Style featured a DIY dresser-redo in today's email. I think the finished product looks great (the Mr. isn't so sure yet, but I think once I get going he'll be on board):

via Effortless Style

Don't you just love how that looks? The blog gives a full step by step how-to. I think that I want to apply that kind of design to the tops of our side tables.  It's similar to the floor treatment that was on Sarah101 this week (Jewel-like Dining room).

I'm thinking of painting the tables gray, with a white design on top.  Was debating yellow, but think I'll be happier with the white/gray combo long term.  Here's an idea of what that colour combination looks like:

  via Room Remix

Hopefully this will be a project that starts this weekend, although me and the mister have plans to start making rad covers. Woodworking 101 here we come!

PS - I received 2 more magazines today! Toronto Life (which looks like it will be a quick read), and the March issue of Real Simple...time to start reading...